Answering the Toughest Interview Questions

 

According to a recent study by GoDaddy, one in four seniors graduating college doesn’t feel ready to enter the job market, with 30% of seniors having the opinion that there aren’t any jobs available at all.

Along with the trepidation many seniors have about the job market overall, interviews can seem stressful due to unknowns: how will they get to the interview? What will their interviewer be like? And the scariest unknown: what questions will be asked?

A recent poll on Job Journey, Express Employment Professionals’ blog for job seekers, asked readers which interview questions they needed help with most. Below are the top three questions job seekers want help with, as well as guidelines for answering them.

What Are Your Top Three Strengths and Weaknesses?
When listing weaknesses, applicants should avoid saying they’re a perfectionist or they work too hard, as these may come across as cliché and inauthentic. Tell the truth. However, applicants should demonstrate they are successfully working on overcoming these weaknesses.

Focus on your strengths as they relate to work achievements (e.g., a strong attention to detail leading to correcting an error that saved the company millions).

Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?
Most employers want an employee who plans on improving themselves over time. Someone who is in it for the ‘long haul,’ and thereby worthy of investment. Applicants must show they have a passion for learning and want to work at the company long-term (perhaps in a management position at some point).

Why Should I Hire You?
Applicants must show how their values line up with the company culture, that they have a history of success in similar positions, and that they have the soft skills (personality traits and behaviors) necessary to thrive in the position.

Successful job candidates are not necessarily those with the most impressive experience; they are the ones who truly understand what the company stands for, and how they can act as the puzzle piece necessary to solve a need.

For more in our Answering the Interview Question series, check out:

Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?

Tell Me About Yourself

What Are Your Top 3 Strengths and Weaknesses?

Why Should I Hire You?

Why Are You Leaving Your Current Job/Company?

Answering the Hardest Interview Questions

What’s Your Most Impressive Accomplishment?

How Would Your Co-Workers Describe You in Three Words?

Why Do You Want to Work at Our Company?

Do You Like to Take Charge of Projects and Situations?

If You Could Change Something about Your Past (Or Current) Job, What Would It Be?”

Any other questions you’re struggling with? Let us know in the comments section below!

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