Job Interview Questions & Answers

Knowing the answers to common interview questions can help you achieve interview success

Many people when faced with an important job interview panic because they don’t really know how to answer many of the likely questions they will be asked on the day. Simply put, their interview skills are poor. Some of them spend lots of time trying to memorise the set answers they have found on websites which claim to provide the perfect answer - only to discover that the interviewers can see through these answers very quickly. Others will simply try to wing it - thinking it will be all right on the day - often with disastrous results!

A few people however, will have invested time and effort beforehand, researching the likely interview questions thoroughly; analysing how best to answer these questions using lots of relevant examples; and then by practising their answers, start to develop the skills needed to really "think on their feet". And when they are faced with the actual interview, they are much better prepared; more likely to present themselves in the best possible light … and stand a far better chance of getting the job offer. And so can you if you are willing to invest some time and effort as you read this article!

And now to the job interview questions …

OK, I now want you to start thinking about the questions you might be asked in your next interview.

Try and remember back to your last interview(s) …. what did the interviewer ask you?

And what I want you to do is to write down each of these questions on some paper (or record cards - if you have any) - so you can remember them.

Leave some space between the questions on your paper - as you’ll be adding in some answers later in the exercise!

Building your Question & Answer Bank

If you’d like some help to come up with the questions … here’s a few to start things off …

- Tell me about yourself ..

- Why do you want this job?

- I’m interviewing another 10 people for this post, tell me why I should choose you.

- Tell me about your worst experience when working in the past 2 years?

- What would your current manager say were your biggest weaknesses?

- How would your colleagues in your current job describe you?

- Give me an example of where your good team skills were evident in the past 6 months.

Pick the ones you want to store in your Question Bank - and write them down.

Include as many job specific questions as you can

Remember that the questions I’ve given you so far are fairly generic ones … you need to come up with the typical job specific ones …

So if you are an IT Systems Analyst you are likely to get some technical questions about software design, data analysis etc …. you’ll know the type and details required - and if you don’t - you need to research this.

If you are an accountant or a physicist … or a doctor …. or surgeon … or teacher … or whatever … you need to prepare yourself as much as possible for the likely technical / job specific questions you’ll get asked.

And then write each one down - so you can remember them

Now count the number of questions you’ve produced

How many job interview questions have you got so far?

If you’ve less than 30 then you need to keep brain-storming … thinking about the last interview. Thinking through the questions they asked you …

Can you remember back to what your most difficult questions were? If you can, write them down - assuming you haven’t done so already.

Have you noticed any questions coming up several times in different interviews? Make sure you write them down.

Once you’ve got 30 or more questions … have a rest.

That was the easy bit!

OK so you’ve now got an initial set of interview questions - which are starting to form your Question & Answer Bank.

And that leads us to the next step … Coming up with answers for each of these questions.

Now I don’t want you to write down the full text of an answer - I just want you to think about two or three bullets - three things you could say (in summary form) for each of these questions. Use the power of 3 - that’s often used by the professionals when answering questions in the media or even when presenting.

So get out a pen and start going through each of your questions you’ve built up.

And then think about 3 things you would like to say in answer to each of them … writing this down immediately below each of your questions.

OK you probably need a bit of a change …

Assuming you’ve already completed 15 of the questions … and have 3 bullet answers on each … how about trying to answer these questions out aloud!

If you’ve got something to record your voice … (voice recorder, video camera, etc) then use that when you start the practice session. If not, don’t worry … just go ahead anyway.

Job Interview Question & Answer Practice Session

Now pick up your completed questions / answers.

Read out the question aloud … and then use your 3 bullets answer to help you answer the question in full this time - out aloud again.

Remember to give yourself 2 or 3 seconds before answering the question - to ensure that you’ve got the time to think first then answer. Try and keep to the question asked … be succinct … be confident …

And then repeat this scenario for each of the other questions you’ve completed answers for.

Once you’ve completed this run, if you’ve been able to record yourself, rewind the recorder and review how it went. Did you come over as you’d wanted? What worked well? What do you need to work on? Which answers went well?

Make some notes of things you need to change and then you can come back to it later.

And the next step in your interview preparation is …

Now go back to the pile of unfinished questions and start the process again till you’ve completed next 15 - 20 answers and go through the Q&A session again.

And again … until you’ve got bulleted answers for each question in your Q&A bank and you’ve rehearsed your answers at least once in front of either the voice recorder or camcorder … and noted the improvements you want to make.

OK … let’s move on to your most difficult questions … Review the Q&A bank and pick out the 5 questions that you think are most difficult to answer. What is it about them that’s difficult?

Think about how you might want to change your answers … how can you present yourself in the most positive light - even if on first inspection the question - and your initial answer makes that difficult?

Now mark these difficult questions with a red marker or similar so that you can spot them quickly in the Q&A Bank.

Now go through each of these difficult questions and practise your answers again - with the tape recorder / camcorder running if you have one.

Review, update the answers again and make whatever notes again on what else you need to change.