Applying for a job is easy, then comes the face-to-face job interview with the job recruiter, a.k.a your potential future boss. While all employers are different, there are 3 questions that almost all job recruiters will ask prospective employees (like 99% of the time!) during a job interview.
Question 1: The cliché “Tell me about yourself” question
With this open-ended question, the employer does not expect you to talk too much about your personal life as such, more about your career path – your previous job(s), your experience, your skills. It is an invitation to talk about your interests or hobbies, which will give the job recruiter an idea of the kind of person you are so s/he can establish whether you would be a valuable addition to their team.
Remember to use descriptive language to give substance to your answers. For example, it might be a bit boring to tell the job recruiter who is looking to appoint you as a librarian that you love books – it’s rather cliché too by the way ? Instead, you could tell the interviewer that books are like guides and tips to overcome obstacles in life, which is the reason why you’re passionate about reading. More attractive, isn’t it?
Question 2: The tricky “How do you handle stress and pressure” question
The job recruiter expects you to expand on how you will approach challenging situations. S/he wants to know whether you will give in to stress or use it as a motivator to successfully smooth things over should the worst happens. It is a good idea to take this opportunity to highlight your strengths. Let the job recruiter know that you are the right candidate for the job by being assertive.
Here’s another useful piece of advice: Avoid claiming you never experience stress. Formulate your answer so that it shows you are aware of stressful situations in the workplace and explain how you overcame them in the past, or even used stress to your advantage. It’s about being assertive, not arrogant.
Question 3: Last but not least, the famous “Tell me how you overcame a great challenge” question
This question is probably the hardest question to answer in a job interview, especially if you don’t expect to be asked about something this personal and are hence not really prepared to answer the job recruiter’s question. It requires you to be direct, as well as creative – though not overly. Don’t go making up some farfetched story about how you one day dug yourself out of a hole with a tablespoon ?
What the job recruiter really wants to hear is how you can transform threats into opportunities, how you use your weaknesses and turn them into strengths in order to cope with challenging situations.
Feeling prepared for your next job interview yet? Just show the job recruiter you have what it takes to be a part of the team – self-confidence is the key to your success, remember?
