10 Most Common Job Interview Questions And How To Respond
Looking for a new job and applying for open positions in any company can pay off once the employer lands an interview. The next step is to prepare for interview questions and answers.
Prepare to answer the obvious and be ready for the unexpected. Prepare to showcase your experience and knowledge while giving the interviewer insight into who you really are.
The key is to keep your responses concise, positive, tangible and tailored to shine a spotlight on how you’re the right fit for their unique position.
Be honest about what you don’t know and emphasize what you do know. Speak thoughtfully about your past experiences and emphasize key strengths you have that could help them achieve their desired outcome.
Be proactive in displaying problem-solving skills when describing projects or ideas that came from your own initiative.
Intentionally accentuate examples of where you’ve gone above and beyond as this will lead them to envision how they can benefit from having you there. Think through potential obstacles that might arise in this role, then move forward by gracefully discussing how easily and effectively those can be resolved because of your strengths.
No matter what happens during the interview, remain composed and ready for any question that may be thrown at you; demonstrate confidence even if it’s not always comfortable speaking about yourself in front of someone else.
Remember: preparation is half the battle won and a clear, confident mindset is always appreciated!
Crafting expert answers to gain a job offer is very important. Since most interviews follow a standard format with the most common interview questions, any person will need to know how they would answer these questions before their interview.
Here are the 10 most common job interview questions and how to respond.
1) Could you please tell me about yourself and briefly describe your background?
Interviewers like to hear stories about you (the applicant). Make sure your story has a great start, a riveting middle, and an end that makes the interviewer root for you to win the job position.
In the story, you can talk about how your academic training and your passion for the subject or industry the company specializes in, also try to combine with your work experience, make you a great fit for the job role.
Answer: “I come from a small city with limited opportunities. Since good schools were rare there, I started using online learning to stay up to date. That’s where I learned to code and got my computer programmer certification. After I got my first job as a front-end coder, I continued to invest time in mastering both front- and back-end languages, tools, and frameworks.”
2. What are your weaknesses?
This is one of the most popular questions interviewers can ask you. Try to handle it by minimizing your weakness and emphasizing your strengths. Stay away from your personal qualities and concentrate on professional traits only.
Answer: “I am always working on improving my communication skills to be more effective in my presentive way. I recently joined communication classes, which I find very helpful.”
3. When were you most satisfied with your job?
The interviewer wants to know what motivates you in your life. If you can relate an example of a job role or project when you were excited, the interviewer will get an idea of your preferences towards the role.
Answer: “I was very satisfied in my last job because I worked directly with the clients and their problems; that is an important part of the job for me.”
4. What interests you about this Role?
A popular strategy aims at a specific area within the organization that legitimately interests the applicant, such as its history or reputation. Researching information about the organization and role before the interview shows an applicant is highly interested in the role.
Answer: “I wanted to apply for this job role because I have wanted to work at XYZ organization for years. The recent developments that XYZ organization has added to our industry and the historically well-renowned leadership here make it a desirable opportunity. Looking at the previous projects from this organisation, I think my skills and education background would suit this role and organization well.”
5. Where Do You See Yourself in the Coming Five Years?
While you may not know where you want to be in the coming five years, avoid saying “I don’t know” when an interviewer asks this question.
Share your Professional plans or goals, Desired skills within the industry, and How this role aligns with those intentions.
Answer: “I would love to become a project leader in five years. I want to explore the skills necessary in a leadership role and gain experience working with major projects and assignments. I would love to learn more about the opportunities available in this role that would help me get education about some of those skills and responsibilities.”
6. What is your ideal work environment?
Interviewers ask this question to see if your preferences and temperament align with the organisation. It is important to answer this question honestly, but do a little research before itself to see which answer benefits the applicant most.
Answer: “I believe this environment would be an ideal work environment for my way, as I enjoy being part of a good team. I do better in groups when team members support each other or share ideas, and plans. Although I also work well individually when I need to focus on a task, I enjoy being around like-minded people who help me in growing my skills with others.”
7. What is a major challenge you’ve faced?
The answer provided here can make an applicant appear very impressive. It is important to think of an applicable challenge and the result of reactions to the challenge before the interview to showcase skills.
Be sure the answer covers future potential, how you respond to stress, and anxiety and relevant personality attributes based on the job posting.
Answer: “In a previous role, I had a manager who recognized my strong work ethic and increased my role and responsibilities in the previous company. Eventually, however, this increased responsibility proved too much as I started to fall behind and miss task deadlines.
I told my manager about my concerns and issues. We hired another person to help with the extra tasks, which increased my productivity overall. Now, I have learned to admit when help is important sooner rather than later.”
8. What Are Your Salary Expectations?
It may seem very complicated to answer this question without making it seem like the entire reason you want this role is for the salary. However, applicants should be sure they don’t sell themselves short (or ask for too much directly).
Research the market and industry norms and the sectors where you are going before the interview to determine a reasonable salary based on your job title, experience and skills, location and employer.
Answer: “I’m flexible and open to discussing salary for this role. I have significant skills and experience in this field, which I believe adds much value to my career. I understand that similar posts pay between $40,000 to $65,000, so I would anticipate the salary for this role falls on the higher end of that range due to my good background and what I believe I can bring to this company.”
9. What are your biggest strengths?
Employers ask this to see if applicants have the qualifications for the role. Applicants must mention their greatest strengths that apply to the job posting and role to ensure they are set apart from other applicants.
Answer: “I pride myself on the exceptional customer service skills I can offer. I have years of experience as a customer service specialist, and during this time, it has been important to understand and resolve customer concerns efficiently.
With customer service comes problem-solving and decision-making skills, all of which have helped me become a better communicator and team member.”
10. What Are Your Career Goals?
The employer wants to know if you plan to stay with the organisation for a long time or if you’d leave at the first sign of trouble. As such, this question wants to determine applicants’ career paths and how the role may fit into that plan.
Applicants should keep their answers focused on the current opportunity and reiterate that this job aligns with long-term plans.
Answer: “I hope to work for an organization like this one to develop my sales skills and work with a team that strongly focuses on customer service.
Later in my career, I would love to manage a team to help them become stronger in sales marketing and learn how to take on leadership responsibilities within this field.”
Summary
Working on your resume, and perfecting your cover letter, is an important part of your job profile but landing an extensive job interview is difficult. But walking through the door is only the beginning of the interview.
You know the person across the table from you will ask some difficult interview questions which will decide whether you are getting this job or not.
If you don’t know how to respond, you might end up losing the biggest opportunities of your life. This is why it’s important for you to prepare in advance and in this article we have come up with some sample questions and answers which can help to get the job.
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