Unlike preparing for any event in life, you can never be over-prepared before a job interview. Each and every minute you spend in preparing how to answer job interview questions is an investment in your future career. As said: “The one who fail to prepare should prepare to fail”
When should you start preparing your answers to the interview questions? As soon as you receive the message inviting you to the interview, assuming that you did some research on the company before you applied for the job.
As there will be no second chance, you have to be a top performer and prepare to know how to answer the tough interview questions.
This is a selling exercise – You are selling yourself from the moment you applied for the job or posting your resume thru the entire interviewing process.
This article provides examples of the the commonly asked (and the tough) interview questions. It provide links to the leading index pages that would help you prepare yourself to answer wide variety of job interview questions.
This article is the first part of series – refer also to part2.
Most Common job interview Questions and Answers – Examples
Here is a list of the 22 frequently asked interview questions. Some of these questions would be quite difficult to answer, if one is unprepared:
- Tell Me about Yourself
- What interest you about this job? Why Do You Want This Job?
- What are the challenges that you are looking for?
- Why do you want to work here?
- What do you know about this company?
- Why Did You Leave Your Last Job? or Why do you want to leave your last job?
- Why Should We Hire You?
- Why Are You The Best Person For The Job?
- Why Were You Fired?
- What Are Your Salary Expectations?
- Why Did You Choose This Career?
- What are you career plans? Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
- What are your Strengths?
- What are your Weaknesses?
- Are you a team player?
- How do you handle conflicts?
- How do you handle stress?
- What do you like/dislike about your job?
- What are your relationships with your co workers?
- What motivates you?
- What are your Greatest Achievements?
- Can you describe yourself?
Browse to the index page, to get examples of – Job Interview Questions and Answers, for advice on answering each and every one of the above questions.
How to answer Tough Interview Questions correctly – Examples of Competency based interview questions
Though the above questions may seem tough to answer, the following competence (or behavioral) questions are often even harder.
This is because, one has to tell about an employment-related situations s/he experienced in the past and how he handled them effectively. Also, some of the situations may be theoretical ones in order to evaluate specific skills, such as: critical thinking, problem analysis etc.
Have a look of the questions below:
- Describe a situation when you had to convince others.
- Give an example of risk that you had to take. Why did you decide to take the risk?
- Give an example of a creative solution to unexpected situations when your leadership skills were needed.
- Provide an example of a situation where you had to create an agreement between parties who originally differed in opinion, approach, and objectives.
- Give an example of a situation when you had to turn down a customer request for a good reason. How did you handle the case?
- Describe a demanding situation that your were faced in which you managed to remain calm and composed.
- Have you had a situation in which you had to make a difficult choice between your personal and professional life. What did you learn from that experience.
- How do you get others to accept/listen to your ideas? What is your approach?
- Give me an example of a project or initiative you started on your own.
- Give an example of a case in which you anticipated problems and were able to go in a new direction on time.
- Give an example of a setup goal and the actions you took to reach that goal.
- Give an example of a time when there was a heavy workload and you had to set priorities in order to complete the duties in a timely fashion.
So how should you answer these job interview questions?
Before diving into answering the above, it would be wise to observe the employer side. What do employers look for in candidates? One of the purpose employers conduct an interview is to evaluate the candidates’ competencies, also known as ‘transferable skills’. Competencies are the skills and knowledge one obtains as meander through professional and personal life.
Prior to posting a job, employers define set of required competencies for the job. During the job interview, they will ask questions aimed at finding out the competency level in the areas they require rather than simply seeking confirmation of the information contained in the resume.
Refer to the articles’ index page – Tough Interview Questions and How to Answer Them.
Get a piece of paper and a pen. Read through each article in turn and write down which level you believe you possess and how would YOU answer these questions. Once complete, you will have created a comprehensive profile of yourself. This process is an excellent way for you to focus your mind on what skills you actually have. Once you have a self-awareness of your skills, this will enable you to:
- Speak so much more eloquently to your prospective employer.
- Talk about your various positions in terms of your competencies and, more importantly, achievements.
While answering these tough questions, beware of over-exaggerating on your skills.
