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30 interview questions and how best to answer each
Here are some tips on answering the most frequently asked questions in a personal interview:
Tell me something about yourself.
Go prepared for this question, as this is the most frequently asked question in the interview.
Answer it covering your work experience, educational qualifications and a little information about your family background.
Try to focus on key areas of your work while talking about your
professional experience. This is an open ended question and can help you
in taking the interview in which ever direction you want it to go.
You should know where to put a full stop to provoke the desired question from the interviewer.
Why does this role interest you? Or why have you applied for this job?
Keep the focus of the answer to this question on your skills, experience and personal qualities.
Link the job requirement to your skills rather than talking about the challenges, career and progression.
Why do you think should we take you for this job?
Don’t panic if you are asked this question. Make sure that you have
understood the job profile well before you go for the interview.
Relate your qualifications and work experience with the job requirements.
If there are any new things that you are expected to perform in the
new job, say that you are always open to learn the new things and take
up the new challenges.
What motivates you at work?
You can say that competition and new challenges motivate you at work.
Why do you want to leave your present job or why did you leave your last job?
The reasons for switching the job could be numerous. The best
answer to offer for this question is to say, “for better prospects”.
Now they can ask you another question, what do you mean by better
prospects? To this you can say, better prospects in terms of experience,
and exposure.
If you have been made redundant, put your words across very carefully.
Your wrong words can give an impression that only you were the one whose
position was made redundant, which hardly might be the case.
May be you can say something like, “Over last 8 months a lot of
restructuring was going on in the company and 40 positions became
surplus. One of them was mine but I have learnt a lot during my tenure
at XYZ company and I am sure I can add a lot of value to a position like
the one we are discussing about”.
What is your greatest strength?
Interpret this question as, what is your greatest relevant
strength? Or why should we hire you? Tell them a strength that they want
to buy. For this you will need to properly understand the job profile
and keep your answer ready.
For example, if the job needs you to have convincing answers ready
for the any type customer’s questions, you can sell “your presence of
mind” or if you are required to change you sector or industry you can
offer “your adaptability” as an answer.
It is important to keep ready at least 2 examples of the mentioned strength.
What is your greatest weakness?
Interpret this question as, why shouldn’t we hire you? There 3 ways
to tackle this question. Judge the situation and use one of them.
First way: Use your sense of humour. If the
interview is proceeding in the light way and you have built up a good
rapport with the interviewer, you can get out of it by saying
“Icecream”. Accompany it with a right body language.
Second Way: If you have to answer this question
seriously, give a weakness which doesn’t relate to the job under
discussion. For example, you can say, I have been using a camera since
childhood but I still don’t know how to mend it. If it is spoiled, I
will need to take it to an expert.
Third way: Understand the requirement of the role
under discussion and say that others accuse you of having that weakness
but you think that it is important for your work.
For example, if the job needs a detailed study and leaving a single
step might need you to re-run the whole process say that “My colleagues
accuse me of having a too much eye for detail but I have experienced
that to do this work you need to go into details rather than cutting
corners. I have worked with people following a shorter route and doing
the whole exercise again, which I would not prefer to do.”
What is your greatest achievement?
The underlying agenda is to know what personal qualities were
required to achieve it. Don’t go back too far to answer this question as
this might give an impression that you have not achieved anything since
then.
Find a relevant answer in the recent past for this question. If you
are a fresher and have been a topper of your college or university, you
can say that during the interview.
Are you ambitious?
You can say that I am very ambitious in the way that I don’t like to get
to get a feeling of stagnancy. I want that I should always be getting
new experiences and learning new things.
What qualities would you look for, if you were recruiting someone for this position?
To answer this question, you need to analyze the requirements of the job profile before appearing for the interview.
The answer to this question would estimate your understanding of the role under discussion.
Are you speaking to some other companies? Or how is your job search going on?
This question gives you an opportunity to let the interviewer know
that other companies are also interested in hiring you and gives you
leverage while negotiating the salary.
You can say, Yes, I am in the final round of discussion with two
other companies. Approach the interviewer as a “Problem Solver” and not
as a “Job Beggar”.
Which companies are you talking to?
You can maintain your integrity by refusing to disclose the names.
You can simply say, they haven’t notified these openings so I believe
they would not like their names to be revealed.
At times, taking the competitor’s names might increase your chances
of being hires. Analyze the situation and answer accordingly.
Are you ready to relocate?
You can say, for a right position and right company relocation should
not be a problem. Do not close the discussion at the earlier stage by
saying “No”.
You have stayed for a long time with your last company-Why?
Staying with the same company for too long may be considered as the candidate being un-ambitious.
While answering this question you can say, “Yes, I preferred to
stay with them all this while because I was regularly adding value to my
experience there and I was growing as a professional”.
You have switched many jobs-why?
Too much job hopping gives an impression that the candidate is
unstable and unreliable but you can put this query to ease by saying
that you switched jobs to broaden your experience.
What was your biggest mistake?
There’s nothing wrong in admitting a mistake. A human being is
bound to commit mistakes. This time it is advantageous to go back as far
as possible in the past and find an answer.
The advantage of doing this is that a youngster is expected to
commit more mistakes than a mature and seasoned person. This would give
an impression that since that time you have committed mistakes but not
that big.
Take the word “mistake” as liberally as possible and go back to
your student life to answer this question. Probably you can say, if I
could go back to my student life, I would have studied Biology instead
of Math.
Why haven’t you got a job yet?
This question will usually arise if it has been sometime since you
finished your studies and are still in the market without a job.
You can say that, I have been offered some tempting positions in
the last few days but had to turn them down as I did not find them right
for my candidature. You can follow it up with some examples.
You do not have all the experience we are seeking for this position.
To answer this question, you again need to analyze the requirements of the role properly and match them to your candidature.
If you meet most of the requirements, you can say that you have
most of the qualities needed for this role and for the remaining you are
always open to learning them.
You can follow this up with an example from your last job where you
learnt and did things that you didn’t know earlier. Stay confident
while answering this question.
Why do you want to quit your present job?
The reasons for you to quit the present job could be numerous, may
be you don’t get well along with your boss or your salary is too less
but it’s not good to make derogatory remarks about your present company
in an interview.
You can give a more practical answer like, my present company is
not able to offer me further growth opportunities and I have a feeling
that it’s the time for me to grow up in hierarchy and learn further.
Have you ever made a mistake at work? How did you rectify it?
Everybody makes mistakes, there’s nothing wrong in admitting it. In
the interview you can say that yes, there have been times when you have
made mistakes and learnt from them.
Whatever you could correct yourself, you did that and for the rest
you went back to your senior and took his help to sort it out.
What major problems did you face in your last role?
The agenda of this question is to understand if
• You caused the problem
• Could it have been avoided?
• Your attitude to solve it.
It is safer to mention a problem which was caused by an external party rather than the problems within internal parties.
May be you can take an example of the problem caused by a customer,
vendor. Discuss what you did to solve the problem. If you took some
leadership role also in the whole process, talk about it.
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
By asking this question, the interviewer wants to see, how
ambitious the candidate is. You can say that, 5 years down the line I
would like to see myself in a responsible position where I can make
important decisions in the favor of company and the company treats me as
its asset. I am sure that this company can offer me growth
opportunities like this.
How do you feel about doing repetitive work?
You can say that I understand that every job has an element of
repetitive work but I enjoy fulfilling all the aspects of my job with
equal enthusiasm and give them my 100%.
How did you manage to attend this interview during your working hours?
Everybody knows that you would not ask permission from your boss to appear for an interview.
You can answer this question by simply saying that you have taken a off from the office to appear for this interview.
Would you like to work in a team or on your own?
The agenda behind this question is to understand if you are a team player or a solo performer.
It might be risky to choose any one of them as the role for which
they are considering you might need you to be a team player but the
career progression which they might consider for you down a year’s time
may need you to handle a more autonomous position.
It is better to answer this question by saying that “I don’t have
any such preference. I can comfortably handle both the situations, as
the need arises.” Now back it up with examples where you successfully
worked in a team and where you performed an autonomous role.
If your last boss was present here, what do you think he would tell us about you?
This is again a question which can be answered in two ways.
First way: If the situation is light, you can say
that, “I am the diamond of his team, you must pick me up”. This needs to
be accompanied by a right body language.
Second way: If the discussion is proceeding in a
serious manner, you can pick up a formal appraisal he gave you and say
that I think he would repeat it here.
Has your career developed as you had liked?
The agenda behind this question is to understand if there had been
times of dip in your career and if you lay the blame for them on others.
There’s nothing to be ashamed of if there have been short gap in your
employment.
You can justify it by giving a convincing reason. Look at your
qualifications and social environment and relate your achievements to
them, to answer this question.
All the best
