The most common difficult questions
Preparing for an interview will greatly increase your chances of getting the job you want. Here’s a list of hard interview questions and good answers to interview questions you’re likely to hear from an employer, and a quick guide on how to answer them.
The answers of each candidate are purely individual, depending on the experience and field of activity, but everyone has common features. This list will help you not get lost in a conversation with an interviewer and look like a worthy candidate.
Tough interview questions
1. Tell us about yourself
Your answer should be one to two minutes long. Don’t over tighten.
Do not delve into childhood. Briefly tell us about who you are, in what direction you are moving and developing.
Use abstracts from your resume.
Speak only in a positive way.
2. What do you know about our company?
Show that you are interested in the future place of work: you know their products or services, their market, success, reputation, history, purpose and philosophy.
Show additional interest so that the interviewer reveals some aspects in more detail.
3. Why do you want to work with us?
Don’t talk about what you want first. First, talk about the needs of the company and what you can do for it.
If you want to be a part of them, pay attention to their strengths.
You are interested in the tasks that you will be able to solve in this position.
You are interested in the same goals that the company pursues.
4. What can you do for us? Is there something that only you and not other candidates can do?
Tell us about the successful experience you had in previous jobs, how you coped with problems, and compare this with the work that this company offers.
Talk only about your merits, do not try to belittle other candidates you do not even know.
5. What aspects of this position do you find most attractive, and which less so?
List at least three factors of attraction and only one that is not entirely to your liking. This one factor should not be very critical – for example, getting to work 10 minutes longer than you expected.
Attractive aspects can be: the reputation of the company, a good team, the opportunity to learn new things, etc.
6. Why should we hire you?
Because of the knowledge, experience, skills and abilities that you possess. Be positive, confident and precise in your answer.
7. What do you want from this job?
The opportunity to use your skills, do a good job and get recognition.
The opportunity to develop and improve, because this is what we should do throughout our lives.
Mention that you are interested in challenging tasks, and you are sure that this job will provide you with such a challenge.
8. Define [the position you are applying for]
Be concise, focus on the results of the work and ways to achieve them.
9. How long will it take you to get comfortable and make some contribution to our work?
Very little. You quickly get used to it, get used to the internal structure, and in any work you appreciate the result. Tell us about how quickly you got involved in the process at your last job.
10. How long do you expect to work with us?
As long as we both consider that my contribution and achievements are at a high level.
11. Why did you decide to change jobs?
That job limited my professional development, it was time to move on.
If you didn’t want to leave, then it’s better to give an honest answer, but don’t go into details, don’t scold your past bosses and colleagues.
12. How do you feel about the transition to a new job?
You are very excited, eager for new challenges, and sure that you will gain much more here.
13. What kind of work environment do you like?
Where people treat each other as equals, are ready to constructively discuss and make decisions, maintaining friendly relations.
14. How would you rate your past/current company?
A good place that allowed me to gain experience, learn new things and become more professional in general.
How not to answer at an interview
Cheating is not good, we were told in childhood. There are also white lies, we understood with age. What about employment? Is it possible to deceive a potential employer and what is better to remain silent at an interview?
All the secret becomes clear
Trite, but true: one of the main rules for a successful interview is not to deceive the recruiter. Attributing to yourself duties that you didn’t perform, skills that you don’t really own, jobs that don’t exist – all this is an absolute taboo for a person who is tuned in to a successful career. An experienced recruiting manager can easily recognize your lie – he has a lot of appropriate tricks in his arsenal.
But even if he does not succeed, then the candidate who got a job by deceit, most likely, will not expect anything good. Colleagues will quickly realize that, for example, his allegedly “fluent English” is actually not far from high school level, and “extensive experience in organizing events” is just the ability to order coffee for business meeting participants on time.
And yet it’s no secret that some information can be a significant hindrance to employment. Is it worth it on your own initiative to inform the recruiter about some details of your life? What is better to be silent about in a resume and at an interview?
Too short period of work
It happens that the applicant has some negative professional experience. For example, a short period of work, not reflected in the work book – a person made a mistake, he did not like the team or the duties seemed uninteresting, and he quit a week or two after employment. Or he didn’t even quit himself, but the manager asked – as they say, it didn’t grow together, it didn’t work out.
Should such a short period of work be included in the resume? A resume is a document reflecting the skills and abilities of an applicant. Has the candidate acquired any useful skills in such a short period of work in the company? Hardly. So save the recruiter from unnecessary information – write in the resume only what is really significant.
Another thing is if a short period of work in the company is reflected in your work book. In this case, the question of the reasons for such a rapid dismissal will certainly arise with the recruiter – either at the interview, or already in the process of paperwork. You should not deceive the employer: honestly say that you made a mistake, made the wrong decision when hiring, and then realized your mistake and, without wasting time on a job that was not interesting for you, quit. It is better if the recruiter receives this information before he finds an entry in the work book already during the execution of documents.
Conflicts with former management
Most applicants in an interview cannot avoid being asked why they left their previous job. It’s good if you left the old company solely for the purpose of further professional growth and development – such an answer will demonstrate to the recruiter your high internal motivation for work and will be a point in your favor. But what if the reason for the dismissal was a serious conflict with management or colleagues?
You need to understand that a detailed story about how your boss bullied you and how you suffered from petty sabotage by colleagues will be a very serious minus of your candidacy in the eyes of the recruiting manager. Such an applicant may well be considered conflicting, unconstructive and unable to work in a team.
On the other hand, a clear deception on your part (“The relationship with the manager was excellent, I just wanted to develop in a related field”) is at least unethical, and at the most dangerous for your career. After all, a lie can be revealed if a recruiter, for example, decides to apply for recommendations at your previous place of work.
How to be? Look for the golden mean. Think over your answer so that it is not a deception, but also does not deprive you of a job opportunity. Do not criticize the former boss for the eyes, be prepared to find something good in the experience gained with his help. “My former leader and I had diverging views on some work issues. I realized that the company was not ready for the transformations that I propose, and decided to look for another job”; “I am grateful to the team for teaching me how to work within a frequently changing environment, but still my goal is a slightly different job,” such answers, if they sound sincere, will completely satisfy the recruiter.
About personal
Sometimes recruiters ask questions about the personal life of an applicant. It happens that they seem to candidates not too ethical, in which case you can delicately avoid answering. Of course, you should not lie, but no one obliges you to tell on your own initiative about the divorce you experienced or about plans to have a child in a year.
In this situation, it is important to dress your answer in a diplomatic form. For example: “It says on your resume that you are divorced. What caused the divorce? “I don’t quite understand what this has to do with my future work, but since you ask, I’m ready to answer. My wife and I just didn’t get along.”
Jobs, failures, problems…
What else can you keep silent about at an interview, unless, of course, you are asked about it, as they say, in the forehead? You should not, on your own initiative, tell the employer about the part-time jobs that you did as an employee of the previous company: this will make him think about whether you are ready to devote yourself to work entirely.
Think carefully before telling a recruiter about the details of an unsuccessful project with your participation, unless, of course, he himself asks you about it. It is better to remain silent about the fact that you once had problems with alcohol, but you coped with it, and about other personal problems that have been successfully resolved for a long time.
And yet the line between lies and silence is very thin. To remain silent about some serious circumstances that may later affect your work (for example, that your child is often ill and you will have to take sick leave from time to time) is to jeopardize your reputation as a decent person. In other words, it is up to you to decide what to talk about and what to keep silent about at the interview.
Thank the recruiter and end the conversation tactfully. Keep in mind that no one forced you to come to an interview and waste your time. Therefore, do not be silent in a conversation with a recruiter. Try to be as open and friendly as possible, so you will definitely leave a pleasant impression of yourself!
