June 23, 2021

Interview with Dr. Amir-Ahmadi

Job Interview, Nightmare or Skill

Interviewing within the modern business setting invariably takes place in an environment full of urgency. The time allotted to the interview is essentially limited. Consequently, a non-directive approach finds very little application; it’s necessary to use the guided an in the overwhelming majority of situations. This inherent time constraint generally brings concerning dysfunctional consequences: the questioner is thus preoccupied with budgeting his time that the content and therefore the purpose of the interview is vitiated. Hence, we should outline what we mean by a good interview. In the following article, I had an interview with Dr. Hamid Amir-Ahmadi as an expert regarding effective and professional approaches for a job interview. He is well-experienced, both in coaching individuals and working in a large and international company, ASML. The first part is background information about Dr. Amir-Ahmadi. The second part is about the effective attitudes regarding a job interview.

About Dr. Amir-Ahmadi

He lives in the Netherlands and followed his higher education program in physics at the University of Groningen. After successful graduation and working a short period in a postdoc project he got to know ASML via his network, in 2006. That was the beginning of 11.5 years of his career at a high tech international company. He commenced as a design engineer and continued as an architect. Later in 2012, he was appointed as team leader and later project manager. In 2014, he got elected as a member of the Work Council (O.R.) at ASML. Since 2017 he has shifted his activities to coaching and training, based upon his interest in the art of soft skills, broad experience working with multi-disciplines at high tech and multicultural work environment as an expat.

Effective Strategies for a job interview,

The effective approaches for a friendly and positive job interview as bullet points are:

1- Making the first Good impression
2- Create a level of Relationship
3- Show your Motivation
4- Show your Competency

1- Making the first Good impression

Dr Amir-Ahmadi said that creating a decent first impression is vital for the interviewee. Since interviewers in most cases make a decision based on their gut feeling or capability of knowing if the interviewee has the competence and character match that they are looking for. For instance, imagine that as a recruiter you are looking for an extrovert person who can start communicating with others, for example, a salesman. If the interviewee has approaches such as a short answer to the questions, talking with a lower voice, or too shy for asking a question(s), that shows he/she is closer to an introverted person. Therefore, the chance of rejection will increase significantly. Moreover, showing appropriate job characteristics is so important as well. For a better understanding of what could be the job character, read and analyze the job description before an interview. Dr Amir-Ahmadi explains that for instance, ASML needs a proactive person with great communication skills for the Customer Support section. The interviewee shows a conservative attitude such as not showing empathy, being agitated, hands sweating too much, not making eye contact, or losing their leads frequently while they are talking, instead of showing his/her capability of making good communication, the chance of being rejected is high.

2- Relationship

According to Dr Amir-Ahmadi, an interview is conducting an experience to make a good relationship with the interviewer. This attitude not only is essential but also is vital for being accepted for the applied job. He clarified this with an example: “Couple of months ago, a girl with a PhD degree called and asked me to prepare her for her job interview. Before commencing our training session, I asked if she likes a drink, she said “thank you, nothing” and immediately went to my office to prepare for an interview, while I was preparing my coffee. When I returned to my office, I told her are rejected (for this practice interview). The reasons are first, you did not wait for me (maybe interpreted as “disrespect”). Second, you ignored me as your recruiter”. The main concept behind the initial communication is to make a positive, friendly and appropriate relationship with the future colleague(s). Subsequently, we work better in a social work environment.

3- Motivation

Dr Amir-Ahmadi argues that a good word for defining motivation is Hunger. Imagine two individuals: a chef and a normal person. The former is not hungry and on vacation, and the latter is just starving. Which one makes the most effort to cook something? When you have hunger, you will learn, discover, investigate to find your way through even the most difficult situation and solve problems. But one with no motivation will barely move.

4- Competency

The role of competency is significant. All recruiters at first glance will look at the Resume to evaluate you from a technical standpoint, which is a required criterion if the applicant matches the job position or not. The job match is better to be at least 80 per cent. Dr Amir-Ahmadi had mentioned that each job position require specific working experience and educational background. Therefore, an interviewee before a job application should compare his/her resume with a job description to decrease the chance of rejection.

In summary, to have a decent job interview, a job applicant should make a good initial impression, build a friendly connection, have adequate working motivation, and enough competence.

Written By Taha Tajerian, Tilburg Universtity