Job Interview Questions

Job Interview Questions: Common Questions

There are some basic job interview questions that tend to common to most job interviews. Although the actual wording may vary, it will be useful to at least be prepared for these, even if you you’re not prepared for more complex, perhaps job specific interview questions later.

Consider these basic job interview questions and prepare your own answers:

• Tell me about yourself.

• In a nutshell, describe what you did at your previous company.

• What major challenges and problems did you face? How did you handle them?

• What did you like or dislike about your previous job?

• Why are you/did you leave your job?

• Why do you want this job?

• Why should we hire you?

Yes, these questions are fairly basic and they look easy now, but are you certain that you can answer them well under the stress of a job interview situation, if you’re not prepared?  Remember, these are basic job interview questions that are usually some of the first asked, and first impressions are important.  If you struggle making a confident, coherent and positive response to those questions, then how will you cope with the next level?  Remember, your success depends on being able to answer these types of questions honestly and confidently, so take a look at The Ultimate Guide to Job Interview Answers and see how that could help.

More advanced job interview questions may be:

• How do you get along with older (younger) co-workers?

• What do you expect from a supervisor?

• Tell me about a time that you participated in a team, what was your role?

• What is the ideal boss?

• Tell me about a time when you were faced with conflicting priorities. How did you determine the top priority?

Using these few examples as prompts, prepare your Job Interview Answers and think about other questions. Remember that proper preparation includes writing down and practicing speaking your answers. Speaking it is vitally important; you’re in the process of selling your ability to meet the employer’s requirements including skills and experience. Appearing confident with natural but fluent answers must help you win the position, but appearing uncertain will not. You may well have the best skills and experience, but if the employer can not see that, and that you’ll be a good fit in their business, then someone who is better prepared may win the position ahead of you.

There are obviously many more potential questions that could be asked in any job interview. If you would like a more complete list of questions, plus examples of good answers and what to do (and not to do) to help you be the best prepared, then check out this really good program, Job Interview Answers.

Remember also to be prepared to ask your own questions of the interviewer if the opportunity arises. Often there will be some things that you really want/need to know, but even if there isn’t, it shows interest as well as confidence if you are ready if invited to ask a question. In fact, if they’re bothering to invite you to ask them a question, it could indicate that they feel that you are someone that they could consider for the position. Failure to have an appropriate question to ask may count against you. Final note – make sure you’ve got a number of options ready, as there’s no point in asking a question that they have already provided information for.

Job Interview Questions: Your Questions

Questions that you could ask might be:

• If I was to be in this position, how would I be interacting with you and your department, what would be your expectations, and your measures for success in this role?

• What direction do you see this company moving toward in the future?

• What do you see as the most challenging part of this job?

Avoid questions about pay, holidays, health schemes etc – the time to raise these questions is when the employer/interviewer is in the process of making a job offer to you, if they haven’t already been answered during an interview (although this may vary according to the situation).