TIPS ON ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS

Tell us about yourself.
Begin this answer with the basic details of your background, a bit of schooling, and college life. Skip to your hobbies, interests, and goals part and talk a bit more of them, since recruiters would love to know more about your future than past which is already on your resume.

Describe yourself in 3-4 words
See this question as to what do you think of yourself? Who you think you are and how do you want yourself to be portrayed in front of the employer. You do not need to describe everything in detail for yourself but make sure, you do not skip those words that will excite the employer to hire you. Show the relevant qualities.

What motivates you?
Answer this in qualitative terms, not quantitative terms. Don’t talk about money here. Talk in terms of your career aspirations and goals. Where you want to be at some point in your career? Tell the responsibilities, challenges that motivated you towards your aims. Mention of the factors that boost you for giving your best.

What are your strengths?
Yes, well some people can write a whole essay on it and some struggle for even a single word for it. Well, you do not need to. Be honest and introspect. What is it that is your strength? Is it being punctual or being honest or it being focused and diligent? Also, give an example of a demonstration of these skills of yours at some moment in your life.

What are your weaknesses
Do not lose confidence when this question pops up. The question is negative but your answer can end on a positive note. Start with explaining your weakness, tell why you think that this is your weakness and then give an example of how are you improving on them.

What are your hobbies
Binging on TV Shows and having snacks is not what you can say as your hobbies. This should be something that will excite the recruiter to hire you. Go as per the job, go as per what you really do in your free time because the rest of the interview can be based solely on what you mentioned as your hobbies.

Tell us about your interests.
Like hobbies, do mention interests that sound relevant to the employer. For example, in an interview for the post of a marketing head, you cannot say that investing in the share market interests you. Rather than would seem more beneficial if you were sitting for some finance job.

How you handle stress
Stress is a part of your job. Do accept the fact that one point or another, you will feel stressed due to some reason or the other. Do not go on denying that you do not feel stress at all because that would act against you. The employer would think that you have not handled a big responsibility in your life ever. So, share your tricks of stress management during your interview.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Where? Answer this question either in terms of any job role or job position or in terms of the roles and responsibilities those you would like to handle in the near future with your experience and skill set. Also, show that your goal motivates you towards your work.

Do you prefer working alone or in a team?
You cannot be rigid about the answer to this question. You can say either of them. Or you can say both of them depending on the situation. There are some jobs that will need you to work with a big team as well as there will be jobs where you will need to work alone. Answer to your question accordingly, including some examples.

What makes you unique?
Well, is it something that needs to be told about? You know what makes you unique; so, shoot up your answer with full confidence to the employer. Mention the quality, why it makes you unique, and also how it can help you professionally.  

What are you passionate about?
Again, do tell the employer about the thing, work, or position or what so ever, you are passionate about. But yes, make sure that answer seems relevant to the job being offered to you. If possible also include why you feel this thing is your fuel or your passion.

Describe your work ethics?
These can be something those were taught to you in a class or can be something those you have acquired over time or being taught about by someone. Describe why you still hold on to those ethics and why you feel ethics are important?

What kind of work environment do you prefer?
This involves some level of basic research on your part of the environment of the company. For example, if you find that the company happily welcomes employee’s suggestions then do not forget to mention that you would like to work in an organization that is open to suggestions of employees.

How do you expect your colleagues to be?
Be honest here, and let it be a positive and professional answer only. Saying that you want your colleagues to go out and party with you won’t land you in any good position. Rather consider saying that I like supportive and encouraging colleagues.

How will you bring change in the organization without creating turbulence?
Firstly mention that you are a person who would like to embrace a change when needed. Now express your way, of how you would make others accept it too. As far as possible, answer this question in a step-wise manner. Mention of an example if you have applied this ever before.

What is your opinion about working in a public/Private sector unit?
Clear the fact that you do not hold grudges against any one of them and you are equally considering both the sectors. Showing some biases towards the sector of recruiters may not impress the recruiter as you cannot be changing your likes and be dishonest at the interview. Interviewers might catch you.

What do you like about your current position?
Do not say ‘nothing’. That would be the biggest mistake you will be ever committing. Just take it with ease. Mention some of the things, administration work, or any other thing you appreciate for the workplace and also mention your reason for the same.

What do you dislike in your current position?
No, your interview is not any chance for you to complain about your work at a previous organization. Employers generally do not like to hire people who complain about their surroundings and workplace. Just mention a bit about one or two problems those you think should be resolved quickly.

Why do you like/dislike your boss?
Yeah well here, ‘dislike’ will have more points than ‘like’; but you have to maintain a quo. You cannot say 10 of the bad habits of your boss and then expect an employer to hire you. Go like- my boss was a very knowledgeable person however he was a kind of dominating as well.

Give an example of how you set goals.
As the question itself says about the thing you need to talk of.; examples of the ways in which you set your goals. Once you are done with sharing them, mention why you think your method is beneficial for you? Since how long have you been practicing it?

Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it
It can be a small goal as well, for e.g. you were heading a project during your last job and you made a planned structure to be followed to make the project successful. Share this success story during your interview. 

Give an example of how you worked in a team
This one goes without saying that mention your experience of worming in a tea, taking collective decisions through deliberations and discussions. Describe when and how you were required to work in a team and then how was your experience with your team. Also mention about the results of the task assigned, in case they were positive.

What do you do if you disagree with someone at work?
Express what you do generally like do you often disagree with people or you try to not disagree with people in general. Then relate it to the workplace scenario where you will be working. Mention that you would like to discuss the issue with your colleagues or the person.

Share an example of how you were able to motivate employees or co-worker
You won’t be able to get through this one with some fictional and dishonest answer, because this answer reflects your leadership skills. Remember the time when you motivated your team and you actually came out with the positive results and share the same in your interview.

Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.
Do not go on answering this question that you do not feel any pressure, because we all know this is not possible. To accept the fact and then share your methods or tricks of dealing with the pressure you feel. Also, give an example of some incident where you handled yourself out of pressure.

Tell me about the last time a customer or co-worker got upset with you.
Okay! This question for the salespeople mostly. So, if you feel your previous jobs were not to deal with the customers or you do not hold any experience as such, you cannot go on telling anything to the interviewer. Or you can relate the answer to the team like the sales team of your organization faced this trouble and I helped them.

Have you ever made a mistake? How did you handle it?
Yes, we all make mistakes and so, you too would have a pile-up of the mistakes those you would have committed. But the interview is not the place to open up with all the mistakes of your life. Choose the mistakes those you did in your professional sphere not personal.

Have you ever been at leadership position?
This position can be any of the leadership positions that you might have handled in your college days where you handled resources and people to achieve a common objective. Share such experiences with your interviewer and go on describing your roles and then the outcomes.

Tell us about your reason to leave the previous job
All negative reasons? No, do not do that. Do not go on saying that you dislike your job, your boss or your colleagues at the previous job and that’s why you are changing the job rather talk positively and say that you think you will find better opportunities in your new job, so that’s why you want to leave the previous one

Tell us about your greatest failure
We all have been through one failure or the other. But the main thing about failures is how well, you were able to cope with them and learn something new. If you have been able to learn something out of your fall then it was not a failure rather a good learning experience for you. It can be a failure of not being able to deliver an important project on time to the organization or anything else that taught you some lessons. Mention the learning from failure in answering this question.

Tell us about your greatest achievement
Okay it can be anything that you feel worth achieving it can be winning the award of the ‘employee of the year’ in your previous organization or it can be handling a job position of so many responsibilities in the organization. Achievement is defined from your perspective. So, if you think you have not achieved anything in your life just because you have not been at a CEO or MD position ever, then you are certainly wrong.

Tell us about the most challenging situation that you faced
The most challenging situation that you have faced can be when you were required to work on a project with some of the other team members regarding which you had no idea. Start the answer by mentioning the situation or the challenging job, state that why was it challenging, and then quote how you overcame from that? Also, go on sharing your learning from that experience.

Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for work.
You have to think a lot about it and carefully answer to this question because you cannot go on saying anything in the interview. Your answer should be modest and relevant to the work environment. It can be like you handled the responsibilities of some senior person when he/she was not around to help your team deliver the best results.

Tell me about a time you had to choose something else over doing a good job.
Something over doing a good job? What can it be? Well, you may not have realized but sometimes you skip your job due to some family issues or needs. Do accept the fact if you ever have done that and explain the reason for the same. The interviewer will surely understand that.

Describe a situation where you weren’t satisfied with your job. What could have made it better?
Yes, answer this question too carefully because you cannot say bad about your previous job and think that you are impressing the interviewer to give you a new job. Rather this creates a negative impact on the interviewer. Just describe one or two things that made you dissatisfied with the job and the reasons for the same.

Describe a situation where you saw a problem and took steps to fix it.
Yes well, I know there wouldn’t be a single day when you may not have faced any issue in your organization. Every-day brings some new challenges and some new problems. So, choose one of the relevant issues of your experience to share here, also mention why you think that is a problem and how you managed to solve it?

Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult manager.
Difficult manager? How do you define one? Well, it is generally tough to work with someone who has a different mind-set than yours. The same can be the case with you as well at some point in your career. Explain a situation when you faced such an issue or you were required to work with a tough manager and how you handled it. Do not speak bad of the manager, just put your perspective forward.

Describe a situation where you had to make a good impression on a customer. How did you do it?
The answer goes by mentioning the situation when you were required to deal with a customer if your job initially was not as such. It can be some situation when your senior might have handed over the responsibility to handle a customer which was supposed to give you good business. So, now mention what all you did to impress the customer, was it something else than your general duties? And also, share the end results or customer reviews towards your efforts.

Tell me about a time your workload was very heavy.
Daily scenes, huh? Yes, for everyone. But, do not mention any normal day of your job here i.e. do not say that I am always work loaded or it is a daily scene for me. Rather mention about a big responsibility that you handled someday along with your daily routine tasks. It will give a good impression of you to the interviewer.

Tell me about a long-running project you handled. How did you manage your time to meet your deadlines?
Okay, if you have an example with you then start your answer by quoting the project, what was it all about, and your responsibilities for it and how you managed it with your team. If you do not have any such big project handling’ experience with you then do not form an imaginary situation by yourself, rather admit that you have been a member of a team that handles big projects and you have worked satisfactorily for them.

Tell me about a time you made a great presentation
The great presentation? Was it for the very first job of yours? Or you have not been able to deliver any great presentations yet? Well, in the first situation mention presentation, what was it all about, where you presented that and why you think that was great. For the second case, do accept that you have not been able to deliver any great presentations, but you always try your best and will continue doing your best for every presentation that you will deliver.

Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone to see your side of things.
This may happen many times with you but mostly on an informal part. You do not have to quote examples of your personal life here. Just stick to professionalism. Share an experience where you were required to persuade any of your colleagues or even the boss to see a defect in the proposed strategy of the company that can cost a company a lot at a later stage. Describe how hard it was and then how you managed to convince your colleagues or the boss.