Notes About Business

Want to know the secret to standing out in your interview? It’s giving the best answers to common interview questions. How you handle these can make or break your job interview. The secret is being prepared. Here are five common interview questions and how to answer them, so you stand out from the crowd.

Common interview questions are what are you major strengths or weaknesses. Remember to stay positive and upbeat. This is easy to accomplish with the strengths interview question. However, with the weakness interview question – try to turn your weakness into a strength and keep your chances alive.

Tell me about yourself. This is a tricky interview question for a lot of people. You don’t want to sound egotistical, but you have to sell yourself. It’s best to prepare a short statement in advance covering you’re accomplishments and future goals. Then, memorize and rehearse your statement out loud either in front of a mirror or video camera. It’s also a good idea to practice on a friend or spouse and get their feedback.

Why did you leave or want to leave your most current job? The secret to this common interview question is to stay positive and be honest. No matter how much you’re tempted, don’t say anything negative about previous employers. If you were let go from your last job, don’t lie. When they do a reference check they’re likely to find out. It’s better they hear it from you up front. When they ask what happened, tell your story in the best possible way for yourself as you can, and no matter what, stay positive about your previous employer.

Describe a time when you handled …[this problem]. This competency based interview style question is becoming increasingly common and you must be prepared for them. Select 2 or 3 examples of your work that you could use to sell a number of the required essential and desirable criteria through.

How would your work colleagues describe you? I would suggest that you use stories to respond to this question. You need to develop these in your interview preparation stage. In the story talk about how another colleague would describe you. By using stories, the interview panel will be tempted to “suspend their disbelief” and will assume that the quotes that you use are truthful

So to summarise – if you keep a positive and enthusiastic outlook, remain truthful and prepare in advance, your chances of interview success will dramatically improve