Useful interview questions

I've found another article I'd like to share kaaa!

The title is, 'Passing the culture-fit test' by Dipal D., Editor at LinkedIn News  (https://www.linkedin.com/news/story/passing-the-culture-fit-test-4906145/).

It could be useful for both interviewers and interviewees (even ajarns to coach their students) and this will be helpful for all to be ready. They are:

• When asked about activities beyond your profession, discuss your hobbies and highlight any charity work or volunteering you might be involved in.
• By asking about the last book you read, recruiters check your critical thinking and analytical skills along with your literary taste. It’s suggested to prepare two answers: a fictional work as well as a non-fictional one.
• Be honest when answering a question about your passions and avoid cliches.
• When sharing what you hope to achieve in the future, include skills, the aim to work with high-profile clients, and other milestones.
• Instead of only picking public figures as your source of inspiration, you can also talk about someone who’s impacted your personal life.

In addition, my podcast program (Learn Plern Plern #116) for this month is focusing on 'internship'. One Thai-American guest speaker shared about his internship over a decade back at Intercontinental Hotel in Bangkok. Currently, he is  a VP of Seven Peaks Group, which offers consultations on digital transformation for positive impacts to users. He said when talking with potential applicants for internship, he wanted to know what their attitudes were as the company wanted to recruit 'those who are hungry for more to get involved, get hands-on, and contribute', adding value to the professional environments. Several simple yet useful open-ended questions were:

• What motivates you?
• Why do you want to be here? 
• What do you want to get out of this internship?
• What do you want to do in your professional career?

It seems to be my 'Happy Questions' week na ka 5555!

Questions for thoughts and actions

 Monday hello ..... not that beautifully with the dark sky and rainy day na ka!

Late last week, I went to a bookstore to flip through one book, which has excerpts from interviewing Thai senior leaders in various sectors. It gave me several ideas ka….didn't buy it though 5555!

·       The book could be used for readers and moderators to pick out some powerful key questions.

·       I also think of 'CEO Excellence' (which I'm so slow to finish and even after promising myself to read a chapter every day, I still can't keep up with my own promise ka!) It offers synthesis of leadership qualities with stories across all the CEOs surveys and interviews.

With this thinking on my mind, I enjoy reading CEO Excellence even better ka. Let me select some from what I've read so far to share today ka:

·       What separates the best CEOs from the rest? This is what the book I skimmed through could add value loei ka……will take much longer to digest and synthesize na ka.

·       If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think they would do? (I like this classic one from Intel early 1980s) It has stayed on as one powerful question to see into one's own company, leadership of the board and CEOs, shared vision, and how to think of and act on new strategies ka.

·       How could you think like an outsider? This question can follow from the previous one loei na ka. Oftentimes, we’re so used to doing what we’ve been doing and some observations from those knowing less about our organizations could help. I go for external assessment for this reason as well (with some if’s lae ka!)

·       Why would we do it, knowing that………? (รู้ทั้งรู้) This happens often for some cultural and political reasons. Boldness to stand firm on what’s best for the organizations is crucial…even simply raising this question needs someone with a brave heart ka.

·       To what extent am I personally acting as a role model by telling a deeply compelling story, aligning incentives, and building the confidence and skills of others? I think this question alone demands so much from CEOs. Wish our senior leaders could take it up seriously ka.

This will be a bit long but let me copy a few more questions that could be useful for our universities to think and do as we’re deeply into university transformation challenges na ka.

·       What’s the most important behavioral change needed to unlock success? My answer would be 'growth mindset' ka.

·       Is the best fit talent in the most important roles? Identify the right talents in the transformation pool to work on the aspects that truly fit their capabilities.

·       Does the team member know exactly what’s expected of them? I like this one ka...simple and powerful.  I think it can be from 'shared visions' to 'expected individual and collective results na ka. Clear communication or otherwise, we tend to do what we've seen and done.

·       Have they been given the needed tools and resources and a chance to build the necessary skills and confidence to use them effectively? Systematic HR planning that is aligned with organizational goals and people's competence with relevant projects to sharpen their skills.

·       Are they surrounded by others (and the CEO) who are aligned on a common direction and who display the desired mindsets and behaviors? This for me, is a tough yes-no question as it's filled with the desirable directions, mutual understanding, aligned actions, favorable role models with personal actions.

·       Is it clear what the consequences are if they don’t get on board and deliver? We tend to think of penalty first but it could be negative impacts on the health of the organization in terms of growth, sustainability, competitiveness, and even one's own pride and dignity ka.

Any question in particular you’d love to choose mai ka? Why?

Learning from Metaverse and Metanomics session

 Missing my message the past week mai ka?

I now have one story I heard that has made me eager to share ka. It was from Thailand Metaverse Expo 2022 by the Nation the past week. The first vdo I watched was like over 5 hours and I got stuck by the very first and second ones. I’ve chosen the first one, ‘Metaverse and Metanomics’ by Khun Thanapongphan Thanyarattakul , Co-founder and CEO of sfia.

Out of my little understanding of metaverse, his talk gave me a good briefing plus sources to read more.  I picked up several points and examples to share with you here na ka:

-        Quite a number of huge businesses have already seen many opportunities and jumped into learning and offering products on metaverse in some different forms. 

-     Starbucks has its wise and up-to-date use of web 3.0....from its earlier slogan for coffee lovers to see Starbucks as their 'third place to stay', it will offer NFTs for special collections for at least 31.2 users in the US alone.  

The CEO has used web 3.0 and changed its slogan to be 'digital third place...' especially for upcoming generations who are digital natives. I quote here na ka: 'Tokenized rewards the future.....this will enable customers to exchange value across brands, engage in more personalized experiences, enhance digital services, and exchange other loyalty points of Stars at Starbucks.

-     BMW and Shanghai have been using 'digital twins', meaning 'precise virtual representations of physical or real-life assets that use connected digital information to mirror reality in order to inform decision-making...........possibility of future models capable of autonomous decision-making.' Like cloning the real factory/city to simulate reality for planning and decisions ka.

-     Gartner's definition of Metaverse is a good one ka....'a collective virtual open space created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical and digital reality......physically persistent and provides enhanced immersive experiences.

Note that we don't talk about one virtual world but there'll be many of those ka.

Lots more interesting info for anyone who may wish to listen further ka: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=805158627329675

 For me in particular, key terms for me this time are digital twins, innovative virtual world, convergence of virtual and  real worlds, and enhanced immersive experiences ka.

Key message to us in higher education.... What have we been doing to keep up with the Metaverse and the convergence, what have we seen as opportunities, how are we going about it for all gens to have enhanced immersive experiences?

Any observations?

Lessons from a mndset session

 Dear all, two more activities on the list were done the past few days kaa.....I now congratulated myself and you can join in kraaa😁😁😁! One was a mindset session and the other was a talk to Thai kids born overseas from Thai parents or from intermarriage. The challenge was that they were 12-17 years old with some proficiency in Thai. I survived at least kaa.

I now wish to focus on the first activity mentioned na ka.

It was a one-day mindset session my little team (2 BB's, 1 X, 1  young smart Y who is only 24 years old and in love with big pictures) designed for a university as the senior leaders wished to work on their mindsets before moving on to their other important missions ka. Kindly note that it was from an assigned task to me as a committee member, not out of our own line of work/expertise (though we do love to do it occasionally!)

Let me touch on our lessons learned about the overall organization ka.

- Despite intensive brainstorming discussions we spent on planning and designing the exercises, flexibility on site was key after all ka.

- The two from other sectors (entertainment industry and technology sector) we eyed for were the real blessings. Our criteria were from the pool of Fulbright alums and networks ka...what else is new chai mai ka? We briefed them  how things could proceed and they smoothly became our team members who played the mentor/judge roles while standing ready to suggest and lead added activities when needed.

- The one from the technology side is used to working with and as a  startup so her questions to the presenters were sharp. The other from the entertainment business has precious empathetic experiences to deal with people's behaviors and actions. He also helped twist the exercise around like laying out a wild card as the climax of a movie! More than sanuk was impacts on the group discussions ka.

- Following our Y kid on the team, we had an involvement of students as participants and one as a judge. We learned so much from their perspectives and actions, noting that the younger gen needs strong engagement and over-communication ka.

- When the safe zone was felt, kids and adults blossomed with so much creativity and proactive participation.

The result made us feel quite happy ka.

Sundar Pichai at Stanford

 Hello everyone ka! 

I watched a YouTube program, in which CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai talked to Archana Sohmshetty, MBA Stanford  on Apr 27, 2022. Sanuk in several ways ka.

1. I like the ways Archana started and ended the session ka.

For the start, she asked Sundar if he knew there were about 350 edits after he became CEO of Alphabet. Then she asked him to point out several statements if they were facts or fake like, 'He went to Stanford at the age of 8.'.....fake. There were quite a few high schools he went to...that were fake as well. It got lots of laughs, making the atmosphere light and friendly mak ka.

Before the end of the session, she asked Sundar to fill in the blank with sentences like, 'Something that inspires me is.........watching the next generation blossom.' or 'I'm the happiest when.......being around people, building products, and solving problems.'

In addition, it was obvious she had done her homework well to come up with really good questions. She also has refined moderation skills ka.

2. Love quite a few things that Sundar shared and here are some ka:

 - 'You have to encourage innovation. Companies become more conservative  in decision making as you grow...be okay with failure and reward effort, not outcomes.'  I copied from the Youtube description ka ..... exactly the first statement that hit me loei!.....not that I don't value outcomes but we do need to give credits to many efforts exerted too.

- When talking about the impact of access to technology, humanity's challenge to harness it, and how Google is sustainably defining the future of work, Sundar said, 'When you see the appetite and the desire for people to make their lives better by gaining access to technology, that is what compels me to go beyond.' He did call for collective collaboration from all stakeholders to ensure that technology will be for the benefits of people....also talked about AR which has a potential if done correctly ka. 

- 'But every generation always is very worried about technology of the future.' So true from generation to generation as things aren't the contexts the older gens are fully familiar na ka.

Can follow the full version at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9qGmO8Yy-Y na ka.