When you are called for a personal
interview, many types of questions spring across your mind, especially if
you are an inexperienced job seeker.
Here are some tips
on answering the most frequently asked questions in a personal
interview:
Tell me something about yourself.
Go prepared for this
question, as this is the most frequently asked question in the interview.
Answer it covering your work experience, educational
qualifications and a little information about your family background.
Try to focus on key areas of your work while talking about your
professional experience. This is an open ended question and can help you in
taking the interview in which ever direction you want it to go.
You should know where to put a full stop to provoke the desired
question from the interviewer.
Why does this role interest you? Or why have you applied for this
job?
Keep the focus of the answer to this question on your skills, experience and personal qualities.
Link the job requirement to your skills rather than talking about
the challenges, career and progression.
Why do you think should we take you for this job?
Don't panic if you are asked this question. Make sure that you have understood the job profile well before you go for the interview.
Relate your qualifications and work experience with the job
requirements.
If there are any new things that you are expected to perform in
the new job, say that you are always open to learn the new things and take up
the new challenges.
What motivates you at work?
You can say that competition and new challenges motivate you at
work.
Why do you want to leave your present job or why did you leave your
last job?
The reasons for switching the job could be numerous. The best
answer to offer for this question is to say, “for better prospects”.
Now they can ask you another question, what do you mean by better
prospects? To this you can say, better prospects in terms of experience, and
exposure.
If you have been made redundant, put your words across very carefully. Your wrong words can give an impression that only you were the one whose position was made redundant, which hardly might be the case.
May be you can say something like, “Over last 8 months a lot of
restructuring was going on in the company and 40 positions became surplus. One
of them was mine but I have learnt a lot during my tenure at XYZ company and I
am sure I can add a lot of value to a position like the one we are discussing
about”.
What is your
greatest strength?
Interpret
this question as, what is your greatest relevant strength? Or why should we
hire you? Tell them a strength that they want to buy. For this you will need to
properly understand the job profile and keep your answer ready.
For
example, if the job needs you to have convincing answers ready for the any type
customer’s questions, you can sell “your presence of mind” or if you are
required to change you sector or industry you can offer “your adaptability” as
an answer.
It
is important to keep ready at least 2 examples of the mentioned strength.
What is your greatest weakness?
Interpret
this question as, why shouldn’t we hire you? There 3 ways to tackle this
question. Judge the situation and use one of them.
First way: Use your sense of humour. If the interview is proceeding in
the light way and you have built up a good rapport with the interviewer, you
can get out of it by saying “Icecream”. Accompany it with a right body
language.
Second Way: If you have to answer this question seriously, give a
weakness which doesn’t relate to the job under discussion. For example, you can
say, I have been using a camera since childhood but I still don’t know how to
mend it. If it is spoiled, I will need to take it to an expert.
Third way: Understand the requirement of the role under discussion and
say that others accuse you of having that weakness but you think that it is
important for your work.
For
example, if the job needs a detailed study and leaving a single step might need
you to re-run the whole process say that “My colleagues accuse me of having a
too much eye for detail but I have experienced that to do this work you need to
go into details rather than cutting corners. I have worked with people
following a shorter route and doing the whole exercise again, which I would not
prefer to do.”
What is your
greatest achievement?
The
underlying agenda is to know what personal qualities were required to achieve
it. Don’t go back too far to answer this question as this might give an
impression that you have not achieved anything since then.
Find
a relevant answer in the recent past for this question. If you are a fresher
and have been a topper of your college or university, you can say that during
the interview.
Are you ambitious?
You can say that I am very ambitious in the way that I don’t like to get to get a feeling of stagnancy. I want that I should always be getting new experiences and learning new things.
What
qualities would you look for, if you were recruiting someone for this position?
To
answer this question, you need to analyze the requirements of the job profile
before appearing for the interview.
The
answer to this question would estimate your understanding of the role under
discussion.
Are you speaking to some other companies? Or how
is your job search going on?
This
question gives you an opportunity to let the interviewer know that other
companies are also interested in hiring you and gives you leverage while
negotiating the salary.
You
can say, Yes, I am in the final round of discussion with two other companies.
Approach the interviewer as a “Problem Solver” and not as a “Job Beggar”.
Which companies are you talking to?
You
can maintain your integrity by refusing to disclose the names. You can simply
say, they haven’t notified these openings so I believe they would not like
their names to be revealed.
At
times, taking the competitor’s names might increase your chances of being
hires. Analyze the situation and answer accordingly.
Are you ready to relocate?
You can say, for a right position and right company relocation should not be a problem. Do not close the discussion at the earlier stage by saying “No”.
You have stayed for a long time with your last
company-Why?
Staying
with the same company for too long may be considered as the candidate being
un-ambitious.
While
answering this question you can say, “Yes, I preferred to stay with them all
this while because I was regularly adding value to my experience there and I
was growing as a professional”.
You have switched many jobs-why?
Too
much job hopping gives an impression that the candidate is unstable and
unreliable but you can put this query to ease by saying that you switched jobs
to broaden your experience.
What was your
biggest mistake?
There’s
nothing wrong in admitting a mistake. A human being is bound to commit
mistakes. This time it is advantageous to go back as far as possible in the
past and find an answer.
The
advantage of doing this is that a youngster is expected to commit more mistakes
than a mature and seasoned person. This would give an impression that since
that time you have committed mistakes but not that big.
Take
the word “mistake” as liberally as possible and go back to your student life to
answer this question. Probably you can say, if I could go back to my student
life, I would have studied Biology instead of Math.
Why haven’t you got a job yet?
This
question will usually arise if it has been sometime since you finished your
studies and are still in the market without a job.
You
can say that, I have been offered some tempting positions in the last few days
but had to turn them down as I did not find them right for my candidature. You
can follow it up with some examples.
You do not have all the experience we are seeking
for this position.
To
answer this question, you again need to analyze the requirements of the role
properly and match them to your candidature.
If
you meet most of the requirements, you can say that you have most of the
qualities needed for this role and for the remaining you are always open to
learning them.
You
can follow this up with an example from your last job where you learnt and did
things that you didn’t know earlier. Stay confident while answering this
question.
Why do you want to quit your present job?
The
reasons for you to quit the present job could be numerous, may be you don't get
well along with your boss or your salary is too less but it’s not good to make
derogatory remarks about your present company in an interview.
You
can give a more practical answer like, my present company is not able to offer
me further growth opportunities and I have a feeling that it’s the time for me
to grow up in hierarchy and learn further.
Have you ever
made a mistake at work? How did you rectify it?
Everybody
makes mistakes, there's nothing wrong in admitting it. In the interview you can
say that yes, there have been times when you have made mistakes and learnt from
them.
Whatever
you could correct yourself, you did that and for the rest you went back to your
senior and took his help to sort it out.
What major problems did you face in your last
role?
The
agenda of this question is to understand if
•
You caused the problem
•
Could it have been avoided?
•
Your attitude to solve it.
It is safer to mention a problem which was caused by an
external party rather than the problems within internal parties.
May be you can take an example of the problem caused by a
customer, vendor. Discuss what you did to solve the problem. If you took some
leadership role also in the whole process, talk about it.
Where do you
see yourself 5 years from now?
By asking this question, the interviewer wants to see, how
ambitious the candidate is. You can say that, 5 years down the line I would
like to see myself in a responsible position where I can make important
decisions in the favor of company and the company treats me as its asset. I am
sure that this company can offer me growth opportunities like this.
How do you feel about doing repetitive work?
You can say that I understand that every job has an element
of repetitive work but I enjoy fulfilling all the aspects of my job with equal
enthusiasm and give them my 100%.
How did you manage to attend this
interview during your working hours?
Everybody knows that you would not ask permission from your
boss to appear for an interview.
You can answer this question by simply saying that you have
taken a off from the office to appear for this interview.
Would you like to work in a team or on your own?
The
agenda behind this question is to understand if you are a team player or a solo
performer.
It
might be risky to choose any one of them as the role for which they are
considering you might need you to be a team player but the career progression
which they might consider for you down a year’s time may need you to handle a
more autonomous position.
It
is better to answer this question by saying that “I don’t have any such
preference. I can comfortably handle both the situations, as the need arises.”
Now back it up with examples where you successfully worked in a team and where
you performed an autonomous role.
If your last boss was present here, what do you
think he would tell us about you?
This
is again a question which can be answered in two ways.
First way: If the situation is light, you can say that, “I am the
diamond of his team, you must pick me up”. This needs to be accompanied by a
right body language.
Second way: If the discussion is proceeding in a serious manner, you can
pick up a formal appraisal he gave you and say that I think he would repeat it
here.
Has your career developed as you had liked?
The
agenda behind this question is to understand if there had been times of dip in
your career and if you lay the blame for them on others. There’s nothing to be
ashamed of if there have been short gap in your employment.
You
can justify it by giving a convincing reason. Look at your qualifications and
social environment and relate your achievements to them, to answer this
question.
All the best
CareerStom
