Free Interview Questions Tutorial          

The 3 Key Question Types

The heart of the interview is the question and answer session. If you are not careful you can rapidly find yourself on the defensive, trying to justify yourself in the face of tough questions rather than having the chance to 'sell' your benefits. However, there are only 3 categories that interview questions fall into:

1) Can you do the job?
2) Will you do the job?
3) Will you fit in?

A well-trained interviewer will throw all sorts of odd and challenging interview questions at you in an attempt to assess your true suitability for the job. They will often deliberately create stressful situations to see how you react. In fact, the tougher the questions, the better you're doing. Knowing how to answer them with the 'correct' type of answer is the key to success or failure.

So remember, the good news is that all of their questions will be in one of the 3 main categories.

Can You do the Job?

The first type of question is seeking to determine whether or not you are capable of doing the job. These questions will be about your skills, attitudes, knowledge and experience in short your track record. Typically about 60 per cent of a professional interviewers time will be spent assessing your abilities against those required by the position on offer.

You should be looking for any opportunity to impart information about your skills and abilities, backing them up with examples of what you have already achieved. Here are some common examples of this type of interview question:

What is your greatest strength?
If you've done your homework beforehand, you would have several strengths to choose from. The obvious choice would be the strength which best suits the demands of the job. This is one of the most common questions and represents a good opportunity to assert your career statement. How to answer this question is covered in detail elsewhere in the multimedia training course – GetAhead in Winning at Interviews.

What skill have you acquired most recently?
Here the interviewer is seeking to establish that you are an interested, active lifelong learner and not somebody who has just attained a variety of disparate qualifications along the way. Try to avoid putting a timeframe on your answer; unless you have attended a course very recently and try to add details of how you have already applied the new skill in the workplace.

Can you work well under pressure?
This is a closed question and can be a sign of an untrained interviewer. Use the opportunity to give a comprehensive but brief answer focusing on several clear-cut examples showing your ability to cope under pressure.

Specific, job related questions
The interviewer may ask any number of questions that relate to your past experience and how this might influence your suitability for the current position. Here you will need to call on the work you did in analyzing your own career achievements, as explained elsewhere in the multimedia training course – GetAhead in Winning at Interviews. Using real examples and framing these in terms of a problem or challenge that you successfully addressed is the key to answering job related questions.

Will You do the Job?

The second type of question is concerned with your personal disposition and approach to work. These questions are seeking to determine whether you are hard working, motivated and committed; in short are you the kind of person who will do more than just what is in the job contract.

You should be looking for any opportunity to impart information that demonstrates what a positive and committed employee you have been. In preparing for the interview, decide which areas of your work to date can be used to illustrate your commitment and motivation. Here are some common examples of this type of question:

What was it like working for your previous employer?
Here, you could choose to answer the question in terms of their product development, management style, use of new technology or any number of other aspects.

However, by taking the initiative and answering it in terms of what the job required of you and how you met these demands, emphasizing your flexibility, long hours working when required, etc, you will begin to address the real issue behind the question. Once again, stay alert and look for opportunities to sell your benefits.

Have you done the best work you are capable of?
This is a deliberately tricky question. If you say yes, the interviewer may determine that you have peaked, and that it is downhill from here. However, saying no invites the question of why not? Perhaps you haven’t been fully committed, or worse competent.

The best response is to recall some of the your top achievements to date, to answer in a way that implies an increasing performance trend. Follow this up by showing that you are looking forward to bigger challenges and even better achievements in the future.

How long will it be before you make a net contribution to our organization?
Unless the job is very mundane or routine, you cannot realistically make a real contribution until you have been through a significant learning curve. This learning curve is one that is recognized by employers and generally the higher the level of the position the more tolerant the organization will be about the time needed for this.

However, the upper limit for this is rarely more than 3 to 4 months and the longer the learning curve the more is expected from the performance following it. Think about the realistic bedding in time and what sort of contributions you might make during this period.

If you got this job, how long would you stay with us?
The best way to answer this question is to tailor your reply to fit the culture of the organization and your own career path. For example, if the organization is highly entrepreneurial then replying that you are looking for a retirement home will not play well.

However, if the culture is more paternal or family centered then indicating that you are considering your final job move may be very well received.

Some people think that implying that you will be happy to stay as long as you are developing new skills or facing new challenges is the best approach. The down side of this can be that it implies the organization is responsible for your nurturing, education and entertainment. Think carefully about using these type of explanations as you may give the impression that you may leave as soon as you are faced with a dull project.

Will You Fit In?

Most employers are looking for staff who are not only capable of, and committed to, doing their job but who will fit the prevailing corporate culture and image. Here, the more senior the role, the more important fitting in becomes.

You should be looking for any opportunity to impart information that demonstrates how you would fit in. In particular areas to consider are:

How the organization manages people
How the organization devolves power
How people interrelate
How people are motivated
How the organization competes in the marketplace

It is your research into the organization, as addressed elsewhere in the multimedia training course – GetAhead in Winning at Interviews, that will equip you to assess the organizational attitude to the fundamental issues that lie behind this type of question.

An important point here is that if you find yourself at variance with your potential employers value system then you would probably be advised to look elsewhere. It is almost impossible to succeed in a culture that feels alien to you. Here are some common examples of this type of question:

How do you see yourself fitting into a new project team?
Interviewers will often seek reassurance that you can demonstrate a track record of fitting in when you have been repositioned in a working environment. You will need to illustrate times where you were placed in a new team or group. It doesn’t matter how long or short term these placements were, rather that you can show how you did fit in; how the group was not disrupted by your arrival and that a clear improvement in overall performance resulted.

How will you be able to cope with a change in environment?
This sort of question is usually posed if you've spent a long time in one particular job. It sounds like a negative but can be turned into a positive especially if you're looking for a change, or a chance to develop. Avoid sounding negative about your current environment, whilst stressing the excitement you feel in seeking a new one.

How do you go about getting to know and understand new colleagues?
Show that you understand the process of fitting in to a new working environment and that you appreciate that the key to getting to know new colleagues is to listen. Show that you appreciate this overhead on your normal work duties and that you will invest your own time and efforts, for example in coffee and lunch breaks and perhaps in extra curricular activities. By demonstrating a knowledge of the processes involved and a willingness to commit to it, based on your past experiences, you will be creating a positive picture for the interviewer.

Where do you see yourself in five years time?
The obvious answer would be "part of the management team, or board of directors within this organization". This may not necessarily be true, but the interviewer needs to know that your intentions are to move up the career ladder within their organization. Be careful not to sound overly ambitious, as the interviewer may be your future boss. The safest option is to modestly express your desire to grow and advance within the organization.

Remember, throughout the interview you should be looking for any opportunity to impart information about your skills and abilities, backing them up with examples of what you have already achieved. Most employers are looking for staff who are not only capable of, and committed to, doing their job but who will fit the prevailing corporate culture and image.