10 Job interview questions and how to answer them perfectly
BY Joan Rigdon
14th Feb 2024 Inspire
6 min read
Don't try to sidestep that dreaded "weaknesses" question—chances are employers have heard it all before. Here's how to nail job interview questions successfully
Job interviewing is a minefield. Your prospective employers have
a stack of CVs from talented
applicants. Now they want to know
what makes you tick. Are you difficult to get on with? Can you meet
deadlines? How badly do you want
the job?
Many excellent people have been
rejected because of a single faux pas.
Gerard Roche, chairman of the New
York head-hunting firm Heidrick &
Struggles, recalls one candidate who
failed because his socks sagged.
Another made himself too comfortable.
"One candidate failed because his socks sagged"
"He peppered his conversation
with profanities, pulled his chair right
up to my desk, and started picking up
and examining papers and knick-knacks," says recruiter Nina Proct of Martin H Bauman Associates in
New York.
There's no sure-fire trick for navigating an interview. But you can
increase your odds by knowing what
you're up against. Here, tough interviewers reveal their most frequent
questions—and suggest how you
might handle them:
What exactly do you want from us?
List the attributes of your ideal job to help focus your answer
Describe your ideal job.
Many people dodge these types of
questions by giving a generic, safe
answer.
To make a better impression,
Dee Soder, who coaches executives,
recommends you prepare by writing
an "employment ad" that describes
your dream job. Include a "headline" and several adjectives outlining
the company, the job and yourself.
This forces you to focus on exactly
what you want and what you have to
offer even if the interviewer doesn't
ask you.
Why did you leave your last job?
Deep down, interviewers know
many people leave jobs because they
hate their boss: they may have job-hopped for the same reason themselves. But few employers want to
hear it.
"I don't know why someone who
wanted me to employ him would
say he had a clash with a boss," says
Mike Leavell, a deputy chairman
of Hewlett-Packard in Cupertino,
California. "That always puts up a
big red flag."
Many interviewers suggest that
people concentrate on the business
reasons for joining a new company.
"If you were fired because of a conflict with a boss, you may be better off telling interviewers yourself"
For example: "After two years of
running the marketing department
at Widget Ltd, I've learnt a lot about
X. Now I want to learn Y." Or, "I'm
at the stage in my career where I
want to add X to my background,
and your company is the leader in
that field."
If you were fired because of a
conflict with a boss, however, you
may be better off telling interviewers yourself, rather than letting
them listen to industry gossip. Be
diplomatic and positive.
Millington
McCoy, managing director of New
York head-hunters Gould, McCoy
& Chadick, says one candidate gave
this type of response: "There was a
new chief financial officer, and our
management styles were very different. We agreed to disagree."
Why are you switching careers?
In this question, interviewers are looking for careful self-analysis. "Don't say 'I wanted to try
something new,'" advises Howard
Nitschke, a recruiter for Korn/Ferry
International in New York. "That
makes me think: this person doesn't
know where he's going."
Instead, explain how your skills,
personality and goals are more suited
to the new career, or that you want to
"add" something to your experience
that will help you achieve a longer-term goal.
Where do you want to be five years from now?
Be careful to align your future goals with that of the company's
The best way
to botch this one is not to have an
answer, or to have an answer that's inconsistent with the company's own
goals. But you can also alarm your
interviewer by giving the impression
that the job is "merely a stop-off',
says Fred Benson, a director of the
Weyerhaeuser Company.
An organisation may fear that, if taken on, such
a candidate would spend more time
jockeying for the next position than
working.
Benson says make long-term goals
part of the answer but focus on
the short-term.
For instance: "I'm
30 and I love what I'm doing.
Ultimately I'd like to be a managing
director, but I realise I've got other
things to learn first. The next logical
step is to be a division manager.
Here's why I think I'll be ready for
that in five years…"
What's your greatest accomplishment?
Susan Gauff,
senior director of market and corporate communications at Siemens
Rolm Communications, in Santa
Clara, California, says many candidates fluff this question. Their most
common mistake: responding with
responsibilities rather than results.
A poor candidate for an advertising director's job will say of a triumphal project, "I wrote the copy,
supervised photography and proofread the layouts," Susan Gauff
observes.
The better candidate will
say, "First we looked at the strategy
of the company. Then we researched
the audience. Then we determined
what kind of payback we could
achieve…"
This answer "describes the big
picture, not just the activities", says
Susan Gauff. "You don't find many
candidates who can do that."
What are your strengths?
Since you may also be asked to name
as many weaknesses, limit yourself to three concrete examples of
strengths, again showing benefits to
the company.
Head-hunter McCoy asks a tough
variation of this question, telling
candidates to rank various skills on
a scale of one to ten and explain
why they rate higher in one category
than another.
A good explanation reflects on past accomplishments: "I've
always done a better job of finding
ways to cut costs than of drumming
up new business."
What are your weaknesses?
Many candidates try to highlight
vague weaknesses that can be viewed
as assets. They say "I'm impatient,"
hoping the interviewer will see them
as a go-getter. Or, "I work such long
hours that my family life is out of
balance."
Don't try it. Interviewers
are sick of hearing these stock
answers.
Instead, be honest, but emphasise
the actions you've taken to deal with
a weakness.
"Emphasise the actions you've taken to deal with a weakness"
Dee Soder recommends
this type of answer: "Sometimes I
would push back deadlines to turn
in higher-quality work. However,
I've learnt to delegate more, and I've
only slipped once in the past year."
Beware: some interviewers fall
silent during this question, letting a
nervous candidate fill the void by volunteering more information. Howard
Nitschke remembers a candidate who
made the mistake of answering this
question eight times, talking himself
out of the job.
Once you've stated
one or two weaknesses and their
solutions, stop talking.
What about a time you failed?
McCoy says the best answer
has this theme: "I fell off my horse. I
learned what I'd done wrong. I got
back up and rode better."
The worst answer is: "I suppose
I've been lucky. I haven't failed
yet." When candidates say this,
"either they're not telling the truth
or they're not hying hard enough",
says Ronald Davenport, chairman of
Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation
in Pittsburgh.
Will you get on with your potential boss?
Some interviewers
recommend dodging this question.
Gerard Roche suggests saying, "I
concentrate on the job and the results,
and I'm flexible enough to work with
almost anyone."
If the question is more explicit,
such as "Describe the worst boss you
have ever worked for," couch your
answer as a disagreement over a
business issue or as a difference in
styles—not as a personal dislike.
How old are you? How's your health? Are you married? Any children?
Don't order the cheapest thing on the menu at an interview dinner—your new job might take advantage and pay you less
If an interviewer asks
one of these questions, don't cry foul
unless you don't want the job. "Try
to see it from their angle," says Susan
Gauff. Chances are the interviewer
is really asking how much you're
willing to travel or work overtime.
During an interview, a managing
director once asked Susan Gauff
whether her husband let her travel.
"I
did a double take," she recalls. "Then
I smiled and said, 'If you're asking
am I able to travel on this job, the
answer is yes."
Later, Susan told the
company's human-resources director
about the remark. This didn't sink her
chances, though; she got the job.
Remember, most interviewers care
less about what you say than how
you say it. Fluffs outside the formal
"interview" count too.
Gerard Roche
recalls one candidate for the managing director of a telecommunications
firm who was flown to his interview
in the corporate jet. Chatting to the
pilot, he made disparaging remarks
about the aircraft. "The next guy to
fly was the chairman," Roche says.
"The pilot asked, 'Who was that jackass?" The candidate wasn't hired.
"I have nowhere to go but up from here, so I'm going to be very relaxed in this interview"
In an interview lunch, don't order
the cheapest thing on the menu, even
if it's what you want, counsels Leslie
Schinto, director of external communications for Cap Gemini America.
"They may not take you seriously or
pay you enough." But don't make the
opposite mistake, either.
"A candidate on a dinner interview
with my client ordered a steak,"
recalls Patricia Hoffmeir of Gilbert
Tweed, a health-care recruiting firm
in Wilmington, Delaware. "After
he had eaten the steak, he said he
was sorry that he hadn't ordered
surf-and-turf. So he summoned the
waiter and ordered a lobster too!"
But at least he didn't do what
Richard Slayton of Slayton International in Chicago recalls of a candidate: "When dinner was over, he
asked for a doggy bag."
It is possible to recover from an
honest faux pas. When Fred Benson
of Weyerhaeuser applied for a prestigious fellowship giving governmental experience at the White House
in 1973, he took a jet-lagging flight
from overseas to get to his interview
on time.
Walking bleary-eyed into
the room, he was blinded by the sun
glinting off a glass table and could
make out only the silhouettes of
the panellists. Extending his hand to
the chairman, he knocked a jug of
water into the man's lap.
In that instant he gave up all hope
of getting the position.
"I have a feeling that I have nowhere to go but up
from here, so I'm going to be very
relaxed in this interview," he told
the panel.
He was—and got the
job. Now he helps interview finalists
for the fellowships.
This article is part of our archival collection and was originally published in August 1995. While we strive to present historical content accurately, please note that circumstances and information may have changed since the article's original publication. Some individuals mentioned in the article may no longer be alive, and events or details may have evolved. We encourage readers to consider the context of the original publication and to verify any current information independently
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