Ace The Job Interview: Sample Interview Questions with Knock-out Answers

You get the call that Big Name Company wants to interview you. You know they will be interviewing others and you really want this job. How can you stand out among a crowd? What will they ask and how should you answer? Here’s a quick list of popular job interview questions and how your answers can help you land the job you want.

Tell us about yourself. This is not the time to recount your weekend hunting and fishing activities, or to go on about your cute kids and how much you love them. What the interviewer wants to know includes your educational background and your professional experience. They are trying to figure out if you’re a good fit for the company and how you can help the company remain profitable. What do you have to offer that others don’t? A job interview is like a first date. You are trying to get to know each other, to see if this is going to be a long-term relationship and to see if the chemistry is there between you and the company. Make sure you tailor your answer so that the interviewer will get a sense of your professional self and background, not your personal life.

What are your strengths? No one likes to come across as a boastful know-it-all, but this is your opportunity to outline your best professional skills and abilities. Make sure all that you list can be backed up with your education or references or portfolio. Look at the job announcement you responded to. What are the absolute musts the job requires? If the ad mentions the preferred candidate is organized and pays attention to detail, you should definitely highlight this area if it adequately describes you. Be prepared to give examples of how you organize large projects or the types of details you are skilled at dealing with. Don’t just say you are good at x, y and z…be prepared with examples or anecdotes.

What are your weaknesses? No one likes answering this question because here you are trying to impress someone with your credentials and they want you to start listing your flaws. The trick here is to give them a flaw, but one that you’ve turned into a positive. Here’s an example: My biggest weakness is that I always like to be busy and productive. In the past, I’ve had jobs where there hasn’t been enough work to keep me busy the entire day. So what I did was to talk to my boss about taking on some added projects from other departments. This solved my problem and it was good for the company.

Another weakness turned into a positive could be: I used to be very disorganized and unfocussed. What I did was to take a course on project management and productivity and I learned how to really get more out of each day, how to tackle big projects and complete all the tasks on deadline and the manage time more effectively.

Again, put a lot of thought into this question beforehand and make sure you have examples to back up your claims. Make sure the interviewer knows which reference they can speak to about each skill or weakness you’ve changed.

What was your favorite job and why? First, you want to make it clear that you’ve enjoyed all of your jobs. This is no time to bad-mouth any previous or current employer regardless of what they’ve done to you. However, you can always pick a standout job; maybe you had a mentor or someone within a former company who taught you useful skills that you can use for this company. Make sure your reasons for telling them about a particular job relates to this specific position you are interviewing for.

What was your worst job and why? Again, this is not the time to speak ill of past employers. You can, however, in the same way you took a weakness and turned it into a positive, take a job you didn’t care for and explain the situation in a way that makes you shine. For instance, if your worst job was one that required a lot of travel that you tired of, you can say that it was not your favorite because you found that being away from the team at headquarters made you a less-effective sales person. You can explain that you get an energy boost from working in the same environment as other sales people and enjoy that synergy among the team.

Why do you want to work here? Before you show up for the interview, you have to have done your research on the company. You need to know what they do, who its customers are and some basics about the corporate culture. Peruse the company Web site and get to know enough about the company that you can list three reasons why you’d like to work there. Keep your reasons mostly geared toward the actual work and the clients rather than the perks and benefits.

Do you have any questions for us? Since you’ve done your research on the company, you should have several questions formed before the interview. You can ask about the company’s long range plan for growth, which areas it expects to expand current business and current research and development areas. You can follow up on a story you read in the newspaper about the corporation, ask about employee stock purchase plans or how the company is involved in the community. Don’t ask questions about what the company can do for you; gear your questions with a healthy dose of curiosity and genuine interest in the business of the company and its future profitability.

Master these questions by doing your research and planning your answers in advance and you will be well on your way to getting the job you want.

Anne Mathews is pursuing a graduate degree full-time and teaches part-time at a major U.S. university. If you are interested in writing professionally for this site and others, Ms. Mathews would appreciate the referral bonus: http://www.triond.com/rw/39827.