The interviewer’s trying to find out as much as possible about you in a short time, so as well as known questions such as ‘tell me about yourself’, ‘why do you want to work for this company’ and ‘why did you leave your last job?’; there are questions that are less obvious if you haven’t done much prepping, but are obvious to us and questions you should consider before an interview. We’re not here to tell you how to answer them, but you do need to make sure you prepare so you have an answer to these questions and give great answers that you will be happy with. There is nothing worse than walking out of an interview and coming up with a great answer once you have left. Take the pressure off and make sure you prep beforehand so that the interviewer can get to know the real you. Preparation is key for a successful interview. Here is some guidance on 6 common interview questions.
There is absolutely no point in lying here and there is also no need to. You want to answer this question concisely. The important factor here is to make sure that you don’t spend too much time on this question. There are so many other questions that you are going to answer that will demonstrate your skills and experience for the job and what you can do for the organisation, that you want to spend minimal time on this whilst delivering a clear answer for your interviewer.
Answer this on the spot and you are likely to come out with a very ‘standard’ answer. Ask previous and current colleagues and friends to describe you so you can get a feel for their answers and prepare for this. This is a great way to restate some of your key points about yourself, so do spend a little time preparing this and think of examples in your current role that you can demonstrate your capability for the role you are applying for.
Who’s going to say no to this! So, the answer is clear, but you need to back this up with examples to demonstrate your work mindset and how you work as part of a team. Think about the type of role you usually fulfil in a team, what are the skills you bring? This is people skills as well as your technical skills. If you’ve ever had any business skills training, this is a good time to mention this.
A very common question that most people are aware of, but it can be a challenge to answer! This is a great opportunity to describe some scenarios that you have been in that also relate to the job you are applying for to demonstrate your ability to manage the role you are applying for. It’s good to talk about what you learnt from previous situations too as this demonstrates your personal growth in the workplace.
Don’t say yes when you mean no. You are setting expectation with your employer and are only going to find yourself in a difficult position if you get the job having said yes and then saying no when they next ask you. The company is asking you this because this aspect is involved in the role. They are equally trying to manage your expectations. It doesn’t always have to be a straight yes or no. If you need to understand more about the regularity of the extra work time and what it involves, ask. You can explain what you would be able to deliver on e.g. say that you are happy to take some of the shifts, but wouldn’t want it to be a regular aspect. Then they know you are willing to help out but it’s not expected all of the time. This way, both parties are clear on the parameters and if they employ you, it will be smooth moving forward. Neither party benefits from lying about this. Remember, if it is a very regular thing e.g. weekly, they are likely to include this in the job description. Discussing it in interview usually means that it is less regular.
Again, this might be obvious to most, but remember, this is not about a party or social outing you went on. An interview is about being able to project the right impression to the interviewer. You will have enjoyed certain projects or tasks – talk about these and explain why. Again, it is useful to think about activities that can be related to the role you are applying for and where you have gone above and beyond you job description. We hope you have found this initial guide useful. We actually have 50 of these questions and guidance. However, we didn’t want to go over them all; you’d be reading a long blog! If you would like to see all the questions, click below to download our guide. It is a great reference tool to keep hold of. Good luck in the interviews!
If you would like to one of our Talent Acquisition Consultants about a job or guidance on interviewing, call us on 020 7183 6232 or email us at blogs@remithq.com.