Interview Questions

At any interview there will usually be a range of pre-set questions that the interviewers will have ready to ask the interviewees. This approach will make it easier, more objective and impartial for interviewers to compare and contrast answers provided, helping to decide on the successful candidate.

From the interviewee perspective it is trying to second guess the questions that could come up so some preparation work can be carried out beforehand.

The following interview questions, which aren't exhaustive, provide a useful basic outline of what be considered typical of some of those that might appear on a template used by some human resource personnel and interviewers.

Q. How was your journey here?
This is sometimes asked as you are adjusting your seating and settling into a chair ready for the interview, as the first question to kick the interview off with.

Q. Tell us about yourself.
This type of question is a nice ‘opener question’, especially if the one about your journey hasn’t been asked and is often posed to help interviewees get a little settled and comfortable. Your response isn’t expected to give a day-by-day account of your life but just a little about your background. You could mention about enjoying working with people, helping others and working on challenging issues and a little bit extra. This will also help you get your breathing and volume right as you then start to respond to the more relevant questions that will be asked.

Q. What do you enjoy most about your current job?
This helps to initiate some rapport between you and the interviewers. So, think about this beforehand as it isn’t a good start if you have to think deeply about what you enjoy. This should come quite naturally and gives a positive image of you as an employee and as someone who is an asset to an organisation. “I particularly enjoy the social interaction aspect of my job, from training our sub-contractors to working with colleagues as a team”, etc.

Q. What is the biggest challenge you have faced at work?
The interviewers are trying to see how you might have dealt with a challenge, the nature of it and how you overcame it, especially the process involved and any other issues which arose during that time. “Project work has been interesting and challenging.

This involved not just co-ordinating the activities of others (who also had other priorities), but building a strong rapport with them, to planning resources availability at specific times, to ensure things ran smoothly, and I built in some contingency allowances to allow for unforeseen events. Also, keeping everyone updated on progress on a regular basis helped to maintain interest and ensure they all continued to feel part of the project. This was quite challenging as it was quite a different process to my usual work routine,” etc.

Q. Why do you want to leave your current job?
Interviewers will, usually, be looking for positive reasons and would certainly not wish to hear you moan about your current employer as they may then think this is what you would say about them if you were their employee.

Are there progression opportunities in this new job which don’t exist where you currently are employed? Is this a ‘natural step up’ from what you currently do? Is it a change of occupation you are looking for? Are you wanting to gain new experiences in a different context even though the job role might be similar to what you do at the present time?
“I would only leave where I am if there is a strong chance of making an increased impact on the local environment / our industry sector / the local community / customer experiences / …, with particular emphasis on the sustainability of the impact. This advertised job role offers one of those rare occasions that I can help in providing such an impact,“ etc.

Q. What is your present manager like?
This question will help to provide an indication of how you might get on with others, even though the question is asking about someone you work with. “She is very good at listening to others and getting everyone involved by asking and consulting before making significant changes. She has a good ability to motivate us and get the desired results for the company,” etc.

If you said your manager was bossy, didn’t really know what they were doing, wasn’t very well liked, and even if this was true, it would infer that you see the negative aspects in others and not positive ones, unlike the first statement. So, focus on positives traits for your line manager and you wanted to mention an area for improvement in them, identify this as a constructive observation which you would see make them an outstanding manager.

Q. What do you think is the main role of the ground’s manager [or whatever job it is you are being interviewed for]?
“I see this as consisting of two main areas: firstly, to plan the best use of all available resources in achieving the desired outcomes, and to develop a team that is well motivated, capable and wanting to excel in what they do.”

This could then be extended further but have a few prepared ideas of the main emphasis of the job you are being interviewed for. This will demonstrate to the interviewers that you have given some thought to the job applied for and not just turned up to ‘see how it goes’.

Q. What do you know about our company?
This type of question could come about anywhere in an interview. You would be expected to know something about the company you wish to join. This will demonstrate you have carried out some research and taken the trouble to do some preparatory research beforehand.

Q. Why do you want this job?
Try and think of a more insightful reply than just ‘because I do’ or ‘it looks good’, or similar poor responses. Consider including commentary such as how it will help progress your career, develop your skills, matches your own aspirations and/or ethical principles, wanting to work for a leading / innovative / visionary organisation, or similar, although try not to sound too gushing in any praise of the company. Is your reason going to be a lot more thought out and considered than another interviewee? It should be.

Q. What can you bring to this job?
The interviewers will be wanting to find out what difference you might be able to make; what can you offer them? This is a really key question and for all job interviews it will be one of the most important to think about beforehand and practice your reply, so you are confident in what you say. You may include commentary such as ‘enthusiasm (bundles of it)’, ‘a genuine interest in the job role’ (although they might say so do all the applicants being interviewed), ‘the ability to offer solutions to different types of problems’, ‘a strong work ethic - going the extra mile’, ‘a creative mind and the ability to apply this to practical solutions’, etc.

Q. How long would you expect to stay with the company?
This will depend on the job role and what you have found out about the company beforehand. The company might be a ‘feeder’ to other companies so there might not be an expectation to stay too long in the role, yet by contrast there may be well structured progression opportunities, especially if it is a large company and someone could, in theory, dedicate their entire working life to a single company, although this is becoming less prevalent in the twenty-first century. You might rework the question, when asked, slightly by saying that you would anticipate working in the same role for x years, after which you would anticipate progression to a different role and continue to develop and progress from there. This would keep it quite open and is probably quite a realistic response for a larger company.

A very similar question that might be asked is ‘Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?’, to which the response could be the same as the above, or very similar.

Q. What are your greatest strengths?
This question might be aimed to give an insight into how well you might fit in with the rest of the team. So, you will want to be positive and confident to back up with examples in what you say, but not egotistical or clearly anything which is untrue. Some good words and traits to consider include,
• Approachable and easy to get on with (they probably don’t want someone who is going to be difficult to engage with).
• Flexible in working practices (meaning you don’t stick rigidly to a plan if some adjustment is needed to get things done).
• Seeing things through (which shows commitment and perseverance to a task).
• Reliable (which is a good point to reinforce as employers can be quite nervous about the reliability of some employees).
• Good planning skills (showing you can think things through).

Look at the range of Employability Skills and see which ones might be most appropriate for the job role and consider using some of them in any response.

Q. What do you think is your biggest weakness?
Don’t offer something which is going to cause concern, even in a joking manner. For example, ‘If I feel I don’t like anyone then I’m likely to become quite aggressive’. Clearly that type of response will go down like a lead balloon and will significantly dent your chance of success, if not sink it altogether.

Try and think of something which shows further room for improvement but is typical of what might be expected. For example, ‘To be self-critical, which I am trying to improve on by being more reflective in what I do and also recording some of the more interesting aspects in a CPD log’.

Another example could be ‘Always trying to please everyone by saying ‘yes’ when asked to help. I have found that I then end up not doing a very good job on several tasks and missing deadlines and letting people down. It hasn’t happened too often, but it does occasionally, so I need to be able to prioritise better and still offer to help but to be more open in what can be realistically achieved within certain timescales.’

Q. How would your colleagues describe you?
This type of question might be asked to see if there is a similarity with any strengths you may have (if that other question was asked), and/or to continue to build a picture of what you are like as a person. So, consider responses like ‘helpful’, ‘a good organiser’, ‘supportive’, ‘team player who provides direction and guidance’, ‘inquisitive’, ‘likes to talk (but not too much though!)’, ‘a good listener’, ‘someone you can talk to in confidence’, etc. In your descriptions be careful not to create a picture of someone who might be difficult to manage.

Q. How would your friends describe you?
This might be asked to gauge what difference there might be between how colleagues and friends view you. If there is a large difference then this might be cause for concern, or not, but it will probably result in some additional questioning by interviewers to better understand why there might be a big difference.

Q. What are your three most favourite interests or hobbies?
This might be a closing type of question, just to add some extra insight into you as a person. There might be some skills involved which have not expanded on during the rest of the interview and you or the interviewers would have a final opportunity to add some additional value in support of your interview for the job role.

Q. Do you have any questions about the interview process that’s been carried out?
This type of question allows the interviewers to respond to any concerns you may have about the conduct of the interview whilst everything is fresh in everyone’s mind. It does also provide evidence to support the interviewers position, if, later on, you raise a complaint or concern about the interview process but didn’t raise it at the time when you had the opportunity.

Q. Do you have any questions you would like to ask us about the job role?
This is usually the final question of an interview and usually you would be expected to ask at least one question, rather than just ‘No, that’s fine thanks’, unless everything really has been answered in the interview, in which case you might sum up by saying, ‘No, but all my questions have been answered during the interview. Thank you for asking’, or similar.

So, have a few questions prepared and written down beforehand. Maybe something like, ‘What do you think is the main priority for the role / team / department / grounds over the next 6-months’; ‘What are the different team dynamics like at the moment?’; ‘I’m very interested in the job role and I believe I would be a good asset to the company: Is there anything you would like me to clarify? (This also gives the interviewers an opportunity to clarify anything they may have missed)’; ‘When will you be able to let me know whether I have been successful or not for this role’, etc.