HOW PREPARE FOR JOB INTERVIEW | HOW ANSWER MOST COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS PDF

What is an Interview?
Interview as defined on Wikipedia “An interview is a conversation between two or more people where questions are asked by the interviewer to elicit facts or statements from the interviewee. Interviews are a standard part of journalism and media reporting, but are also employed in many other situations, including qualitative research.”

Interview is a formal process of qualitative research which generally has an employer or a hiring manager called the interviewer who asks questions to the candidate to know about his experiences and abilities. Interviewing, when considered as a method for conducting qualitative research, is a technique used to understand the experiences of others.

I am sure, since you are here you are definitely going to appear for a job interview or interview for various posts in an organization. Interviews are all about research, vocabulary skills, knowledge and speaking skills to put forward your abilities to get a job.

If you are going to appear for an interview, here are the steps from the basics you need to follow to master a successful interview.

“Congratulations Mr. XYZ,
You have been selected for the interview.”

This was the message you were waiting for, and the time has come to prove your abilities. The time has come to walk for the interview. But before you step out, please complete the following homework for the Interview.

Research:
Research about the company is the most important job you need to do before you walk in for the interview. 30% of the questions asked by the interviewer is about the company. They want you to know about the company where you have applied for a job before you walk in for the interview. Now the question is what really you need to know about the firm.
Many candidates do this by going to the company’s website and checking out the ‘About us’ pages on their website. This is not a wrong step, you will get the following details about the company there such as:
     • Establishment year.
     • Their achievements.
     • Their Head employees
     • Their Branches, etc.

But this doesn’t matter much helpful to you and hence it is an incomplete research. You need to know the following thing about the company very well:
     • History of their business
     • What types of services does the company deal with.
     • What are current projects they are trying to develop?
     • Number of employees the company has recruited.
     • Market share.
     • Competitors, etc.

This research will help you to frame your answers to behavioural and hypothetical questions asked by the interviewer with respect to their company’s values.

Interview Questions
After getting a brief understanding about the company, now is the time for you to prepare yourselves to answer the questions that will be asked to you at the interview.

Generally the interviews start with some formal and basic questions and then they follow behavioural and hypothetical questions.
What are the formal questions?
Formal questions deals with the interviewer asking you to introduce yourself, asking you about what you know about the company, your purpose of joining, your ambition and motivation.
These questions are the basics and you can expect them to be asked for any job interview no matter you have applied as a pizza delivery boy or a manager.
There are hundreds of such questions, but the most frequently asked of them are shortlisted below:
1) “Introduce yourself” or “Tell us about yourself”
This is a very common question which is asked, and a good preparation for this question can serve as a solid first impression of you to the interviewer. You should be prepared for this before entering the interview hall.
Tips:
      • Say about yourself. Introduce your name, your qualifications from XYZ   
        College, your achievements, etc.
      • Be prepared for it from your place and do have a practice of it with your friends
      • Speak fluent English, use the best of your vocabulary skills.
        Point to Remember:
     • Do not talk about the members in your family and their business.
     • Do not talk about your friends and what are they doing.
     • Don’t even mention the recent place where you go for a picnic or the latest movie you 
       watched, this might seem a little funny but there have been such cases and those candidates were
       fired straight away.
A good introduction completes half of your interview successfully, rather on the opposite side a bad introduction can spoil your interview as well.

2) Why did you leave your last job?
This is a common question which is asked to people who were already employed before coming for this interview.
Tips:
      • Tell them that you are interested in working with them and you left the job because you found
         new opportunities here.
      • Don’t mention them about the salary even if you were paid less there.
      • Don’t talk something wrong about your last job, employer or the firm even if you didn’t like it.

What to do if you were fired?
Be honest!!
If you were fired then please tell them the truth, because they will have a background check before recruiting you. And if they found it later then this will create problems for you and your career.

3) What is your greatest strength?
Do say true about what all abilities you possess, because whatever you say will be examined by asking behavioural and hypothetical questions. And if you fail there, then you will definitely loose the job.

4) Tell us about your weaknesses
Your weaknesses are that information about you that should not be shared to everyone. If you mention some weaknesses then make sure your weaknesses do not affect your job.
Don’t even say that you are perfectionist with no weaknesses, because if you will dare to say this then this will be one of the interview which you will remember for your lifetime for sure.

5) What do you know about the company?
You can share the research about the company you have made before coming for the interview. Do mention the positive points about the company and the projects that the company is working on these days.
Tip:
You can suggest something from your side about how you could bring some vital changes to these projects and how will your knowledge be contributing to it.
Point to remember:
Don’t take anything ill about the company or else your job will be in trouble.

6) Where else have you applied apart from here?
Don’t lie this information if you have applied somewhere else, but in case if you have applied at many places then do just mention only a few of them.

7) Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
This question is asked to know how ambitious you are. This is an easy question nut still people make blunder.
The most common blunders are that people mention themselves working at a bigger firm than where they have applied for, even if you are taking this job for learning or for temporary and later on you are going to kick this job, please do not mention about this.
A good answer to this can be a researched one such as “I find myself at the post of a senior in this company and would work hard with the other employees to take this company on a much higher level.”
Such answers will give an impact that you are really bothered about your work and position in the company.

8) Why have you applied for this job?
This is a fair enough easy question. You can say that you are interested in the opportunities that will be given to you by this job and you want to utilize your abilities for the development of this company.
Please don’t mention that you are here for money,
Everyone works for money, no one is here to hire himself for free. The employer knows the fact that you are here for money but he asks this question to you to see how you look at this job.
So better avoid saying money.

9) Why should we hire you for this job?
This is an innocent question and the best answer to it is because you are the best person who is fit for this job.
Some candidates to say about their achievements and abilities, but trust me guys all that is mentioned in your resume. Don’t make a blunder of it by explaining stories about your past to them.
You can add about how your abilities will prove as an asset for the company,

Example:
If you have applied as a marketing manager, you can say that you are good in interacting with people and you have good contacts in various industrial and service sectors which will help the company to maximize its profits.

10) How do you handle pressure?
You should answer this question in a positive manner, if you say that you lose your temper or just keep yourself away from work under pressure then that will not help you get the job.
Instead you can say that you handle pressure properly and add one of your life event as an example where you came under pressure conditions and performed well.

11) How do you handle change?
This is one of the questions that makes the candidate think over for his answer.
A best answer to it can be that you look towards the change in a positive way rather than opposing the cause for it, you work harder and get the things done in your favour.

12) What is an ideal job for you?
Many would answer earning billion dollars for just working for 2-3 hours per day or perhaps playing cricket for the country.
These type of answers generally don’t help much.
I would suggest you to keep it simple and just say about what kind of job you have applied for in that firm. This will leave a positive impact on interviewers about you.

13) What motivates you to work hard?
Everyone is motivated by the salary they get for their work, the bonuses, the promotions, etc.
I would suggest don’t mention it directly, add some role of the company that motivates you as well
Example:
You can say that the promotions you get after working harder for this company to take this company to a next level of success makes you feel happy and motivates you.

14) How would your colleagues describe you?
This is the chance given to you to show about your attributes and talk something impressive about yourself. Don’t waste this opportunities by just saying them in simple English, use your vocabulary skills to describe yourself in some powerful words such as
      • Resourceful
      • Respectful
      • Creative
      • Committed
      • Conscientious
      • Dynamic
      • Hard Worker
      • Attentive
      • Confident
      • Trustworthy
      • Direct
      • Persistent
      • Methodical
      • Motivated
      • Objective
      • Tenacious
      • Sociable
      • Reliable
      • Trustworthy.

15) What are your salary expectations?
This is the question where many of them get tricked. Earning as much money as possible is the final goal of every candidate applying for the job. Many end up sharing their personal expectations, but this doesn’t help. The best way to answer this question would require some research about the market value of this job.
If you are looking for a job that pays a salary of Rs.10 lakhs per annum and the job for which you have applied pays you only Rs.5-6 lakhs, that will not help you because even if you get the job your focus will be diverted to jobs which pay you up to your expectations and you will end up losing your interest in the current work you are doing.
Show the employer that you researched the job and you know how much it pays.

Example:
A bad answer can be “I’m easy with whatever you guys will be paying me”.
A good answer can be the researched one “From my research, I know the salary range for this position is between Rs.5-6 lakhs per annum, and having worked in the industry for 5 years I feel that my value would fit into this range”.

Last words:
The questions listed above were the most frequent general questions asked in various interviews. As mentioned earlier there may be thousands of such questions. We will appreciate if the readers share about their experiences and thoughts as well in the comment box. Readers can feel free to come up with other questions and we will find a better solution for their questions as well.