Advice Guides - Common Interview Questions

Most questions are open questions, why, what, how, etc and require you to provide more than a yes or no answer.

Before attending an interview you should prepare your responses to what you believe to be some common questions (listed below).

Obviously you must remember to back up and provide examples or evidence to your answers.

Interview questions that are likely to arise:

• Why do you want this job?
• What do you feel we are looking for?
• Why is my company of interest to you?
• What do you know about us?
• Why are we better than your current employer?
• Why should we employ you?
• How do we benefit by choosing you over the other candidates?
• What are your key strengths?
• Tell me about yourself?
• What are your weaknesses? (See guidance later on this question)
• What are you most proud of in your career to date?
• What skills do you still need to develop?
• What’s your greatest achievement and why?
• How do you like to be managed?
• What do you like about your current job and what do you dislike?
• How do you organise your day?
• What would your colleagues say about you?
• Describe a time when you felt you were doing well in your career?
• What will you do if you don’t get this job?
• What decisions do you find easy to make?
• What decisions do you find difficult to make?
• How do you respond to stress? Give me an example.
• If you could change your current / last job in any way how would you do it?
• What would your references say about you?
• Describe a difficult situation that you had to handle at work, what was the outcome?
• What do you do outside of work?
• Are you ambitious? Give me an example.
• How good are you at your current job and can you quantify this?
• If I had one concern over your application what do you think it would be?

The lists are exhaustible, but get used to the kinds of probing questions outlined above.

Hopefully by practising these questions you can make a much better representation of yourself at interview.

Be prepared and practice and try to anticipate depending upon the job what questions you might be asked.

And remember if you are hit with a question you were not expecting …..

…. pause and think before answering – do not waffle or embellish in an effort to fill a silence. Even ask to return to the question later because it’s an interesting one that requires some thought.

At the end of their questions you will be given the opportunity to ask yours.

Again be prepared with a list of relevant questions, it is a two way process, you need to be in a position to accept a job if offered, so satisfy yourself that you have enough information.

Example questions to ask:

• When are you looking to make a decision for this role?
• What will be the next step in the process?
• How could I expect my career to develop in the next three years?
• What style of management operates in the company?
• How frequently do you hold business reviews and appraisals?
• Who are your customers?
• Why do people use your service?
• Who are your competitors and who do you respect in your market?
• What are the business plans – expansion, other sectors, other markets, other products etc
• What training do you provide?
• What is the staff turnover at the company?
• Why do people stay loyal to your company?
• Who will I report to?
• What is their management style?
• Where does he/she fit into the structure?
• What’s expected of me and how will I know if I’m doing a good job?
• What problems are trying to be resolved by this appointment?

Again the list is exhaustible but you should always research the company, read the job description, understand what the company is looking for and then list a series of pertinent questions that will fill in the gaps in your knowledge.

Once again good luck with your job search.

S T Mulligan FREC
Chief Executive

Career Prospects Ltd

Answering the “What are your weaknesses” question:
Most interviewers will ask it and it is a dilemma.

Answer too frankly and you could fail to get the job offer. Give the “I’m highly motivated and do not like failure” and you could be seen as not genuine or worse too smart.

So how do you reply?

Well try to be honest but relate it to impatience with other people’s failings. Eg, “I am aware that I am impatient, I like to get the job done and get frustrated with red tape or if leadership fails to lead or make decisions. However I am aware of this and make a conscious decision to consider the total picture.”

Weakness can sometimes be communicated if it’s relevant to the job!!

“I’m too competitive and I have to curb this in my private life but in my job function it has proved invaluable.”

“Sometimes I can get impatient with detail preferring to look at the bigger picture and leave the detail to people much more qualified and suitable for that job.”

All of these approaches can have positives and negatives. If you’re not comfortable try telling the truth and admit to your weaknesses if they have NOTHING to do with the job.

For example, “I really should have learnt more languages, I didn’t and I regret it.”