What do HR Managers look for in experienced professionals? Date:   Monday , July 02, 2007 Often experienced technology professionals take it for granted that their skill sets speaks for them. Their failure to understand what is expected out of their experience in the job market affects their employment prospects. The Smart Techie spoke to five companies to get an insight into what they look for in an experienced technology professional during the interview process. Here is a slice of their answers: Rahul Khanna, Recruitment Manager, FCG Software services In experienced candidates, we firstly have a look at the attitude of the person, and then gauge as to whether he or she can adapt to various situations and work in other domains. While covering the traits that are personal to the candidate we do not discriminate the selection process based on his or her looks. However their body language is assessed, to determine whether the interview is taken casually or not. Nonchalant attitude can be determined by the kind of resume submitted. Resumes should be professional and reflect the experience and the diversity he or she has in the technical field. One may be highly skilled as a techie but still fail to get selected if basic etiquette is not followed during the interview. It is important to switch off the cell phone while answering to the interviewer. That’s basic courtesy. We do not consider such candidates if they do not follow decorum, for the fear that they may continue in the same manner even while attending company discussions. Shankar Bhaskar, Director, Metric Stream. We have three basic criteria to judge candidates in the first round of the interview. Firstly, the number of times the candidate has changed jobs is ascertained. Secondly, a check on the kind of roles undertaken is gleaned through. Thirdly, we look into his or her managerial skills. Going into further rounds of the interview the leadership potential in each candidate is gauged. However, since the word ‘leadership’ deals with a broad range of aspects, we define leadership in terms of team management, the chutzpah to be able to lead from the front, the ability to step back at the right time and delegate; and also the possession of co-ordination skills to engage with other departments. The drive to bring change to move forward is an essential quality that will be valued. In an experienced professional’s resume, I look for the aspirations in his career and where he is headed. There should not be any ambiguity in a resume. If a person would like to have a shift in his career, for example if an engineer wants to shift to sales, it must be specified in the resume. Chandershekar J Patel, HR Manager, Vitage Technologies The credentials of the candidate with respect to what is on the resume are cross-checked. Most of the candidates disclose their family backgrounds and salary expectations in the resume, which are not required. This immature behavior is carried on to the interview stage where they tend to act silly by enquiring about the salary, even before they are assured of appointment. A candidate who prepares for the interview is preferred. He or she should have background knowledge about the company. This measures how interested will he or she be in the future to contribute to the company and also gain personally in the process. Prakash H N, Manager HR administration, Xora Experienced professionals are probed about their career aspirations. In addition, our technical team assesses the technical caliber of the candidate by posing questions in the technical domain. The one-on-one interaction reveals a lot about the present position of the candidate. However we also would like to delve into the past to gauge consistency in behavior. We look for the candidates’ academic qualifications, as to whether they are from a reputed institute and possess good scores. Through their presentation skills brought forth in the resume, the quality of education can be assessed. Vasundara Chandrashekar, Manager Delivery, Talentbridge I look at the confidence level in an experienced techie. The candidate shouldn’t get tensed up. They should be very confident in their skills, be well dressed, and they have to have a certain element of positive body language while interacting with the interviewer which helps create a good impression. However although confidence comes from experience, the kind of experience is also given value. Rather than having a motley of experience in different fields, experience in a specific area is preferable.