How to prepare for the most
common interview questions
Even for a jobseeker who has
attended many interviews in their lifetime, interviews can still be stressful.
Ensure you are prepared for any eventuality with these common questions.
EURES
The best way to help you impress the interviewers
is to be prepared and practice answering to questions that appear time and time
again.
Why do you want this job?
This is one of the most predictable questions and
is also one of the most important. You need to demonstrate that you have
researched the employer and tie your knowledge of them into the skills and
interests that led you to apply.
What can you do?
Questions focusing on competency will require you
to use specific situations from your life, education and work experience as
examples. You should explain why you have made certain decisions, how you
implemented these decisions and why certain outcomes took place. Employers
believe that the best way to find out about a potential employee’s future performance
is to find out about examples of past performance. Questions of this type can
be: Explain a situation when you worked in a team; describe a difficult work
situation and how you found a solution; or, tell me about a time when you
excelled in your work. Use the STAR method to help answer these types of
questions: Situation, Task, Action, and Result.
What are your
strengths/weaknesses?
Don’t deny you have weaknesses; it’s a good idea to
choose a weakness that you have worked on to improve and describe what action
you are taking to remedy the weakness. Your strengths allow you to tell the
interviewer your Unique Selling Points (USPs) and reiterate why they should
hire you. Back up your strengths with examples to paint a fuller picture.
Any questions?
It is essential that you ask your interviewer a few
questions at the end of the interview. This will show them that you are
interested in the job and themselves. Ask about the work itself, training and
career development: but avoid questions about things already stated in the job
advertisement, or questions about holidays or pensions, which, if you are
successful, you will find out about soon enough.