What Are Interviewers Looking For

Be Ready To Answer Questions

Remember, interviewers and candidates are evaluating each other during interviews. On their part, candidates will try to determine whether the job can fulfil their aspirations and whether the company is a good place for them to work. So they might ask relevant questions which you should be able to answer. If you give pertinent, transparent answers, youll be able to create a better candidate experience and sell your company in a way that helps candidates decide if theyre a good fit. Preparing for these questions in advance may take some time, but youll need to do this only once before the interview phase begins.

Ensure you can talk to candidates about:

• The companys strategy, mission and structure
• The teams projects, direction and goals
• The perks and benefits tied to the position youre hiring for
• The next steps of the hiring process
• What you like about your job and the team or company

For some of these questions, interviewers may need to consult HR. For example, are you allowed to divulge the pay range of the position? Which future projects can you mention if a candidate asks and which are confidential? If candidates ask something you dont know the answer to, or arent allowed to disclose, prepare to say so tactfully.

Are You High Maintenance

Asking too many questions pre-interview or having complaints or concerns may seem to you like youre taking initiative or showing off your confidence and strong personality, but this can come across as being too high maintenance. No employer wants to feel like theyd be dealing with a potential difficult employee and this may make you lose the chance of the job.

It may seem pedantic but its these subtle clues that people can pick up on especially in an interview situation.

If I Were To Poll Everyone You’ve Worked With What Percentage Would Not Be A Fan Of Yours

At work, you can’t please everyone all the time. The answer to this question will help you find out if your candidate has enough drive and conviction in their own work to have ever conflicted with one or more of their colleagues.

Obviously you don’t want the candidate to be an unlikable person, though, so consider asking follow-up questions to find out why they might have alienated these coworkers: “If I were to interview these people, what words would they most frequently use to describe you?”

A good answer to this question:

The follow-up question about word choice is more important than the percentage they give in the initial question. In their answers, you should be encouraged by words like “passionate” and concerned by words like “lazy.”

Of course, not all negative words are red flags — while words that indicate a lack of work ethic might be a bad sign, words like “stubborn” could show a candidate’s self-awareness — and commitment to things their coworkers would rather move on from.

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What Do You Like Least About Your Job

Tread carefully here! The last thing you want to do is let your answer devolve into a rant about how terrible your current company is or how much you hate your boss or that one coworker. The easiest way to handle this question with poise is to focus on an opportunity the role youre interviewing for offers that your current job doesnt. You can keep the conversation positive and emphasize why youre so excited about the job.

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Do You Have Any Questions For Us

You probably already know that an interview isnt just a chance for a hiring manager to grill youits an opportunity to sniff out whether a job is the right fit from your perspective. What do you want to know about the position? The company? The department? The team? Youll cover a lot of this in the actual interview, so have a few less-common questions ready to go. We especially like questions targeted to the interviewer or the companys growth If youre interviewing for a remote role, there are some specific questions you might want to ask related to that.

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What Qualities Do Interviewers Look For

• Its energy. Humans are drawn to energetic people because of their energy.
• Good manners.
• Nature is Cheerful.
• Good health.

You need the right skills, education, and experience to find a job. Humans are drawn to people with high energy levels.

Dressing appropriately, sitting erect, maintaining eye contact, and waiting to sit until your interviewer is seated all show respect for the person and the situation. You can bring up examples of when you showed good judgement by telling the interviewer about a time when you were there. The tell me about a time question allows you to talk about how you approach problems. People who can demonstrate loyalty to something are sought by employers.

Proactively addressing health issues that are visible might be a good idea. A credit check is involved in a lot of jobs. If you have a problem in this area, start fixing it now. A habit of mind highly valued at most companies is follow-through.

A thank you note is a good example. Think of a time when you showed this quality and how you could talk about it. In interviews, employers notice how well you understand questions and how well you answer them in complete sentences.

You can learn to talk about your career in a way that shows you have a plan. You should be able to demonstrate continuous improvement. Solid, thought-through reasons for leaving a job.

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

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What Are Your Salary Expectations

The number one rule of answering this question is: Figure out your salary requirements ahead of time. Do your research on what similar roles pay by using sites like PayScale and reaching out to your network. Be sure to take your experience, education, skills, and personal needs into account, too! From there, Muse career coach Jennifer Fink suggests choosing from one of three strategies:

• Give a salary range: But keep the bottom of your stated range toward the mid-to-high point of what youre actually hoping for, Fink says.
• Flip the question: Try something like That’s a great questionit would be helpful if you could share what the range is for this role, Fink says.
• Delay answering: Tell your interviewer that youd like to learn more about the role or the rest of the compensation package before discussing pay.

What Single Project Or Task Would You Consider Your Most Significant Career Accomplishment To Date

Lou Adler, author of The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired and Hire With Your Head, spent 10 years searching for the single best interview question that will reveal whether to hire or not hire a candidate — and this was the one.

A good answer to this question:

Candidates’ answers will tell you about their prior success and sense of ownership. A great answer will show they are confident in their work and professional choices while being humble enough to show they care about the company’s success. For example, if a candidate built a sales or marketing campaign they’re particularly proud of, listen for them to explain how the business benefited from it. Did it help the company sign a major client?

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What Should An Interviewer Do During An Interview

• On a positive note, open. Interviewers should greet them on time, smile, give them something to drink, and keep eye contact.
• Allow them to participate in the process.
• The conversation should be the focus.
• Answer their questions.
• Take it easy.

Getting to hire great people and strengthen your employers brand is worthwhile, even though it is hard work. It is important to review any work samples that a candidate submits.

You should refresh your knowledge of your companys mission and structure as well as the benefits and perks for the position youre hiring for. How could I check that the candidate was a good fit in their interview?

Interviews that feel like free-flowing conversations that dont have an agenda can become subjective. Unstructured interviews dont result in the best hiring decisions.

Generic interview questions, like whats your greatest weakness?, are not effective. You can use behavioral and situational questions to judge a candidate.

Generic interview questions such as whats your greatest weakness? are useless. You judge a candidates soft skills by asking behavioral and situational questions. For example, write He told us he hasnt dealt with difficult customers before instead of hes inexperienced. You can collaborate with hiring teams to evaluate applicants, gather fair and consistent feedback, check for unconscious bias, and decide who is the best fit, all in one system.

Your team members perspective can help you make better hiring decisions.

Whats Your Greatest Weakness

This can be a tricky one to answer, especially if your first inclination is to try to mask a strength as a weakness , but hiring managers can see right through that.

Its OK to talk about a skill or technical ability that needs improvement, but you need to be able to point to steps that youre currently taking to improve it.

You have to also make sure your weakness doesnt hinder your ability to perform the basic functions of the job, Templin says. For instance, if youre applying for a bookkeeping job, you dont want to point out your not-great math skills.

Emphasize that you dont shy away from a challenge, and that you welcome ways to become a stronger employee to better serve your team.

Knowing how to answer tough interview questions is just one part of the job search. Need some more help finding the right job? Join Monster for free today. As a member, you’ll get interview insights, job search tips, and career advice sent directly to your inbox so you can get hired sooner rather than later.

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Clear Sense Of Purpose

Why its important: You need to be able to communicate a clear sense of why you want to work for this particular company and why you want the role. Thats whats going to stick in the mind of the interviewer. If your why doesnt connect with the interviewer, it wont matter how skilled you are technically.

Do this: Always be ready to explain your journey that pulls people in. Whenever possible, you should also research the interviewers and ask questions about the dynamics of the team in the interview process. If youre trying to be part of this team, you have to understand where youre going to fit in. Try to tailor your story to the role of the person youre speaking with. It can help to speak to people in your network in those roles to learn what they do and how they communicate with each other.

– Jeremy Mingo

What Makes You Unique

They genuinely want to know the answer, Dea promises. Give them a reason to pick you over other similar candidates. The key is to keep your answer relevant to the role youre applying to. So the fact that you can run a six-minute mile or crush a trivia challenge might not help you get the job . Use this opportunity to tell them something that would give you an edge over your competition for this position. To figure out what that is, you can ask some former colleagues, think back to patterns youve seen in feedback you get, or try to distill why people tend to turn to you. Focus on one or two things and dont forget to back up whatever you say with evidence.

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Why Do You Want To Work At This Company

Beware of generic answers! If what you say can apply to a whole slew of other companies, or if your response makes you sound like every other candidate, youre missing an opportunity to stand out. Zhang recommends one of four strategies: Do your research and point to something that makes the company unique that really appeals to you talk about how youve watched the company grow and change since you first heard of it focus on the organizations opportunities for future growth and how you can contribute to it or share whats gotten you excited from your interactions with employees so far. Whichever route you choose, make sure to be specific. And if you cant figure out why youd want to work at the company youre interviewing with by the time youre well into the hiring process? It might be a red flag telling you that this position is not the right fit.

What Is Your Greatest Professional Achievement

Nothing says hire me better than a track record of achieving amazing results in past jobs, so dont be shy when answering this interview question! A great way to do so is by using the STAR method: situation, task, action, results. Set up the situation and the task that you were required to complete to provide the interviewer with background context , then describe what you did and what you achieved : In one month, I streamlined the process, which saved my group 10 person-hours each month and reduced errors on invoices by 25%.

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Tell Me About A Time You Screwed Up

An oldie but goodie. This is a tried-and-true test for self-awareness. Someone who takes ownership of their mess-up and learns something from it is usually humble and mindful. Candidates who blame others or give a “fake” screw-up are red flags.

A good answer to this question:

A good answer to this question will do two things well:

• Admit to a genuine mistake. Often candidates will dress up a mistake with a self-compliment or excuse to avoid looking weak. For example, “I was so committed to X that I overlooked Y.” On the contrary, good answers will just show that they miscalculated, plain and simple.
• Explain what they learned from it. It’s one thing to screw up, but it’s another thing to take that screw-up as an opportunity to improve. Great companies learn more from failure than they do from success — candidates who do too are exactly what you need to grow.

Are You Willing To Relocate

While this may sound like a simple yes-or-no question, its often a little bit more complicated than that. The simplest scenario is one where youre totally open to moving and would be willing to do so for this opportunity. But if the answer is no, or at least not right now, you can reiterate your enthusiasm for the role, briefly explain why you cant move at this time, and offer an alternative, like working remotely or out of a local office. Sometimes its not as clear-cut, and thats OK. You can say you prefer to stay put for xyz reasons, but would be willing to consider relocating for the right opportunity.

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Can The Candidate Recount Accomplishments

Accomplishments are a candidate’s professional, educational or personal milestones, often found on a resume. Asking a candidate about their accomplishments can help you determine their strengths, history of success and growth. Relevant professional accomplishments are also a sign that the candidate excels in their area of expertise.

Job Interview Skills Employers Look For

How you present yourself during the conversation and the stories you tell will impact your evaluation score as much as your knowledge and skills will, Marshall said.

In order to be successful in your job search, you need to know how to interview, Marshall said.

Fortunately, interviewing is a skill you can develop just like any other. The more you do it, the better youll become at it, and the more confident youll appear.

To help you prepare for your next interview, we spoke with Marshall, Rise Career Development founder Jeremy Mingo and Silicon Valley-based career coach Kyle Elliott, who runs his own firm Caffeinated Kyle, about the top interview skills hiring managers look for in candidates and what you can do to work on them.

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If You Were An Animal Which One Would You Want To Be

Seemingly random personality-test type questions like these come up in interviews because hiring managers want to see how you can think on your feet. Theres no wrong answer here, but youll immediately gain bonus points if your answer helps you share your strengths or personality or connect with the hiring manager. Pro tip: Come up with a stalling tactic to buy yourself some thinking time, such as saying, Now, that is a great question. I think I would have to say

Example Of The Best Answers

Here are a few examples that answer this question:

• “While I have gained valuable experience and skills in my current role, I need a more challenging environment to reach my full potential. I’m ready for new challenges, and I’**m prepared for this position as it gives me that opportunity.”

• “We just relocated due to family situations, and I had to leave my previous job to be with my family. My former company has no branch in this city, and I have to look for a job that allows me to continue doing what I love, which is helping people build beautiful and responsive websites.”

• “I’ve realized my current position no longer aligns with my goals. I’ve learned a lot while in this position and grown in many ways. I find it okay now to find a position that keeps me focused, and this position allows me to share with you what I have learned and how my experience and skills benefit your company.”

• “I’m no longer with the previous company because I was eliminated due to corporate restructuring. I was among those the company laid off.”

• “I have contributed a lot to my current role, and I feel it’s time now to look for a new position that presents unique challenges. This opportunity presents an opportunity to put into good use what I have learned.”

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