Are you appearing for an interview? Whatever the post you are appearing for or whatever the skill set that is needed, there are some common questions that you can expect in an interview. In this article, we present you the most common interview questions with a detailed explanation of how to answer them. Along with that, we present some of the known intentions of the interviewer behind each of the questions. You can use these points in tailoring the answer.
We also provide guidelines to prepare your own answers for these questions, so that they would be unique and reflect your personality. We recommend it. Try writing your own answer for each of the below questions. The answer we provide should be considered as an example. Use it for only improving your answer.
Once you have prepared a draft version of these questions and answers, try practicing with one of your serious friends, to simulate the interview. During each simulation, you would find some areas for improvement. Make the necessary improvements and get prepared with these interview questions.
Common Interview Questions
Q1 - Tell us about yourself.
This is the most expected question in an interview while you may not find the obvious answer. Avoid telling about your biodata. The interviewer is not interested to know about your hobbies or your family history. Start with where you are from. Then go to the higher education you have done. If you have a prior experience, tell the interviewer about it. Do not tell all of your previous work experiences. Stick to the skill set of the job that you are now applying for. If you have done some certifications that are related to the required skill set, then mention them.
Continue with this information for about a couple of minutes or three.
The intention of the interview could be one or some of these:
- Asses how energetic, enthusiastic and constructive you are about presenting yourself.
- Briefly get an idea of how your education, previous experience or certifications that you mentioned would suit the job.
- Really wanted to know about you. (the last and the least expected )
Q2 - What do you know about this company?
The interviewer is really interested in knowing how seriously are you taking this job. Or if you consider this job just like any other one!
Do an extensive research about the company or organization.
Following are some of the details that you have to look for about the company:
- Founder or Co-founders.
- Vision and Mission statements.
- Which sectors the company is targetting. Ex: Mobile, Banking, Automobiles, etc.
- Products and Services the company provides.
- Any awards that the company has been awarded.
- The work culture of the company.
- Technologies the company has been using in their products.
If you could get a chance to interact with some of the existing employers of the company, ask about values the company try to follow; ask about the technologies it is trying to bet on, the team structure for a project, etc.
Q3 - What are your strengths?
This is the most tricky as well as an easy question for the interviewer to assess your personality.
Too much boasting about yourself can give an impression of self-centric and egoistic.
Too much humility can give an impression of less-confident and underperformance.
You have to strike a balance between both. Understand the skill set required for the job, and prepare the points accordingly.
The points you prepare should cover scenarios or examples related to the following items. Whether you are a fresher or an experienced employee, you have to find some experiences of yours that cover these qualities.
- Quality of the project
- Punctuality
- Leadership skills
- Ability to take important decisions
- Working under pressure
For the quality of the project, you can give an example that in a previous project of yours, when the target performance was 90%, you achieved a performance of 93% and that you got appreciation from management and client side.
For punctuality, you can explain how you followed the project timelines, despite sometimes the timelines being stringent.
You may add one or two of your extra circular strengths like dancing, singing on a lighter note.
Give some examples of crisis situations that your team faced, and how you showed your leadership skills and motivated the team to get the project work on the track.
Q4 - What are your weaknesses?
These are the weaknesses that relate to work and your professional job. You may not have any weaknesses. But try mentioning one or two that you faced in your previous employment and not dealing with the present required skill set. These weaknesses should appeal to the interview in such a way that they are of no hindrance to the current position you are being hired for.
Try avoiding telling that you get angry, or short-tempered, or get upset if the project is not on track, etc. It may give a signal that you cannot work under pressure. Whatever the question the interviewer is firing, never give a scenario or example that presents a negative vibe on your personality.
Q5 - Why should we hire you?
This is a common interview question asked to freshers or the ones who are applying for their first job.
Moto behind this question is that how eager you are to join the company.
Do not go deep into technical aspects. Keep it simple and stick to your fundamental qualities. Show willingness and eagerness that you would like to start your career as early as possible. Do not sound that you are desperate. Keep the eagerness levels to a moderate level.
Tell that you like the mission and vision of the company and are in alignment with your ideal values for an organization.
Also, tell that you made homework about the company. The work culture, code of conduct followed by the company are excellent.
For freshers, there may not be any previous work scenarios that could be explained to the interviewer. Tell that you have a good professional attitude in your personality that could transform into the development of the company.
This is for you. Explore about what a right professional attitude is.
Make interviewer believe that you are here not just for money, but to be successful in your career by giving your 120% of your hard work, time and efforts.
Q6 - Why do you want this job?
You need to explain how you could bring value to the company or the organization. Also, you need to explain how you could benefit yourself with the new challenges.
Q7 - Why did you leave your previous job?
Tell about your achievements in the previous organization. Tell how you helped them grow and how they helped you grow professionally. Explain that you are looking forward to associating with a more niche organization of your interests.
Q8 - Give us some scenarios where you found differences with your supervisor?
Do not tell that you never had any differences with your supervisor. It is OK to have some that bring good to the project. Tell that they are some differences and all are project related. And they lead to more in-depth discussions which brought more value to the project.