Collected from various resources including FYICenter
- General Tips
- Common Questions
- "Tell me about yourself."
- "What are your greatest strengths?"
- "What are your greatest weaknesses?"
- "I'm concerned you're overqualified for this position."
- "I'm concerned you're under-qualified for this position."
- "Why should we hire you?"
- "Describe your ideal company, location, and job."
- "What are your priorities or goals for your next position?"
- "Tell me about something you did, or failed to do, that you regret."
- "Tell me about a time that you had a disagreement over a product decision. How did you resolve the disagreement?"
- "Tell me about a time when your work was criticized or rejected. How did you receive the feedback? How did you use this feedback to improve your work?"
- "Tell me about a time that you could've performed better in a prior position. Why do you think you under-performed? What could the company have done better? What could you have done better?"
Do your homework! You should walk into an interview knowing as much as you can about the company, the interviewer, and the position.
While interviewing, it's easy to get nervous and overthink what our next response will be, so be attentive and remember the keys to active listening:
- Pay attention. Take a moment between their commentary and your response. Use body language to convey attentiveness, such as eye contact and nodding. When using video chats, look directly at their video; hide your self-view if necessary.
- Withhold judgment or assumptions. Listen for points that may conflict with your assumptions about the position.
- Reflect and clarify. Paraphrase talking points that stood out to you and provide clarifying questions, such as, "If I understood you correctly... it sounds like you feel... What do you think about... Can you expound on this point?"
- Summarize. Restate key points and themes from their point of view, framing your intention and asking if you missed anything, such as, "To make sure I understand, my takeaway is... Did I get that right?"
This question often leads to a trap of long-winded, rambling exposés regarding our personal and professional life. To avoid this, before answering this question, ask for a more complete description of the role and responsibilities, which will allow to you tailor your answer to your interviewers' priorities. For example:
"I have a rather robust professional history and a number of accomplishments I would like to share, but I want to make the best use of our time together and speak directly to my relevant experience. To help me do that, could you tell me more about what you believe to be the biggest priorities of this position?"
Using tenets of active listening, it helps to drill down into the interviewers core wants and needs, and only then can you effectively highlight the personal and professional experience that will feel relevant and important to acknowledge during your limited time.