With Kaplan's range of management courses you can study at your own pace, from the comfort of your own home; to pick up the skills and qualifications you need to move into business management. Visit the Kaplan website and kickstart your career today.
|
|
NEWSLETTERS |
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to gain insights about various career related articles and stories from around the world.
|
|
|
Articles > Job Hunt and Interviews > Common Tough Interview Questions
Common Tough Interview Questions
And how to skillfully answer them
07th June ,2007
| Here are some of the difficult questions that have been accumulated by experience. This article not only discusses what these questions are and how to answer them, but also provides information about why these questions are asked. |
Article Links
|
| Pages : 1 / 3 | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 |
There are some questions that tend to pop up during almost every job interview. The bad news is that these questions are difficult to answer since there is no standard way of answering and every interviewer expects an answer in his own style. The good news is that because these questions are so common, you can prepare for them well in advance and give a perfect answer without breaking a sweat.
1. Tell me something about yourself?
Sometimes the most general question can be the hardest. How do you sum up your entire life story in just a couple of minutes?
Depending on the years of experience that you have, you need to have a short statement prepared in your mind.
For Freshers:
If you are a fresher, you need to should consider talking about your achievements at school / college and professional courses undertaken. As a fresher you could talk about various college assignments and how you executed them and your role in those assignments or projects.
For people with experience:
When you have experience, the situation becomes a little more tricky. Employers here are not interested in your achievements at school or college. There will be more interested in projects/assignments at work and your execution style with previous company.
Always have this prepared and make sure that it does not sound rehearsed. Limit this to work related items unless instructed otherwise.
Reason why this question is asked?
Employers want a quick introduction from which they tend to understand what is it that you have to offer to the organization. A lot of them judge your communication skills through this question.
2. Why do you wish to leave your current job?
This is the most difficult question that you will have to answer.
Did you resign? Get laid off? Get fired? Storm out of the office in a huff, never to return? Chances are, you'll have to explain it in an interview.
The most important point to remember when answering this question: STAY POSITIVE.
The biggest sign of a troublemaker is when someone trashes his or her former boss or company during an interview. It doesn't matter if your boss was a jerk or if you hated your coworkers -- an interview is not the place to vent past frustrations.
Rather, the best way to answer this question is to stay positive and talk about your desire for growth opportunities. This will paint you as a proactive employee who enjoys responsibility and challenges.
IF YOU WERE FIRED: Be honest, but quick about explaining it. Don't get into the political details; rather, explain what you learned from the experience and how it makes you an even stronger employee today. It's not a good idea to lie about your termination. When the interviewer calls your references, he or she will most likely find out you were fired anyway. So be honest, and explain what you learned.
IF YOU WERE LAID OFF: This is not nearly as taboo as it was even five years ago, so don't apologize or act defeated. If a company goes bankrupt or had massive layoffs, simply explain, "Because of the economy, the company decided to eliminate six departments, including mine."
IF YOU QUIT: Again, be honest and stay positive. State that the work being offered wasn't challenging enough, that you are seeking higher levels of responsibility or simply that you are ready to make the next step on your career ladder -- and that the job for which you are interviewing is the ideal next step.
The secret is to stay positive and discuss your desire for growth. Hiring managers love applicants who actively seek responsibility.
Reason why this question is asked?
This question is asked to understand your behavioral attitude towards your professional life. Interviewers tend to gauge to know a lot about you through this question. They test and judge your honesty with this question.
3. What are your career goals 3 - 5 years from now?
Again this is the question that gets on people's nerves if they are really not sure of what they want to do. This is what the interviewer wants to understand. Many people just mention a designation… that's not enough. In the software industry it's easy to say that you want to become a team or tech lead if you are being interviewed for a software engineer or a senior software engineer, but the designation rarely helps. What the employer is looking at from this question is the kind of roles and responsibility that you would want to handle.
Answer to this question explains how dedicated you are to climb up the ladder. Just faking a designation or mentioning something is not enough, look at the next question, this could catch you unawares if you are faking.
A proper answer to this question is with you. I would recommend that you plan your career and know what you want, and be convinced about it. Have your own goals and desires, never fall in the trap of following the goals of other people.
Reason why this question is asked?
It's to understand how serious you are with your career and how much of planning is involved from your side to climb up. Employers like people who have a forward thinking and would like to accept challenges along their path towards growth.
| Pages : 1 / 3 | Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 |
 Forward to Friend  Comment on Article  Bookmark this Article
Veibhav says
I have been through this part "Most common questions asked in an interview" this section is simply great as it answer all the tough question for the Job seeker and it make you think about "what all should a person need to say and what not".
So Reading this section is must for the Job seeker who is going to give an interview and even for experience candidate.
BEST OF LUCK CAREER CURRY
GOOD WORK DONE!!!!!!
KEEP IT UP
VEIBHAV AGARWAL.
veibhav311981@gmail.com
(JOB SEEKER)
You should be a registered member to post comments, Login | Register
|
