Seven most common job interview questions

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

What are the seven most common interview questions?

interview adviceYou can’t predict every question that will come up in a job interview. I know I’ve heard some very weird questions.

There are some interview questions, your interviewer will ask you, where you’ll sit there and think “I really have no idea what you have just asked me! What is it that you actually want to know?”

Sometimes interviewers will ask you a seemingly strange question just to throw you off guard or to see how you think on your feet.

I remember being asked a very strange question when I was about 20. The interviewer asked me what was the worst thing in my life that ever happened to me?

I sat there and thought, well, um, so far in my life I have had a pretty lucky and safe middle class existence, yellow brick road to a yellow brick home in the suburbs, and all that. Should I make up something dramatic so I don’t sound really lame?

Strange questions aside there are some job interview questions that will come up at some stage in the process.

What does this blog post cover?

In this blog post I’ll cover the most common interview questions.

Then I’ll give you some links to our most popular blog posts covering tricky interview questions.

These are questions many recruitment consultants love, as they’re screening you for their clients.

Here are some interview questions that you really should prepare for.

Question 1. Tell me about yourself.

For such an innocuous slightly pleasant standard question, this is one that most people fear.

I used to use it as an interview as a “settling in” question so I could get my pen working, re-familiarise myself with someone’s resume and break the ice.

I didn’t realise I was doing just the opposite, that my interviewee was thinking where do I start, what do I say, isn’t that the whole purpose of an interview, so which bit are you not going to cover in the rest of the questions.

Take a read of this blog post on how to manage the “tell me about yourself” question and come back to me.

If you have an iPhone, download our new app myPitch, and learn how to manage this question and sell yourself effectively.

Question 2. Why did you leave your last job?

This one is to see that you’re leaving for a reasonable reason, and that what you’re looking for you’ll find in the new role on offer.

Recruiters will often go through your entire job history looking for patterns in the reasons you have left organisations.

Take a read of this post on the five trickiest interview questions for some great tips.

Question 3. Why do you want this job?

Pretty basic, and if you have access to the employer’s website, you have no reason not to give a reason.

Read this post on interview tips, to get some great questions.

Question 4. What are your strengths?

If you struggle to answer this question, think of what others have said are your top points. Think about what you have achieved and how you have achieved it. Back whatever adjective you choose with a reason you say this.

Question 5.What are your weaknesses?

Read this post on how to handle weakness questions in interview.

Question 6. What are your achievements?

With this question, think about the impact you’ve made and how that will benefit your potential organisation.

Question 7.Why should we hire you for this job?

You can’t compare yourself to other candidates with your answer to questions like these. But you can have done your homework and understand what makes you stand out.

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50 million reasons + 4 more to use LinkedIn

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

As I have not yet got my first book published (any day now), you are reading this online and one can almost assume that you have been invited to join LinkedIn from a friend or coworker. Did you join? If not, read on. If you did, use these reasons to evangelize to everyone that’s not joined up yet, just like I do!

If you are online you cannot have avoided joining one of the social media networks, Facebook with over 350 million users is by far the biggest. Whereas Facebook is great for catching up with friends and family, LinkedIn focuses on your professional life and even serves as an online resume. LinkedIn currently boast just over 50 million users, which means your boss is probably on there. If you managed to sign up for Facebook, joining LinkedIn will be a walk in the park, albeit a little longer one.

LinkedIn is a networking tool that gives you access to people and companies that can help you and your career grow. By joining up, you can reconnect with current and old colleagues, school mates and other people that you have crossed paths with in life.

Personal Brand

Your personal brand needs to beamed out to the masses and LinkedIn is your best channel to reach out. You want people to search for you and find the information they were looking for, and hopefully be pleasantly surprised. To raise your profile further you can join in discussions, join groups, get recommendations and create events that will bring you to attention.

Online resume

How many times have you lost your resume and had to trawl through your email accounts for an old copy? By sticking all your career data on LinkedIn, you and everyone else can see exactly what you have done in your working life by simply clicking on your name. By having it online constantly, it’s obviously easier to update it and it can be done from any computer anywhere in the world.

Job Search

If you are considering moving jobs, LinkedIn is the place to be as it gives you a presence in your industry and a visibility to recruiters and HR folks that pull up searches based on key words and location. LinkedIn allows you to be found, as opposed to you searching for a job, a project or the other way around. So whether you are actively looking for a job or passively “open for suggestions” you can let others do the work for you. If you are happy in your job, don’t worry as LinkedIn is not solely based around changing jobs like for instance Monster is.

Sleuthing for information

LinkedIn is great for finding information on people and organizations. Just like others will spy on you, you can sleuth around LinkedIn and find out what your new boss has done in the past, what they look like and what interests they have. You can gather background information on your suppliers, on prospective customers and anyone else that deserves a scrutiny by you. LinkedIn is not as closed as Facebook for instance, all profiles are open to everyone although you can only contact people direct if you are connected.

Conclusion

LinkedIn will not create your career but it can help to tip the balance. If you are up against one other person with the exact same skill level when going for a job, having 5 recommendations on LinkedIn will certainly be in your favor and could be the deciding factor. Recruiters, headhunters and HR people have long used LinkedIn as a primary resource for finding and looking up people. Line managers are doing the same and so should you. I would venture to say that if you take your career seriously, you cannot afford not to join LinkedIn.

Anybody still not converted? Tell me!

PS. Before you ask, no I am not on commission from LinkedIn sadly!

Jorgen Sundberg is a Personal Branding Consultant based in London. He helps sales people, entrepreneurs, business owners and executives to create, build and promote magnetic brands to attract more business online.  After 7 years of marketing people in recruitment, he started Personal Branding UK and he blogs at The Undercover Recruiter and JorgenSundberg.net. You can connect with him on Twitter @jorgensundberg.

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Why job interviews are like dating, part 2. How soon is too soon to follow up with a call?

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

A post or two ago I wrote about why job interviews are like first dates; eight signs that your interviewer is really into you. The next part of the dating dilemma is when should you call, if you should call at all? I had this question from a friend today who’s just had a job interview. So I thought I’d put her out of her misery, and write this answer publicly.

There were a few too many things going through my friend’s head, which is what tends to happen if you’re over-anxious and female. Her questions in no particular order were – what would be better to do, call or email? If she did and made contact too soon, would she seem too keen and be really annoying. What if she did make contact and the interviewer said no? Could she cope with the rejection, particularly as she had her heart set on a job with this company?

Are you still with me here? Let me tackle these questions, one at a time.

So let’s assume that you’ve dropped your “thank you I had a good time” email or note, which I think you should always do. It is good manners and particularly important if you are keen on continuing the relationship. I’ve never seen anyone knocked out of the recruitment race for sending an email like this. The call I’m talking about here, is the nerve wracking call you make to find out how you have gone. In dating speak, that’s asking whether the interviewer wants “to take things further.”

The call or email thing is a bit problematic. So I’ll give you a few things to think about.

You can compose an email carefully to say exactly what you need to. This also gives the interviewer a chance to compose an answer, and easier for them if they say no and want to give you feedback. But then it’s all done and dirty. Like a farewell note, you don’t really get much of a chance to continue a conversation once you’ve exchanged final emails.

With email unless you are a brilliant writer, you can’t convey as much tone and enthusiasm as you can in your voice when you call, and if the interviewer is “seeing other people”,it may just be that which will swing things your way.

It’s the same for the interviewer. Tone makes the difference too. What they write in an email, may have a completely different meaning if they say it over the phone. If they reject you and give you reasons, you may end up taking something personally, when you really don’t need to. We’re probably all guilty of that, job interview, dating or otherwise.

Most people say, and I agree, that phone is better than email for building a relationship. So unless you really don’t do good phone, be brave and call, which brings us to my friend’s next big question, “if I’m going to call when should I call?”

Leave a call for an answer to after the time that the interviewer has said they would give you an answer. If they’ve said “we’ll be back to you after a week”, leave it a week and two days. There is a lot of work that needs to happen after someone interviews you, if the organisation is serious about recruitment. There are often other candidates in the mix, discussions and dilemmas to be had and perhaps reference and security checks to organise. If HR has their fingers in the pie, there’ll probably be forms to fill, reports to write and approval processes to follow. You should give your potential employer some time to get through all of this. Otherwise there is a good chance you will be annoying.

As for coping with rejection if the interviewer says “no”, there are still only positives here. Firstly yes you get to hear “it’s not me it’s you”, but you then get an opportunity to explore why. It may not be a final “no”, but a “no for now”. Or it may be that it is a “no forever”, but at least you get to know sooner. You can then pick yourself up and move on.

Bit like a rocky relationship, really.

Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

Get our free e-book The 7 Deadly Sins to Avoid at Job Interview!

Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

To get your free e-book and some of our best interview tips direct to your inbox, simply click on this link.

Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP — with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

Click here to get access to the e-book.

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*Top Tips* What to do if you spell the recruiter’s name wrong on a cover letter

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

The US website Career Realism is running a twitter advice project where people tweet their career questions and career experts have a crack at answering them. A recent one was what to do if you misspell the name of the hiring manager on a cover letter.

I shouldn’t be writing this, given I help people write cover letters and resumes but I’m mortified to say I have done this myself. It was in an email to an editor where I claimed some amazing creative writing skills and asked for some freelancing opportunities. Trouble was I spelled the editor’s name creatively.

I sat there red faced for a half a minute and decided the only thing to do was to point it out. So I wrote:

“How embarrassing!! Sorry for the creative spelling of your name. And I claim to be a writer too! But either way I spell it I would love the opportunity to freelance for you.”

She laughed. I didn’t get an opportunity, but I did get a decent answer. Ironically I don’t think she would have replied to the first email even if I had spelled her name correctly.

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Why job interviews are like first dates. Seven, sorry, eight signs you’ll be seeing each other again

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

I received lots of funny feedback and comments on my earlier post, on why job interviews are like first dates. It’s kept me smiling for quite a while. So thanks everyone for the tweets and comments. However apparently I am remiss. There are actually eight signs you’ll be seeing your interviewer again.

For signs 1) – 7) Read these job interview success signals.

8)  I have a friend Catherine. She’s a serious corporate executive who’s been interviewing for senior strategy roles. She’s just won a job. She says she knew she was “in” when her interviewer started to call her “Cath”.

Feel free to tweet me more: at twitter/interviewIQ

Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

Get our free e-book The 7 Deadly Sins to Avoid at Job Interview!

Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

To get your free e-book and some of our best interview tips direct to your inbox, simply click on this link.

Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP, with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

Click here to get access to the e-book.

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Why job interviews are like first dates. Seven signs you’ll be seeing each other again

by K B , updated on November 10, 2020

Sometimes you walk out of a job interview and you just know you’ve hit it off with the interviewer.  You have that sense of warmth like the job is a good fit. You can only think good things about the job, the interview and the employer.

A job interview that’s gone well is almost like a fun first date.

You think you genuinely got to know the other person and enjoyed their company.

I like the dating analogy, because when I take that a step further; I know that sometimes when people are super polite it’s hard to pick what they thought of me.

So if you’re like me and have left interviews wondering how it really went; the following Seven Signs may signal that you will be meeting again.

1) Like a good first date, the interviewer seems genuinely interested in uncovering what makes you tick. Sometimes they’ll keep probing when you have given succinct “overview” type answer . If the interviewer keeps digging for more information, asking for specifics of particular aspects of your answer it’s a great indicator that you have hit upon a skill or attribute skill that makes you a strong contender for the position. If they accept what you say and move on, then chances are you have answered the question to their satisfaction or you are in the process of being ruled out. Be warned here though, if the interviewer needs to continually dig about the same part of your answer you may have not answered the question properly, which may result in you being written off as “hard work”.

2) There’s some mirroring going on. In dating when people like each other they tend to mirror the body language of the other person. Same with job interviews, especially the “coffee chat” interviews, where you are not stuck behind a desk facing a panel.

3) You forget about the time. The job interview goes for much longer than you estimated. As a side note, you can often tell how much time the interviewer has allocated for a job interview by the time they invite you in. So if you are invited in at 9.45, say, it can mean that the interviewers are allocating either 30 or 45 minutes to the interview. If your job interview goes for longer than than the time you estimate, unless you or the interviewer are chronic “over-talkers”, the fact that the interview has gone over time, means you’ve all had a good time.

4) The interviewer asks about your salary expectations. I can’t think of an exact dating analogy for this, except this. If your interviewer asks you what your “expectations are” then you are being “qualified” for the role. Having said this, if the interviewer does not ask about what you want, money wise, this is not necessarily a bad sign about your success. Sometimes interviewers assume that you know what’s on offer, or that someone else will qualify you.

5) Your interviewer asks you about past references. Like dating, talking about relationships early on can be tricky territory. Unlike dating, if an interviewer checks that your referee relationships are still valid and asks for the best way to contact them, it means they think they’re onto a good thing.

6) The interviewer shares something about the company. Good job interviews, like good dates, are about sharing information. There are issues when the interviewer talks too much, but if an interviewer tells you nothing about a company, then there are a few explanations. They may want the job interview to end quickly or they are inexperienced/ poor interviewers. If the second scenario is the case, then you as an interviewee have every right to do your own due diligence on the role and check why it is on the market. Come to think of it, depending on what you want, you could possibly do the same of a date!

7) The interviewer contacts you quickly. Three things here. If a job is genuinely on the market, and the interviewer has their act together, and the interviewer genuinely likes you, you are likely to hear back pretty quickly. This is like dating. It does sound tough I know, but it’s a fact.

Fortunately though sometimes job interviews are not like dating because (for example) the key decision maker may not be the person you met.

So don’t give up even if you haven’t got all the Seven Signs, you may still be about to get some good news!

Need to get ahead of the pack for your next interview?

Get our free e-book The 7 Deadly Sins to Avoid at Job Interview!

Deborah Barit wrote this book. She is one of Australia’s leading interview coaches.

To get your free e-book and some of our best interview tips direct to your inbox, simply click on this link.

Here’s what happy readers said about the e-book and interview tips:

“Deborah Barit is a very smart lady…She is good at figuring out what an employer is looking for. It’s like she has ESP, with her help in preparing, I found no surprises in a recent interview and I was prepared for every question….” Cathy, Leichhardt, NSW

“Because I read so many of your posts, I feel as if you were my personal employment coach. I start my new position in two weeks. I had so many obstacles to overcome and each day you posted a solution to my dilemma and how to improve my search. Thank you so much for your input and PLEASE continue to do what you do!”

Click here to get access to the e-book.

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