Go Beyond The Common Interview Questions
Yes, the job search is intimidating, but reviewing interview questions and answers in advance is one way to calm your nerves and boost your confidence. Are you looking for more ways to stand apart from the competition? Set up a free profile with Monster and we can send you career advice, workplace insights, and more job interview tips directly to your inbox. It’s a quick and easy way to stay one step ahead.
Why Are You The Right Fit To Succeed In This Role
You should use the interview as an opportunity to say something interesting about your skills and experiences that relate back to the role at hand. Remember that interviewers will be looking for you to demonstrate key skills that match the job and behaviour that align with the organisation’s culture, so prepare examples in advance that you can call on when required.
Examples of the key attributes employers look for include:
- Project management skills
Tell Me About Yourself
This is one of the first questions you are likely to be asked. Be prepared to talk about yourself, and why you’re an ideal candidate for the position. The interviewer wants to know why you’re an excellent fit for the job.
Try to answer questions about yourself without giving too much, or too little, personal information. You can start by sharing some of your personal interests and experiences that don’t relate directly to work, such as a favorite hobby or a brief account of where you grew up, your education, and what motivates you.
Read More:Examples of the Best Answers
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Possible Answer To Tell Me About Yourself
Well, Im currently an account executive at Smith, where I handle our top-performing client. Before that, I worked at an agency where I was on three different major national healthcare brands. And while I really enjoyed the work that I did, Id love the chance to dig in much deeper with one specific healthcare company, which is why Im so excited about this opportunity with Metro Health Center.
The Top 50 Interview Questions
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Preparing for your interview is one of the best ways to create effective responses to an employer’s interview questions. By practicing common interview questions with a friend or family member, you can get the feel of a real interview. The more prepared you are, the more confident you may appear as a candidate. In this article, we share the top 50 interview questions and why employers ask them.
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What Questions Do You Have For Me
A great candidate doesn’t waste this opportunity. Smart questions not only signal a great candidate but also reveal to the candidate whether the company is a good fit for them. After all, they’re being interviewed, but they’re also interviewing the company and have a keen sense of the questions to ask during an interview.
Here goes:
Know When To Tell A Story And When Not To
Storytelling is a great skill to be more memorable and persuasive, but you need to know when to use it
Dont tell a story for a yes/no question. Thats going to drive the interviewer insane.
However, for questions that open the door for you to give a longer answer, like behavioral questions , storytelling is a powerful skill.
Example:
Lets say they ask a question like, tell me about your experience serving customers in a fast-paced environment.
You could just say, Ive worked with customers a lot and my last company was very fast-paced, but thats not going to be very memorable.
Youll be a lot more memorable if you paint a picture through storytelling.
You might say, In my last job, I interacted with an average of 50 customers per day. I really excel in a fast-paced environment like this. In fact, each year our company gives an award to the top person in customer service, and I won last year for earning the highest customer satisfaction rating.
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How Do You Define Success
Employers ask this to help them understand how your definition of success influences your goals and how you measure them. A good answer will show that you know how to define and measure goals and youre willing to challenge yourself and work hard to meet them.
Consider your proudest achievements, your long- and short-term successes and how the company youre interviewing with views success. Give specific examples of how youve succeeded in the past.
Example answer:I define success as fulfilling my role in my team and in the company. I work toward completing my individual duties as effectively as possible, balancing that with professional growth and contributing to larger organizational goals. In my previous role, success meant exceeding weekly metrics, implementing processes that supported the companys KPIs and meeting quarterly professional development goals.
Read more: Interview Question: “How Do You Define Success?”
What Is Your Greatest Weakness
Another typical question that interviewers will ask is about your weaknesses. Do your best to frame your answers around positive aspects of your skills and abilities as an employee, turning seeming weaknesses into strengths.
This question is an opportunity to show the hiring manager that you’re well qualified for the job. In addition to learning whether you’ve got the right credentials, the hiring manager wants to know whether you can take on challenges and learn new tasks.
Read More:Examples of the Best Answers
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Understand Company Work Culture
Take some time to learn about the company culture by looking at employee photos on social media and checking out the company’s news coverage. You might see team-building events on its Facebook Page or news coverage of a recent fundraiser, which can help you understand the culture. You can also check for employee testimonials on business rating platforms, like Glassdoor.
Whats Your Ideal Work Environment
Interviewers frequently ask this question to determine whether youd be a good fit for the companys office and management style.
While theres no one right answer here, the best approach is to say your ideal work environment is similar to the one at the organisation youre interviewing with. If youre not sure what type of environment that is, look at the companys official social media to get a better idea of how they portray themselves.
Some companies are more rigid and hierarchical, while others are relaxed and try to foster more creative environments.
Sample answer
Id say my ideal work environment is relaxed and collaborative. I appreciate having the space to try new approaches and work with my coworkers to find creative solutions to problems. I really enjoy thinking things through with other people, and am usually very close with my coworkers both in and out of the office. In fact, I still meet regularly with a few of my former coworkers from my first job after uni to have a kickabout every weekend.
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How Do You Prioritise Your Work
The employer wants to know whether you’re organised, can meet deadlines and are able to handle multiple projects at the same time. The best way to answer this question is to provide examples of times when you’ve juggled a number of different tasks and still delivered them to a high quality and on time. These examples can come from previous jobs, university study or your extra-curricular activities. Give some detail about what methods you use to keep track of your progress and productivity.
How Would Your Professors/friends/co
This can be a challenging question if you havent thought about it ahead of time. Consider recent feedback youve received, both positive and negative. The interviewers main goal is to ensure you have a clear understanding of how youre perceived by others and understand how your actions impact them. To prove that youre self-aware, consider answering with two positive traits and one area for improvement. For example:
The other members of student council might say that Im an extremely effective leader as president. They also nicknamed me Mr. Congeniality because I get along with everyone. But theyd also say that I sometimes take on too many things at once. Im trying to delegate more.
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Would You Ever Accept A Gift From A Client
Important Points to Address: That you would always declare any gift, no matter how small.
Sample Answer:If a customer offered me a token gift, I would accept it and declare it as required. If I was offered a substantial gift, I would decline it, and Id direct them to offer the gift to the company directly. If I believed it was intended as a bribe, I would immediately report it internally and, if necessary, to law enforcement.
What Are Your Greatest Weaknesses
It can feel awkward to discuss your weaknesses in an environment where youre expected to focus on your accomplishments. However, when answered correctly, sharing your weaknesses shows that you are self-aware with an interest in continued growth and learningtraits that are extremely attractive to many employers. Consider using this formula for your response:
1. Select an actual weakness that is honest but professionally relevant:”Im naturally shy…
2. Add context:”…From high school and into my early professional interactions, it sometimes prevented me from speaking up…
3. Provide a specific example:”…After being a part of a workgroup that didnt meet our strategic goals two quarters in a row, I knew I owed it to my team and myself to confidently share my ideas…
4. Explain how you overcame or are working to overcome it:”…I joined an improv acting class. Its fun and has really helped me overcome my shyness. I learned practical skills around leading discussions and sharing diverse perspectives. Now, in group settings, I always start conversations with the quieter folks. I know exactly how they feel, and people can be amazing once they start talking.
Read more: Interview Question: What Are Your Greatest Weaknesses?
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What Would You Do If A Competitor Approached You And Offered To Buy Company Secrets
Important Points to Address: You should never ever consider selling company secrets.
Sample Answer:Company data and trade secrets can be very valuable information to competitors. It is also very valuable to the company, and releasing it would damage the company and may breach regulations or laws. I would never sell information, and if offered, I would report it immediately to my supervisor and the legal team.
Possible Answer To What Makes You Unique
I basically taught myself animation from scratch. I was immediately drawn to it in college, and with the limited resources available to me, I decided to take matters into my own handsand thats the approach I take in all aspects of my work as a video editor. I dont just wait around for things to happen, and when I can, Im always eager to step in and take on new projects, pick up new skills, or brainstorm new ideas.
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Tell Me About A Challenge You Experienced In Your Previous Role
This interview question helps hiring managers assess your problem-solving skills. Use the STAR method to help you explain a time you overcame a challenge. This means that you explain the situation, what tasks you needed to complete, the actions you took and the results of those actions.
Example:”When I was a team leader, one of my engineering interns was finding it challenging to get all of his work done on time. My manager told me that I needed to help my intern better manage his work. I had a performance review with my intern, helping him identify his strengths and weaknesses. We set up some goals for him, along with a performance plan. After two weeks, his performance was where it needed to be.”
What Are Your Strengths
Learning your strengths can help a hiring manager envision what kind of value you might bring to their team. When deciding what strengths to share, read through the job description to see what skills the company wants to see in a candidate. Tailoring your answer to the role can help you stand out among other candidates.
Example:”One of my strengths is my communication skills. Along with being able to convey my own ideas, I am a skilled listener. I show others I value what they have to say and add to the conversation. Another strength of mine is my organizational skills. I am good at keeping all my tasks in order, and I enjoy developing streamlined systems to prioritize my work.”
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Possible Answer To Do You Consider Yourself Successful
I do consider myself successful, even though Im early in my professional career. I took a full load of classes in my junior year of college because I wanted to take that summer to volunteer for a human rights organization overseas. I knew that I needed to make sure I was on track with my major, minor, and graduation requirements. It was difficult to juggle it all with my part-time job, which I kept to help account for the fact that I wouldnt be earning money over the summer, and there were a few sleepless nights. But it was worth the hard work: I ended the year with a 3.9 GPA and the opportunity to volunteer for the agency in Ghana without falling behind my graduation timeline. For me success is about setting a goal and sticking with it, no matter how hard it is, and this experience was proof that I could be successful even when theres a lot to balance, which I know there always is at a nonprofit like this one.
Possible Answer To What Can You Bring To The Company
As Jocelyn talked about in our interview earlier, PopCo is looking to expand its market to small business owners with less than 25 employees, so Id bring my expertise in this area and my experience in guiding a sales team thats selling to these customers for the first time. In most of my past roles, this segment has been my focus and in my current role, I also played a big part in creating our sales strategies when the business began selling to these customers. I worked with my managers to develop the sales script. I also listened in on a number of sales calls with other account execs who were selling to these customers for the first time and gave them pointers and other feedback. In the first quarter, our 10-person sales team closed 50 new bookings in this segment, and I personally closed 10 of those deals. I helped guide my last company through the expansion into small businesses, and Im eager to do that again at PopCo. Plus, I noticed you have a monthly karaoke nightso Im eager to bring my rendition of Call Me Maybe to the team as well.
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How Long Do You Plan To Stay With Us
If your work history shows that youve changed jobs frequently, convey that youve been looking for the right company to learn from and grow with. Its easy to get caught up and explain all the reasons why you switched jobs. What the interviewer wants to know is how you will stick around here. The best way to do that is to align your goals with the companys and describe how youve found an opportunity to be part of a long-term relationship. That prevents you from coming across as uncommitted.
What Makes You Unique
Employers often ask this question to identify why you might be more qualified than other candidates theyre interviewing. To answer, focus on why hiring you would benefit the employer. Since you dont know the other applicants, it can be challenging to think about your answer in relation to them. Addressing why your background makes you a good fit lets employers know why your traits and qualifications make you a strong candidate.
To help you prepare this answer consider the following:
Example answer:”What makes me unique is my ability to meet and exceed deadlines. In my previous role, my manager consistently praised me for completing my projects efficiently with a high level of quality. This allowed me to take on additional responsibilities and eventually led to a promotion.”
Read more: Interview Question: What Makes You Unique?
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Most Asked Confidentiality Interview Questions With Answers
When asked during a job interview, confidentiality interview questions are asked to measure candidates confidentiality skills. The hiring manager needs to know that any new employees have good confidentiality skills and can protect proprietary data and customer and employee information.
Here are 25 common confidentiality-related questions and sample answers that show you are the ideal candidate.
Prepare Answers To Questions About Why Youre A Good Fit For The Job
Its not enough just to think about the answers you will give to the most common interview questions. You need to go further by identifying your specific skills and writing them down so you can study them.
- Personal skills, such as being positive and responsible, learning quickly and working safely
- Teamwork skills, such as working well with others, and helping your team with their projects and tasks
- Fundamental skills, such as communicating well, managing information, using numbers, and solving problems
Visit the Government of Canada’s Skills for Success page to help you identify and think about your skills.
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