Common Second Or Final Interview Questions & How To Answer Them

Congratulations! You made it past your first interview. Perhaps you even made it through several rounds and have made the final cut. This means you are doing something right in your interviews and is certainly something worth celebrating!

However, be careful not to mistakenly think you can now relax. In fact, this is where the stakes get higher because now the recruiters are deciding between their top best candidates. 

What’s happening in these final stage interviews is different to what was happening in the beginning introductory ones. In the first interviews the recruiters are just trying to get to know you, establish that you are qualified to do the job and give you a good impression of their company. However, now they need to make a final decision, choosing one qualified candidate over another, and so you may find these later interviews to be less relaxed and friendly as the first, as they will be scrutinizing you much more, fact checking you, and ensuring your work style is best suited to their team and organization. 

As such, it is increasingly important for you to understand how best to stand out among any other candidates (even if you are the only one*) and be selected for the role.  

*Even if you are confident of being the only candidate at this point, it's not unheard of for recruiters to suddenly introduce a new candidate or even delay decision making to give themselves time to find new candidates to interview. So never assume the job is yours and that the interview is just a formality.

Here are some common areas worth preparing for, with their associated questions, that interviewers will be looking to assess:

1. Professional background & experience:

Despite having been asked this already in previous rounds, be prepared to have to go through your professional background once again, especially if you are meeting with new stake holders. Remember to keep your answers brief, talking about what you feel is most important and relevant to the job you’re interviewing for, and staying away from personal unrelated information. In your answer, you may want to cover relevant positions you’ve held, key career moves you’ve made and why, big accomplishments you've made, and key projects you've worked on. You may want to begin your answer with your personal branding statement and end by explaining what you're looking for next in your career. 

Questions you may expect within this category are:

• Can you walk me through your resume?
• What can you tell me about yourself?
• What have been your key responsibilities and accomplishments over the past few years?
• What were you responsible for in your last job?
• What was your greatest achievement?
• What did a typical day at your previous job look like?
• How did you measure job performance in the past?

2. Skillset and technical abilities:

Be prepared to also deep dive into your skills and abilities even if you have already been asked about these in the earlier stages of the interview process. You may want to think about an area you’re trying to get better in, making sure it’s not an area that’s crucial to the job itself, and be ready with examples of how you’re working to improve in this.  

Questions worth preparing for in this category include:

• What are your strengths and what do you need to improve?
• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
• What do you need to improve on?

3. Long term potential (assessed through knowledge of the company & motivation for wanting to work there):

Asides from needing someone who is qualified for the role, the recruiters will want to ensure they are hiring someone who is motivated to stay with them for the long term, so as to make any time, energy and money they invest into onboarding & training you worthwhile. As such, they will be testing the depth of your understanding regarding what they do and looking for signs of genuine interest and alignment of values. So be sure to review the job description and think about one or two reasons that you would enjoy the position, and how it fits in with your career goals.

Questions you may be asked in this category are:

• Why do you want to work here?
• What do you know about the company?
• What are you looking for in your next position?
• Why are you interested in this particular job?
• What are your career goals?
• Where do you see yourself in a few years?
• What drives you and motivates you in general?
• Why did you leave your last job?
• Why are you looking to leave your current position?

4. Cultural fit (as per your behaviors, workstyle and personality):

Recruiters will likely be wanting to deep dive into your behaviors and personality to establish if you will be a good cultural fit for the team and their company. This means they will want to know if you will be easy to work with and how you will fit in with the team and management style if you are hired. To prepare for this category, known as behavioral questions, you may want to research the employer and determine what type of environment they seem to offer, then try to give an answer that shows you’ll fit in. For the most part, there are no right and wrong answers in this category. Just stick to the truth while showing you have self awareness and a growth mindset. Structure your answers according to the CARL framework (or something similar), in which you share a relevant experience by describing the context, any actions you took and why, the results of that action, and anything you learnt from it. 

Questions you may be asked include:

• What type of work environment do you prefer?
• How do you make decisions?
• Tell me about a time you had to make a quick decision without all of the necessary info?
• How do you handle conflicts in general/or at work?
• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a coworker. How did you handle it?
• Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure at work. How did you handle it?
• How do you handle stress?
• Tell me about a time when you failed. What happened?
• How would your past coworkers describe you?
• What is your leadership style?
• Are you a leader or a follower?
• Describe your ideal boss.

5. Clarity on your value offer.

Being that this stage of the process is usually a time in which a decision is being made between 1 or 2 top, qualified candidates, it's very important for you to be clear on what value you specifically can contribute to the organization and team you are looking to join. Consider here what is the pain point they are looking for you to address, or the solution you need to be providing, then be sure to address which of your key strengths and experiences position you best to do this. 

A key question you can expect to be asked in this category is:

• What makes you a better candidate than any other?

If you want additional guidance on how to prepare for an interview or any other aspect of the job seeking process, please feel free to:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn & DM me for a free 30 minute consultation or to book a coaching session with me,
• Follow my business page and/or join my FB community for more tips & resources on how to get hired and find a fulfilling job,
• Download my Interview Preparation Toolkit, which includes a list of example questions, questions by category, tips and a workbook,
• Sign up for my 2 week interview preparation program.

You may also want to read:

• Why you're not making it past the first interview
• Take control of your interview by understanding why recruiters love to ask the question "tell me about yourself"
• Video interview top tips
• Behavioral questions. What are they and how should you answer them?
• Tips for a successful screening interview
• How to talk about getting fired in a job interview