Practice and get comfortable with these common job questions and answer samples before our interview and we’ll feel more confident, while giving much better answers.
We recommend spending some time getting comfortable with what we might be asked, what hiring managers are really looking for in our responses, and what it takes to show that we're the right man or woman for the job.
1. Can you tell me
a little about yourself?
To answer, walk them through our background, starting
at how we began our career or our
current line of work.
Take them through key accomplishments, key career moves we’ve made, and end by sharing what we’re looking to do next in
our career and why we’re job hunting.
Good answer sample:
“I started my
career in Marketing after graduating with a Business degree in 2011. I’ve spent
my entire career at Google,
receiving 3 promotions and 4 awards
for outstanding performance.
I’m looking
to join a smaller company
now, and take on more leadership and project
management.”
2. How did you hear
about the position?
This is one of the simplest
question and answer scenarios in any interview, but that doesn’t
mean it can’t ruin our chances at the job if we answer incorrectly.
Good answer sample:
“I saw the job posted on a website,
and the position seemed interesting so I wanted to learn more”
“I found the position while looking for jobs online”
“Your company
was recommended to me by somebody I worked with in a previous job and had heard good things about your
organization”
“I heard about it from a friend”
3. What do you know about our company?
Our primary goal is to show we’ve done our
research or knew about their
company before applying. If we
do this, we’ll be fine.
If we don’t seem like we know anything about them, we’ll come across as desperate – somebody who will take any job they can find. And that’s going
to make we unattractive to any good employers out there.
Good answer sample:
“From what I read, your company is one of the leaders in providing
security software to other businesses. I read the list of clients
on your website. Do you mostly serve
Fortune 500 clients?
I saw a couple big Fortune 500 companies mentioned on the list,
including ... and................. ”
“You’re one of the largest investment banks in the US. Your headquarters is in Raleigh,
NC, and you have 25,000
employees worldwide based on what I read on your website.”
4. Why did you apply for this
position?
We need to sound like we want the RIGHT job and that we’re being picky.
Companies want the best performers, and the best
performers are picky in their job hunt.
Stay away from negatives and complaints too. Do not bad-mouth our current company
or boss. Focus on the
positives of the company we’re interviewing with.
Good answer sample:
“I’ve heard
great things about the work environment here from a few colleagues.
And when I saw this job posting, it seemed to match my skills very closely.
For example, I saw on the job
description that you need somebody who’s an expert in mySQL programming.
This is what
I focused on in both
of my previous positions, and was
even the focus of my
academic work before graduating university. I consider
myself an expert in mySQL and it’s a
skill I hope to continue specializing in.”
“Since beginning
my career, I’ve wanted to work for a larger
organization in this industry, and I
know you’re one of the leaders in this space.
I’m very interested in your services,
especially the mobile
applications you’re building
recently, so I’d be excited to come here and grow my skills with an
organization like yours.”
5. Why should we hire you?
Try to talk about them and how we’ll help them.
What will be better for them if they hire us?
What will we improve for them?
And show we’ve done our research.
Make it clear that we know what this position
involves, and we’re ready to
perform the tasks.
Good answer sample:
“I read on the
job description that you’re looking for someone with experience in software
programming. I’ve done that for 3 years and can immediately help you accomplish software programming”.
6. Why are you looking to leave your current company?
If we chose to leave on our own terms, stay positive and focus on what
we wanted to gain from the decision, rather than
bad-mouthing or focusing on negatives we wanted to avoid.
Good answer sample:
“I was hired for a project
management role, but over time that changed
and I was no longer being given the opportunity to do
the work I was interested in.
I left to pursue an opportunity that I felt was more aligned with what I’ve chosen to focus on in
my career.”
7. What are your greatest professional strengths?
Answer it well and it’s one of the best ways we can show off our skills
and show that we stand out among other candidates.
Choose 1 to 3 attributes we want to mention (depending on whether the question asks for one strength or multiple) and cap it
there.
We’ll want to think strategically about what skills
will position us as qualified for the job and
a good fit for the company.
Does the position require
client interaction? Communication and relationship building
makes sense.
Or
if the environment is fast paced
and constantly evolving our ability
to multitask, adapt, and
learn quickly would be good to highlight.
Good answer sample:
“I think some of my greatest
strengths are my communication skills
and willingness to take
initiative.
During my last internship,
when I was helping to manage several social media accounts, I made sure that everyone on the team was on the same page and knew what our messaging
strategy was by taking the
initiative to send out a weekly email to keep the team up to date and to seek feedback.
This ended up being so helpful
that the weekly
social media update
was incorporated into a full- time staff member’s
responsibilities.”
8. Tell me about
a challenge or conflict you've
faced at work, and
how you dealt with it.
Focus on a specific
work-related challenge and talk about
how we overcame obstacles, used it as a learning experience, used the
resources around us (including people/colleagues if applicable), and ended up
with a positive result!
That’s how to answer
this interview question.
Keep it work related, not personal.
Good answer sample:
“In my last job, we were facing a tough deadline
and my boss was out for the day. Our client
was expecting a project to be delivered by 5PM, but we were far behind
schedule.
I took the lead on the project, delegated
tasks to the four other team members
in a way that I thought would utilize everyone’s
strengths best.
And then I re-organized my own personal tasks so I could dedicate
my entire day to contributing to this project as well.
The project
was a success and we delivered the work on-time.
I went on to lead more projects
after that, and used what I learned to be a better project manager.”
9. How much money are you looking to earn?
Unfortunately this question is left off of many lists of job interview
questions and answers examples.
But it’s extremely important and the wrong answer here can cost us thousands of dollars in the
negotiation later on.
Stand our ground and tell
them we don’t have a number in mind
yet, or aren’t sure.
Good answer sample:
“Right now I’m focused
on finding a job that’s
the right fit for my
career.
Once I’ve done that, I’m willing
to consider an offer you feel is fair, but I do not have a specific number in mind yet, and my
priority is to find a position that’s a great fit for me.”
10.
Why do you want to
work here?
This is very similar to the question: “Why did you apply for
this position?”
Show them that we know what that their job involves
(at least as much as we could learn from
the job description and company website), and that we’re excited to be
interviewing for this position.
Good answer sample:
“I’ve been actively searching for jobs since graduating with my Nursing degree.
I’m interested in intensive care and emergency medicine and I’ve seen
your hospital mentioned as having one of the best ER’s in the region.
I thought
the job description matched up well with my background, and saw some of my personal strengths mentioned, like
multitasking and being able to thrive in a fast paced environment, so I’d love
to begin my career here.”
11.
What is your dream job?
Career counselors like to think about
good jobs as the intersection of our skills,
interests, and values.
That’s a good way for us to approach it as well. Talking about
our skills will give us an
opportunity to sell them a bit—after all, it's an interview.
Our interests will show our investment, and our values can help illustrate our fit with the
company.
Good answer sample:
"I’ve thought
about this before, and I know I would want to keep honing my skills in ... as well
as learn more about......... "
"In terms of job content, I’m interested in work that involves ... and...... I’ve been curious about
things like this ever since.... ,
so I would definitely want
that to be part of my dream
job."
"Based on my
skills and interests, in my dream
job, I would want to ... as related to... ,
ideally in
a company
where I could ... and..... These are both really important to me, and I’m excited
to see
that they seem to be equally important to this company."
12. Why did you leave
your last job?
If we chose to leave on our own terms, stay positive and focus on what
we wanted to gain from the decision, rather than
bad-mouthing or focusing on negatives we wanted to avoid.
Good answer sample:
“I left for an opportunity to advance my career.”
“My department brought in a new manager and I felt it was
the right time to
leave.”
“I was hired for a certain
role, but over time that changed and I was no longer
being given the opportunity to do the work I was
interested in.”
“I didn’t feel there was an opportunity to grow or advance further
in that role so I decided a change would best for my career.”
“I had been with the organization for a number
of years and wanted to experience a new
environment to continue growing.”
13.
What other
companies are you interviewing with?
Hiring managers are curious
about what other companies we’re
interviewing with for a few reasons.
They might want to scope out the competition, see how serious
we are about the industry, or even gauge their likelihood of landing such a star candidate.
Good answer sample:
If we’re Interviewing for Competitors:
"I do have a couple of interviews coming up
soon with..... for senior marketing positions.
But I can tell you that, based on what I know, this position has exactly the kinds of challenges
I’m looking for in my next role."
If we’re Interviewing in Other Industries:
"I’m interviewing with a few companies for a range of positions, but they all come down to
delivering an excellent customer experience.
I wanted to
keep an open mind about how to best achieve that goal, but so far it seems that
this role will really allow me to focus all of my energy
on customer experience and retention, which I
find very appealing."
If we’re Not Interviewing Anywhere
Else:
"I’m still pretty early in my job search. I’ve applied to a number of
opportunities that will allow me to use my skills in data visualization to help educate
clients, but this position is most exciting to me.
In fact, I think this position
is a particularly good fit for my skill set because I can leverage
my significant experience working with complicated data sets."
14.
What is your greatest weakness?
We never want to say we struggle working
with others, or we’re bad at resolving
disagreements, or taking direction from a manager, etc. Those things
will get us rejected in the interview.
So pick a
specific skill, but pick something that won’t severely impact
our ability to do this job.
Good answer sample:
“I’m not particularly strong
in social media marketing. For the first few years of my career,
I focused entirely on email marketing.
That’s still what I
specialize in, which is why I applied
for your Email Marketing Manager job.
But I’ve realized it’s also helpful
to understand the principles of social media marketing because some of the strategies that work
there also work well in email.
So I’ve started spending
a couple hours a week of
my own time studying and learning this new
area, and it’s helped me a lot.”
15.
What type of work environment do you prefer?
Ideally one that's
similar to the environment of the company
we're applying to. Be specific.
Although most places have a section
on their sites devoted to explaining culture,
they tend to be
filled with phrases like “dedicated to customer satisfaction” and “we encourage our employees to
grow.” That tells us a whole lot of nothing.
16. What's
a time you disagreed with a decision
that was made at work?
Brainstorm a few more questions that could potentially come up based on the position we’re applying for and our particular
situation.
For example, say we tell that story about standing
up to the director of marketing when asked to talk about conflict with a previous
supervisor.
We eloquently move through the
story about how we shared our hesitation about the new marketing campaign
to no avail, but once the initial
numbers came in, it was clear that we were right.
We triumphantly showed the performance to the director, and she agreed
to scrap the campaign.
Good answer sample:
“I learned
early on in my professional career that it’s fine to disagree if you can back up your hunches with data.”
“In short, it’s not that I’m an amazing multitasker; I just set and review my priorities
frequently.”
17.
Where do you see
yourself in 5 years?
Pick a work-related goal of
where we’d like to be five years
from now, and make sure it’s
slightly challenging or ambitious-sounding.
And make sure to share a goal that is related
to the type of job we’re interviewing for. We want to sound like the experience we’ll gain in this job
fits our long-term goals. Good answer sample:
“I’m glad you asked. In five years I see myself taking
on more responsibilities, either through
management or higher level
individual contributions.
I am not sure which path will make sense to pursue, but I know my goal right now is to build a strong foundation and gain valuable
experience so that I’ll have a successful future in this industry.”
18.
Can you explain why you changed career paths?
Have a target audience, and speak directly to it. It's super
important for any job
seeker.
We’re not going to be able to just list out our job history and expect a financial services hiring manager to instantly deduce what we
have to offer.
Instead, we will need to angle all of our messaging in a way that makes it obvious what we’re
trying to achieve, and why we’re heading in that direction.
A good rule of thumb is that, if we’re worried
how a certain position or experience is going to be
perceived on our resume, there’s a good chance that someone is going to make
the exact
conclusion we don’t
want them to make.
That said, we should plan to go on the offense and manage
the message.
For instance, say the moves we’ve made along
the way make we look,
at least on paper, like a bit of a job hopper.
It’s best to add a quick
statement in each section of our resume that briefly explains
the jump.
Think through how we’re going to
present our choices and career path to a potential employer, present them briefly and confidently, and then refocus
the discussion on our commitment to this role and
what we can walk through that company’s doors and deliver.
Good answer sample:
“Following a family relocation to Dallas…” (makes the job switch
obvious) or “After a significant corporate restructure…” (makes
it clear that our job was axed).
19.
Tell Me About a Time You Failed
This is a common interview question
that employers ask to see if we’re able to learn from mistakes and bounce back when things
don’t go our way.
Ideally, talk about how we used
that lesson to get a different outcome next time we were presented with a similar
challenge (e.g. how we turned
a past failure into a future success).
Good answer sample:
“In my most recent position, I had recently
been promoted to Supervisor, and was managing
the department on my own right before the department closed.
An employee
was acting out and I confronted him in front of everybody. It made the situation worse and caused a lot of
distraction for every employee on the floor.
I failed to lead properly in this situation, and spoke to my manager
the next day to discuss what I
could have done differently.
We both agreed that I should
have handled this in-private with the employee,
by asking them to
step inside my office with me.
If I had done this instead
of reacting the way I did, the situation would have turned out much better.
From that point onward,
I am always conscious of whether a discussion with a team member
should occur in public or behind closed doors, and it made me a better leader.”
20.
How would our
boss and co-workers describe you?
This is our chance to use the words
of others to talk about our own positive traits.
Good answer sample:
"Actually, in my most recent performance review in May, my direct supervisor described
me as someone who takes
initiative and doesn’t shy away from hard problems.
My role involves a lot of on-site implementation, and when things
go wrong, it’s usually up to me to fix it.
Rather than punting the problem back to the team, I always try to do what I can first. I know she
appreciates that about me."
"One thing I’ve noticed
is that I’m always the one people
turn to for recommendations on how to handle a new event or program—the
latest fundraiser that I just told you about would be one.
I have a lot of institutional knowledge, which helps, but I think the reason people come to me is because I work through what a new
program might look like very methodically.
If you were to ask my colleagues, I’m confident they’d describe me as logical,
organized, and meticulous."
"I don’t want to speak for anyone
else, but I’m pretty confident my colleagues would describe me as thoughtful I’m the one in the office
who remembers everyone’s birthdays—and hard-working, since I never leave my
office until it’s been dark out for a couple of hours.
My boss in particular would say I’m very knowledgeable about audience development it’s why I kept taking on more and more
responsibilities in that domain."
21.
How do you
deal with pressure or stressful
situations?
A great approach is to talk through our go-to stress-reduction tactics (making the world's greatest to-do list, stopping to take 10
deep breaths), and then share an example of a stressful situation you navigated
with ease.
The thing people assume
about these questions is that they’re
all about the story. And it's a critical component.
But even if our story isn’t exactly what the interview question asked for, if it’s framed well and
we go the extra mile to tell the interviewer what he or she should take away
from it, we’ll actually end up making a stronger impression.
So, don’t stress too much about having the perfect stories
lined up or the exact
relevant
experience. Instead,
focus on the messages we’re trying to communicate to the hiring
manager, and back them up with the stories that we have.
22.
If you were an animal, which one would you want
to be?
Seemingly random personality-test type questions like these come up in interviews generally because hiring managers want to
see how we can think on our feet.
There's no wrong answer
here, but we'll immediately gain bonus points if our answer helps we
share our strengths or personality or connect with the hiring manager.
Since this question almost never have a “right” answer, the key to responding well is mostly about answering enthusiastically
and coherently - not what the content of our answer is.
If being funny comes naturally to us, this is a great outlet to use some SFW humor. (If it doesn’t, now’s probably not a good time to
start working on it.)
Once we’ve shown that we’re game and excited
to tackle new problems,
we’ve won half the battle.
Come up with a stalling
tactic to buy ourself some thinking time, such as saying,
“Now, that is a
great question. I think I would have to say… ”
23.
What do you
think we could do better or differently?
No matter what role we’re interviewing for (engineering, sales,
marketing) we should
always use the product before
our first interview (and ideally, a few times).
If hired, our goal will be to create value for the people who use that product,
and being a user
ourself is the first step.
Doing this will also help us determine whether
we can be passionate about the
company and product as well
as convey that passion to our interviewer.
Now that we’re familiar with the product, be ready with ideas
for how we’d like to improve it in
our role.
What new features would we be
most excited to build? How would we engage users (or re-engage existing ones)? How
could the company increase conversions?
How could customer service be improved?
When we’re interviewing
with a start-up, our goal is
to ensure that the job is a great
fit for us, and to convey that to our interviewer as well.
When we do, we’ll be in a better position
to negotiate our offer and get started
once we accept it—full of ideas on ways to hit
the ground running.
24. Are
you planning on having children?
Any questions related to our family status are technically illegal, but employers often ask them to
get a read on our future commitment to the job and company.
Tailor our answer to speak to that concern,
gracefully avoid the illegal part of the question, and turn the conversation back to our
job-related strengths.
This answer
sample assures the interviewer that we’re committed
to our professional growth, but doesn’t promise them anything in
terms of our future—and lets us steer the conversation back to a job-related
topic.
Good answer sample:
“You know, I’m not quite there yet. But I am very interested in the career
paths at your company.
Can you tell me more about that?”
25.
What do you
like to do outside of work?
If someone asks about our hobbies outside
of work, it’s totally OK to open up and share what really makes we tick.
(Do keep it semi-professional, though: Saying we like to have a few beers at the local hot spot on Saturday night is fine. Telling them
that Monday is usually a rough day for us because we’re always hungover is
not.)
It goes without saying
that we should
find out everything we can about
our potential place of
employment ahead of time.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the company’s website and blog all provide
us with information that will
help we go to a job interview confident and prepared.
Before we go, try to find out
who we’ll be meeting
with, whether it’s an HR representative, our would-be boss, or the CEO.
Why? our interview answers and
conversation topics should vary based on the person we're speaking with, and by knowing who we'll be talking to, we can spend time thinking through
how we might connect with each of these people.
26.
What are your salary requirements?
Unfortunately this question is left off of many lists of job interview
questions and answers samples.
But it’s extremely important, and the wrong answer here can cost us thousands of dollars in the
negotiation later on.
They do not know if we’re any good or if they even want to hire us.
So we can’t command
a high salary right now. If we go too low with our price,
they’ll hold us to
it later.
Go too high?
We’ll scare them off before they even know what we’re worth! Stand our ground and tell them
we don’t have a number
in mind yet, or aren’t sure. Good answer sample:
“Right now I’m focused on finding a job that’s the right
fit for my career.
Once I’ve done that, I’m willing
to consider an offer you feel is fair, but I do not have a specific number in mind yet, and my
priority is to find a position that’s a great fit for me.”
27.
Do you have
any questions for us?
Do not ask about
salary, benefits, time off, or anything that isn’t related
to the work. Wait for them to bring it up, or until we know they want
to offer us the position.
If we don’t ask good questions to
each person we speak with, we're
very unlikely to get hired.
Good answer sample:
“Yes, I have a couple of questions actually. The first thing I wanted to ask: is this a newly- created position, or did somebody hold this role in the past? And if so, what did that person go on to do after this position?”