Answer the 4 Most Common Interview Questions in a Breeze!

There are some ques­tions that tend to pop up dur­ing almost every job inter­view no mat­ter where you head to or which com­pany you applied for.  Let’s start with the bad news; the bad news about these ques­tions – they can be really dif­fi­cult to answer at times.  How­ever, there is also the part on the good news – because they are so com­mon, you can ade­quately pre­pare them in advance before you face the real thing.

1. “Tell Me a Lit­tle About Your­self” – Sim­ple yet tough to answer.  How can you sum up your entire life story in just a cou­ple of min­utes?   You don’t.  Instead, it’s a request for you to describe what you can offer the com­pany.  Focus on:  (1) your key accom­plish­ments at pre­vi­ous jobs.  (2)  The strengths demon­strated by those accom­plish­ments. (3) How these relate to the job for which you’re apply­ing.  Illus­trate how you came to be inter­ested in this par­tic­u­lar com­pany and job, and weave exam­ples of past accom­plish­ments through­out to demon­strate why you are the per­fect candidate.
2. “Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?” — Did you resign? Get laid off? Get fired? What­ever that hap­pened in the past when you leave your pre­vi­ous employer will have to explain here.  The key point, STAY POSITIVE.  The biggest sign of a trou­ble­maker is when some­one trashes his or her for­mer boss or com­pany dur­ing an inter­view. It doesn’t mat­ter if your boss was a jerk or if you hated your co-workers — an inter­view is not the place to vent past frus­tra­tions.   Rather, the best way to answer this ques­tion is to stay pos­i­tive and talk about your desire for growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. This will paint you as a proac­tive employee who enjoys respon­si­bil­ity and chal­lenges.  The secret is to stay pos­i­tive and dis­cuss your desire for growth. Hir­ing man­agers love appli­cants who actively seek responsibility.
3. “What’s Your Biggest Weak­ness?” – The “weak­ness” ques­tion is pop­u­lar with inter­view­ers because they’re inter­ested in hear­ing how you tackle chal­lenges.   The most impor­tant thing to remem­ber is that after you name your weak­ness, you MUST dis­cuss what you have done to over­come it.   Pick a weak­ness that is real but under­stand­able or rel­a­tively harm­less. What­ever weak­ness you pick, be sure that it is work-related
4. “Do You Have Any Ques­tions for Me?” — Yes, you def­i­nitely do. You should always try to ask a thought­ful ques­tion or two at the end of an inter­view. It shows that you’ve been lis­ten­ing and that you’ve done your research on the com­pany.   What should you ask? Ask such ques­tions: (1) does this job usu­ally lead to other posi­tions at the com­pany? (2) What kind of posi­tions?   (3) What do you like best about this com­pany? Why? DO NOT ask about salary, vaca­tion days, ben­e­fits or any­thing else that would make it look like you’re more inter­ested in the com­pen­sa­tion pack­age than the com­pany. Also, don’t ask too many ques­tions; just a cou­ple will be fine.   And the most impor­tant ques­tion of all: Don’t for­get to ask for the job! “I’m very inter­ested in this job. It’s exactly the kind of job that I’m look­ing for. What is the next step in the inter­view process?”

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