Answering interview questions effectively is a crucial part of the jobsearch process. With a little advance preparation and practice, you can address the most difficult questions professionally and give yourself a strong advantage over applicants who walk into an interview unprepared.
Remember – if you’ve been invited to an interview, your résumé and covering letter have already done the hard work for you!
Here are some common interview questions, along with suggested answers to present you in the best possible light to your interviewer or interview panel.
Tell us a little about yourself
This question can be easily responded to if you plan ahead. Budget to spend a maximum of 3-4 minutes talking about your career history, your skills, qualifications and any achievements that are relevant to the job, or present you in a positive light. You are not expected to discuss your personal life at a job interview – so it’s best to steer away from responses that include detailed information about your partner/spouse, your children and your religious and political preferences. It’s perfectly acceptable to mention hobbies, sporting interests and community work that you do, but make sure that you don’t give your personal life so much emphasis that it sounds as though you are more interested in outside activities than you are in the job.
So, why are you planning to leave your current job/employer?
The interviewer is testing two things with this question – what drives you to move on in your career and your loyalty to your employer. Unless there is an obvious reason for moving on, such as the closure of the company, or your job being made redundant, respond in general terms. Respond to this question by speaking well of your employer and then add a reason for leaving that reflects your skills and experience; for example, “I enjoy working for XYZ Company, but now have reached a stage where there is nowhere to progress my career”, or “I enjoy my work at XYZ Company, but now that I have obtained a higher level qualification, I’m seeking a more senior role, which XYZ is not able to provide”.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
When you prepare for this question, look carefully at the job description, then make a list of strengths you can bring to the job that match the profile of the ideal applicant. For example, if you are applying for a job as a nurse, there’s no point focusing on your mathematical ability, but you can certainly highlight your punctuality, professional expertise, integrity, patient care focus and attention to detail.
When discussing your weaknesses, choose a relatively innocuous trait that has little to do with the job you are being interviewed for, and end on a positive note by talking about the strategies you use to overcome it. For example, you could mention your tendency to be a little disorganised when working on several different tasks at once, following up with an explanation about how you overcome this by making up to-do lists, which help you prioritise your tasks, tracking your workflow, keeping your diary up to date so you never miss an appointment or meeting and returning phone calls/responding to emails as soon as they’re received.
What do you dislike about your current role?
This is one of the most difficult interview questions to answer, because you don’t know enough about the new role to ensure you don’t mention one of its elements in your answer. Because of that, try to keep your response very general; for example, you could mention your current employer’s location, organisational structure, etc., after making sure they are different to those of the interviewing company. Don’t respond by saying you like everything about your current role – that response will work against you, because your interviewer will recognise that if that were so, you would not be seeking another job. Also, do not under any circumstances speak badly of your present employer – an interviewer will see that as an indication of the way you might speak of the interviewing company in the future.
Why are you the best person for this role?
This is a great question – it gives you the opportunity to highlight all the skills, experience and qualifications you can bring to the job! Prepare for it beforehand, comparing your background with the job description and also be ready to discuss relevant achievements from your previous positions, to demonstrate that you will be able to hit the ground running in the new role.
