When arriving to the interview call/communiqué, we are all excited as we have cleared the first part of screening and have been called for the personal interview of the dream job. It is essential for all of us to be prepared for the interview and sum up most common interview questions and their answers to develop confidence and flair when we face them.
In our previous blog HOW TO PREPARE FOR PERFECT INTERVIEW –COMMON QUESTIONS AND APPROACH, We have discussed in details the mindset of the interviewer while conducting a personal interview. Unless it is for a specific role, 90% of the interviewer’s questions and approach revolve around these underlined traits.
So here we are going to take up the questions relevant to the mindset of the interviewer.
PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE
The interviewer is interested to check your levels of CONFIDENCE –ASPIRATIONS –BODY LANGUAGE –ATTITUDE TOWARDS PROFESSION
Tell me about yourself?
Here the interviewer is more concerned to test your language skills, how precisely can you describe yourself. Command over language and confidence levels, you should be brief in your personal details as they are much covered in your resume but should talk about what drove you to choose this professional education and share your internship experience. Discuss the challenges you took and how did you accomplished them, shortly sum up with your career aspirations.
What is your biggest strength?
Though your resume speaks louder about your ability, but this is asked to assess how much the candidate has assessed his strengths and has worked towards sharpening them
Be very specific and to the point, ensure what you say has to be elaborated with examples. if you possess great leadership skills elaborate this when you took sup motto charge to make things happen and when did you guide your team to achieve certain goals. If you think you are a good motivator or trainer enumerate with what you did in previous organisation and what were the outcomes. Sharing examples of your strengths is like sharing your success stories.
What is your weakness?
This question is to assess how well you can describe yourself and how honest are you in your approach
Be honest in your approach while handling this question , people recommend to say things like “my weakness is getting absorbed in work that extent that I forgot to see the clock and often end in late working hours “ well remember no one is going to buy this from you they have heard this many a times . NO ONE IS PERFECT –remember this and be honest in putting it forward but also say how you acknowledged it yourself or with help of family and friends and what measures are you taking to overcome it. This will create positivity and trust in conversation.
Where do you see yourself in five years from now?
These questions are helping the interviewer to gouge your progressive approach, willingness to learn, grow and thinking ability. Speak out clear and with spark as If you enjoy talking about your growth and aspirations, if you want to be head of operations –described it evidently what trainings or courses you are taking on side to sharper your skills for the position. How are you adapting multitasking and diversifying your approach? How do you put yourself in decision making process? This will not only show your aspirations to the interviewer but will also place your determination to achieve.
PROFESSIONAL QUESTIONNAIRE
Tell me about your professional past?
Evidently the interviewer has everything written in your resume , but he wants to hear it from you from the behavioral point of view, start from your professional certification and elaborate internship experience , talking of the position held in companies from one to another try to create a psychological frame in mind of interviewer that how you have been taking up new higher responsibility levels and how have you performed them which lead you to change for achieving better roles
What was your last assignment, describe your responsibility level?
Generally the professional questions are industry based, but when asked to elaborate your assignment make sure you announce your designation and reporting to and then carry one with your work profile. Do discuss about what reports /logs you were maintaining and how it helped you to report to your senior. In case your profile involved technical working on certain mechanical side ,describe the machine and process you were on If given time do enumerate your appreciation notes given by your senior ..its like sharing success stories.
What were your achievements and challenges in your last assignment?
This one is interesting to answer as the interviewer is giving you chance to boost your qualities, you should detail your challenges and situations you overcame as they itself describe your achievements.
DO NOT I repeat DO NOT create gossips of talking about challenges of working with hard boss or bad company rules or tough colleagues..These may lead to negative impact on the interviewer mind. Bad mouthing leads nowhere. Instead talk about work challenge, motivating team or setting up coordination to complete certain tasks.
Why do you want to switch your current job?
Often people end up complaining of current employer and difficult work conditions etc etc, but this is not what your interviewer wants to hear , i=this creates a mindset that if you are talking bad of your current employer tomorrow it can be about him ,so avoid it , try to construct a positive answer to this. Talk about the expertise you have acquired and there is no position vacant in your current company to offer, talk about your increased skills and preparedness to take higher responsibility levels. To a certain extent citing personal reason of close to native place, creating better work life balance in family may also convince the interviewer.
ATTITUDE BASED QUESTIONNAIRE
It is important to judge the attitude of the person before offering him the job role , the interviewer is keen to understand the person on traits MOTIVATION – TEAMWORK-COORDINATION-TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT . it is important for the interviewer to know how do you take up your profession , are you progressive and ready believe in continuous learning process. You should expect these sharp questions
Why did you choose this career field? Or what’s that interests you in this job?
Elaborate your interests and the prospects you find in this career, what are your ling term objectives and how can you achieve them, sharing your thought process gives an impression to the assessor about your interests and keenness on the subject. IF you are in the field of technology speak about your dream projects, thinking ability and what are your future aims
Do you believe in team work, if yes what have you done to improve your team management?
If you are there to succeed your answer has to be definitely yes, speak about teamwork and importance of every team member, detail out how to build a real team and what are your past experiences of team work in stressed situations. The examples create better impression and say a lot of other things hidden between the lines.
What extra expertise have you taken to sharpen your skills in your profession?
The assessor here needs to reassure what you spoke in the first question ,indirectly he /she is interested to know your sincerity towards the profession and your continuous approach towards learning and development. It is always suggested to go for continuous learning as a earnest approach towards building your career. If you have taken up some professional expertise orientation course speak about it , in case you haven’t started one than say this is your first and foremost priority to engage in certain expertise course to sharpen your abilities and improve command over the subject. Both ways it satisfies the interviewer about your aspirations.
CLOSING QUESTIONS
Other than the above key questionnaire, brush up yourself about few more CLOSING QUESTIONS to sum up the interview, these questions if interpreted well can give you a glance of the answer.
Why should we hire you or what change can you bring if we place you?
Do speak about your skills and professional abilities to stand out large in competition, be realistic and speak about eh change you can bring in, you can also answer this diplomatically by saying , iam not in position to answer this right now , but given a chance I would prepare joining audit and evaluate the key changes to be introduced on the table of discussions. This will show your maturity levels to the interviewer that you believe in conscious decision making.
What other companies are you interviewing with?
Open up , but do not project that you are desperately hunting for a job change, in case you want to reveal than choose the companies from the competitive set of the particular company you are interviewing with. This also places pressure on the interviewer not to lose the talent to the competition.
Do you have any questions for us?
Definitely ask for the organizational structure and your position, different companies may have different grades and reporting to structures, employee engagement schemes, organisation approach towards work life balance etc. It is not awkward to ask because you are not on the receiving end, it’s going to be long term change for you and it has to be definitive one.
All the best !!
