The Perfect Interview

My nephew right after college was rejected several times in many job interviews and was beginning to lose confidence. Recently he was called for an interview for the post of financial analyst. I called him over and discussed some of the innocuous questions people face during interview but really struggle for an answer

1. Tell me a little about yourself 

You are a product of the environment around you. So it’s extremely important to highlight the environment in which you were brought up and how it shaped you. A lot of times tell me about yourself – people tend to think it’s an official question only but even if it takes time it’s always a good idea to show the interviewed as to what went in making who you are. 

"My name is XXX. I was born in XXX and was raised by my family in a very loving and supportive environment. I have been told to follow certain values which they say will make me a good human being and I am working on them. On my professional side…I have studied this and have done that."

2. What are your biggest weaknesses?

Strength and weakness is relative to the job in hand and remember this is more of a personal question and not an official question. Also everyone’s strength is his weakness too when applied in a different setting. Also people are far from being perfect and moreover everyone knows what are their weaknesses and each one of them are working on it all the time. The difference is how far you have worked hard to bring about a permanent change in yourself. 

"My biggest weakness is that I am not consistently conducting myself in the way I should- e.g. I am impulsive person and I know that. I try to control that and more often than not I try not to be impulsive. However there are occasions that I still get impulsive and make decisions and I am trying to improve my consistency rate." 

3. What are your biggest strengths?

As mentioned earlier this a personal question and not an official question. Given that everyone is unique having its own strengths but there are certain sine qua non for a perfect employee. i.e. you bring in passion in whatever you do, that you can learn both from bad and good experiences and that you can work with people with diverse backgrounds and different cultures and when opportunity arises you can step up and step down depending upon the situation in hand.

"My biggest strength is that I am aware of the weaknesses and I try that they don't impact my conduct on a day to day basis. Other strengths that I have are XXX and XXX."

4. "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

This is most esoteric question and an easy one to navigate. There are two ways to describe it. That I want to be at a certain position or earning that much etc. which is a consumer led futuristic vision or you could say that in my five years I would have done many things which is a producer led futuristic vision. The first one is end goal oriented and second one is journey oriented and we all know which one is better

"Five years ago I didn’t know that I will be sitting in front of you giving this interview and hence it would be wrong on my part to tell you as to where I see myself in 5 years. However I do know that in next 5 years I would have tried very hard to navigate as many circles and as many posts as I can to gather the experience and would have acquired the knowledge to able to lead and guide a team of people like me as to what they ought to be doing in their next five years." 

5. What makes you angry?

Anger reflects an emotion where the environment around a person is not according to his liking. These kind of questions check your weak points and all of us have those – e.g. Hypocrisy, cheating, etc can be a few examples. The point is not limited to what makes you angry but what do you do with people that make you angry. 

"Anger management is tough one. If I see something happening around me which doesn’t fit in to my way of looking or reacting to that thing, I talk to the person and get to learn his perspective and widen my horizons. Even in some cases I feel person cheating on me etc, I do get angry but I don’t express my anger but I do handle that situation sternly without the emotion of anger impacting that discussion." 

6. Why do you want this job?

While this a job related question but also the question is about want this job. Every job seeker is in need of a job.

"I don’t want this job. In fact I need it. I need it because it matches with my experience or I think it will bring about the best of me or I believe I can add a lot of value and bring about a new dimension to this job." 

7. What do you consider to be your biggest professional achievement?

I think it’s a tricky question as even if you were to highlight your biggest professional achievement it may not necessarily bring about the challenges you faced while executing that engagement. One of the ways to highlight the professional achievement is to consider those engagements which were beyond your normal call of duty or you didn’t think that had it in you to do it. 

"To my mind there is no achievement that can be attributed to me alone. All of my accomplishments have been due to the team that I worked in or the team I led. Well I can share one instance but as I mentioned that it was a collective team effort. I was lucky to have been involved in that setting or project and what seemed impossible or very difficult was accomplished." 

8. Describe your dream job.

Two parts to this question. Dream and a job. There are several ways to describe it. One that excites you a lot or the one that looks good on your CV or a job that makes you happy. Or you could try the following.

"Every job that comes my way becomes my dream till the time I am doing it. I dream it, I chew it, I run with it, I redefine it and lastly I am captivated by it. However, I enjoy and relish it even more if I learn a lot doing it and if it challenges me beyond my current set of competencies."

9. Why do you want to leave your current job?

If you have applied for it then you should be ready with a cogent answer. But it doesn’t make sense that you start complaining about the specific thing.

"I didn’t want to leave my current job until this opportunity came to my notice. I love what I have accomplished so far but it seems that I have hit the ceiling or I believe that joining your company can help me get more out of me in XXX ways."

10. What kind of work environment do you like best?

It’s a question about the culture. The interviewer is checking if you can adjust to the setting available in that company.

“I would love to work in an environment where individuals are placed according to their strengths; where there is an open transparent culture of people being sharing their point of view without being pulled back and that it’s completely professional in the way people handle people and people handle work.” 

11. Tell me about the toughest decision you had to make.

Toughest decision are those where your heart is thinking in one way and mind in completely the opposite way in relation to a matter which has ramifications possibly irreversible either financially or to a very large section of people for whom you are responsible.

"At a personal level I had to take a decision to put my aunt, who was very sick, to be put on the ventilator or be as is. I went against the advice of the doc who said that he cannot guarantee her survival that night. Thankfully she survived and is alive and kicking. At a professional level, given that most of the toughest decisions tend to get made based on collective decision making process, I don’t think I can take ownership of having made a tough decision. However here are few instances." 

Also taking a decision to change the job was tough one for me. 

 12. Out of all the other candidates, why should we hire you?

This is again a very esoteric question. How can a person decide that why he or she be hired over others. 

"I don’t know how I stack up against others. However I do realize that you have plenty of choices and we as job seekers don’t. So it’s entirely up to you to judge me whether I am fit or in fact better than others. This is a race where the runners don’t get to see how far ahead or behind they are as compared to others. All I can say that I will do the work entrusted to me with full dedication, passion and sincerity and you can judge from this interview of the honesty of these words and I have the relevant experience of XXXX"

These are some simple answers I thought everyone could give and add on their specific life or professional experience.

Are there more questions that people struggle with. Happy to hear questions and thoughts and how you handled them. Let everyone learn.