Interview Questions and Answers You Must Know
A number of people have lost very appealing job opportunities because of their inability to muster the courage in the interview room and also to respond to questions coming from the panel.
In this article, Trendsmaniac.com samples some Interview Questions and Answers You Must Know as a job seeker should keep handy.
Here are a few of our sampled interview conversations:
Question: Tell me about yourself.
Possible anaswers:
- I’m really energetic, and a great communicator.
- Working in sales for two years helped me to build confidence and taught me the importance of customer loyalty.
- I am punctual, dependable, and can be counted upon to finish what I start.
- I understand my customers’ needs.
- I consider myself hardworking/reliable/dependable / helpful / outgoing / organised / honest/ cooperative.
Question: Why did you leave your previous job?
Possible answers:
- I’ve learned a lot from my current role, but now I’m looking for a new challenge, to broaden my horizons and to gain a new skill-set – all of which I see the potential for in this job.
- I’m looking forward to better opportunity to grow in job wise and financial wise. I want to learn more things, where am working.
- I’m looking for job where I can grow with the company.
- I’m looking for job that suits my qualifications.
- I was laid off / made redundant, because the
company relocated / downsized / needed to cut costs.
Question: What are you currently doing?
Possible answers:
- My work is important to me, so instead of rushing to accept the first thing that comes my way, I’m taking my time and being selective to make sure my next role is the right one.
- I am working on several freelance projects, while actively job seeking.
- I’m spending time being a stay-at-home mom and volunteering at my daughter’s school.
- I’m taking some continuing education classes and seminars.
Question: What do you find most rewarding about being in
sales (marketing, HR, and so on)?
Possible answers:
- I really enjoy making contacts and spending time talking with
people. The most rewarding part of being in sales, for me, is the time
spent with customers, helping them make the right decision about a
product.- I’m a people person. I was always happiest – and most satisfied –
when I was interacting with customers, making sure I was able to
meet their needs and giving them the best possible customer
experience.- I’d like to stay in a field related to training no matter what happens.
- I was too interested in business to work at a university, but I believe that teaching is somehow in my blood.
- I’ve been good at sales because I took the time to educate my clients. Now I look forward to training the new hires.
Question: What are your strengths?
Possible answers:
- I believe my strongest trait is my attention to detail. This trait has helped me tremendously in this field of work.
- I’ve always been a great team player. I’m good at keeping a team together and producing quality work in a team environment.
- I’m an adaptable person. I work for three different managers, they have very different management styles and expectations of me. I am able to adjust my approach to meet each of their needs.
Question: What are your weaknesses?
Possible answers:
- I’ve never been very comfortable with public speaking which as you know, can be a hindrance in the workplace. Realizing this was a problem, I asked my previous employer if I could sometimes speak at meatings.
- I could enroll in a speech workshop. He said “yes.” I took the class, and was able to overcome my lifelong fear. Since then, I’ve given lots of presentations to audiences of over 100 high-level executives – I still don’t love it, but no one else can tell.
- I have had trouble in the past with planning and
prioritization. However, I’m now taking steps to correct this. I
just started using a pocket planner.- I might need to learn to be more flexible when things are not going according to plan. This is something I’m working on at the moment.
Question: Tell me about a difficult situation you have faced?
Possible answers:
- In my last job I sometimes had to find answers to IT questions. I would often go on the Internet and look for blogs on the topic needed to learn about.
- I enjoy learning new things, so research is actually one of my hobbies.
- Have faced a number of difficult situations, but the one that comes to mind now is.. (describe the situation). I was able to deal with it by assessing the situation, determining the possible different approaches and deciding on the most effective one.
- I had to remain unemotional and objective and focused on a solution.
- I’m a perfectionist and I may be too hard on myself or my co-workers sometimes.
Question: Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years from now?
Possible answers:
- Although it is hard to predict the future, I sincerely believe that I will become a very good financial consultant. I believe that my abilities will allow me to excel to the point that I can seek other opportunities as a portfolio manager (the next step) and possibly even higher.
- In five years I see myself as a valued employee of a company. want to be an expert at my position and start training to be a manager.
- My goal is to become a lead in five years. Although not everyone gets promoted to this level, I believe I can achieve this goal through hard work.
Question: Why should we hire you?
Possible answer:
- I am a fast learner, I had to learn a totally new operating system in my last job and I was up and running within a couple of weeks.
- You require someone who can perform a wide range of administrative duties. I have a track record of carrying out these different tasks efficiently and successfully.
- I have the right combination of skills and experience for this job.
- I also want to bring the additional quality of strong analytical and
problem solving ability as shown by my introduction of a more efficient work flow system at ABC Company.