10 Most Common Interview Questions and Answers

Author: admin

Job interview, interview questions, interview answers, interviewers .. are these haunting you in your dreams?If you are a job seeker, especially a first timer, i bet they are!

As a job seeker, and as part of a typical job seeking process, you will need to go through one, two, three, or even tens of interviews to land your right job. To successfully go through an interview, you need to be prepared for the interviewers’ questions with the right interview answers in mind, so as you do not end up answering the same way as these hilarious interview answers!

Following are the most common interview questions and answers for you interview success, get ready..:

1- Tell us about yourself

you might be tempted to answer with your education, degrees, previous work experience. Even though this might be useful information, but this is already in your resume. What you need to say at this point is few minutes which you would have prepared describing your best traits in relevance to the job post. Provide examples about how your “communication skills” will help you at this “trainer position” for example, and so on and so forth.

2- Why should we hire you?

if you think you might go through an interview without this question, think again! and the answer to this question is really easy, “because i am your best fit”. Now the tough part..explain why you are the best fit? Before the interview, prepare the job you are applying to against the qualities that you have. Focus on your uniqueness. You’re applying to a trainer job, list how well you communicate to people, how you used to teach people on using tools and software, you get the idea..

3- Why do you want to work for us?

Why is the interviewer asking you this? to see if your interest in the company and the position is genuine. And for you to properly answer this, you must have searched for the company online, visited their website. Talk about the values of the company and that this is what you are looking for, in terms of your career path and development, work experience, team work, their values, and how this company beats competition.

4- Have you had a work conflict with a colleague or a manager? and how was it resolved?

What the interviewer is looking for with this question is how you behaved in such a situation. Focus on describing how you tried to understand the other person’s perspective, and acted in a calm and smooth way to resolve this without the need to escalate it further. (For further info on conflict resolution at work, check out our article targeting Teamwork and Communication).

5- What is your greatest weakness?

Surprised? yes this is a common interview question! it will be rare in an interview not getting this thrown at you. Your weakness doesn’t actually have to be a weakness. It might be |I carry work with me everywhere”, “I’m too dedicated”, things like that which are actually positive in the eyes of the employer. You can also draw attention to some minimal weakness that you are trying to work out, such as “i sometimes have problems planning things|, yet mentioning a resolution “but I’ve taken courses to resolve this”.

6- What are your greatest strengths?

Again make sure to be prepared with all of your skills in mind, especially the ones related to the job. Fast learner, good communication skills, patience, etc…

7- Why do you want to leave your current job?

New challenges, seeking better career path, not happy with the work environment are all typical correct answers for such a question. If you are really dissatisfied with your current job, you certainly don’t want to fall into a similar job and face the same problems, but make sure you do not talk ugly about your current employer..the interviewer will think you’ll do the same if you leave them! (To know more about when to leave your job, check out our article When to Change Jobs)

8- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Your answer should be related to a career path, a long one, with this employer. So your answer would go along the line of handling this upper position at such a growing company as yours. (For more info on forward thinking, check out our article on Stepping Outside your Comfort Zone.)

9- How do you cope with stress?

Typically you would want to show you are not affected by stress, and that you can perform well under strenuous situations. Describe cases where you had tight deadlines and you were able to properly deliver on time. (For more information on coping with stress, check out our articles How to Deal with Stress at Work and How to Relieve Stress at Work).

10- What salary do you have in mind?

The toughest interview question of all ! you can try to escape this question by throwing it back asking them what numbers they have budgeted for this position. If there is no way for you to accept the position with a salary lower than a certain value, share with them that value. Or simply share with them what you are currently earning, and let them know you are not willing for anything less.

Hope these most common interview questions and answers help you getting prepared for you job quest .. good luck, and happy job hunting!

You have others that would fit to the list? feel free to share in the comments section below