Got HR call? – Take this quiz and prepare yourself for the interview

This entry is part 8 of 10 in the series I, IT employee named Shyam Sundar

The scariest part for any IT employee is when they see a mail or received a call from HR about a one to one meeting. I have seen even vice president level people find difficult to face the call. They did not have a clear plan on how to handle the call with HR. To help fellow IT employees, I am giving the below quiz.

This is very simple quiz. Choose the best answer that suits you for the below 7 questions. I will be giving suggestions which helps individuals to fill the quiz. The quiz is so simple!! So please take this quiz genuinely1: What is your age?

A) Less than 30 B) 30-37 C) 37-42 D) Above 42

2: What is the value of your 2-month gross salary * years of experience in current organization you work?

A) Less than 5 lakhs B) 5 to 25 lakhs C) 25 to 50 lakhs D) Above 50 lakhs

3: What is your confidence level in getting next job in a scale of 1-4 with 1 as least and 4 as highest?

A) 4 B) 3 C) 2 D) 1

4: If company terminate you from the current organization, what is your plan to take legal fight?

A) I can’t be able to take legal fight as it is difficult to fight against corporates

B) I can take fight till I find another job. If I get another job, I will withdraw else I will fight

C) I will take fight to maximum of 5 years in court. If company appeals to high court, I will withdraw

D) I will take fight till I get justice. I can fight even it takes 10 years

5: If HR provides an offer of additional 3-month salary along with 2-month notice. If you accept, you get proper relieving else company will terminate

A) I will accept the offer as I am getting 5-month salary extra. I will try to get a job in 5 months

B) I will try to bargain for another 3-month severance pay. This is just a try. In either case, HR agrees or not, I will resign

C) I will try to buy more time in the call. I will not provide my immediate reply. I will use this time to make decision

D) I will bluntly refuse the severance package offer

6: What is your confidence level in facing HR interview in scale of 1-4 with 1 as least and 4 as highest?

A) 1 B) 2 C) 3 D) 4

7: HR issues final warning if you are not accepting to resign on your own, company will send termination letter very next day. If you are terminated, your name will be blacklisted. It is not possible to get any new jobs. In this scenario, what will you do?

A) Submit my resignation as there is no other way

B) I will still refuse to the HR threat. I will take legal fight

After taking the quiz, calculate your result using these guidelines:

If your option is A for question 1-6, add 1 to your score. For question 7 alone, add 2 to your score

If your option is B for question 1-6, add 2 to your score. For question 7 alone, add 4 to your score

If your option is C for question 1-6, add 3 to your score.

If your option is D for question 1-6, add 4 to your score.

Before analyzing your score card, we will see what the significance of each question is given and my answer to this question:

1: What is your age?

Age factor is very important in getting new job is what I have seen in my experience. I talked with one of my friends who is forced to resign. He mentioned in one of the interviews, he faced, interviewer has asked his age and mentioned company is not looking for people at the age above 45. In the same time, if age of an employee is less than 30, there is high chance he/she can get the job easily. My answer to this question is D as I am now at 45

2: What is the value of your 2-month gross salary * years of experience in current organization you work?

Many companies provide voluntary retirement scheme, and this is capped based on years of association of individual with the company. As part of retrenchment, severance package is also paid based on this year of experience with current organization. This gives rough value on what is the minimum employee will get if they take the legal fight. If you want to see my answer for this, I worked more than 18 years in the current organization. This value will be above 50 lakhs for me and my option is again D

3: What is your confidence level in getting next job in a scale of 1-4 with 1 as least and 4 as highest?

This is also very important question to answer. I know many people are in project management and delivery management side doing team management and excel management. They did not work on technical skills for quite some time. This confidence level varies based on individuals. My answer to this query is also D as I am tagged now as trade unionist and all companies will look me as troublemaker. The current company terminates me even there are legal dispute pending and I am sure new company will not want to take a risk of recruiting me

4: If company terminate you from the current organization, what is your plan to take legal fight?

There is a chance that company gives termination letter if employee refuses to accept the offer of self-resignation. Legal cases in labour side usually takes longer time. People must be patience in getting remedy. The spirit to fight matters a lot. This answer also varies between people. My answer to this question is obviously D. I told my family even If I got demised when case is in progress, I asked my family to take the fight as the company owes justice to me

5: If HR provides an offer of additional 3-month salary along with 2-month notice. If you accept, you get proper relieving else company will terminate

HRs usually follows trick or treat model in their calls. The choice varies on individual. The answer to previous questions plays vital role in choosing the answer. My choice is again D as I am above 45 and my minimum severance even for VRS option is high. I am not looking for any intermediate solution and I am fighting for my reinstatement as I have another 13 years of service pending for my retirement

6: What is your confidence level in facing HR interview in scale of 1-4 with 1 as least and 4 as highest?

Many people fail in this question. I see many people who called me, and I help them in giving maximum confidence to them before their HR call. But many people accepted self-resignation as they did not able to face HR threats. You need to be mentally strong and should not be influenced by others. Typical example, I will tell others is if you have a property like flat or gold and if HR threatens you to give the property in their name, will you agree or not? People are very clear of not giving property, but they fall in trap of self- resignation in many cases. My answer to this is again D and I already obtain termination bluntly refusing policy of going on leave forced by the company

This is the final threat. 98% of the employee fall in the trap. This answer is very important and has direct link to all the previous questions. My obvious answer for this is B. People can read my book on “IT Life – Fun or problems” which covers various myths on HR threats as reference which is published in our union website

I hope readers understand better now on why these questions are asked. You can revisit your answer once again if needed and derive the final value. Based on the value, I will categorize people into 3 different type