25 Interview Questions by Tash Hughes of
Word
Constructions
Whether it’s
your first interview for your first job or another
interview after years of working, going to an interview
is nerve wrecking.
To have been
given an interview, you either presented well in your
resume or have been recommended to the position. In both
cases, you can take some confidence from the fact that
you were short listed from potentially hundreds of
applicants.
In order to give
yourself the best presentation, considering what will be
discussed at the interview can help. Even better is to
do some role playing with a friend playing the role of
an interviewer.
Take the time to
really consider the following questions and how you
could answer them to best effect. Even if they don’t
come up in your interview, maybe you will learn some
thing useful for yourself!
- What is your
greatest strength?
- What is your
greatest weakness?
- How do you
organise yourself?
- What are the
important elements of customer service? (and don’t
ignore this question just because you aren’t going to
be a salesperson)
- Give an
example of when you had to negotiate with a difficult
customer
- Can you do
{insert relevant skill}? Practise this question for a
skill you can’t do
- Where do you
expect to be in five years time?
- Why did you
leave your last position? (keep it positive)
- What was best
about your previous job(s)?
- What did you
least like about your previous job?
- What salary
are you after?
- What appeals
to you about this job? Or Why are you applying for
this job?
- Tell us about
yourself
- What were you
doing during this gap in your resume?
- You changed
careers; why?
- How do you
handle stress and deadlines?
- How do you go
about making serious decisions?
- What is your
biggest achievement in life?
- How do you
manage multiple tasks at once?
- Why did you
decide on this career/industry?
- What is your
ideal job?
- Show an
example of working with a colleague you didn’t like
- How do you
characterise your working (or supervisory) style?
- What
professional organizations do you belong to? How
actively do you participate in them?
- Are you
computer literate? How competent are you in (software
type)?
Some of those
questions need to be answered carefully so that you are
remaining positive and constructive.
For instance, an
accountant I know answers that his greatest weakness is
being too pedantic about details; of course, employers
want an accountant to be details conscious so this puts
him in a good light.
With thought and
planning, you can turn hard questions to your advantage.
Tash Hughes is
the owner of
Word Constructions and is available to solve all
your business writing problems! From letters to
policies, newsletters to web content, Word Constructions
writes all business documents to your style and
satisfaction.
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