Introduction to the Interview Cheat Sheet
This is the ultimate cheat sheet to crack any interview, covering the 10 most important interview questions. These 10 questions are not only the most challenging but also the most frequently asked, with simple English sentences to provide answers to all of them.
Question number one: why do you want to join us or why this company? Answer: I would like to work for your company for three main reasons. One: you have some very exciting future plans which I read about on your website. Talk briefly about their future plans. Two: you are an industry leader, you have a strong reputation in industry. And three: my skills, qualities and experience would be a great fit for your organization.
Understanding the Impact of Three Reasons
People tend to get very impressed when you answer a question saying that there are three reasons for it. First of all, they think you’re very well prepared and second, they think you’re very logical. Question number two: what do you know about the company? Answer: your company is very well known for customer service. You also won an international business award and you have a leading market share in this field. I believe that it’s an attractive place to work for people like me who are looking for challenge and growth. Now, some of the words in the answers have been underlined. Please replace those with words that are more specific to the case in hand, to the company being discussed, and to your particular skills.
The Quick Tip for Research
Some research will be needed, and that’s a quick tip: do some research so they take you as a very serious candidate. Also notice that the answer had two parts. The first part was: your company has a leading market share or it has won an award or it has so many customers. The second part of the question was: I think I fit into your company because of my particular skills and experience. They haven’t asked that question in particular, but it’s a great segue into any question by helping the interviewer know already why you are a great fit for that job.
Question 3 Why are You Interested in This Role
Question number three: why are you interested in this job or this role? Why are you interested in this job / role? Answer: your company is a leading company in the area of content creation. This is an area that I am very passionate about. I have worked in a similar role in dash dash company, or I have done so and so project in college, and I look forward to an opportunity to increase my knowledge through the experience and to contribute to the company’s goals in this area.
Advice for Drafting Your Own Answers
Notice once again the two parts to the answer. The first part was specifically talking about the role of a content creator in this case, but since it’s underlined, you can replace it by any other specialization. And the second part was why you fit into that role really well. It would be advisable to draft your own answers for these first three questions. There’s one other question that is very important and hasn’t been covered here: it is tell me about yourself. There is a whole separate resource already dedicated to that particular question.
Question 4 Why are You Changing Your Job
Question number four: why are you changing your job? Why are you changing your job? / Why are you leaving your current company? Answer: although I love my current job and I have worked with my current company for three years, I feel I’m now ready for more challenging assignments and I believe that this position will help me broaden my horizons and expand my knowledge. At this point be very careful: don’t say anything negative about the company that you’ve been working with. Also, don’t say it’s been three years and it’s time for a change. They shouldn’t look at you as someone who keeps changing jobs every three years.
Question 5 Your Strengths and USPs
Question number five: what are your strengths or your plus points or your USPs? USP stands for unique selling proposition. It’s a very marketing term, but basically it means what is unique about you that is your strength. Now this is a difficult question because while we want to tell them about our strengths, we also don’t want to sound like we are boasting. So here are some example answers. My biggest strength is that I’m very efficient at working under pressure. For example, no matter the crisis or stress, I can take on multiple tasks and work under pressure. My strongest trait is attention to detail and thorough planning. I believe that every minute you spend planning and giving attention to detail will save you precious minutes troubleshooting at the end.
One tip here: always give an example to substantiate your strength. Show them and walk them through a particular situation where you demonstrated that strength. Another tip: go through the job description before crafting your answer about strengths and look at the qualities that they’re looking for. If they’re looking for customer service or they’re looking for team management, then if you have that as a quality, highlight that as your particular strength.
Question 6 Identifying and Overcoming Weaknesses
Question number six: what are your weaknesses? It’s always a good idea to mention one or maybe two weaknesses instead of saying you have no weakness. But also follow it up with some action that you’ve taken to overcome that weakness. For example: I’m not very good at presenting to large groups of people, but I’m working towards improving my communication skills and to be a more effective presenter I recently joined the Toastmasters which I find very helpful. My weakness is my inability to say no to people. Sometimes I volunteer, take on too many tasks and get overloaded, so I’m trying to reduce my responsibilities and learning to say no to whatever I can avoid.
Strategically Selecting Your Weakness
The tip here is: read the job description. So for example, if they’re looking for communication skills in the candidate and you go up there and say communication skills is your weakness, that is strategically very incorrect. So make sure you plan your strengths and weaknesses in advance by reading the job description thoroughly.
The STAR Technique for Difficult Situations
Question number seven: can you handle difficult situations? Tell us about a case where you handled pressure / conflict / change / any other difficult situation. Now this calls for a very important technique called the STAR technique. This technique can be used for a variety of questions. Let’s first take a look at how this technique works.
Step 1 Identify the Situation
Step number one is to identify the particular situation that can best answer the question. S for situation. S: Situation – Set the scene and context. Example: I was the marketing head of my college and the advertising revenues of our newspaper were dropping. This created pressure or this created a challenge since the college festival was coming up and we required the funds.
Step 2 Describe the Task
T for task: describe what your challenge or specific responsibility was. Example: my goal was to generate new ideas, materials, and incentives that would result in at least a 15 percent increase in advertisement revenues from the year before.
Step 3 List the Actions Taken
A for action: list all the action steps you took to address the challenge. I designed a new promotional package where I compared the benefits of advertising on our magazine versus other ad media in the area. I also set up a special training session for the social media and digital marketing teams of the college to discuss the target market and distribution strategy.
Step 4 Summarize the Results
R for result: we signed contracts with 15 advertisers for daily ads and 5 for special supplements and increased our ad revenue by 20 over the previous year. The STAR technique is useful not only when you’re asked about a problem, challenge, or difficult situation, but also perhaps when you’re asked to describe your greatest achievement or a situation where perhaps you demonstrated leadership skills or any situation based behavioral type question. There is also a question that’s asked very frequently and is very challenging: why should I hire you. There is an entire separate resource dedicated to that question.
Question 8 Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years
Question number eight: where do you see yourself five years from today? What are your future goals? Where do you see yourself 5 years from today / What are your future goals / medium or long term goals? Now this is indeed a difficult question. It’s very tempting to tell the interviewer that you see yourself in their chair five years from now, but please do not say anything like that. It’s important to talk about what skills you want to gain over five years and what value you think you can add both to the organization and maybe to the global community in a span of five years.
Example Answer for Future Goals
For example: in five years I’d like to be in a management position or an industry expert with the ability to train and mentor students and entry-level data analysts. I would like to gain specialized knowledge in the area of supply chain and logistics and to be in a position to create a positive impact both on the company and the global community. Make sure you replace those underlined words with words that are more accurate in your situation.
Question 9 Freshers vs Experienced Dream Jobs
Question number nine: what is your dream job? For freshers, since I’m just starting out and don’t have any experience yet, I would want to gain some experience and then decide which my dream job would be. That way I would know from experience. Or if you already have experience you can say: my dream job would be to work as a dash. I would be able to apply my learnings as well as learn new skills while creating a positive impact on the community. Example: if asked this question as to what is your dream job, the answer would be: I would like to help students learn in an engaging way and create millions of lifelong learners.
Question 10 What Motivates You and Why
Question number 10: what motivates you? What are you passionate about? What motivates me is making customers happy or creating campaigns from scratch or from strategy to execution or tackling different problems. And coming up with meaningful solutions to them. I believe that I’ll be able to do that in this job since it provides a great platform for dash. Notice once again the two parts to the answer. The first is about the job and the qualities that the job needs to have to motivate you. And the second is about you and why you would fit into that job really well. Remember always to make that connection for the interviewer because at the back of his mind his greatest question is. Are you indeed the best person for the job? So keep answering it in every question that is posed.
Final Thoughts and Bonus Tips
Remember to walk into that room with the attitude of feeling like a winner. Remember that you’re proud of yourself, you’re happy with all your achievements. You’re even happy with your current job if you have one. And remember that as you walk into the room you are a winner. When you feel like a winner, you already are one. Read More
