Below we have put together some of the most popular interview questions to give you some guidance on how to respond correctly.
Tell me about yourself
- Describe who you are professionally not a rundown of your entire life since birth. Use information that you usually put on your Resume under “Profile” or “Career highlights” where you usually provide a summary about yourself including your key skills.
- Highlight your achievements especially focusing on achievements that are current and aligned to the role you are interviewing for.
- Explain why you are looking for a change: Finish your description by telling the interviewer why you are here and why you want the job. Never make any bad comments about your current workplace, it is better to say that you would like to progress in your career and are looking to expand your knowledge and skills.
Tell me about a time where you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder/customer/team member.
- This is a very popular one and will be asked in most interviews. Essentially, it is all about your ability to solve problems adequately. Think about an example from your work life, set the scene, and describe the steps and actions you put in place in order to ease the situation. It is important to show how you overcame that challenge, put actions in place and how you turned things around for the good to ensure a functioning working relationship.
Tell me about a time when you were taking initiative
- Taking initiative is a quality that is very sought after in any company. Initiative drives productivity and creates disruption therefore candidates are in high demand who strongly demonstrate this kind of behaviour. It also demonstrates your overall confidence, your ability to identify and solve problems, your reaction to highly stressful situations, your creative thinking skills and your ability to assess your own work performance.
When answering this question, it is important to pick a scenario that highlights your ability to think on your feet and find solutions to a problem – and one that’s most relevant to the company you’re applying to.
For example, let’s say you are interviewing for a Marketing role, you could pick a sample where you came up with a new idea on how to best market a product using different tools instead of the common ones, for example you may have launched a Twitter campaign for a product that was highly successful.
At Careervibes we are very experienced in preparing candidates for their interviews both within the private industry and for government roles. Please reach out for further information.
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