When you apply for a job and you’re called for an interview, there are various questions that are asked and the better prepared you are, the more successful your interview would be. Well, you might have come across various articles that talk about the most common interview questions and answers. This article would be a little different, because it's not just about the questions and answers, we are going to talk. I'm also going to explain that what exactly the interviewer thinks, when he's asking certain questions. What exact answers he's looking at and what are the common mistakes that you usually do.
The first most common question that is
asked by the interviewer is, so Tell me something about yourself or he or she might also ask,
that run me through your CV? Now here the interviewer is not really interested in your answer.
What they are looking at is your confidence, your enthusiasm and the passion
that you answer with. So it's the best time that you showoff your communication
skills. Now usually I have observed that many people end up saying, Ahh I love
watching movies, I think I love partying. I have so many friends, so I really enjoy
partying. No that's not the right way that you answer to this question. What
you need to talk about is your education, where you grew up or you can also
talk about your past work experience, if you have any and your personal interests.
For example, you can say, Ahh well I grew up in France and I studied
accounting. I also worked for an accounting firm for about eight months and I
really enjoy numbers, so maybe that's exactly the reason, I love to solve them.
Solving them is so much fun and in my spare time, I really like reading and
also go out jogging only if the weather allows me too. So that's the way you
would answer to this question.
The second most popular question that
is asked by an interviewer is, What are your strengths? Now here the interviewer is looking at how positive,
you think about yourself. It's quite a general question, there's no right or a wrong
answer to it, but if you give out one liners such as, Oh I'm a very friendly
person, I love being with people and people love being with me. That just
doesn't sound great for an interview. Isn't it? So what you can say is, My
strongest trait is attention to detail. I totally believe in planning and
execution. In fact even when I was in college, I used to really organize my
week and many people, because of my very outgoing nature. Many people have said
that I am quite approachable, so I believe these are my strengths.
The third most common question that is asked is,
so What are your
weaknesses? Here for
this question, you need not be really negative about yourself. I have heard
people saying, well I am a very impatient person or people also say, That I get
angry easy. Well, that's not the right answer. Maybe that is your weakness, but
you need not bring it out. The best answer to this, because what the
interviewer is looking at is whether you can identify your weakness and how you
can cover it up. So one of the examples, that you can use to answer this question
is, I think my weakness is that I am way too detail oriented. I try to
accomplish everything and I just want everything to be perfect, but then I
realize that I'm losing out on time, so maybe that makes me submitting these
projects pretty late. So I think that is one of the weaknesses. So here
basically, what you are doing is, you are displaying that maybe, you run out of
time, but you’re also giving a very positive aspect to it that, you are a perfectionists.
And that’s exactly what we saw as a strength in the previous question too. So I
think this is one of the best ways that you can answer to this question.
The next common question that is asked
is, Where do you see
yourself in five years from now or the interviewer might also ask that, what
are your long term or your short term goals? Now here, I have seen people really struggle to
answer this question. Well, maybe, because you yourself have no idea, where you
would like to be, so usually people end up saying, Oh I would like to be the
CEO of this company or I would like to own an airline. That doesn't sound
right, so what a good answer to this question would be, because here the
interviewer is looking at, how committed you are going to be to this company? A
very clear path with commitment, because you know what's the attrition rate
these days. So he wants to know, how long would you stick to the company? So
one of the best answers that you can give, would be, Well, five years from now,
I think I would like to be in a management position. Till then I would like to
gain a practical experience and then eventually become a manager. Of course, I
would like to share and also learn a lot of new things from my team members.
The next most popular question that
is asked is, so Tell
me something about our company or what do you know about our company? Nowhere the interviewer of course has
knowledge about his own company, Right? That he's working for, but what he is
looking at is whether you are serious about this job or not? Whether you have
just come for one of those random interviews? So many people are usually letdown,
because of the lack of research about the company, so what you need to do is
research. Go online learn about the positive attributes about the company.
Learn about their products, their history and etc. So one of the best ways that
you can answer to this question is, Oh well your company is very well known for
the customer service and you also gone award for the best service provider in the
country. And of course, you also have a great clientele, so that's one of the
best ways that you can answer this question.
Sixth most common question that is
asked is, How well do
you handle a change? Well, the philosophy behind this question is to know, would
you be able to cope up with a change? Because usually companies definitely come up with different
strategies, employees come and go, so would you be able to handle that? People
usually end up saying, Oh of course; I am great at handling a change. Well,
trust me the interviewer would not be impressed with this answer. How you can
answer to this question with an example would be. Well, of course I can handle
a change, because in my previous company, one of our bosses, one of our
immediate bosses had to quit and there was this new boss, who came in and he
had completely changed our strategy of a project. So of course, I'm very
flexible and hard working too, so we managed it with our team efforts and
definitely the results were pretty good. So this is the way that you could
answer to this question.
The next common question that is asked is,
How well do you work
under pressure? Now
the reason behind this question is the employer or the interviewer wants to
know that do you get really stressed out? Do you get really panicked under
pressure? Because these days companies, of course expect you to take more and
more responsibility and of course a greater work load. So the best way to
answer this question is, well definitely working under pressure or without
pressure works just the same for me. In fact in one of the companies that I was
working, there was a project that was given to us, which had to be completed in
four days. Which usually takes ten days and the whole team is like so stressed
out, they panicked and they just didn't know what to do, but then I insured
that they settled down. We prioritized our work and in fact in a very organized
manner, we completed the project. Of course we also worked late nights, but
that definitely helped to submit our project in four days. So I think working
under pressure is not too bad for me. So this is one of the best ways that you
can answer to this question.
The last common question that is
asked is, How do you
handle important decisions? Now the reason behind this question is usually, If someone or the
interviewer is hiring the person or hiring you for a management position or for
a lead position. He wants to know that someday when you have to handle a very
important, a very critical decision. How would you do that? So many people end
up saying, You know what I really haven't come across, I really haven't dealt
with such difficult situations. That's not the right answer you would say, One
of the best answers that I can help you with is, You can say, Handling
decisions is definitely considered to be a little difficult, but I am sure I
can do it, because my experience.
I would rely on my experience; I would
also weigh on the pros and cons. Of course, I would also take some advice from
my team members and I'm sure that would help me to come on a decision. We will
also look at the consequences of the decision. So definitely I can go ahead and
make decisions. So that brings me to the end of this dissection. I hope all of
these questions and answers are helpful for your interview. And if you are going
for an interview. Wish you all the very best. Do well and thank you.
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