Business

9 common interview questions – and how to answer them

Staff Writer

 ·25 Jun 2017

While prospective employees are often stressed about being unable to an interview question, being able to successfully answer the most basic of questions is often much more important, according to a new report by Glassdoor.

While there is no way to answer these questions perfectly, Glassdoor noted that being prepared for these questions will already give you a step-up over other prospective hires.

1. Where do you see yourself in five years?

• While it’s difficult to think about where you want it’s important for interviewers to understand where you want to take your career, said Glassdoor.
• Explain what your plans to contribute to the company would be if you were to land the role.
• Focusing on your efforts to improve yourself over the next five years is a good way to show employers that you’re ready to grow with them. Are you willing to put in the time and effort to further your education? How would you implement a plan to be successful?

2. If you were the CEO, how would you start your day?

• This is not a “trick question” but is rather an interviewer method to gauge your thought process, said Glassdoor.
• It’s about thinking a response out loud, coming to a conclusion, and showing how you think critically and solve problems,” said Susan Underwood, Glassdoor’s Global Head of Recruiting & Talent Acquisition.
• “A good response would be something like: ‘Well, for every CEO, it will be different,but depending on what’s most important to business, the bottom line or what’s going on that day, that’s likely what the CEO should be checking first, so it will likely vary by day. For me, I would check what is of highest priority first at that given time and respond accordingly.’

3. What are your weaknesses?

• Here’s the most important key to answering this question: always be honest.
• Honestly recognizing a fault and showing what steps you’ve taken to improve upon this weakness demonstrates that you have the ability to look at yourself in a critical manner, fix your mistakes, and move forward.
• “Employers will see beyond the weakness you’ve mentioned and see the important steps you’re taking to better yourself,” said Glassdoor.

4. How would you handle a crisis at work?

• This question is often presented by interviewers who want to get a sense of your personality and how you resolve challenges – especially if the company or field you’re seeking to work in is high-pressure.
• “Know how to juggle multiple tasks and find what needs the most attention first and address it,” said Underwood. Walk through a few problem-solving steps that you have taken in your current role and expound upon those.

5. What are your strengths?

• This is a common question that can be asked in many different ways. Being prepared with a list of strengths that you want to discuss can have you prepared to answer many forms of “What are your strengths?”.
• Once you have an idea of what skills will be beneficial to this position, find strong action verbs to best describe yourself. Give specific examples to show how these strengths have contributed to the growth and well-being of previous companies or how you would implement them in this position.

6. Why do you want to leave your current company?

• This questions requires an element of caution says Glassdoor.
•  Don’t blurt out the first negative comment about your current manager who you think has it out for you. It’s always a good rule to stay positive in an interview, even if you want to tell your current boss to take this job and shove it.

7. Would your work holidays and weekends?

• “Again, tread lightly with this one. Often times, we are so eager to get a job that we’ll commit to anything, but be sure you can deliver on your promises,” said Glassdoor.
• Conversely, just because a recruiter or hiring manager asks you whether you would work holidays and weekends, does not mean you’ll spend every Saturday night in your cubile.
• Use this question as an opportunity to show that you’re a team player, willing to fill in when needed.

8. If you were a fruit, what kind would you be and why?

• According to Glassdoor, employers that challenging interview questions can help them learn more about a job candidate, and in some cases, help them sort through a great candidate versus a good candidate.
• “If you have three final candidates for a job and all of them are great on paper, how they answer and respond to a tough or challenging question can give the interviewer some added perspective into how they solve unexpected problems, which arise in almost any job at any employer.”

9. Why do you want this job?

• This is a question where you can show off just how much prep work you put into this interview.
• Researching a company, job description, and employer will help you be able to authentically answer this question. Wanting to join a company because of attributes that weren’t specifically stated by the employer will show motivation.

Read: How to write a CV that gets past a company’s automated filtering systems