Job interviews are possibly the scariest bit of applying for any job. The job application, after all, is something you can draft and redraft in your own time, making sure that every sentence is perfectly crafted to demonstrate how employable you are. If you get it wrong, you face nothing worse than a brief but polite letter in the post telling you that you have not been accepted at this time.
A job interview on the other hand, is crunch time. You get one shot at making a first impression, and if you fluff your answers or get stumped by the question you face long, awkward silences and that horrible feeling of watching people write unflattering things in notebooks.
Fortunately it is not all doom and gloom. Because the fact is- there are only a finite number of interview questions your potential employer can ask you. With a bit of preparation and research you can be ready for anything they might throw at you. Whatever happens, the odds are the questions you get in your interview will be variants on the following:
Why do you want the job?
This could be phrased several different ways. “Why does this job appeal to you?” is one, “What do you think you will be doing in this role?” is another. It will be particularly common when you are applying for graduate jobs and may not have a wealth of experience in the field you are applying for. Basically, here the interviewer is trying to establish two things. One: That you’re going to bring some enthusiasm to the job (“I really need to pay the rent” is not the best answer to this question). Two: That you actually know what the job you’re applying for entails. This is where it will really pay off to have researched the company and thoroughly read the job description. Your answer should accurately describe what they job will involve, while also showing how that job is suited to you.
Describe a situation where….
This will vary from job to job, so again, it’s useful to read the job description before going along. If you’re going to be managing a team, this might be “describe a situation where you showed leadership”. If you’re job is going to involve working with the public, it might be “describe a situation where you resolved a conflict”.
The important thing here is to have a specific story to tell. During a long string of job interviews the interviewers are going to here lots of “I’m a hard working and punctual person who works well in a team or on my own”. What they want is specific examples that demonstrate you have the qualities they are looking for, and a story is more likely to stick in an interviewer’s mind than a long string of positive sounding adjectives.
How do you solve problems?
This may be a question your interview asks straight out, or it may be phrased in terms of a hypothetical situation (Such as “How would you deal with a difficult customer?” for instance). This is where the interviewer will try to establish how you deal with new problems, how you assimilate information, your verbal reasoning skills, how far you rely on your own initiative and at one point you will seek the advice of your superiors. This is where you need to demonstrate that you plan things carefully, do your research, and know when to get help with a new problem.
What’s your biggest weakness?
As the interviewee, this feels like cheating. You obviously don’t want to tell them why you shouldn’t get the job. There are two schools of thought on how to approach this question. The first is to try and weasel your way out by trying to pass off a strength as a weakness. “I’m just so awesome that sometimes I think, maybe I’m too awesome” being an exaggerated example. More realistically, you might say “I’m sometimes so focused on my work that I miss the bigger picture”. If you’re going to take this route, be sure to have specific examples from your work history to back it up- remember, interviewers are more likely to remember stories than adjectives.
However, interviewers aren’t stupid, and it can come across as insincere as you modestly tell them that “Sometimes I’m just too dedicated and hard working”.
There is another approach. Obviously now isn’t the time mention that you are consistently late to everything or sometimes don’t get work done because you’re feeding your chronic drug addiction. What you can do, however, is talking about a carefully judged flaw such as being shy in social situations, then quickly follow it up with steps you’ve taken to overcome that problem, such as joining an amateur drama society to overcome the shyness. This turns your weakness into a positive, but in a way that comes across as more sincere than false modesty.
Before your interview, get a friend to go through these questions, and variants on them, practicing your answers in advance. The more preparation you put in, the less likely you are to be blind-sided on the day.
About the author: Chris Farnell is a freelance writer based in Norwich, Norfolk.