How To Master The Most Common Interview Questions

In order to excel in an interview with the top employers, the job seekers need to anticipate the probable questions that might be asked by the hiring manager during the interview process. Sometimes the interviewers do challenge the interviewee with questions that require lots of thought or sometimes just common sense work well to come up with the most appealing responses.

 

The interviewee should not only focus on the conventional questions that are generally asked in most of the interviews rather they should also prepare for and expect some challenging questions since this questions gives them an opportunity to reveal their thought process, their knowledge and skills and help them communicate their abilities to tackle any challenging situations and convince the employer that if given a chance, they can perform well in the job.

 

One has to be very alert while giving answers to the queries asked by the interviewer and should ensure that the answers are to the point and satisfying. Many hiring managers today are complaining that the candidates posses a very little knowledge about the company they are interviewing for. Hence it is very essential for the candidates to have some preparation prior to the interview by preparing a set of questions that are commonly asked, this not only helps them to answer the questions well but also creates good impression in the mind of the interviewer and shows your willingness to work in the organization.

 

The first and foremost step for getting yourself prepared for an interview is going through the company website and doing certain amount of research to find out from the available data, some important facts about the company like, their management structure, their offerings, competitors etc. Before attending the interview the interviewee should be well aware of the job description, the position for which interview is held, determine company's expectations from the candidate for the particular role. One should prepare by identifying skillset that the employers are looking for. The most successful interview responses focus on the hiring manager’s requirements and framing answers to meet their expectations.

While preparing for an interview it is also very important to highlight the key factors that you want people to know about you. The interviewer gives priority to those candidates who are positive and one who are able to hold confidence even while answering the most tricky questions. Hence in order to stay positive and to hold confidence throughout the on-going process the candidate need to stay calm and avoid getting edgy. Most of the interviewers give the candidates an opportunity to express themselves so it is very essential for the candidate to understand this fact and take some clues while interacting with the employer and give response in an effective manner.
 

Before facing the real interview one should never try to memorize the answers to the anticipated questions rather they should be honest and take some time and find out their strengths, weaknesses, special achievements, success stories, failures, etc. then ask some questions to themselves like:

• Why am I suitable for this position?
• What are my expectations from this job?
• What is special about me or what differentiates me from others?  
• Have I ever volunteered to solve a problem?

Finding answer to such questions helps to get a better understanding of yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, goals, etc. which helps you to articulate your response in an impressive manner and rank high than many other qualified candidates appearing for the interview.

Following are some of the common interview questions that are faced by the candidates all over the world:

1. Describe yourself?

2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

3. Why do you want to work in our company?

4. What is your dream job?

5. What was your biggest failure yet?

6. Where do you see yourself 5/10 years from now?

7. Why should I hire you?

8. What are your salary expectations?

9. What are your career goals?

10.What are your hobbies?

11.Do you have any questions for us?

12.Who is your role model?

13.What would you do if you get a more lucrative job offer while working with us?

14.What are your expectations from this job?

15.Tell something about our company?

16.What motivates you?

17.Will you work in holidays or weekends?

18.What are your biggest accomplishments?

19.What makes you unique from other candidates?

20.What elements of your job interest you the most and least?

 

Let us discuss few of them.

 

''Tell me about yourself?''

 

Most of the candidate might have faced this question in almost every interview that they have attended. It gives the candidate a good opportunity to communicate their strong points to the employer and change course of the interview to their favour. The best way to answer to this question is to discuss your interests, strengths, academic and professional background and relate them to the job and convince them that how your background can prove beneficial for the position. One should understand that the interviewer is least bothered about your life events and stories that are not related to the job. Hence, avoid describing in detail about any life event be it personal or professional, unless asked rather it is better to be precise and quote only those important aspects that are relevant to the job and which showcase your knowledge and skills in an effective manner to the employer.

 

"What are your strengths and weaknesses?"

 

Knowing your strengths and weaknesses helps you to make important decisions in both personal as well as professional life. The interviewer asks this question to get a better understanding of you. When it comes to talking about your strengths it is quite easy and the list might be lengthy but when it comes to weaknesses it becomes quite challenging and the candidates tries to make them as less as possible. One needs to be honest while answering to this question especially when it comes to discussing about strengths and also have some preparation prior to the interview by listing of your strengths and of course the weaknesses too. While discussing about your weaknesses never try to be too tricky by using the responses which are overused or quite commonly used. For example:

• "I care too much about my work"
• "I work very hard sometimes"

This approach only makes them think that you might be hiding something! Hence the best way to discuss about your weakness is just say about those which you have worked upon and improved over a period.

 

"Where do you see yourself 5/10 years from now?"

 

It is not possible for any candidate to give a perfect answer to this question. Even the hiring manager knows this fact then what makes them ask this question? The reason is, the hiring manager wants to asses you better by finding answers to their questions like: 'Is this job close to your career goal? Will you stay in this company for a long duration? What is your long-term career plan? Why do you want this job?'

Interviewer always gives preference to those candidates who have done some self-assessment and can define their career goal and long-term planning. Candidates whose career objective show a sense of commitment towards the job and their readiness to take more challenging tasks with progression in time are preferred over other candidates.

 

"What was your biggest failure yet?"

Most candidates hates this question in an interview as this demands a discussion about negative experiences. Most companies now-a-days are asking these type of questions as behavioural questions gives a better picture about the candidate's work ethics, future performance and their ability to deal with challenging situations in professional life ahead. The best way to answer this question is to discuss about a life event that was really challenging and would be very difficult for anyone to handle and also make sure that you talk about your learning from that failure and how you improved thereafter. For experienced professionals it would be better to talk about an event related to their professional career that they have faced in their past rather than personal.

 

This question reveals a lot about the candidate to the employer and it also gives employer a good chance to extract evidence of a flaw and reject you. On the other hand if handled with care this question can prove to be an advantage to the candidate and result in selection for the position since through these questions employer want to learn, how you handle complex situations? What have you learnt from the particular failure? Are you self-aware of the failure?

 

"Why should I hire you"

 

This question can have many forms such as :

• Why do you think you are fit for this position?
• Why do you want to work in this organisation?

By asking this question the hiring manager gives the candidate an open invitation to sell themselves, their worth and showcase the skills and knowledge that they posses. The employer just wants to know if given a chance to work in the company, how you would justify their decision. Hence in order to make an impressive attempt make sure that you have done your homework well in advance by going through the company website, detail job description, the company's expectation from the candidate for this particular role, the skills those are required for the position, etc.