Prepare Before Entering The Interview Room
Review common interpersonal questions ahead of time. Its always better when you practice your answers for every kind of question beforehand, especially with interpersonal skills interview questions which are harder and less common. Since there are quite many questions in this matter, you musnt prepare all answers for questions listed above. Heres what you should do:
- Write a list of the most important interpersonal skills required for the job you are applying by looking back at the job description and circle any interpersonal skills mentioned.
- List interpersonal skills you have.
- Prepare an anecdote that proves you have the skills needed for the job.
What Are Your Strength And Weakness
The interviewer wants to see your self-awareness level through your response to this one. Whether you understand where your strengths lie, if you can isolate the weaknesses and turn them in your favor. You can talk about your flexibility, team spirit, attention to detail, etc., as your positive attributes. But please stride the thin line between confidence and arrogance carefully.
Talking about your weaknesses, present a trait that can be considered positive with a change in perspective. Let’s say your tendency to pay attention to the minutest details leaves you with time management issues. So how do you correct that, the interviewer may ask. An ideal response will be that you try to balance your meticulousness as per the time assigned for the project in hand.
The next under general interview questions is as follows.
How Do You Deal With Pressure Or Stress
How to Answer: The short answer you want to give is: Well. While you probably dont want to literally say that, the idea is to convey competence to deal with difficulty and hopefully pressure is not a problem for you. Frankly, this question tends to come with high-pressure, stressful jobs or companies and they want to know whether youll be able to handle tough situations.
Hopefully, you have self-selected into this kind of job and applied to the company and role with your eyes open about those realities and believe you can thrive in an environment that demands a lot of you.
Example: I tend to work well under pressure. Deadlines are put in place for a reason, and I appreciate an organized flow of work.
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Restaurant Job Interview Questions
- Create your restaurants schedules in minutes
- Easily manage your restaurants operations from open to close
- Keep your entire team and restaurant in-sync with 7shifts communication tools
Looking to work in a restaurant? The good news for you is that the #1 staffing concern for restaurants is understaffing, which means if youre a respectable candidate with a track record of success, youve got a pretty good shot at being hired.¹
But as you get closer to landing that restaurant job youve got your eye on, it becomes increasingly important to be ready for one stage of the job hunt theres no escape from the restaurant interview.A restaurant interview can take many forms a group interview, an open interview, or a scheduled one-on-one interview, to name a few. No matter the setting, having poise, being authentic, exuding confidence, and articulating knowledge will help you stand out from other candidates.
To help you prep, whether it’s a front-of-house or back-of-house position, weve outlined 12 restaurant interview questions you might be asked to answer, as well as some guidelines on how to answer them. Weve also included a roundup of interview best practices you should be aware of before showing up to speak to the hiring manager.
Why Should I Hire You
The easy answer is that you are the best person for the job. And don’t be afraid to say so. But then you need to back it up with what specifically differentiates you.
A sample response: “You should hire me because I’m the best person for the job. I realize that there are likely other candidates who also have the ability to do this job. Yet I bring an additional quality that makes me the best person for the jobmy passion for excellence. I am passionately committed to producing truly world class results. Here is an example of how many passion for excellence delivered outstanding results”
Are you the best person for the job? Show it by your passionate examples. Read more
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What Are Common Job Interview Mistakes
1. Making it all about you. Remember, the company or organization is trying to fill a need. You need to show that you fill that need. Its not about you, its about them.2. Not bringing a resume.3. Not asking any questions. It will come across as lack of interest.4. Not doing any company research.5. Not going over the job description in detail. Its a gold mine that will show exactly what they are looking for in a candidate. You can use that information to craft your interview answers.6. Not preparing success stories in order to answer behavioral questions.
Check out some of our other interview questions articles:
Tell Me About Yourself
This question seems simple, so many people fail to prepare for it, but its crucial. Here’s the deal: Dont give your complete employment history. Instead, give a pitchone thats concise and compelling and that shows exactly why youre the right fit for the job. Muse writer and MIT career counselor Lily Zhang recommends using a present, past, future formula. Talk a little bit about your current role , then give some background as to how you got there and experience you have thats relevant. Finally, segue into why you wantand would be perfect forthis role.
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The Bottom Line On Common Interview Questions & Answers
You should think hard about how you can differentiate yourself from others every step of the way during the interview. Be memorable in a positive way even when answering these boring questions. And, to be well-prepared to give smart answers to behavioral interview questions, read my article Smart Strategies to Answer to Behavioral Interview Questions
What Are Interpersonal Skills Interview Questions
Interpersonal skills interview questions can also be understood as people skills or behavioral questions. They are questions about how you interact with others
As we all know, interpersonal skill is a very important quality that recruiters look for in employees, especially for jobs which require teamwork. People with good interpersonal skills can work well with other colleagues. They can also communicate effectively and easily and make the working environment more friendly.Therefore, anyone who is going to a job interview had better think ahead about how you would answer these potentially sensitive and hard questions. Normally, at least one or two interpersonal skills interview questions would be asked. Here are some common questions:
Describe a conflict at work? How do you build relationships? How would your staff describe you? What do people most criticize you? Are their concerns valid? Can you tell us why you would be a good team player?
How would your friends/family/last boss/ex-colleagues describe you? Tell me about your character. How would you rate your effectiveness in relating to others? What causes you to be impatient with others?
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Why Did You Change Your Career Path
If you recently changed your career path, the interviewer is sure to ask about it.
Dont worry – theres nothing wrong with this.
A lot of people go through a career change. Some even do it several times in their lifetime!
As long as youre good at what you do, no one cares if you were a pediatrician in one year, and a professional chef in another.
When asked this question, all you have to do is answer truthfully. Explain how your old job just wasnt for you, and how the job youre applying for is so much more interesting.
Possible answers:
- Sample Answer
I realized that being a doctor is not for me. While I did enjoy my 3 years in med school, the 6 year study period was too much.
I wanted to start making money and help out my family way before that, so I dropped out of university and started taking online courses in accounting.
At this point, Im pretty good at it, having done 2 internships so far in and .
- Sample Answer 2
Simply because I enjoy doing sales much more than accounting. After 5 years of working as an accountant for Firm X, I decided I wanted to try something new.
I asked my boss at the time to let me transition to the sales team, and I ended up liking it AND being pretty good at it.
What Do You Think Are Your Strengths
How to Answer: This is a very common interview question and you should answer in a way that reinforces your work experience and your long-term career goals.
You may be an amazing frisbee player, a superb cook and a talented computer programmer. But this is the time to talk about your greatest strength in the workplace so take some time to think about your professional strengths.
Ideally, you have picked 2-3 things and a sample answer you really believe make you stand out as an employee for this particular job or company This is the kind of question that is often used during a screening or phone interview. The more specific you can be about examples demonstrating these strengths, the better.
Example: Im usually the colleague in the room that brings everyone together when there are disagreements over strategy or business plans.
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Follow The Star Interview Method
STAR interviewing refers to a method of answering a question with a clear outlining of a situation, task, action, and result.² This method helps to produce a logical and easily understandable answer in the context of your experience. So, if you are posed with the question Can you tell me about a mistake youve made on the job and how you handled it?, you might respond with the following:
Situation: Our Yelp! Reviews started gradually declining last year, and so our manager told us to start paying much closer to the way customers interacted with us towards the end of their meals.
Task: On one particular occasion, I asked a customer how his meal was, and he politely said fine. However, I could tell something was wrong, so I wanted to see what I could do.
Action: I asked the customer if there was something else I could do for him, and after a brief hesitation, he mentioned he has received the wrong side dish with his order. Unable to fix it at that point, I apologized, then asked my manager if I could send the guest home with a free dessert and a coupon for his next visit. My manager approved, and I presented him with the gifts and apologized again.
Q: What Is Your Greatest Weakness
A: Do not say you have none that is not realistic. The interviewer / recruiter is trying to gauge your self-awareness. You have two options – use a professed weakness such as a lack of experience on your part in an area that is not vital for the job. The second option is to describe a personal or professional weakness that could also be considered to be a strength and the steps you have taken to combat it. An example would be: “I know my team think I’m too demanding at times – I tend to drive them pretty hard but I’m getting much better at using the carrot and not the stick”. Position your weakness as an area for improvement to demonstrate your willingness to learn and develop.
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What Are Your Strengths/weaknesses
This question is often seen as challenging by many candidates, even those with significant experience. However, if approached correctly it is easily possible to avoid ‘bragging’ when discussing your strengths or seeming excessively negative when talking about your perceived weaknesses.
Strengths – Based on the job description, choose three examples of traits the employer is looking for and give examples of how you have used these strengths in a work situation. Ideally, include a mixture of tangible skills, such as technical or linguistic abilities, and intangible skills, such as management experience.
Weaknesses – The best approach here is to pick a trait that you have already made positive steps to address.
Consider how you have approached your perceived weaknesses in the past and what you have done to address them
If your tech skills are not at the level they could be, state this as a weakness before telling the interviewer about training courses or time spent outside work hours you have used to improve your skills.
How Did You Learn About The Opening
Job boards, general postings, online listings, job fairs — most people find their first few jobs that way, so that’s certainly not a red flag.
But a candidate who continues to find each successive job from general postings probably hasn’t figured out what he or she wants to do — and where he or she would like to do it.
He or she is just looking for a job often, any job.
So don’t just explain how you heard about the opening. Show that you heard about the job through a colleague, a current employer, by following the company–show that you know about the job because you want to work there.
Employers don’t want to hire people who just want a job they want to hire people who want a job with their company.
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Could You Give Us An Example Of A Personal Or Professional Achievement
If you can think of an achievement that relates to the job for which you are applying, it will seem more impressive and relevant to recruiters. However, if you have an equally impressive achievement that you would like to share, dont be afraid to do so. If you are talking about a previous job, be sure to include what you were working as, for how long you worked on the achievement prior to the result or outcome.
Think about which of your achievements would be most relevant to your potential employer? Whenever you are asked any competency based question, use STAR format:
SITUATION / TASK Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. Be very specific and give details, but keep it short and concise. Give them a bit of context about every example what was the situation before you had to step in? What was the problem? What was the impact of this problem on you/others?
ACTION Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did not the efforts of the team. Use words such as I initiated/led/managed for etc. otherwise the interviewer will not know what your personal contribution was. You can mention some time-frames, people involved, names, results etc.
RESULTS Describe what you achieved. What happened? What was the final result? How much money/time did you save? What did you accomplish? What did you learn? What feedback have you received? etc.
Dont Forget Your Interview Essentials
The pre-interview stress can cause you to forget a few basics before your meeting. Remember to do these before you show up.
- Arrive at least 10 minutes early. Showing up late sets a very bad precedent in this industry. Be early to show your gratitude for this opportunity, but if you do end up running late, call on your way to apologize and explain the situation. If you have a legitimate excuse, any decent interviewer will understand.
- Bring multiple copies of your resume. Brush up your resume so that its relevant and grammatically correct, and bring copies for all of the employees who will be interviewing you.
- Remind yourself to smile. Its such a simple thing, but smiling in an interview can truly play a role in your hiring.³ It shows your interviewer that youre kind, positive, and comfortable in awkward situations .
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Why Do You Want This Job
The question can be rephrased in so many different ways, but the underlying query is what you know about the company and the job. This is the opportunity for you to show how interested you are in the company and how knowledgeable you are about the position. Don’t bungle with the company facts talk about the aspects of the job that have you most excited and also how you think you can add value to the role.
The next under general interview questions is as follows.
If Your Strengths Lie In Soft Skills ‘you Want To Be Bringing That Up’
With so many positions either going hybrid or fully remote, skills such as communication have become increasingly important for employers.
“Soft skills are not something that everyone has,” says Darrisaw, “so if that is a strength that you have, you want to be bringing that up and showing real examples of how your soft skills help you better contribute to your roles.”
Darrisaw gives the examples of techniques you might use to give feedback, assessments you’ve taken to understand your work or leadership styles, and ways you’ve developed to better collaborate with others. “These are great examples of the types of things that you want to highlight because this goes above and beyond your product or your service expertise,” she says.
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Why Are You Interested In Working At This Organisation
Why employers ask this: Have you done your homework? This question shows how much research you have done, demonstrating motivation for the job and providing recruiters with an insight into your own values to ensure they align with the hiring organisation, McInerney says.
How to respond well: Take some time to identify your values, then be prepared to talk about how these align with the company and what it does. If you can build a connection with the organisation’s people, strategy and values and your own values and aspirations, you will show the potential employer why youre an ideal fit, McInerney says.
Tip: Learn what you can about the companys values and aims. Many businesses include this sort of information via their websites About us page.
