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Work is a meaningful part of our lives and besides the ability to pay your bills, it gives you the sense of belonging to something big and important. In modern society, personal success associates strongly with professional achievements. So, the more impressive title and position you have (even on paper), the more respect you get.
Why You Need to Select Your Workplace Consciously
You spend 8-10 hours (or even more) of your day at your workplace and spend more only in bed. And it’s a great experience when besides your salary, you get the feeling of satisfaction at the end of the month.
That’s why it is important to choose the job that will bring you more than money. The place where you’ll be valued and proud of what you’ve achieved and at the same time where you won’t ruin your personal life because of overworking and emotional burnout.
Why is it Important to Prepare for Job Interviews?
To choose the best employer, you need to master the skill of making the right impression. The easiest way to do so is through your CV or resume.
If you are not sure whether your resume makes you stand out of the crowd or if you have no time to craft one, it’s better to seek help from resume writing services. There is no shortage in platforms like topresumereviews where you can compare top resume writing service providers and select the one with the best quality-price balance.
The second best moment to grab the spotlight is during your job interview. They usually last no more than 1-1,5 hours and may consist of several rounds. And (surprise surprise) your professional skills stated in your resume and certificates won’t be the thing that will be evaluated.
Your communication and personal skills are no less important and sometimes they can be revealed only in unexpected situations. For example, when an interviewer asks you an award question. And it’s important to drill through the most common job interview questions to be confident and show your personality only from the best side.
This post will highlight the list of example interview questions together with some guidance on how to answer them properly. And, hopefully, it will help you do your best and get your dream job in a dream team. So, let’s get started!
Top 7 Commonly Asked Job Interview Questions
1. What are your interests and passions?
It’s a great question that touches upon your motivation and internal goals that drive your life. For example, if you are keen on sport, it may mean that you are a goal-oriented and disciplined person because without these qualities you won’t achieve any results.
But to use this question to your benefit, you need to tell about things that are genuinely interesting to you and you can provide real-life examples. Then these topics can be easily connected with your work responsibilities and how you apply the acquired skills in the working environment.
2. Why have you applied for this position?
In reality, the purpose of this question is to find out whether you’ve taken your time to research the company and critically evaluate how your vision aligns with the organization’s mission.
So, it’s necessary to do your due diligence and dig up some information about your employer: its values, history, and culture before the interview. Then you can easily include these facts in your speech and highlight how they correspond to your own views.
3. What do you like the most/the least about your current position?
The answer to this question illustrates your career ambitions and personality. Be honest but positive. Here are some tips on how to respond to it best:
· Focus on positives
· Speak about work, not people
· Tell what you’ve learned from this experience
· Avoid speaking negatively about your colleagues
· Concentrate on the career growth opportunities within the organization
4. What are your most significant achievements in your current role?
Take your time before the interview to think about your accomplishments and single out the most prominent ones. Knowing the company values and culture as well as meticulous scanning of the requirements for this job will help you pick the achievement that will showcase you in the best light possible.
5. What was the most difficult situation at work you’ve managed to overcome?
It’s a quite common question to see how well and fast you can cope with stressful situations and solve the problem. Nourish your story with facts and numbers to better outline the issue and make up a short plan for it.
This plan should provide key details about the situation, what you did to find the solution, and what you’ve learned from this lesson.
6. What are your main strengths and weaknesses?
We are all humans and it’s only natural that we are not perfect in everything. And interviewers do not expect you to be one. But it’s still necessary to critically assess your:
· Technical skills and room for improvement
· Soft skills like leadership or management qualities
· Personal traits
It will help you evaluate your chances to be a good candidate for this position.
7. Why do you want to change your job?
There are numerous reasons why you may decide to leave your current job. But to make your interviewer understand that your reason is good, your answer should be well-crafted and persuasive. There are some rules on how to make your response convincing yet positive:
· Focus on future gains
· Describe how your position change can reflect on your professional growth
· Say how the offered position will help you in your career path
Key Takeaway
Interviews are unavoidable parts of the hiring process. But the better you prepare for them, the higher possibilities to get a job offer from the best companies. But even if you haven’t succeeded and the organization decided to hire another candidate, productive interviews have another hidden advantage.
Sometimes, companies have several unlisted job openings that have lower priority. Or that “wait for their perfect candidates” and recruiters just do not launch active campaigns for them.
That’s why even if your potential employer can’t offer the position you want, but you’ve made a good impression, there are high chances that they can provide you with other options.
But, anyway, forewarned is forearmed and all your preparations will be paid off. How? It’s only a question of persistence and luck. So, best of luck to you, job seeker!