THE SMILING INTERVIEW

SMILE has always been instrumental in shaping up the future of our students. While one team has been focussing on improving the foundation of the school student community, it was felt that the SADHANA beneficiaries also needed to be given a glimpse of what lay in the near future for them.
Hence it was decided to organize a mock interview rpogram for the SADHANA beneficiaries as well beneficiaries of the AID India organization. The students had promptly arrived at the AID India office at 9.30 AM and welcomed the interview panel. Nithiyanandhan started the proceedings by introducing the interview panel of SMILE. He gave them some basic tips of interview regarding formal dressing, body language and resume format. Even the miniscule-but-important part of greeting the interviewer was imaprted. Thereafter the students were in for some sharp surprise.
SMILE has always been synonymous with putting a plan to action meticulously. The students got a glimpse of the same when Nitiyanandhan handed them a booklet to fill in their strengths and weakness points as per their instincts. Also he handed them a questionairre with a mix of aptitude, graphical interpretation and grammer & vocabulary. The sudents were set a time frame of 1 hour to complete the 40 questions.
Once done, the papers were evaluated by the one group of interviewers as another group organized the students into various groups and set-up the interview rooms. Totally 3 panels were set-up in different rooms and the students were summoned in orderly fashion. Some students were visibly shaken as it was the first time they were facing an interview panel (even if mock). The interviewers made them feel at home juggling between professional english and local tamil as the intention was to make the students open up and admit their strengths and weaknesses.
Dr.Kalam was instrumental in asking the young brigade of india to dream. No offence, but possibly more than half of the present generation does dream without a proper action plan. Since most of the students were from colleges outside the city-base, they did dream of landing a high profile software job, but lacked the essential skillset or vision to achieve the same. It was a hard hitting reality that struck most of the students like a slap on the face.
The SMILE panel gave them some basic tips as to sharpen their aptitude skills with the help fo the staple Aggarwal and Shakuntala Devi books. They were also asked to hone their english speaking skills by joining some basic courses even if they were deemed to be an expense. After all, every skill in life is worth an investment. On the positive side, some students were extremely planned and meticulous. They had been well prepared and well informed of the harder grind to land a job by their peers and it was evident that they had done their groundwork to be succesfull.
After the interview, the students shared their email ids with the interview panel and promised to stay in touch with them for any possible guidance. The enthusiasm of the students encouraged the SMILE panel to arrange similar interviews regularly to hone the students skills.
All the sudents vowed to make a difference to themselves by starting to make the recommended changes and be the change they have dreamed about.