During an interview, you will be asked a series of questions in order for the recruiter to gather information about your knowledge, skills, experience, personality, and work style. There are several types of interview questions that can be classified and categorised into certain types. These classifications may help you prepare for and answer these questions during your interview.
The 4 types of interview questions are:
- Personality questions (Most common questions asked in the beginning)
Interviewers will ask you these questions to learn more about your personality and to see whether you’re a good match for the position and the business. These are open-ended questions that allow you to demonstrate to the company that you are well-qualified for the job. These types of interview questions are used by employers to learn more about the applicant as a person and as an employee. These may include questions to determine if the applicant is qualified for the position or a good fit for the company’s culture.
Sample Interview Questions:
- Tell me about yourself.
- How will your strengths add to the role?
- What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
- How would you describe yourself?
- What are you passionate about?
- Tell me something about yourself that is not on the resume. (Other than the sections you include in your CV)
- Do you consider yourself successful?
- What makes you unique?
- How do you react to failure?
- How are you different from the competition?
- What motivates you?
- What are your future career goals?
- What are you passionate about?
- Have you ever changed someone’s opinion?
- Behavioural questions:
Employers ask these types of interview questions to gain a sense of how candidates have dealt with difficult situations or responsibilities on the job. Employers may want detailed instances of how situations were handled, disputes were resolved, or objectives were achieved. These types of interview questions that are behavioural in nature concentrate on how you handled different job circumstances in the past. Your answer will show your talents, personality, and capabilities.
The rationale behind this interview strategy is that your previous conduct reflects and forecasts your future behaviour.
When answering these types of interview questions that need an anecdote, the STAR method is a good tactic to employ. It’s a great method to get your ideas organised. Using this method, there are four stages to answering:
- Situation (S) : Describe the circumstances under which the incident occurred.
- Task (T): Describe the task you were given. Describe the problem or issue you were attempting to resolve in this section.
- Action (A): Describe the steps you followed to finish the job or address the issue.
- Result (R) Describe the result or outcome of your activities. Explain how your efforts resulted in the completion of a task, the resolution of a dispute, the improvement of your company’s sales record, and so on. Concentrate on how your activities contributed to the company’s success.
Sample Interview Questions:
- How do you work under pressure?
- How do you handle deadlines?
- What do you do if your co-worker disagrees with you?
- How do you set and achieve your goals?
- How do you handle a challenge?
- Did you ever make a risky decision? How did you handle it?
- Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.
- Give an example of an occasion when you used logic to solve a problem.
- Given an example of a goal you didn’t meet and how you handled it.
- Do you ever postpone making decisions?
- Give an example of how you’ve worked in a team.
- What do you do if you disagree with your boss?
- Describe a stressful situation at work and how you handled it.
- What do you do when your schedule is interrupted? Give an example of how you handle it.
- Did you ever not meet your goals? Why?
- Have you been in a situation where you didn’t have enough work to do?
- Skills and Knowledge Interview questions
These types of interview questions are asked by interviewers to see whether the applicant’s skills meet the job requirements. Questions vary from a simple list of abilities to instances of how skills are used, evaluate the candidate’s qualifications as well as how he or she has handled similar circumstances in the past.
Sample Interview Questions:
- What qualifications do you possess for this position?
- In your previous job, what were your responsibilities?
- How long did you work in your previous position?
- What is the highest level of education that you have attained?
- What certifications do you hold?
- What precautions do you take to prevent making mistakes?
- What aspect of your previous work gave you the greatest satisfaction?
- What aspects of your former work did you like or dislike?
- What was your proudest achievement?
- What does an ideal job mean to you?
- Which operating systems, software, programs, and applications are you acquainted with?
- Explain how you found a creative solution to a problem in your previous job?
- Industry-specific interview questions
These types of interview questions could be industry-specific to see how well the applicant understands the business. Employers look for candidates that have a good grasp of how the business operates and how they see themselves fitting into its systems. To be able to answer these types of interview questions, you need to stay up to date with the latest and most recent news related to your industry and fold of work.
Sample interview questions:
- What do you believe is the most pressing problem affecting our industry today?
- Who would you pick as our industry mentor if you had the opportunity?
- Consider where this industry will be in five years. What will it look like?
- What does the future hold for you in this field?
- What tools do you use to finish tasks and assign responsibilities?
- What might your previous business have done differently to be more successful?
- What are the first actions you would take if you could establish a business like ours?
