Your job search is right on track and you have a job interview coming up. It might be one of the most important ones you ever had. It could be an interview for your dream job or the one job opportunity which will get you right back on track or just helps pay the bills. In any case, that is great! You got your foot in the door and now it is time to close the deal with a successful job interview and therefore answering a lot of questions. Continue reading if you are interested in some advice on how to turn interviews into job offers.
To get the most out of the job interview and develop your career you want to present yourself in the best way possible. Well, that sounds easy, what could go wrong? For example:
- Being not sure about yourself and/or your job history
- Being afraid of questions that sound uncomfortable to you and having no definitive answers for them
- Not even knowing which questions could be there and only having a vague feeling of what might come in your direction
Let us divide this kind of reasoning regarding the job interview into two distinct perspectives:
- Feeling comfortable as a human being
- Feeling competent as a future employee
Although you might think these two should not be somehow divided, you should abide to the fundamental law that a job interview has nothing to do with you feeling comfortable about yourself. You should always feel good about yourself, no job requirements or pressure should ever direct you to questioning your self-esteem. It is actually very beneficial to feel good about yourself during the interview, because it will certainly show in your body language and the way you speak. In the best case your interview partner will recognize you as a confident person who is grounded and possesses a healthy sense of self-worth. That is exactly what you want them to do.
There are lot of Do’s and Don’ts concerning job interviews out there, but you should always remember the difference between having somebody in front of you who is proud of who she/him is and somebody who looks to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Let the fact of being in a job interview in no way diminish you but continue shining like you always do. Having said that we should continue to number two, feeling competent. This will of course help you a lot to feel more secure during the interview. One of the ways to achieve competency is by preparation and that is what you should do: Preparing for the job interview questions.
Common Job Interview Questions
Could you tell me/us more about yourself?
The classic question which will be asked with a very high probability. The goal of your interviewer is to have a general view into your world, but not to hear your whole personal life story. Your answer should be compact, a time frame of two minutes is fine. Keep in mind to focus on your personal work history, like qualifications, motivation, background, responsibilities and key achievements, and also on your goal at the new company or the new organization. Present clear reasons why you are a great fit for the job in question and eventually make yourself more interesting by mentioning some of your personal interests and activities that do not have a direct influence on your work, like your favorite hobby if it makes sense in this context.
- What do you know about our company?
- How did you hear about the position?
- Why did you apply for this position?
- Why are you looking to leave your current company? (Why have you left your last job?)
- Tell us about a challenge you have faced – How did you handle it?
- How much money are you looking to earn?
- Why should we hire you?
- Why do you want to work here?
- Why did you leave your last job?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- What skills do you need to improve?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
- How do you make decisions?
- What is your greatest achievement?
- What are your leadership experiences?
- How would you describe yourself?
- What are you passionate about?
- Do you want to tell us anything else about you?
- Do you have any questions for us?
- Why do you want this job?
- Why should we hire you?
- What is your greatest strength?
- What are your salary expectations?
- How do you handle stress and pressure?
- What are your goals for the future?
- What makes you unique?
- How would you describe yourself?
- What did you like most about your last position?
- What did you like least about your last position?
- What is your dream job?
- What can you bring to the company?
- How do you handle conflict at work?
Why do you not need to feel anxious about your job interview?
If you think that you have reasons to worry about how you are doing at the job interview, then just think about the other side a bit. You might be a bit afraid, but in reality, you can only win: Even in the case that you do not get the job, you just move on and have more experience for your next interview. The company on the other hand might invest a lot of time, money and other resources in a candidate who will not help them at all but only cost them, so the hard part is really on them. They will be quite thankful if you make it easy for them to accept your application, it is just win-win!