Job Interview Questions

There is no right or wrong answers to job interview questions. What determines a candidate's suitability for a position hugely depend the manner in which the candidate present his/her answers at the interview. Although there are varieties of questions asked by the interviewers, this will mainly depend on the profession and role being interviewd for. Job interview questions are not designed to be exhaustive or ambiguos, they are designed to reveal a candidate's strenghts, weaknesses, potentials and perhaps candidate's capability.

It's highly reccommended that applicants prepare extremely well for their interviews so as not to be caught unaware by the interviewer's questions. As such, extensive research about the organisation being applied for should be conducted. For instance, with regards to finance/ accounting positions, candidates must be capable of finding out the company's background and history, company's products and services, strategic position, strategic options and most importantly current legislations affecting the organisation ability to be profitable thus, growth. In addition, canditate's should be capable of analysing the company's cashflow statements, income statements and balance sheets and jot down any questions they might have to ask at the end of the interview.

Generally we find people fretting because they always land up somewhere where they never wanted to go. People may have the requisite skills and the required qualification but they still squander into oblivion. People prepare for years but their fate is decided in just few minutes. The reason why a person is not able to get his dream job is because of his inability to influence the interviewer and convince him about his suitability for the job. One needs to always keep in mind that giving interview is nothing but selling oneself. There are various job interview questions which are generally asked and one should prepare it thoroughly. However while answering; the answer should not appear as rehearsed.

Some of the common job interview questions are: tell something about yourself, your educational qualification, expected salary, your work experience and so on. These questions are quite straight forward and easy to handle. But there are some tricky questions like why were you fired, how will you handle someone who is senior to you in age, what would you do if you have to report against a friend, cite an incident when you had to be tough with a co-worker, how would feel if someone junior to you has been promoted, how would you deal with your boss if he is arrogant, how would you explain a complex technical stuff to a non-technical audience, tell any incident when you failed to deliver, if your boss asks you to compromise with your ethics what would you do, if you get a better opportunity somewhere else would you quit this job, will you have difficulty if all your co-workers are of opposite sex and so on. These job interview questions are meant for testing the candidate’s mettle and his presence of mind.

There are various questions which have been made illegal. Deciding any candidate’s suitability on the basis of birthplace, disability, race and religion and other things which hurt the candidate’s sentiments are not allowed. There are various job interview questions which are meant to test the candidate’s depth of knowledge. Questions based on the candidate’s educational qualifications, his subject knowledge, his ability to use his theoretical knowledge for practical purpose, his problem solving abilities etc are asked. Sometimes a candidate is given some puzzles to solve. Questions related to test the candidate’s ability to work in a team is tested. Candidates are asked to describe such incidents were he took initiative to lead a team. Questions on his interpersonal skills are also asked. A question such as how do you handle stress, tries to explore a candidate’s ability of handling a situation effectively. Sometimes a candidate may be asked whether stress is good for him or bad for him. While dealing with such questions a candidate should be open minded and speak up his heart.

Points To Note When Answering Job Interview questions

  1. When answering interviewer's question, ensure your answers are presented in a manner that provides solution to the organisation's problems.

  2. Ensure your answers are short, precise and relevant to the question asked also giving practical examples.

  3. Always relate real life senarios to your answers

  4. Give your answers with confidence