There is no short-cut to ace a job interview. It is proven that a good amount of practice, preparation and sharp intelligence during the interview pave the way to success. No matter how many interviews you have appeared in your life, the next interview still makes you jittery. A whole new environment, a clique of completely new faces, high aspiration to nail the interview and most importantly a new interviewer before you who would be asking you many questions at random – these are enough to make you feel stressed and nervous.
However, there are some effective ways to tame the stress and succeed in the interview. In this particular post we are going to discuss how to read your interviewer’s mind and know the most probable questions he or she would be going to ask you. Besides, we will mention your interviewer’s hidden agenda behind the questions, what s/he really wants to hear from you and how you should respond to each one of those. This will help you hold your nerves and handle interviews with full of confidence. So, let’s get started.
Tell Me about Yourself
This is known as the interview-starter. It’s a common question so don’t spend much time answering this. The interviewer wants you to keep your answer short and sound. A couple of good sentences (not more than 3) would suffice to impress your interviewer. Prepare well to develop your own branding statement to answer this question since the interviewer assesses your confidence level from your first answer.
Why Are You Interested for This Job
The interviewer wants to know if you are looking for better salary. Do not talk about money even if that’s the only reason you’re up for this interview. Here you’ve got to be clever and answer in such a way that the hiring manager would believe that you are a challenging and competent candidate for their company.
What Are Your Strengths
Truth be told, the modern managers are too busy to micro-managers their sub-ordinates. Naturally, they would like to hire resources that tend to take responsibilities independently and deliver results without being spoonfed every now and again. In short, the interviewer wants to see if you have what it takes to work as independently as possible.
So tell what s/he exactly wants to know. For example, if you’re appearing interview for a sales position, you could mention that you’re a go-getter or decisive and how it helped you push the sales figures of your past company.
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What Is Your Weakness
The interviewer intends to hear about your limitations in this question. Since everyone has got a few weak points, you cannot answer anything that would hide your weakness. So treat the question like you’re asked to tell about the opportunities you need to improve and the role of the company in lessening your weaknesses.
Why Should We Hire You
The interviewer might have asked why the company should hire you, but the actual intention is to hear why you are the best fit for the position. Do not limit your answers to your qualifications or credentials. You need to figure out two or three special qualities from your personality traits, skills and work experiences comprising a two-minute answer for this specific question. Prepare to present yourself as a better fit for the position you are being interviewed for.
What Are Your Hobbies
In the modern work ecosystem, companies want candidates to have a life outside work in a way that they add an element of fun and dynamism to the workplace. While being a nerd and workaholic makes you productive, being withdrawn from social activities makes you a terrible team player. Make sure you think hard about this and answer the question responsibly. Mention how you enjoy hanging out with friends or pursuing basketball, for example. This will help you score higher than any other candidate.
Have You Disagreed with Coworkers
The interviewer would actually want to know the way you handled those situations when you disagreed with your coworkers. S/he would be happy to not get involved in little disputes between two subordinates. Even if you haven’t remembered any such incident in any of your past jobs, you still have to answer this wisely. So you need to prepare for this.
Reason to Leave the Current Job
The interviewer wants you to express something that made you leave your last job. This may be tricky since the interviewer wants to know if you say against your company. This again needs a bit of preparation to tell one sentence that would carry some weight and help you cheer your recruiter.
Any Questions for Me
It’s obviously your turn now. But be generous while asking any question. Here you can ask about the company’s management or any particular situation when you would need your company to provide better resources to perform well. This makes your interviewer form a positive idea about your focus on work.
As a job seeker you surely need to get prepared with your lessons for technical questions. But the way you represent yourself happens to be most effective to succeed. All it needs is take time to review the most probable questions and the best ways to please your interviewer by your answers and expertise.