10 Most Common Job Interview Questions And Answers

Want to know (or use) some of the most common interview questions and answers? Here’s a comprehensive list, along with some of the best answers.
While Some interviewers took unusual approach and ask some tricky questions, but in most of the cases, most job interviews involve an exchange of common interview questions and answers.
So, here is the list of 10 Most Common Job Interview Questions And Answers:

1. Tell me about yourself?
Give a brief, concise walkthrough of your career story that will show off relevant pieces of experience. You can start with an important strength the hiring manager is looking for.
When you answer this question, connect the dots on your resume so the interviewer understands not just what you’ve done, but also why.

If you’re a recent graduate: Start with the fact that you just graduated, and explain why you chose this career path or field of area of study.

2. How did you learn about the opening?
Employers post jobs in many different places, and if they find a candidate and they like (you), they’re curious how you found them.

For example, maybe they posted their position on two job boards, and also created a YouTube video about their hiring needs. They want to know which of their efforts are most effective. Advertising can be very expensive to an employer. Finding out how you heard about the opening provides some valuable information regarding what sourcing methods are working. This allows the company to place their resources in the areas that produce the most value.

3. Why should we hire you?
let’s explore some possible pitfalls and things to avoid when describing why you should be hired for a position.
Don’t just respond with a generic answer like, “I’m smart, qualified and I want this job.” Of course, you do, or you wouldn’t be sitting in this interview. It’s almost certain that every other candidate is going to be saying nearly the same thing.

You need to be unique and separate yourself from the talent pool. Otherwise, you risk falling into the same category as everyone else, which is what you’re trying to avoid in the interview.

When you’re getting ready for the interview, take a moment to review the job description. Make a list of the requirements for the position, including personality traits, skills, and qualifications. Then, make a list of the qualities you have that fit those requirements.

If you’re unsure of where to start, review how to match your qualifications to a job. Don’t forget to think beyond the job description and consider which of your skills and accomplishments make you a better candidate than the competition.

4. Why do you want this job?
Many job seekers don’t always have the time to fully research every company to which they apply. Besides, it can be discouraging to invest time and effort into researching a company just to find out that you did not land an interview. However, once the interview is a sure thing, it’s time to take that step.
After the research is done, use what you have gathered to think about what you can add to the company, and what appeals to you.

The most important part of the answer is explaining how you’ll add value to the company. Your unique skills and talents are a selling point here, particularly soft skills. The more you’re able to demonstrate how you’ll use your skills to add value, the better you’ll stand out in the interview.

This is a great place to highlight your soft skill abilities and how you’ll use your expertise in them in the new role. It’s especially important if you’re interviewing for any kind of leadership role, as these are qualities that help leaders succeed. If you already possess them, you’ll be a much more attractive candidate.

5. Why are you leaving your current job?
Some of the most common, and easiest to explain, reasons for leaving a job include:

-Desire to learn.
-Desire to take on more responsibility.
-Desire to relocate.
-Desire for a career change.
-Desire to gain a new skill or grow a current skill.
-Desire for a shorter commute to work.

Interview questions about your career move are also intended to suss out whether you are really looking to change jobs, or are just casually seeing what’s out there.
If you can’t give any solid reasons as to why you’re looking to leave, it might indicate to an employer that you aren’t really serious about looking for a new job. This solidifies the fact that if you haven’t already left the job, you need to have a clear idea of why you want to leave.

When discussing the reasons why you left a job or want to leave a current job, the most important thing to remember is to be positive about the role.
No employer wants to hear you badmouthing another employer (it’s quite telling of your personality!) so try to be as tactful in your response as possible.

6. What is your greatest strength?
There are several reasons why an interviewer asks this question. They ask it because they want to know if you are:

-Able to provide strengths that align with what the firm requires.
-The best candidate or if they should wait for a better one.
-Capable of fitting neatly into the company’s structure.
-Likely to be a good team player.
-Someone with the skills, experience, and knowledge to do the job at a high level.

Take the time to list out your best strengths as a person and as a skilled worker. These can include soft skills, hard skills, and experience. From there, pick through which qualities have the most relevance to the job you’re applying for.
With three or four strengths remaining, pick on that you can provide a situational example of. For example, say you’re torn between “people person” and “problem solver.” For “people person,” you don’t really have a great example story to tell. For “problem solver,” you actually do have a somewhat funny story that has an ending that shows you are dedicated to fixing issues as they come. The latter would be a better answer to choose.
It’s important to elaborate on your strength, but you don’t necessarily have to come up with a grand story. You can keep your answers short and sweet, but substantial and impression-making.

7. What is your greatest weakness?
whether you’re a job seeker sitting in an interview for your dream job, or an entrepreneur running your own business, there’s a lot you can learn from this question.

Confess a real weakness.
Interviewers are asking the same question to dozens, sometimes hundreds of candidates. They’ve heard everything imaginable so be honest to the Interviewers with your answer.

The interviewer wants to see what unique qualities you bring to the company. How do you face challenges? Can you correctly identify problems? Can you be self-critical?
To honestly confess a real weakness takes self-reflection, insight, and courage. And those are qualities that everyone needs, not just job seekers.

8. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
While this may be a tricky question, it is actually not too difficult to provide a strong answer once you know what is actually being asked. It is not uncommon for this question to be asked regarding fewer or more years than ten- such as five or fifteen.

When interviewers ask you about your future- they are trying to gauge how good an investment you would be if hired. Keep this in mind when you are trying to decide what the best answer will be. This is a complicated issue- so be sure to take the time to consider it before you enter the interview. That way- you can be totally prepared and can answer without hesitating.

Stay Relevant to the Potential Job: The most important aspect of your answer to the question- “what do you see yourself doing in 10 years?” is how it relates to the job you are applying for. No matter what your plans are for the next 10 years- you must communicate whatever aspect relates to the job in order for your answer to be successful. If you are interested in entering this field and staying in it- describe how you hope to advance and what position- specifically- you hope to have attained by that point. If you are planning on going elsewhere- focus on what you hope to achieve while working in this position. Even if you are heading in a different direction- there will always be at least some aspects that apply to where you are now. Even if there are simply some attributes that you will be working on strengthening- you can describe them and how they will apply to the job.

9. What’s your greatest career accomplishment so far?
Why the interviewer is asking this question:
This is the best interview question of all time. Why? Because it provides a behavioral foundation for focusing specifically on the top result of the candidate’s career. And it allows the interviewer to drill into detail about each of the behavioral S-T-A-R components: the Situation or Task, the Action you took and the Results achieved. While many candidates answer this question backward (starting with the achievement and/or result and working backward to explain how it was achieved), it allows the interviewer to dig deep into how much of that accomplishment was actually due to the actions of the candidate and how much was from the actions of others.

The best approach to answering this question:
Most candidates have difficulty with this question, especially if they have not considered it in advance. The best approach is to think about your top three accomplishments. Two reasons for this: 1) it will help you to compare your top accomplishments to decide which is the best to present; and 2) a practiced interviewer may follow this question with: “What is your second greatest accomplishment?” and “What is your third greatest accomplishment?” So having three significant accomplishments will also help you answer other interview questions, even if they aren’t specifically about accomplishments (since accomplishments provide the best examples for most interview questions). Then work on building out the supporting examples for these accomplishments. This question essentially forces a full S-T-A-R behavioral answer, since it puts the “R” (results achieved) first, which makes it easy to trace the trail for how you got there. Do not, under any circumstances, use a personal accomplishment as your response. Even though you may consider your marriage or your spiritual conversion or the birth of a child or something else in your personal life to be your greatest accomplishment in life, that’s not what the interviewer is seeking. This is a career question, not a life question. It is acceptable to talk about a shared deliverable which was achieved by a team, but be careful to select one where you were a key member for delivery, not simply successful by being part of the team that delivered. You will need to talk specifically about your role in delivery.

10. What questions do you have for me?
These are some of the questions that you can ask to the interviewer while giving the interview. The question, “do you have any questions for me?” truly depends up on the situation that you have created during your interview. Only some people are asked such questions because they create such an image in the interviewer’s mind that they fell like knowing more what exactly is in your mind. The question perfectly serves the situation and people who are not prepared for it before hand are the ones who land up answering the wrong way and finally fail in getting through the interview. So remember when you are going for an interview you need to prepare well and create a mindset to handle all the questions in a positive and beneficial manner for the company, this will help you to get the desired job.

Not having any interview questions to ask an employer is a huge red flag – because it indicates that you either don’t care about the job or that you failed to properly prepare for the interview.

You should always have a minimum of 4 or 5 ready to go, in case the interviewer asks ‘do you have any questions for me?’.
You don’t want to sound like a robot firing off a long list of questions, and you need to be careful not to ramble in an interview. Instead, choose 4-5 really good questions that you are genuinely interested in finding out the answer for.

The opportunity to ask questions at the end can be the make or break of your graduate interview – so use it to your advantage and prepare the best questions you can.

10 Most Common Job Interview Questions And Answers