How do you prepare for a job interview? Part 2
Interview Questions That You Will Be Asked
During your job interview, it’s guaranteed that you’re going to be asked many interview questions that will directly influence whether you get the job or not. Answering interview questions is not rocket science, but it’s important to remember two key facts:
Answer The Question
Make sure that you answer the interviewers question. It’s okay to use examples within your answer, but make sure within the first few sentences you have answered their question.
The biggest complaint that you will get from hiring managers is that the candidate did not answer the question that was being asked and tried to answer every possible question within their single answer.
Hiring Managers Want the Truth, but You Can Say Too Much
Yes, they want the truth, but often the real truth will get you in trouble. A great example of this is the answer to the question, why did you leave your job?
We all know, there’re three reasons why a candidate leaves their job. They don’t like their boss, they’re bored, or they want to be paid more.
- Telling the hiring manager how badly your boss treated you, only says that you’re a complainer who is going to cause them problems.
- Telling the hiring manager how bored you are in your job, only says that you’ll likely be bored in this job after a year and leave with all the time and effort that I have invested in you going elsewhere.
- Telling the hiring manager you want be to paid more, only says that you’re going to leave when a better job with more money comes along.
All three reasons maybe the truth, but neither will get you the job.
Please Prepare Answers to These Three Questions
Below are three job interview questions that you’re guaranteed to be asked at your next job interview. If you don’t prepare any other answers to interview questions, make sure that you have a good answer to these three.
Tell Me About Yourself
After your interview has started and you’ve had a few minutes of chit-chat, you are likely to be asked the question “tell me about yourself.” Why? This is a natural ice-breaker that interviewers use to find out a large amount of information in a short period. The perfect answer to this question should be a short two-to-three minute presentation of your career and key achievements.
Our advice is to prepare a short presentation about yourself, the highlights of your career, your achievements and finish up with a sensible question, such as, “would you like me to go into further details about any specific part of my career.”
Describe Your Experience
Before you’re offered the position, the hiring manager will want to find out the status of your knowledge and how much help they’re going to need to give you to get you up to speed. Ultimately, hiring managers are looking for people that will make them look good in front of their manager by taking a portion of their workload and doing a good job.
When a candidate makes a mess of their job interview, it’s typically because they have fallen into two key areas. Firstly they’ve not answered the question being asked, and secondly, they have bent the truth and use words such as “we did” or “we achieved.”
Hiring managers want to know what you personally were responsible for and what your personal achievements were. As a final point when answering interview questions, we would always recommend that you use examples to back up your accomplishments.
If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t try and make something up. Hiring managers will see straight through this. However, they will also appreciate you trying to answer the question as long as you’re honest. “I don’t know the answer, but an educated guess would suggest that….”, could be a great answer to a question where you don’t know the answer.
Why Did You Leave Your Last Job? or Why Do You Want To Leave Your Job?
Every interviewer will want to know why you’re leaving your role or why you have already left your job. The question gives hiring managers a very clear look at your values and what you’re like as a person. Can they count on you to perform or are you just going to leave when a better opportunity comes along.
It’s much easier to answer this question when you already have a job. As a result, it’s highly recommended that you find a new job before you resign from your old job.
- If You Want To Leave Your Job – We would always recommend that you remain positive but explain that you need a new challenge. If you focus on what you’ve learned, your achievements and personal developments while mentioning that you need a new challenge, you’re telling the interviewer that they can count on you to get results.
- If You Have Already Left – You’re in for a much tougher time as hiring managers and recruiters will dig much deeper to find out the real truth. Everyone fears that you’ve been sacked because you cannot do your job correctly. My advice in this situation is to remain calm, admit your mistakes, tell the interviewer what you’ve learned from your mistakes and do not blame or speak badly of other people.