Interviews are hard. They become harder when the job interviewer ask hard interview questions that everyone struggles to answer.
We have found the 3 common interview questions that most interviewees struggle to answer and provided you with an interview answer.
Tell me what you feel your biggest weakness is?
The question is designed to get you to answer negatively. The reason people fail job interviews is because the interview as a whole has highlighted their short comings.
To pass the job interview you need to frame each interview answer in the positive, especially the “weakness” question.
Preparation is key for this question. Write a list of weaknesses, as an example – you don’t work well when working alone.
Next to each weakness, write down the positive of this weakness. With the above example, not being able to work alone, the positive is that you are a team player.
Finally frame this positive into an interview question answer. “I am more productive working with in team than as an independent worker, within a team I able to motivate other members of staff to A, B and C (selling points) …”
Describe a bad experience you have encountered with a past employer?’
It is tempting to answer this question with “I have never had a bad experience with a past employer” but the employer wants to hear more then a simple commonly used answer.
This question is asked to see how you approach a situation when you disagree with a manager. To answer this question split your answer into 3 parts
- The situation
- Your solution
- The outcome
Explain the situation – the reason for a disagreement IE your manger suggested using one approach for a project and you suggested a different approach
Solution – explain how you came to an understanding/solved the problem
Outcome – give the positive outcome; how this effected the business/project/profits/business relationships/etc
Give an example of your lateral thinking.
Lateral thinking is in essence thinking out of the box, being creative and using your intuition.
Similar to the last question; explain the problem, tell the employer how you use your creativity and give the solution to the problem/outcome.
Employers will only ask this question if lateral thinking is an essential criteria for the advertised position
