In 2019, I walked out of an interview at a mid-sized marketing firm in Gurugram completely certain I had got the job. The interview had gone well — or so I thought. I had answered every question. I had smiled at the right moments. I had not said anything wrong.
They called two days later to say they were going with another candidate.
I asked for feedback. The HR manager paused for a moment and then said something I have never forgotten: “You answered our questions very well. But we never felt like you actually wanted to work here specifically. It felt like you were interviewing at fifty places and we were just one of them.”
She was right. I was interviewing at around forty places that month. I had prepared generic answers to generic questions. I knew nothing specific about that company — their recent campaigns, their clients, their team culture. I was performing competence rather than demonstrating genuine interest.
That feedback changed how I approached every interview after it. I got the next job I went for — a content strategy role at a Bengaluru startup — because I spent three hours researching them beforehand, read every LinkedIn post their founder had published in the past six months, and walked in with an actual opinion about what they were building. The interview felt like a conversation between two people who had already decided to like each other. I got an offer the next morning.
This article is about the difference between those two experiences — and how to make sure you are always in the second category.
What Indian Interviewers Are Actually Evaluating
I have spent time on both sides of the interview table over the past several years — as a candidate and sitting in on hiring decisions at a startup where I helped evaluate content and communications candidates. The mental checklist interviewers run through is remarkably consistent regardless of the company size or industry.
They are trying to answer four questions about you:
Can this person do the job? This is the baseline — your technical skills, domain knowledge, and relevant experience. This is typically evaluated through specific questions about past work, case studies, or technical assessments. Most candidates clear this bar. It is necessary but not sufficient.
Will this person do the job well? Beyond capability, is there evidence of ownership, follow-through, and genuine drive? This is where behavioural questions come in — they are looking for evidence from your past behaviour because past behaviour is the most reliable predictor of future behaviour.
Will this person fit the team? Hiring is a long-term decision. The interviewer is sitting across from you thinking — could I work with this person every day? Would they make the team better or more difficult? This is subtle but real, and it explains why two candidates with identical qualifications can receive completely different decisions.
Does this person actually want this specific job? This is the one most candidates underestimate. Interviewers can feel the difference between someone who has researched their company carefully and someone who pasted the company name into a template cover letter. Genuine interest is rare enough that it stands out immediately when present.
The Question That Trips Up Most Candidates — Tell Me About Yourself
I have watched many candidates fumble this question — and I did too, for years. Most people answer it by narrating their resume from the beginning: “I completed my B.Com from Pune University in 2018, then joined XYZ company where I worked for two years, then moved to…”
The interviewer already has your resume. They do not need it read back to them.
This question is actually an invitation to give a two-minute argument for why you are the right person for this specific role. Here is the structure that works:
Start with where you are now and what you do (30 seconds). Move to the achievement or experience most relevant to this particular job (45 seconds). Then explain specifically why this role at this company interests you (30 seconds). If you have something genuinely memorable — a relevant side project, an unusual background detail — add it briefly at the end (15 seconds).
The key phrase is “most relevant to this particular job.” Your answer to this question should be different for every role you interview for. If it is identical every time, you are not answering the question — you are delivering a prepared statement.
Behavioural Questions — Why the STAR Method Works and How to Use It
When an interviewer says “tell me about a time you handled a difficult client” — they are not making casual conversation. They are running a structured evaluation technique designed to get evidence of real behaviour rather than theoretical capability.
The STAR method is the cleanest way to structure your answer:
Situation — set the context briefly. Two or three sentences. What was the business context, the project, the team size?
Task — what specifically was your responsibility in this situation? Not the team’s responsibility — yours.
Action — this is the most important part and where most candidates spend the least time. What did YOU specifically do? What decisions did you make? What did you say? What did you choose not to do? The interviewer is trying to understand how you think and act — give them enough detail to actually see it.
Result — what happened because of your actions? Quantify where possible. “Customer retention improved by 18% over the following quarter.” “The project was delivered three weeks ahead of schedule.” “The client renewed for a second year despite initially planning to leave.”
The most common mistake I see is spending four minutes on Situation and Task and thirty seconds on Action and Result — which is exactly backwards from what the interviewer needs.
Before any interview, prepare five to seven strong STAR stories from your career. You will find that most behavioural questions can be answered with variations of the same core stories — a difficult stakeholder story, a deadline pressure story, a mistake and recovery story, a leadership or influence story, a disagreement handled well story.
The Salary Question — Stop Underselling Yourself in the First Ten Seconds
Indian candidates are culturally conditioned to be uncomfortable talking about money directly. We hedge. We say “whatever is the company standard” or “I am flexible” before we have heard a number. This is a negotiating mistake disguised as politeness.
Before every interview, research the market rate for the role. Use AmbitionBox, Glassdoor India, and LinkedIn Salary Insights — cross-reference at least two sources. Know the range for your experience level in your city.
When asked, give a range with your actual target at the lower end — not below it. Say: “Based on my research and my experience, I am looking at something in the range of X to Y. I am open to discussing the full compensation structure.” Then stop talking.
Do not volunteer that you are flexible before they have made any offer. Do not say you will accept whatever they decide. You have done your research. You know your market value. State it calmly and let them respond.
The Preparation Step That Almost Nobody Takes
I know from experience that most candidates spend 90% of their preparation time practising answers and 10% or less actually researching the company. This ratio should be reversed for any role you genuinely want.
Specifically: read the company’s last six months of LinkedIn posts. Not just the About page — the actual posts, what they are celebrating, what problems they are talking about, what values they are signalling. Find the interviewer on LinkedIn if you know who it is. Read what they have written and shared. Search for any recent news about the company — funding, product launches, leadership changes, customer wins.
Walk into the interview with one or two specific observations about the company that you formed yourself. “I noticed you recently expanded into tier-2 cities — I found it interesting that you chose Nashik and Coimbatore as the first two locations. Was that primarily a distribution decision or a unit economics one?” This kind of question demonstrates engagement that is impossible to fake and almost universally impresses.
Practising Out Loud — The Step People Skip Because It Feels Awkward
There is a meaningful gap between knowing an answer in your head and being able to deliver it clearly under mild social pressure in real time. Most people discover this gap during the actual interview — which is the worst possible time.
Record yourself on your phone answering five common questions. Play it back. You will hear filler words you did not know you used. You will notice answers that made complete sense in your head but sound incomplete when spoken. You will catch moments where your energy drops or your voice becomes uncertain.
This exercise is uncomfortable. Do it anyway. Twenty minutes of uncomfortable self-review before an interview is worth more than two hours of notes.
On the Day — The Small Things That Matter More Than They Should
Arrive ten minutes early. Not thirty — ten. Thirty minutes early creates awkwardness and pressure on the front desk. Ten minutes shows respect without creating inconvenience.
Carry a printed copy of your resume even if you submitted it digitally. In India, many interview panels — particularly at larger companies — do not always have printed copies. The candidate who hands their resume across the table starts the interaction with a small but real organisational advantage.
After the interview, send a brief thank-you message by email or LinkedIn within 24 hours. Keep it to three sentences: genuine appreciation for the conversation, one specific thing from the interview that reinforced your interest in the role, and a confident one-liner reiterating your enthusiasm. I have been on hiring panels where this message was the deciding factor between two nearly equal candidates. Almost nobody does it. That is precisely why it works.
The Question You Should Always Ask at the End
When they ask “do you have any questions for us” — and they always do — most candidates ask something safe and forgettable. “What does a typical day look like?” “What are the growth opportunities?”
The question that consistently makes the strongest impression in my experience is this: “What would make someone genuinely exceptional in this role — not just competent, but the kind of hire you look back on in two years and feel proud you made?”
This question does several things simultaneously. It shows you are thinking about impact rather than just getting the job. It gives you genuinely useful information about what the company values. And it almost always produces an honest, unscripted answer that tells you more about the company culture than anything else they will say in the interview.
A Final Word
The best interview I ever gave felt nothing like a test. It felt like two people who had already decided to work together comparing notes on how that would go. I had done the research. I had prepared real stories. I had practised the delivery. And I had walked in genuinely wanting that specific job at that specific company rather than just needing any job to come through.
The interviewer across from you is not your adversary. They have a problem — an open role they need to fill with the right person. Your job is to make it obvious that you are that person. Not by performing confidence you do not feel — but by doing the preparation that makes confidence genuine.
Do the research. Prepare the stories. Practise out loud. Send the thank-you note.
The candidate who does all four of these things is rare. Be that candidate.
Alen is a Delhi-based writer covering personal finance, health, and career topics for Indian audiences. He has been writing about practical financial and lifestyle topics since 2020 and believes that clear, honest information should be accessible to every Indian regardless of background