Interview Answers to Popular Job Interview Questions

Every job interview features two broad categories of questions:

(1) Questions specific to the role, and
(2) General questions.

We have compiled a list of some of the general/popular questions and have given advice on each.

Remember one thing though – no matter how good you are, you must not slouch, fidget, look distracted or appear over-eager while answering any question at an interview.

Instead maintain a calm, confident and positive appearance and answer the questions honestly.

Here are the general questions and their answers:

"Tell us more about yourself".

Reconcile your personality with the skills required for the job and then answer the question honestly. Basically, the interviewer wants to know how you are tailored for the job and whether you have it in you to deliver the goods over the medium-long term. So before going for the interview, research and understand the skills needed and honestly put across your take on why you consider yourself the right person for the job.

"How well do you work in teams?"

Most jobs are successfully accomplished only by team effort and all organizations look to hire team players. You must extract the best "team" moments from your past job/s experience/s and convince the interviewer how you have achieved success in the past working with teams. If you are being interviewed for a senior position, then you have to mention how you have motivated teams in the past to achieve excellent results for past employer/s.

"Talk about your strengths and weaknesses".

This is a show-and-tell question. Talk about your best skills, whip out your e-portfolio (or print portfolio) and display the evidence of all your hard work. Here you must talk about your strengths that reconcile with the demands of the current job. As far as weaknesses go, you have to be honest and because if the employer gets the feeling you're hiding something, he won't hire you. However, after describing a weakness, you should also add how you can overcome adversity and convert it into opportunity.

"How do you handle deadlines and the stress associated with them?"

Stress is everywhere and you have likely encountered stressful situations in your job. There's no other way but to tell the employer honestly how you have tackled stress in the workplace in the past and how do you propose to tackle it going ahead.

"Why do you consider yourself the best person for the job?"

Well this is subtle sales pitch time. State your case confidently and calmly. Add whatever you have researched to your experience and apply it to real-life work situations you are likely to encounter and offer your solutions and ideas. If your replies carry weight and your solutions are creative and practical, you will get the job.

"Do you have any questions to ask?"

Candidates, who don't ask any questions of the employer are perceived to be lacking initiative and motivation, so research the job and the history of the company and pose intelligent questions about them.

We have another 32 sample interview questions here together with 32 sample interview answers. There’s also advice on answering interview questions properly.