Your ultimate guide to ace the most common interview questions
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Your ultimate guide to ace the most common interview questions
BY Nicholas Hawkins
As the?Great Resignation ,?Reshuffle ,?Rehire , cycle heads into a new phase, here are the top 15 behavioral?interview questions ?you should be prepared to answer in upcoming job interviews.
WHAT ARE BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS?
Behavioral interview questions ?are designed to determine how you will handle specific situations in a work environment. They often ask you to use your experience as an example and focus more on soft skills rather than technical aspects of the job. This allows a potential employer to understand how your past work experience has prepared you for future tasks and challenges. Surely you’ve been asked to answer a question like, “Tell me about a time you had a conflict with someone on your team?”
These questions can be?interview killers ?if you’re not prepared. Instead of reflecting on your conflict resolution skills, you could end up waxing on about a former co-worker you disliked, and before you know it, the interviewer is put off.?
WHY ARE THESE IMPORTANT NOW?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of job openings in the United States is at a record high of?11.5 million . This bodes well for anyone looking to test the waters of what many are calling the hottest and most worker-friendly labor market in recent history. This is especially true for recent college graduates, the class of 2022. According to a?report ?from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), employers plan to hire close to one-third more new college graduates from the Class of 2022 than they hired from the Class of 2021.?
With so many jobs available, workers can be more?particular ?about where they work and employers are taking?notes ?and adjusting their interview process to reflect the desires of workers. However, it’s not all fun and games for potential new hires. In addition to adjusting their workplaces to accommodate the desires of workers, employers are also adjusting their interview process to become more particular about who they hire, making sure they find candidates that fit their culture and will hopefully stay with the company long term.?
HOW TO PREPARE
The most important thing to remember is that all of these questions are about your experiences. It will be helpful if you start your preparation by thinking about what stories you can draw from to answer these questions.?
Veteran career coach and hiring manager Amanda Augustine says if you don’t plan ahead you could easily be asked a question you’re not prepared for and if you try to wing it, things can get ugly. “Hiring managers won’t buy it, or worse, they may believe you intentionally avoid confrontation—neither of which will help you advance to the next interview round.”
HOW TO ANSWER “WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST WEAKNESS?”
One of the most common behavioral interview questions is also one people?stumble over most . You’ve probably been asked it before: “What is your biggest weakness?” According to Aaron Taube, a?Fast Company?contributor, the best response is to name a weakness that only applies to specific situations, such as, “My impatience crops up when teammates don’t deliver on their promises, as it relates to mission-critical assignments with tight deadlines.” Taube adds that “the key is to finish that thought by suggesting you’ve identified ways to do better in those moments in the future.” This is a prime example of how to implement the STAR method.
One of the easiest ways to handle behavioral interview questions is by sticking to the?STAR ?method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).?
Situation:?Describe the situation where everything happened.
Task:?Describe the task you had to complete to solve the problem/issue at hand.
Action:?Explain what actions you took to complete the aforementioned task.
Results:?Talk about the results of your actions and try to be as detailed as possible. How did your actions lead the company or organization to function better?
HOW TO ANSWER TEAMWORK QUESTIONS
Most jobs require you to work as part of a team, so be prepared to talk about your experiences as a team member. You’ll want a story that shows your ability to work with others under difficult circumstances. Think resolving team conflicts, dealing with project constraints, or motivating others.
Teamwork questions are a great chance to point to your ability to collaborate, and your response should highlight your strengths in this area. It can be difficult to spin a conflict as a positive even if you feel you were not in the wrong. What’s essential to remember is to not focus on the conflict itself in your reply but on the process of finding a solution.
When answering teamwork questions be sure your answer shows:
HOW TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT SERVING CUSTOMERS
If the job requires you to work with outside parties such as clients, customers, or partnered businesses, prepare for these some of these questions. Employers will want to understand how you positively represented the company and how you overcame challenges to deliver exceptional customer service.?
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Customer service questions will be your chance to prove you can handle difficult clients or customers. In your response be sure to explain:
Not all of your stories need a happy ending, but make sure that you highlight what you learned from the experience regardless of the outcome.?
HOW TO ANSWER TIME MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS
Time management is important no matter what kind of work you do, so prepare to answer some of these questions. Most employers will want to hear how you balanced multiple things at once, prioritized, remained organized throughout, and got the job done by the deadline.?
Take advantage of this opportunity to:
HOW TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW WELL YOU COMMUNICATE
Like time management, most jobs will prioritize communication. You must be able to articulate your thoughts clearly and with respect. Most people will be able to come up with examples of communication, but the key here is to tell a story that highlights thoughtful preparation and logical thought process.
Communication questions are also a chance to highlight the different methods of communication you use and excel at. So if you’re a fantastic writer, tell a story about a time you used written communication, if you’re a great salesperson highlight your persuasiveness, and if you struggle with communication, don’t shy away from it. Emphasize this isn’t your natural strength and tell a story that shows you’re working on improving in an area of weakness.?
HOW TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO ADAPT TO DIFFERENT SITUATIONS
Tough times don’t last, but tough people do. Most people have had to overcome some sort of adversity in the workplace, so don’t be afraid to get vulnerable, and be sure to emphasize how you successfully navigated that adversity. Even if the resolution was less than ideal, find a lesson you took from the experience and showcase how you turned a negative into a positive.?
Use adaptability questions to talk about:
No one wants to hire someone who will burn out every six months. We all know someone who insists that don’t feel pressure at work, this is not the flex you think it is. Employers want to know you have self-awareness and can control your emotions. One easy way to show this is through emotive words. Talk about how you felt during these moments and what you did with those feelings, what worked and didn’t, and don’t forget to share the results! Highlight how you emerged from these situations more resilient and better able to handle unexpected change in the future.?
HOW TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT MOTIVATION AND VALUES
Sometimes, interview questions can seem random or personal. A lot of these types of interview questions are attempts to learn more about what motivates you. Your response should ideally address values and motivations directly even if the question didn’t explicitly ask about them.
Motivation and values questions are a fantastic opportunity to:
A great place to start is by highlighting and professional development you’ve done previously. These types of programs are an easy way to show that you are not only motivated to improve but that you’re actively working on improving.?
There are endless ways to answer behavioral interview questions. The most important things to remember are:
Recruit friends to do mock interviews with, have them cycle through a few different questions, and try your answers out.?
Finally, remember that employers interview lots of candidates and are likely to hear some similar responses, so?avoid generic buzzwords . Amanda Augustine, resident career expert for Talent Inc.’s suite of brands: TopResume, TopInterview, Resume.io, and TopCV, says, “Stuffing your résumé and LinkedIn profile with generic buzzwords can be off-putting to potential employers; it’s far worse when you recite them during an interview. Instead, practice describing your skills with terms a potential hiring manager can appreciate with anecdotes that demonstrate your qualifications and value.”
Passionate about what I do. Being a servant leader makes me feel what others feel and I wish to impact my society in a more positive way
1 年NGANGWA DORIAN NTULE
IT Collaborative Leader | Enterprise Program-Project Management-PMO | Techno-functional | Customer centric-Digital Transformation-SAS-Cloud-ERP | Creates Business-Center of Excellence
1 年Good one
Management Analyst at US Navy
1 年McKenzie Neumann ... it'll creep up quicker than you think- scan this!
Biotech Supply Chain / Logistics | Supply Chain Mechanic | グローバル?サプライチェーン |
1 年My biggest weakness is listening to a knucklehead ask a question that begs the interviewee to lie. End of interview. This question is a misuse of the interviewer’s power over the candidate.
Knowledge seeker, fitness enthusiast, endurance athlete, aspiring Exercise Physiologist. Looking to inspire and motivate people to achieve their goals.
1 年Great article! I will definitely be using these tips and pieces of advice in the near future as I finish graduate school.