The Ultimate Guide to Mock Interviews: In-depth Statistics, Examples & FAQs

Congratulations! You are invited to the interview round of your dream job.

Now what?

This will be your only chance to impress the person taking your interview, i.e., the interviewer.

You will have to be the best version of yourself to lock the job offer.

However, you may be nervous about facing the whole situation.

Whether this is your first time or the tenth, it’s not hard to see that only the one who strives hard wins the battle.

The more you consider the job as a necessity, the more you will get stressed to make it a successful attempt.

Although going through your CV would be an important part of the process for the interviewers, your suitability of candidacy will not be evaluated just by reading it. With selection for the job offer come multiple rounds of interviews and stringent selection process.

The world has become a very competitive place.

You ought to bring out the best of yourself for the golden opportunity that you have got.

Only one person is going to receive the job offer. Don’t you want to be that one?

But if it is so tough, you might be thinking of the best possible ways to succeed.

That’s when mock interviews come to your rescue.

What is a Mock Interview?

A mock interview is a simulation of a real job interview.

It offers a robust training practice to help you prepare for the actual thing.

Mock interviews are conducted in a professional setting.

You will be interviewed by a professional for the sole reason of providing the much-needed experience to roll it out well during the final interview.

You are provided with constant feedback based on the number of mock interviews you take, which is then implemented to progress better in the next.

The mock interview’s sole purpose is to offer you a chance to practice your interviewing skills in a setting that is similar to the actual job interview.

This is a great way to become habitual with interview etiquette and interview questions.

Anxiety or apprehending the process of an interview can make you very uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, you can counter these stresses with practice and preparation.

In mock interviews, you usually have a conversation with a professional interviewer who will follow a format to make your job interview less intimidating.

To stimulate the actual interview process, going after an organised setup would turn fruitful.

Each mock interview that lasts for about 30 minutes to 1 hour helps you with your behaviour, body language, nervousness, general knowledge, confidence, anxiety, brushing up your technical skills, and implementing the feedback for the next session.

Why Should I go for Mock Interviews?

Interviews are nerve-racking.

Ticking all the company’s boxes while making the first impression might be super tricky.

Here are a few facts that you might not have known about interviews.

• Google receives around 3 million applications per year. However, only
• Only
• 50%
• 73%
• You are judged within the first
• On average,

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

While the average length of the interview is between 30 and 45 minutes, you have to put on the best face and make a sound impression.

And, this is only achievable when you are used to handling your composition and getting everything right.

Nevertheless, it will surely add to your jitters if you have not been a professional in giving interviews in the past.

However, you can surely come out with flying colours with structured interview practice and quality mock interviews.

The mere toughness of the competition makes it extremely important to work on perfecting your interviewing skills.

Now you know why mock interviews are so crucial in overcoming the odds.

While 92% of the candidates feel that mock interview is a must-have interview prep experience before giving the actual interview, 96% of people who have signed up with Preplaced have got their dream job.

Are you still not sure how you can pull this off? Don’t worry.

We are here to handhold you.

Let's continue and understand, how you can bang the doors of success without any second thought with mock interviews.

We will walk you through every single element of the mock interview and know how it can benefit you to the maximum.

How can Mock Interviews help? What are it's benefits?

If you wake up one morning and decide to swim in the Olympics, you wouldn’t be able to be a contender and win the gold medal, will you? You will have to train.

You need a coach who can help you know your weaknesses.

That is to say; you need a trainer who can groom you to achieve the desired level of success.

The practice mocks are an ideal way to rehearse for the final interview with the target company.

They teach you to answer even the most difficult questions with ease.

Here are a few aspects in which mock interviews can help:

🟢 Improves Soft Skills

Mock interviews help you enhance your soft skills. They help you to:

• Reduce your stress level
• Decrease the level of anxiety
• Improve communication skills
• Develop exciting interview strategies to crack the nut.

Whether through a webcam, online, or face-to-face, a mock interview assesses your level of mannerisms, outfit, and self-confidence.

Ideally, you should try your hands at several mock interviews until you feel that you have found the correct way to answer all the questions.

🟢 Improves behaviour-based answers

Most of the time, it is believed that the attitude when looking at the previous job experience can predict the interviewee’s behaviour for the current job.

This is the reason why, companies have started giving extensive importance to behavioural Interviews.

These rounds help companies to understand if a given candidate will be a good fit for the company.

Behavioural questions help comprehend how you will respond to workplace situations.

Some of the most common questions under this section are:

• “Elaborate on how you work under pressure.”
• “How did you handle the situation when you committed a mistake?”

There is a proper technique to answering these type of questions.

Taking mock interviews with a professional HR interviewer will help you understand various techniques and how to frame correct responses to such tricky questions.

It is observed that most people don't prepare for HR/behavioural interviews.

A common mistake which costs candidates heavily! HR rounds are one area where taking mock interviews can provide tremendous improvement to the candidate.

Also, one of the areas where Preplaced excels.

🟢 Provides a Strong Learning Curve with Continual Feedback

In the real interview, you do not receive any feedback from the interviewer. Whether you appear for one or hundreds of them, you wouldn’t know where you lack and what makes them go all wrong.

Companies avoid having such discussions with the candidate to prevent allegations or lawsuits.

Contrast to this, mock interviews give a clear understanding of what needs to improve.

It strongly paves your way to find the significance of each action and answer.

The interviewer, during the mock interview, provides you with feedback after the session. This helps you to:

• Understand your behaviour
• Reflect on the attitude for the mock interview round
• Know how the interviewer perceives your stance
• Review your responses to have fewer chances of mistakes

As a result, you know your areas of improvement, and thereby you can try to work upon them.

Since you will be trained to receive feedback and implement it from time to time, you know your strengths and weaknesses.

Moreover, you can take as many as you wish for any rounds of the interview as possible. So, you get the opportunity to excel in each area.

At Preplaced, we strongly believe that quality feedback is the most important part of a mock interview.

This is exactly why, we ask all our interviewers to put significant effort towards providing thorough, actionable and genuine feedback.

Also the reason why, we dedicate separate 15 minute slots specifically for feedback at the end of each of our mock interview sessions.

Getting a quality feedback should be one of your key factors while opting for a mock interview service.

🟢 Reduces your anxiety level

When anxiety takes a toll on you, you may not be able to survive through any round, even if you have practised it nearly thousands of times.

During the first mock interview, you may not be at your best.

However, you will surely be able to see a remarkable difference between your current and the previous answering abilities after taking a couple of them.

One of the benefits is that you get used to meeting your hiring manager.

Although it would be a mock setup, the interviewers will still bring the same vibes.

Each time when you step into the shoes of an interviewee, you will get a different experience. It will help in:

• Preparing you vigorously for the actual interview
• Practice breathing
• Control your thoughts
• Answer with confidence
• Implement calming techniques and many more

🟢 Offers a Trial Chance to Work on your Weak Spots

A trial run is always better to nail the real game.

As with every expertise, talent, and skill, you get better the more you do it.

You don’t want to have the interview go cold. That’s why you have mock interviews to show your weak spots and formulate smart answers.

🟢 Helps to Have an Effective Drill

Mock interviews offer a dramatic experience.

It lets you articulate your responses and think through the end-to-end process.

It’s a place where you learn from your mistakes and warm-up your skills for an applaudable show.

Moreover, not only does the mock interviews help with non-technical things, but it also helps in strengthening the key concepts required for the interview.

Talking too much or fumbling are a few of the most prominent reasons for rejection.

You often do it when you do not have the exact answer. However, mock interviews can help you to tweak the responses and check if they can work out.

So, with each mock interview, you get a shot at improving your answers and thereby reduce your chances of getting rejected.

Many mock interview companies provide video-recordings. One more benefit, that can help you evaluate your progress and performance from time to time.

As a result, you can comprehend how you react during pressure and how you work around your pain points.

🟢 Lets you Learn with Interviewers from your Niche

The best learning curve can be achieved when you have the most advanced level of the sounding board.

You might give a correct answer and still get rejected, if the answer is not something the interviewer expected.

So it is vitally important to understand problem solving methods that interviewers like and prefer.

Working out problems with a professional interviewer helps you learn a methodical way of solving problems.

It also helps understand different approaches to a question and how interviewers think.

In mock interviews, you get to select the person who will interview you.

So, suppose you want yourself tested on some HR-related questions, you can choose a mentor or a skilled peer in that forte.

You can tap into the people who can help you work on your areas of improvement and objectively assess your responding skills.

We understand the need to have interviewers from all niche.

Hence, we actively work towards bringing interviewers from all domains and companies under one hood.

We are proud to be one of the rare mock interview services to provide interviewers from a large variety of domains, and not only coding & Computer Science.

🟢 Allows to Simulate a Real Interview Setting

With mock interviews, you can choose a setting as close to a real interview as possible.

Of course, you also have to dress to match the environment.

Online interview has become a new trend in the recruitment industry, specifically during the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.

Since conducting face-to-face interviews is not feasible in the present circumstances, companies are hiring through online platforms.

This makes taking online mock interviews extremely beneficial as the candidate will understand various techniques required for online interviewing which were not needed before.

Mock interviews make you feel as close to the actual interview as possible.

While you should dress professionally, you should also be ready with everything you may have needed during the actual interview.

You can practice greeting the interviewer with either a sweet good morning (whichever part of the day it is) or an enthusiastic smile.

🟢 Enables You to Try Different Responses to Test the Waters

In addition to these, you tend to try the usual questions with different responses.

Preparing and identifying which answer would hit the bull’s eye can be tested during mock interviews.

A few of those questions include:

• Tell me about yourself.
• What are your areas of improvement and strengths?
• Why do you want to work with us?
• What are your career goals?
• Where do you wish to see yourself down the road in 5 years?

🟢 Helps Answer Tough Questions

Many deserving candidates fail in the actual job interview just because of poor performance.

They have the necessary skill set and candidature but lack the tact of answering questions.

They answer the questions but not in the most appropriate manner.

Cracking the interview processes the right way is complicated yet critical.

This becomes even more critical if you are planning for FAANG companies. However, with little professional guidance, you can reach new heights.

Mock interviews with play a vital role in throwing unknown & tough questions at you, and more importantly in helping you with good approaches to solve them.

Next time, you face a tough & tricky question in a real interview, you will know how to deal with it.

Interview practice surely helps you raise your bar of expectations and achieve what you always dreamt of.

No matter how many books you read or research on the top 10 questions and answers, nothing helps you more than a live practice of mock interviews.

What are the Types of Mock Interviews?

There are several types of mock interviews that you can opt for.

Also, you are not confined to only one mock interview.

While a few improve their confidence in just 5-10 mock interviews, many candidates take up to 30+ and pass the final interview hassle-free.

Theoretically, there are two types of mock interviews:

• Based on the interviewer
• Based on the interview type

☑️ Mock interviews based on the interviewer type:

The interviewer-based mock interviews are further divided into two types:

• Peer-to-peer mock interviews
• Mentor based mock interviews

1. Peer-to-Peer Mock Interviews:

In peer-to-peer interviews, you are set up with a peer who is just like you, a nervous yet willing-to-learn candidate who wants to bring the best out of their time during the actual interview.

In this type, you read through the details of each other’s job, i.e., the job requirements, know the qualifications, and ask questions from an interviewer’s perspective to each other.

Here are some benefits of peer-to-peer mock interviews:

• Learn new methods by watching your peers answer the questions you ask.
• Improve communication skills.
• Get accustomed to answering questions you never prepared for.
• Increase your confidence with the feedback you receive from multiple people.

2. Mentor-based mock interview:

As the name suggests, a mentor-based mock interview is that type in which you have professional experts taking your interviews.

You can choose the mentors based on their practice areas, interests, domain, or previous employment history.

‍This is one of the best types of mock interviews that you can have. Having somebody from your domain interviewing you multiple times can help highlight soft skills and technical criticalities.

Professional mentors offer encouragement, guidance, and curated resources to dive through the final interview successfully.

They facilitate job shadowing opportunities and provide networking prospective.

You can keep having multiple mentor-based mock interviews for different segments.

You can keep repeating them until you are confident.

That way, you can understand if you imbibe the candidacy of the other fields too.

Here are the benefits of mentor-based mock interviews:

• In this type, you get a chance to advance your professional lives based on the mentor’s experiences. The mentor shares his/her talent and expertise, putting you in the prime position to meet the job market demands and stay up-to-date.
• Somehow, having a mentor-based session brings a sense of direction to your success. You feel more confident and engage in broader goals.
• When a mentor explains your improvement areas, you get experienced feedback that lets you perceive a completely different angle of your skillset.

The mentor-based mock interview is a reward in itself.

It is mutually beneficial on both the personal and professional levels.

You get role-specific curated content resources and get trained by somebody who is already an industry expert.

Thus, you can guarantee to quickly swim through the actual interview process after implementing the feedback you received during these test interviews.

Peer-to-peer v/s mentor-based mock interview

While each type has its own perks, choosing between peer-to-peer and mentor-based depends upon your requirement.

Here are a few glaring differences between peer-to-peer and mentor-based mock interviews.

• Peer-to-peer based mock interviews will help you easily discuss issues that you face. That is because the interviewer may also be of your age and share the same interest level. Learning your partner’s approach and understanding each style will let you have better insights of the role you will be stepping into.
• A mentor-based mock interview will prominently help you with enhanced domain-level knowledge. Moreover, you can also gain some interview tips to get the much-needed expertise to answer proficiently.
• In a peer-to-peer interview, you are not intimidated by the interviewer. You don’t have to bear the amplified anxiety while being interviewed by the CEO or a person with a prominent personality.
• In a mentor-based interview, there is no question of having a biased view. Thus, this infusion is put at bay. Plus, you have transparent feedback with the crucial yet strong active listening skills the mentor already possesses.

Both types of interviews are great in their own sense. Here is a guide to understand complete comparative analysis and which one is right for you here.

☑️ Mock interviews based on the interview type:

Every company follows its own interview process, consisting of multiple interview rounds.

Mock interviews can be divided into different rounds based on common types of interviews adopted by the industry.

These rounds can be categorized into three major types of interviews:

• Resume round
• Technical rounds
• HR round

Let's delve into each of these and understand significance of practicing for these rounds individually through mock interviews:

1. Resume round:

The resume round is entirely based on your resume; in which, you will be asked questions based on your non-verbal or verbal gestures, choice of words, appearance, and the list of things you have put on your resume.

• An HR spends only
• Around
• 62%

This can also be a simple screening round where the hiring managers simply skim through the resume and decide whether to move on with it or qualify it to the next level.

As this is the first-ever round of your interview, you need to be very strong in portraying who you are in the resume round.

You can have different resumes based on the type of job you are eyeing.

You should include all the mandatory qualifications that are needed for the job.

It’s here where most of the candidates falter. They try to have a one-fits-all resume and have the same answer at every other interview.

Candidates do not feel the need to thoroughly go through the job description while preparing for this round.

• 59% of recruiters reject the candidate after the resume round because of poor grammar in the resume.
• 40% of hiring managers do not qualify the resume if it has inappropriate fonts, too much design, and clipart images.
• 50% of the recruiters will reject you during the resume round because your resume did not stand out.

However, with mock interviews, you can smoothly sail your boat through different docs and understand which suits them best.

Structuring the content during the mock will help you with the much-needed confidence to perform well in this crucial round.

Most of the questions on this round are based on your resume. So, you can prepare well while rehearsing for it.

2. Technical round:

In the technical round, the interviewers look for more about how you reach the answer and the final correct answer.

The process is essential to them, as it helps them understand if and how you can manage tasks that you have never dealt with before.

You need to very strongly showcase the skills during this round if you have applied for science, engineering, or IT roles.

While some rounds may involve brain teasers, they can even test your knowledge with numerical reasoning abilities.

Many candidates ponder over the technical aspects they are aware of.

They do not look at the technologies the target company is using.

That’s when most of them fail in this round.

Avoid being a “Jack of All Trades and Master of None”. If you are well-versed in one segment, put that straight.

Most of the people fail in this round because of the following reasons:

• It took more time than expected to work on the assessment.
• Did not have much theoretical background of the technical aspects.
• Did not say upfront if they were not aware of the technology.

With mock interviews, you can have an interviewer who has a technical background.

You can alter your answers based on the feedback and come up with a modified one each time to understand which will work the best in the specified setting.

3. HR round

The HR round seems the simplest by far, but it will decide your fate in the organisation.

During this round, they will check your background, your areas of improvement, weaknesses, personality, and other similar qualities.

According to statistics;

• 59% of hiring managers look for the candidate’s soft skills
• 67% of people got rejected because they did not make proper eye contact
• About 10% of people get rejected due to weak handshakes
• 70% of candidates did not pass due to the trendy choice of clothes

While line managers will ask you more about the work-related questions, HR will decide your candidature based on the company’s values.

Just having strong academic excellence and technical knowledge is not essential for the company.

They expect you to contribute to its sustainable growth.

In a nutshell, this is more of an elimination round.

If they do not deem you fit for the values they think the company is renowned for, you may have to give up on your dreams no matter how hard you tried for the first few rounds.

If you are not aware of what sort of round this would be, it is best to go for a mock interview with an HR expert or find a peer who can help you ask relevant questions.

What to Expect in a Typical Mock Interview?

Once you have selected a mock interview service and paid for it, below is the general process that happens:

• Mentor Assignment
• Interview Scheduling
• Mock Interview

Different mock interviews companies use different formats for their mock interviews.

Most companies offer 30-45 minute mock interviews.

Whereas, at Preplaced, we believe, to be able to replicate a real-life interview successfully and provide quality feedback, it is necessary to atleast have an hour long mock interview.

To further understand "how mock interviews look like" in a little more detail, let us look at the Preplaced’s  Mock Interview Pattern as an example.

We analysed interview formats followed by various companies (including FAANG companies) and interviewers to come up with a perfect interview model.

Along with the help of well-known interviewers, we have designed a mock interview format, that is perfect mix of all the vital components.

It is divided into following:

👉 Introduction (2 to 5 minutes)

👉 Interview (35 to 45 minutes)

👉 Feedback (15 to 20 minutes)

👉 Q & A (5 to 10 minutes)

Rarely does any company provide 1 hour long mock interviews at these affordable rates.

Introduction (2 to 5 minutes):

The first part deals with a quick round of introduction between the mentor (interviewer) and interviewee, followed by a brief of what topics the interviewer would like to touch upon in the session.

The interviewee can inform his/her requests in case of any specific requirements.

The Interview (35 to 45 minutes):

The next part is the actual interview. This goes on exactly the same as a real-life interview.

Each question is decided by the interviewer to prepare the candidate for a real interview.

These questions are in most cases actual interview questions (asked by various companies) and will test your preparation & concepts to their limits.

You will not have more of a Yes/No type of question but the elaborative ones.

The series of questions will judge how you are as a person and whether you can express your thoughts in the answers.

Based on the answers that you provide, the mock interviewer may ask follow-up questions.

Duration of the interview will be around 45–50 minutes. Interviewer will give you hints and try to help you reach the answers just like any real interview.

The mock interviewer will add fluidity to the conversation as per the candidature.

You must be as serious for a mock interview as you would for the real job interview. Anticipate that you will be meeting your hiring manager during the mock interview.

In a semi-structured mock interview format, the interviewer, i.e., the peer or the mentor, usually looks through your candidature and the requirements of the job.

They then outline the conditions of an ideal candidate based on the qualifications.

For example, if the interviewer is a hiring manager and you have scheduled it for the first round, they may look at the following features while having the conversation with you:

• Can you make high commitments and still stick long?
• Can the company trust you with its core values?
• Can you enhance your skill set by being great at other non-profile jobs too?
• Are you self-driven and motivated?
• Can you gel well with the team?
• Do you speak with confidence and can spread positivity across the floor?

Feedback (15 to 20 minutes):

Next comes the most important part of the mock interview.

Feedback and reality check.

No point in practicing if you don’t learn from your mistakes.

Genuine feedback is what will do wonders for you. It brings you on the right path.

Feedback takes up 15-20 minutes of the whole mock interview process when the interviewer will explain to you your areas of improvement and places where you did the best.

You also understand the interviewer's perspective where he/she can help you discuss points that may include better approaches to solve the interview questions.

A mentor typically tries to cover the following areas in the feedback:

• Mistakes during the interview
• How to do better and areas to focus upon
• Better approaches to solve questions of the interview
• Important questions for actual interviews
• Best ways/references to prepare
• Tips for cracking actual interviews

Depending upon the type of round you have chosen, you can get the points that can help you achieve the best results in the subsequent interviews.

Ensure that you go thoroughly prepared for the next and avoid this set of mistakes.

It would be best if you understand the context of the mistake. So, you can prevent making not only that but similar other errors in the same area.

Q & A (5 to 10 minutes):

Candidates can feel free to ask any career and interview preparation related queries to the interviewer during or after the interview.

As each Preplaced mentor has cracked top companies and traveled the journey themselves, they are the best people to guide you in any queries you might have.

How to Get the Best out of Your Mock Interview?

Before you settle on a mock interview, it is better you know the techniques to ace the game. Here are a few tips to help you.

✅ Choose the right interviewer

Regardless of the mock interview type or round, it would help if you settle on a good soundboard.

Select an interviewer who:

• Shares your interests
• Knows your domain
• Has some level of expertise in your field of work
• Can offer you honest and objective feedback
• Is not a family member or a friend
• Is maybe a career counselor

At last, you need somebody who can offer you crystal clear feedback to help you work well in the next mock interview.

✅ Follow the rules as you would in an actual interview

While going for each mock interview, you have to consider it as the final interview. For that:

• Choose a professional setting if you are scheduling the mock interview online
• Stimulate an office-like environment to get mentally prepared
• Dress professionally
• Explain your background well each time, even when the questions are repetitive at each mock

✅ Be ready for any mode of interview: online or offline

Mock interviews can be telephonic, face-to-face, or via videocam.

After the Coronavirus pandemic, almost all mock interviews and even actual interviews are being conducted online.

Ensure that you are well prepared for any variants, as you would for an in-person interview, and stay relevant to the current situation.

For a telephonic or a videocam interview, try to have no disturbances around.

Make the conversation as real as possible, and do not be critical of the feedback.

Bonus Tip: Before you meet the interviewer, research general questions online, and prepare for the answers by standing in front of the mirror. Sometimes, you are the best critic of yourself.

If you want to up the interview game, then the “where” part of the mock interview should not bother.

✅ Be ready with the typical answers

Interviews have some typical questions that you can prepare well in advance. However, make sure that you follow these points:

• Research and practise answering the common questions
• Think that you are doing a real interview and not a mock one
• Engage in formal conversations with the interviewer
• Do not become a robot by memorising the answers
• Although you must have rehearsed well, think about the context of the question
• It’s best to give answers in terms of points

✅ Know how to ask for feedback

Asking for feedback is a crucial element during the whole mock interview process, as that will help you avoid the same issues in the next mock and help you ask for feedback in the final interview.

Most of us don’t feel the need to ask for input from the hiring managers and make the same mistakes in each interview, thereby failing repeatedly.

The company has invested time in knowing you.

Show the sportsmanship in knowing what and where it all went wrong and how you will charge to make it right the next time.

Thank the interviewer for his/her time, and then follow up with the following questions.

• Are you looking for any other requirements for this position?
• Is there any other experience I should have been well-versed with?
• Do my qualifications match what the company is asking for in the role?
• How do I fit in the role you are asking for?

A simple question as “How did I do?” with an openness to criticism and slightly deferential tone can help the interviewer provide a candid response without the fear of damaging the relationship.

Asking for feedback after a real interview is a skill, and if you do it right in mocks, you can do it right later.

✅ Warm up the Mock Interviewer

Your mock interviewer may not have full information about the target company or the job description.

It is best to prepare him/her well to help you with the real thing more effectively.

Describe your role, skill set, the company’s requirements you are looking at for an interview, the job role details, and everything that would turn the conversation into a productive one.

You can help him/her go through some common questions related to your niche and then move ahead.

• Why do you want to work at the target company?
• What relevant experience do you have?
• How can you further your experience?
• Why should I hire you?

Unless the mock interviewer knows which answers can be framed better, you may not reap the best fruits.

For an interviewer to provide quality help and advice, it is extremely important for him/her to understand the context of candidate's requirements and needs.

After analysing our mock interviews and feedback from various customers, we quickly realised that interviewers not having the context of candidate's problems & requirements was a major problem in all mock interview services existing today.

To counter this problem, we came up with a unique solution: A Planning Session.

This session is an informal discussion for an interviewer to understand candidate's background, current preparation level, problems, goals and expectations.

After introducing this package, we were able to cater to the needs better and saw about 120% improvement in overall customer ratings & higher number of full ratings (5 out of 5).

Even though you don't opt for a dedicated planning session with the interviewer before a mock interview, make sure you atleast spend 5 to 10 minutes with the interviewer to explain him your situation and goals.

Trust us, it will have a huge impact on the quality of your mock interview experience.

We have observed it first-hand.

What Things Should You Avoid in a Mock Interview?

You increase your chances of succeeding at a job interview if you have had success in mock interviews with confidence and full preparedness.

Your skills, education, and experience are important.

However, practising to showcase it well during the mock will help you avoid any final interview mistakes.

Putting the best foot forward with full preparedness will play a vital role in your performance and, finally, the result.

Mock interviews are robust interview practice tools.

Each time you go for an interview, you have a tweaked response to understand if you are sailing your boat in the right direction.

Thus, you give very few chances to the actual hiring manager to catch you off guard.

Now that you know the best things to follow for an effective mock interview, here is a quick checklist of the things you should avoid.

🔶 Do not fumble

Be confident.

Do not fumble at every answer.

There is no ideal response to any question.

You can choose the way you wish to explain and the content you want to put in it. So, do not go blank if you think you got the wrong answer.

However, keep the body language as relaxed as possible. The more you stress, the more you will stumble upon.

🔶 Do not expect that the mock interviewer will know everything

As this is a mock interview, it is better to help the interviewer with a small introduction of your technical skills, the target company, and work.

Assisting the mentor or the peer in this way will lead to interesting rounds of interviews.

🔶 Adorn a professional attire

Casuals is a strict no.

No see-through or revealing clothes.

Set the formal tone right from the first interview.

🔶 Do not lose confidence with critical feedback

You are doing the mock interview to avoid lumbering.

Hence, owning up to critical feedback and implementing each of its elements will only help you grow.

What are Some Best Websites for Mock Interviews?

There are plenty of them. However, following mock interview websites are the well known ones:

• Preplaced
• InterviewBuddy
• Pramp
• Interviewbit

Interviews are not as easy as they sound.

Having better rehearsals done will help you warm up better before the final game.

Mock Interview FAQs:

Apart from the ones we already covered, there are few other frequently asked questions and doubts among candidates that we come across often. Here we try to cover most of them:

1. What is FAANG? Can I get Mock Interviews with FAANG interviewers?

Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google are collectively called FAANG.

They are the most sought-after companies, making many graduates and engineering students choose them.

The FAANG companies are recognised for their packages, working environment, and reputation.

It is believed that FAANG interviews are pretty tough.

Amazon, Google, or FAANG interviews seem to engage in stringent interview rounds.

Each level needs determination, enthusiasm, and hard work. You need to have the will to win it.

They receive no less than 50,000 applications per job post.

Due to their toughness and high level of competition, FAANG interviews are considered extremely tough to crack.

Hence, many people prefer to take FAANG mock interviews (mock interviews with FAANG interviewers) instead of normal mock interview services.

Many people prefer taking FAANG interviews even if they are going to appear for tier 2 companies as a harder level of preparation can prepare them for almost everything.

The answer to the question "Can I get mock interviews for FAANG interviewers?" is YES.

And you should definitely take them, as they help you prepare for the tough challenge ahead.

But you need to be careful while selecting the mock interview service.

Not all websites provide interviewers from FAANG.

Preplaced is definitely one place you can trust for FAANG mock interviews, as they have huge pool of interviewers from Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Google and few others like Walmart, Nutanix, Qualcomm, Intel, Uber, and Linkedin.

Apart from Preplaced, there are couple of others (Exponent, Interviewing.io) who provide similar standard of FAANG mock interviews.

FAANG mock interviews work the best when you seriously wish to crack such tough jobs.

FAANG is an opportunity that nobody wishes to miss.

Sometimes, you know the answer but do not know how to communicate it well.

Mock interviews can help you simulate the responses well in the environment. It will help you understand your current level.

While a few recommend taking just 10+ mock interviews, it is best to take as many as you can until you polish all your strengths and weaknesses to not miss the golden chance of working with FAANG companies.

2. How many mock interviews should I take?

You can take as many mock tests as you wish as long as they help you correct your mistakes.

While one may need just 2-5 to understand the pressure points, you may need 5-10 per interview type.

So, it is best to judge based on your progress.

Nevertheless, it is observed that people with five or more mock interviews do much better than people with no mock interview experience and tend to pass through the real interviews with much more ease.

3. How much time before my actual interviews should I start taking mock interviews?

It solely depends upon the time you think you would need for improvising your skill sets.

It can be just a week or even months together. It is best to follow this step-by-step procedure:

Step 1: Prepare for a subtopic and take a mock interview for it.

Step 2: Understand and make a list of your pain points.

Step 3: Work on your limitations and switch to the next topic.

Step 4: Try to progress on 1-2 pain points in each mock interview.

This way, mock interviews offer you a golden chance to build the best version of yourself for the final interview.

4. Should I take mock interviews even if I am not looking for a job switch?

Mock interviews not only prepare you to give the correct answers but also offer many psychological benefits.

You keep practising the answers making it more vital to try any interview at any time, hassle-free.

Plus, you even get insider info if you pair up with a person who belongs to your domain.

Staying updated will ultimately be advantageous to your profile.

We observed that almost 30% of the candidates who take mock interview packages with us were not looking for a job switch.

They either take it to strengthen their interview skills, revise their concepts or just as a mechanism to learn new topics from experts.

Interesting that people use mock interview courses as a learning tool, Isn't it? Here are some of the other mock interview benefits that you can utilize even if you are not looking for a job switch.

5. Should I specifically prepare for HR interview rounds?

Preparing for any specific rounds depends upon your areas of improvement.

If you think you may not be able to tackle the answers in the HR interview rounds, it is best to find a peer or a mentor who knows this sector and can guide you well.

You will get several questions that are usually asked in an HR round.

But do you know which one will best go with your job description?

Hence, while choosing the interviewer, go for either a recruiter or someone having the necessary skill set.

You can look at the answers given online, prepare them in your style and try using them during the mock.

Pick the ones that the interviewer will be okay with.

6. Is it worth it to take paid mock interviews?

Paid interviews can be your best guide if you could crack the final interview.

Think it from this perspective: The cost of paid mock interviews is very negligible compared to the annual salary that you may receive after cracking your dream job.

Often, people don't take quality courses because they cost few hundred dollars and end up struggling and wasting a lot of time.

Why waste so much time and effort when you can get best advice and curated content at few thousand rupees?

Besides, while you pay the mock interview fees for once, you get the ROI lifetime with a successful interview.

If you put your valuable effort and time in correct direction, it will help you exponentially in the future.

You will recover all the money spent in education and actually earn many folds more in no time.

Moreover, you get continual feedback and advice from experienced people who are from your sector.

So, the nitty-gritty of the technical part is well-taken care of.

Interacting with a person who has walked the road and seen the struggles can prove to be much more beneficial than you think.

7. Should I opt for software tools or a real human for mock interview?

The tone, the expressions, the non-verbal gestures, the posture, or the curiosity in understanding the questions asked are all considered during an interview.  

You can definitely record your questions and answers and be your own teacher.

Also, there are couple of software & AI tools in market that help you with performance analysis.

However, it is best if you have somebody else to train you.

That helps in understanding different perspectives of the same question.

Although AI tools can help with basic feedback, it will not completely be able to judge your emotions and help you with high quality constructive feedback.

AI tools are not at a stage that they can replace years of expertise and experience of top interviewers or mentors.

8. Should I take company specific mock interviews?

Although, each company follows different rounds of interviews and rating methodology, companies in same tier follow similar approach.

So even if you don't take a mock interview with the interviewer from the exact company you are appearing for, it helps to take it with interviewer from similar tier company, for example:- Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia, AMD (all tier 1 semiconductor companies) follow similar interview process.

Given all these facts, it definitely helps to take a mock interview with an interviewer from the same company that you are applying for.

You might even end up receiving a direct referral if you impress the interviewer.

At Preplaced, we get tons of requests for company specific and role specific mock interviews.

Having a huge mentor community from almost all tiers and domains of companies, makes it possible for us to cater to such varying needs and domains.

A rarity for a Mock Interview Platform when most websites are confined to just Computer Science.

Takeaway

Mock interviews are excellent tools to sharpen your skills and boost your interview preparation.

Definitely add mock interviews in your interview preparation strategy.

Why take the chance of being unprepared at your dream interview when you have the option to be a master at interviewing?

Endless people have mastered their interview skills through mock interviews and gone onto achieve their dream jobs and you would too!

"Congratulations! You are hired." — This mail is not very far away from your inbox if you prepare strategically with the right mentors.

Not sure where to begin?

Visit Preplaced and revamp your skills.

You get a personalised mentor and referrals to top companies.

We are confident that our interview packages will truly change your career. 🙌

And if you are not satisfied with the experience, you get your complete money back!

‍