When it comes to interviews, preparation is key.
Preparation starts with researching the company and the interviewers and learning everything you can about both. After that, the next step is to try to anticipate the kind of questions you will be asked and plan out how you will answer them.
While every interview with involve some different questions depending on the interviewer and the position, there are certain questions that tend to come up often. Having a plan for answering these questions will give you a leg up going in.
Here are some common interview questions and how to go about answering them.
- Tell me about yourself.
Interviewers often begin the interview with this seemingly informal and open-ended question. Resist the temptation to go on a long rambling speech relaying your entire life story. Instead, the best way to answer this question is to give a short, succinct, one or two sentence response that hits your strongest qualities and sets the stage for the rest of the interview. Think of it as an elevator pitch selling your own personal brand.
- What is your greatest strength?
This is another common question interviewers ask, and it provides you a great opportunity to run through your strongest skills and experience. Make sure you connect the skill to the particular position and explain how your strength will allow you to succeed and be an asset for the company.
- What is your greatest weakness?
This question may seem difficult to answer at first, but there are actually a few different approaches you can take. You can try to highlight a skill that you lack but that is not essential for the position you are interviewing for. You can talk about a skill that you used to lack but have improved on. You can also try to turn a negative into a positive by, for example, saying you have a sense of urgency to complete projects as soon as you get them or a need to triple-check everything.
Describe a difficult situation and how you overcame it.
The best way to answer this question is to a give a concrete example of a work-related situation that you dealt with and were able to overcome. Be