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Interview Questions & Tips

The document provides guidance on preparing for and answering common interview questions. It outlines how to summarize your background and experience in response to "tell me about yourself" in 3 short paragraphs. For "why should we hire you?" it advises highlighting your relevant skills and achievements. When asked about your weaknesses, the document says to choose something you have worked to improve and give a recent example.

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Nacer Taha
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126 views5 pages

Interview Questions & Tips

The document provides guidance on preparing for and answering common interview questions. It outlines how to summarize your background and experience in response to "tell me about yourself" in 3 short paragraphs. For "why should we hire you?" it advises highlighting your relevant skills and achievements. When asked about your weaknesses, the document says to choose something you have worked to improve and give a recent example.

Uploaded by

Nacer Taha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Interview questions

Tell me about yourself…


Usually the first question so you need to prepare a good response.
Give a good balanced answer, not a life history.
Preparation is important but don’t go into too much detail.
Begin with an overview of your highest qualification.
Then discuss the jobs that you’ve had so far in your career.
Approximately follow the same structure as your CV.
Give examples of achievements and skills.
If it’s your first job, focus on the areas of studies you most enjoyed, and explain how
this had led you to wanting this role.
Briefly talk about your interests outside work

Why should we hire you?


What makes you special and where do your major strengths lie?
The job description will help you find out what they are looking for so you can adapt
your answer to meet their requirements.
‘I have a unique combination of strong “…” skills and the ability to “…”.’ for example.
Then give a specific example of something you have done in your career to support
your statement.
State your biggest achievement and the benefit it made to the company.
You could finish with; ‘Given the opportunity, I could bring this success to your
company’

Why do you want the job?


Give an answer that indicates you have given this some thought.
Give an example to show that your goals and ambitions match the companies’
ethos/ philosophy.
Never say ‘I just need a job’!

Strengths: To make them want you (always give examples)


Motivated
Always ready to learn new skills
Good at problem solving
Leadership skills
Punctual
Accurate
Fast learner
Focussed
Confident
I’m a people person
Business Skills
Ability to make/ save money
Ability to save time
Ability to follow procedures

Professional Skills
Honesty
Pride in your work
Ability to work in a team
Analytical skills
Reliability / can be trusted

Personal Qualities
Communication skills
Listening skills
Self confidence
Motivation
Determination
Friendliness
Open mindedness

Weaknesses: And how you are working to overcome them


Choose something you have made a positive step to rectify.
Use a recent example, showing you have done a training course or spent time trying
to improve. Therefore, your weakness can be perceived as a strength! Don’t say that
you don’t have any weaknesses, the interviewer won’t believe you. ‘I have a
tendency to work too hard’ is seen as avoiding the question.
‘I am a perfectionist’ is a bit of a cliché!

You could mention non-essential skills or turn a negative into a positive. Impatient:
When I’m working on a project, I don’t just want to meet the deadline, I want to
complete it ahead of schedule
Disorganised: I’ve had problems in the past with organisation but I’ve developed a
system using my computer calendar etc.
I used to always work at the last minute, but now I’ve realised it’s better to be
ahead of schedule to be more productive.

*Remember to always be positive and enthusiastic


*Smile and make eye contact
*Have positive body language, don’t fidget
*Don’t mention anything negative unless you are showing how it shaped you
professionally/ as a person
*Don’t say ‘I can’t do that/ I don’t like …/ I’m not good at …’
*Do say ‘I don’t have much experience of that but I’ve always wanted to learn/ I
prefer …/ I’m better at …’
*If the interview is not in your mother tongue, speak slowly and clearly
*Do research into the company and use the knowledge in your answers to show
your motivation
**If the interview is on Skype, check your internet connection before, make sure
you have good lighting and a nice background!
Interview Questions

o Tell me about yourself…


o What are your strong points/ weak points?
o What are your three best/ worst qualities?
o What makes you different from your colleagues?
o Is there anything you would like to change about your personality and if so,
why?
o What are you passionate about?
o What are you currently studying?
o Why did you choose this area of studies?
o What is your favourite/ least favourite subject on your course and why?
o Tell me about your professional experience.
o What responsibilities have you had in your work/ personal life?
o Describe a difficult work situation and how you overcame it.
o What did you learn from this experience?
o Do you like working in a team or do you prefer working on your own?
o How do you handle stress and pressure?
o If you had to choose between a well-paid, boring job and a less well-paid but
interesting job, which would you choose and why?
o What are the most important qualities required in the work place?
o If you had your own company, what qualities would you look for in a future
employee?
o Have you ever had a difficulty with a colleague and how did you rectify it?
o What language skills do you have?
o Have you travelled or worked abroad?
o Have you ever experienced culture shock and how did you overcome it?
o Would you be prepared to leave the area/ country to get a job?
o What is your five-year plan?
o What do you do outside of work?
o Have you ever done any volunteer work?
o Is there anything important about you that we have not talked about and you
would like to mention?
o Why are you the best person for this job?
o What personal or professional experience are you most proud of and why?
o Can you describe a memorable professional experience which profoundly
changed you
To get an interview:

Ensure you have an up-to-date GitHub page, StackOverflow account, and CFT,
coding games scores, kaggle, anything that will show an interest in developing.

If you're not an experienced IT practitioner, your resume should focus on what


you're currently learning. Keywords in your resume are important to pass the
first filter of automatic selection, ensure to highlight your problem-solving
abilities.

If you have do not have a technical background, looking for a role in an


industry you have previously worked in is a good option as you will have past
experience on the business topics. Suppose you do not wish to continue in the
field you are previously experienced in, you can still acquire experience in the
field you know for an internship period and then then switch to another field.
It is more difficult to obtain a role with no experience either in data or
business.

Choose your internship wisely. It is common for companies to propose a permanent


position after an internship.

Further interview preparation tips

Position yourself as a professional, because you are. All of your past work
experience empowers you, so think about every skill that you can
transfer over to the role that you are applying for. If you have never worked in IT
before rest assured that 'soft skills' are mission-critical skills.

It's OK to be a new to the field. If you are, make sure the interviewer
understands what you are studying, and that you are eager to learn more. If you have
past work experience, provide examples of situations where you had to
learn a new topic quickly or solve a problem by yourself. Being a full-stack
Data Scientist takes a decade, and even then you'll have to keep learning new
skills. You should not be expected to know it all. The recruiter wants to
make sure you're a good match, and whatever the situation, you will face it and
come up with a solution.

Exchange as much as you can with your fellow students at school. Data Science,
Analysis, AI, and Data Engineering function as a team. The more you know
about end-to-end AI projects, pitfalls, and value, the more you will impress the
interviewer.

The interviewer or HR person in front of you is more scared than you are. They
fear making a mistake in hiring you, which can harm their career if they are
professional recruiters or harm the project if they are the technical lead. The
more prepared you come to an interview the more reassuring you are. You
have to convince the interviewer that you will not let them down and that
you're trustworthy. Sometimes they can even ask the question: 'Why should I
hire YOU', it's not a trick question, it's an actual concern. Even if they do not
voice it. Remember it's always there at the back of their mind and you have to
find a way to address it.
Make sure you're addressing the context for your interviewer. For instance,
you can be slightly technical but not deeply technical in front of an HR
interviewer, unless they are experienced in the technical aspects. This will
only confuse them and potentially ruin your chances. It will be impossible for
them to evaluate you in their context which is: are you a good fit for the team.
If you are using technical terms, make sure they understand why you are
using them in this interview context, (don't use acronyms).

Perhaps you'll have a lot of interviews and none of them are successful. Take
notes of everything during the interviews. You can treat them as problem-
solving projects. Every interview you have will help you figure out the context
of your industry, what you actually want, and what is good for you.

Maybe you are not sure which area you want to work in (i.e. your preferred
language, are you more adapted to Data Science or machine learning
engineering, do you want to specialise in DevOps and cloud or databases
applications, in which work environment will you be the most comfortable,
does remote work for you). This is very much OK, but prepare a list of these
specific domain topics so you can figure it out for yourself. If an interviewer
asks you if you're more into python or R, it's OK to answer both, but you
should be able to explain why in a project-related way.

Unfortunately, sometimes companies are using entry tests especially for


internships to get free labor. So if the tests consist of an entire project that
takes over two days to code or you feel that something is not quite right it is
OK to decline the offer and or seek further advice from the Direction of Studies
team. This is not say that you should not be expected to code for an internship
test because you are but it is important to be aware of this when applying for
internships.

Last but not least, you are in charge of your own interviews. Of course, there
are implicit rules that the interviewer asks most of the questions, but it is your
moment.

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