Top 27 Common Job Interview

Questionsand Answers Samples

Practice and get comfortable with these common job questions and answer samples
before ourinterview and we’ll feel more confident, while giving much better answers.

We recommend spending some time getting comfortable with what we might be

asked, what hiring managers are really looking for in our responses, and what it takes
to show that we're theright man or woman for the job.

1. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

To answer, walk them through our background, starting at how we began our
career or ourcurrent line of work.

Take them through key accomplishments, key career moves we’ve made, and end
by sharingwhat we’re looking to do next in our career and why we’re job hunting.

Good answer sample:

“I started my career in Marketing after graduating with a Business degree in 2011. I’ve
spent my entire career at Google, receiving 3 promotions and 4 awards for outstanding
performance.I’m looking to join a smaller company now, and take on more leadership
and project management.”

2. How did you hear about the position?

This is one of the simplest question and answer scenarios in any interview, but that
doesn’t meanit can’t ruin our chances at the job if we answer incorrectly.

Good answer sample:

“I saw the job posted on a website, and the position seemed interesting so I
wanted to learnmore”

“I found the position while looking for jobs online”

“Your company was recommended to me by somebody I worked with in a previous job

and hadheard good things about your organization”

“I heard about it from a friend”

3. What do you know about our company?
Our primary goal is to show we’ve done our research or knew about their
company beforeapplying. If we do this, we’ll be fine.

If we don’t seem like we know anything about them, we’ll come across as desperate –
somebodywho will take any job they can find. And that’s going to make we unattractive
to any good employers out there.

Good answer sample:

“From what I read, your company is one of the leaders in providing security software to
other businesses. I read the list of clients on your website. Do you mostly serve
Fortune 500 clients? Isaw a couple big Fortune 500 companies mentioned on the list,
including ... and ”

“You’re one of the largest investment banks in the US. Your headquarters is in Raleigh,
NC, andyou have 25,000 employees worldwide based on what I read on your website.”

4. Why did you apply for this position?

We need to sound like we want the RIGHT job and that we’re being picky. Companies
want thebest performers, and the best performers are picky in their job hunt.
Stay away from negatives and complaints too. Do not bad-mouth our current
company or boss.Focus on the positives of the company we’re interviewing with.

Good answer sample:

“I’ve heard great things about the work environment here from a few colleagues.
And when I saw this job posting, it seemed to match my skills very closely. For example,
I saw onthe job description that you need somebody who’s an expert in mySQL
programming.

This is what I focused on in both of my previous positions, and was even the focus
of my academic work before graduating university. I consider myself an expert in
mySQL and it’s askill I hope to continue specializing in.”

“Since beginning my career, I’ve wanted to work for a larger organization in this industry,
and Iknow you’re one of the leaders in this space.

I’m very interested in your services, especially the mobile applications you’re building
recently,so I’d be excited to come here and grow my skills with an organization like
yours.”
5. Why should we hire you?
Try to talk about them and how we’ll help them. What will be better for them if they
hire us?What will we improve for them?

And show we’ve done our research. Make it clear that we know what this position
involves, andwe’re ready to perform the tasks.

Good answer sample:

“I read on the job description that you’re looking for someone with experience in
software programming. I’ve done that for 3 years and can immediately help you
accomplish softwareprogramming”.

6. Why are you looking to leave your current company?

If we chose to leave on our own terms, stay positive and focus on what we wanted to
gain fromthe decision, rather than bad-mouthing or focusing on negatives we wanted
to avoid.

Good answer sample:

“I was hired for a project management role, but over time that changed and I was no
longerbeing given the opportunity to do the work I was interested in.

I left to pursue an opportunity that I felt was more aligned with what I’ve chosen to
focus on inmy career.”

7. What are your greatest professional strengths?

Answer it well and it’s one of the best ways we can show off our skills and show that
we standout among other candidates.

Choose 1 to 3 attributes we want to mention (depending on whether the question

asks for onestrength or multiple) and cap it there.

We’ll want to think strategically about what skills will position us as qualified for the
job and agood fit for the company.

Does the position require client interaction? Communication and relationship

building makessense.

Or if the environment is fast paced and constantly evolving our ability to multitask,
adapt, andlearn quickly would be good to highlight.
Good answer sample:

“I think some of my greatest strengths are my communication skills and

willingness to takeinitiative.

During my last internship, when I was helping to manage several social media accounts,
I made sure that everyone on the team was on the same page and knew what our
messaging strategy wasby taking the initiative to send out a weekly email to keep the
team up to date and to seek feedback.

This ended up being so helpful that the weekly social media update was incorporated
into a full-time staff member’s responsibilities.”

8. Tell me about a challenge or conflict you've faced at

work,and how you dealt with it.
Focus on a specific work-related challenge and talk about how we overcame obstacles,
used it asa learning experience, used the resources around us (including
people/colleagues if applicable), and ended up with a positive result!
That’s how to answer this interview question. Keep it work related, not personal.

Good answer sample:

“In my last job, we were facing a tough deadline and my boss was out for the day.
Our clientwas expecting a project to be delivered by 5PM, but we were far behind
schedule.

I took the lead on the project, delegated tasks to the four other team members in a
way that Ithought would utilize everyone’s strengths best.

And then I re-organized my own personal tasks so I could dedicate my entire day to
contributingto this project as well.

The project was a success and we delivered the work on-time. I went on to lead
more projectsafter that, and used what I learned to be a better project manager.”

9. How much money are you looking to earn?

Unfortunately this question is left off of many lists of job interview questions and
answersexamples.

But it’s extremely important and the wrong answer here can cost us thousands of
dollars in thenegotiation later on.
Stand our ground and tell them we don’t have a number in mind yet, or aren’t sure.
Good answer sample:

“Right now I’m focused on finding a job that’s the right fit for my career.

Once I’ve done that, I’m willing to consider an offer you feel is fair, but I do not have a
specificnumber in mind yet, and my priority is to find a position that’s a great fit for
me.”

10. Why do you want to work here?

This is very similar to the question: “Why did you apply for this position?”

Show them that we know what that their job involves (at least as much as we could
learn fromthe job description and company website), and that we’re excited to be
interviewing for this position.

Good answer sample:

“I’ve been actively searching for jobs since graduating with my Nursing degree.
I’m interested in intensive care and emergency medicine and I’ve seen your hospital
mentionedas having one of the best ER’s in the region.

I thought the job description matched up well with my background, and saw some of my
personalstrengths mentioned, like multitasking and being able to thrive in a fast paced
environment, so I’d love to begin my career here.”

11. What is your dream job?

Career counselors like to think about good jobs as the intersection of our skills,
interests, andvalues.

That’s a good way for us to approach it as well. Talking about our skills will
give us anopportunity to sell them a bit—after all, it's an interview.

Our interests will show our investment, and our values can help illustrate our fit
with thecompany.

Good answer sample:

"I’ve thought about this before, and I know I would want to keep honing my skills in ...
as wellas learn more about. "

"In terms of job content, I’m interested in work that involves ... and I’ve been curious
about
things like this ever since, so I would definitely want that to be part of my dream job."
"Based on my skills and interests, in my dream job, I would want to ... as related to ,
ideally in
a company where I could ... and These are both really important to me, and I’m excited to
see
that they seem to be equally important to this company."

12. Why did you leave your last job?

If we chose to leave on our own terms, stay positive and focus on what we wanted to
gain fromthe decision, rather than bad-mouthing or focusing on negatives we wanted
to avoid.

Good answer sample:

“I left for an opportunity to advance my career.”

“My department brought in a new manager and I felt it was the right time to leave.”

“I was hired for a certain role, but over time that changed and I was no longer being
given theopportunity to do the work I was interested in.”

“I didn’t feel there was an opportunity to grow or advance further in that role so I
decided achange would best for my career.”

“I had been with the organization for a number of years and wanted to
experience a newenvironment to continue growing.”

13. What other companies are you interviewing with?

Hiring managers are curious about what other companies we’re interviewing with
for a fewreasons.

They might want to scope out the competition, see how serious we are about the
industry, oreven gauge their likelihood of landing such a star candidate.

Good answer sample:

If we’re Interviewing for Competitors:

"I do have a couple of interviews coming up soon with for senior marketing positions.

But I can tell you that, based on what I know, this position has exactly the kinds of
challengesI’m looking for in my next role."

If we’re Interviewing in Other Industries:

"I’m interviewing with a few companies for a range of positions, but they all come
down todelivering an excellent customer experience.
I wanted to keep an open mind about how to best achieve that goal, but so far it seems
that this role will really allow me to focus all of my energy on customer experience and
retention, which Ifind very appealing."

If we’re Not Interviewing Anywhere Else:

"I’m still pretty early in my job search. I’ve applied to a number of opportunities that will
allowme to use my skills in data visualization to help educate clients, but this position
is most excitingto me.

In fact, I think this position is a particularly good fit for my skill set because I can
leverage mysignificant experience working with complicated data sets."

14. What is your greatest weakness?

We never want to say we struggle working with others, or we’re bad at resolving
disagreements, or taking direction from a manager, etc. Those things will get us
rejected in the interview.

So pick a specific skill, but pick something that won’t severely impact our ability to do this
job.

Good answer sample:

“I’m not particularly strong in social media marketing. For the first few years of my
career, Ifocused entirely on email marketing.

That’s still what I specialize in, which is why I applied for your Email Marketing Manager job

But I’ve realized it’s also helpful to understand the principles of social media marketing
becausesome of the strategies that work there also work well in email.
So I’ve started spending a couple hours a week of my own time studying and learning
this newarea, and it’s helped me a lot.”

15. What type of work environment do you prefer?

Ideally one that's similar to the environment of the company we're applying to. Be specific.

Although most places have a section on their sites devoted to explaining culture, they
tend to be filled with phrases like “dedicated to customer satisfaction” and “we
encourage our employeesto grow.” That tells us a whole lot of nothing.
16. What's a time you disagreed with a decision that
wasmade at work?
Brainstorm a few more questions that could potentially come up based on the
position we’reapplying for and our particular situation.

For example, say we tell that story about standing up to the director of marketing when
asked totalk about conflict with a previous supervisor.

We eloquently move through the story about how we shared our hesitation about the
new marketing campaign to no avail, but once the initial numbers came in, it was clear
that we wereright.

We triumphantly showed the performance to the director, and she agreed to scrap the
campaign.

Good answer sample:

“I learned early on in my professional career that it’s fine to disagree if you can back
up yourhunches with data.”

“In short, it’s not that I’m an amazing multitasker; I just set and review my priorities
frequently.”

17. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Pick a work-related goal of where we’d like to be five years from now, and make
sure it’sslightly challenging or ambitious-sounding.

And make sure to share a goal that is related to the type of job we’re

interviewing for.We want to sound like the experience we’ll gain in this job fits

our long-term goals. Good answer sample:

“I’m glad you asked. In five years I see myself taking on more responsibilities, either
through
management or higher level individual contributions.

I am not sure which path will make sense to pursue, but I know my goal right now is
to build astrong foundation and gain valuable experience so that I’ll have a successful
future in this
industry.”
18. Can you explain why you changed career paths?
Have a target audience, and speak directly to it. It's super important for any job seeker.

We’re not going to be able to just list out our job history and expect a financial
services hiringmanager to instantly deduce what we have to offer.

Instead, we will need to angle all of our messaging in a way that makes it obvious
what we’retrying to achieve, and why we’re heading in that direction.

A good rule of thumb is that, if we’re worried how a certain position or experience is
going to beperceived on our resume, there’s a good chance that someone is going to
make the exact
conclusion we don’t want them to make.

That said, we should plan to go on the offense and manage the message.

For instance, say the moves we’ve made along the way make we look, at least on paper,
like a bitof a job hopper.

It’s best to add a quick statement in each section of our resume that briefly explains the
jump.

Think through how we’re going to present our choices and career path to a potential
employer, present them briefly and confidently, and then refocus the discussion on our
commitment to thisrole and what we can walk through that company’s doors and
deliver.

Good answer sample:

“Following a family relocation to Dallas…” (makes the job switch obvious) or

“After asignificant corporate restructure…” (makes it clear that our job was
axed).

19. Tell Me About a Time You Failed

This is a common interview question that employers ask to see if we’re able to
learn frommistakes and bounce back when things don’t go our way.

Ideally, talk about how we used that lesson to get a different outcome next time we
were presented with a similar challenge (e.g. how we turned a past failure into a
future success).

Good answer sample:

“In my most recent position, I had recently been promoted to Supervisor, and was
managing thedepartment on my own right before the department closed.

An employee was acting out and I confronted him in front of everybody. It made the
situationworse and caused a lot of distraction for every employee on the floor.
I failed to lead properly in this situation, and spoke to my manager the next day to
discuss what Icould have done differently.

We both agreed that I should have handled this in-private with the employee, by asking
them tostep inside my office with me.

If I had done this instead of reacting the way I did, the situation would have turned
out muchbetter.

From that point onward, I am always conscious of whether a discussion with a team
membershould occur in public or behind closed doors, and it made me a better
leader.”

20. How would our boss and co-workers describe you?

This is our chance to use the words of others to talk about our own positive traits.

Good answer sample:

"Actually, in my most recent performance review in May, my direct supervisor

described me assomeone who takes initiative and doesn’t shy away from hard
problems.

My role involves a lot of on-site implementation, and when things go wrong, it’s usually
up to meto fix it.

Rather than punting the problem back to the team, I always try to do what I can first. I
know sheappreciates that about me."

"One thing I’ve noticed is that I’m always the one people turn to for recommendations
on how tohandle a new event or program—the latest fundraiser that I just told you about
would be one.

I have a lot of institutional knowledge, which helps, but I think the reason people come
to me isbecause I work through what a new program might look like very methodically.

If you were to ask my colleagues, I’m confident they’d describe me as logical,

organized, andmeticulous."

"I don’t want to speak for anyone else, but I’m pretty confident my colleagues would
describe me as thoughtful I’m the one in the office who remembers everyone’s
birthdays—and hard-working, since I never leave my office until it’s been dark out for a
couple of hours.

My boss in particular would say I’m very knowledgeable about audience development
it’s why Ikept taking on more and more responsibilities in that domain."
21. How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?
A great approach is to talk through our go-to stress-reduction tactics (making the
world's greatestto-do list, stopping to take 10 deep breaths), and then share an example
of a stressful situation you navigated with ease.

The thing people assume about these questions is that they’re all about the story.
And it's acritical component.

But even if our story isn’t exactly what the interview question asked for, if it’s framed
well andwe go the extra mile to tell the interviewer what he or she should take away
from it, we’ll actually end up making a stronger impression.

So, don’t stress too much about having the perfect stories lined up or the exact
relevant experience. Instead, focus on the messages we’re trying to communicate to
the hiring manager,and back them up with the stories that we have.

22. If you were an animal, which one would you want to be?
Seemingly random personality-test type questions like these come up in interviews
generallybecause hiring managers want to see how we can think on our feet.

There's no wrong answer here, but we'll immediately gain bonus points if our answer
helps weshare our strengths or personality or connect with the hiring manager.

Since this question almost never have a “right” answer, the key to responding well is
mostlyabout answering enthusiastically and coherently - not what the content of our
answer is.

If being funny comes naturally to us, this is a great outlet to use some SFW humor. (If it
doesn’t,now’s probably not a good time to start working on it.)

Once we’ve shown that we’re game and excited to tackle new problems, we’ve won
half thebattle.

Come up with a stalling tactic to buy ourself some thinking time, such as saying, “Now,
that is agreat question. I think I would have to say… ”

23. What do you think we could do better or differently?

No matter what role we’re interviewing for (engineering, sales, marketing) we should
always usethe product before our first interview (and ideally, a few times).

If hired, our goal will be to create value for the people who use that product, and
being a userourself is the first step.
Doing this will also help us determine whether we can be passionate about the
company andproduct as well as convey that passion to our interviewer.

Now that we’re familiar with the product, be ready with ideas for how we’d like to
improve it inour role.

What new features would we be most excited to

build? How would we engage users (or re-engage
existing ones)?How could the company increase
conversions?
How could customer service be improved?

When we’re interviewing with a start-up, our goal is to ensure that the job is a great
fit for us,and to convey that to our interviewer as well.

When we do, we’ll be in a better position to negotiate our offer and get started once
we acceptit—full of ideas on ways to hit the ground running.

24. Are you planning on having children?

Any questions related to our family status are technically illegal, but employers often
ask them toget a read on our future commitment to the job and company.

Tailor our answer to speak to that concern, gracefully avoid the illegal part of the
question, andturn the conversation back to our job-related strengths.

This answer sample assures the interviewer that we’re committed to our professional
growth, butdoesn’t promise them anything in terms of our future—and lets us steer the
conversation back toa job-related topic.

Good answer sample:

“You know, I’m not quite there yet. But I am very interested in the career paths at your
company.Can you tell me more about that?”

25. What do you like to do outside of work?

If someone asks about our hobbies outside of work, it’s totally OK to open up and
share whatreally makes we tick.
(Do keep it semi-professional, though: Saying we like to have a few beers at the local
hot spot onSaturday night is fine. Telling them that Monday is usually a rough day for us
because we’re always hungover is not.)

It goes without saying that we should find out everything we can about our potential
place ofemployment ahead of time.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the company’s website and blog all provide
us withinformation that will help we go to a job interview confident and
prepared.

Before we go, try to find out who we’ll be meeting with, whether it’s an HR
representative, ourwould-be boss, or the CEO.

Why? our interview answers and conversation topics should vary based on the person
we're speaking with, and by knowing who we'll be talking to, we can spend time thinking
through howwe might connect with each of these people.

26. What are your salary requirements?

Unfortunately this question is left off of many lists of job interview questions and
answerssamples.

But it’s extremely important, and the wrong answer here can cost us thousands of
dollars in thenegotiation later on.

They do not know if we’re any good or if they even want to hire us.

So we can’t command a high salary right now. If we go too low with our price, they’ll
hold us toit later.

Go too high? We’ll scare them off before they even know what we’re worth!

Stand our ground and tell them we don’t have a number in mind yet, or aren’t sure.

Good answer sample:

“Right now I’m focused on finding a job that’s the right fit for my career.

Once I’ve done that, I’m willing to consider an offer you feel is fair, but I do not have a
specificnumber in mind yet, and my priority is to find a position that’s a great fit for
me.”
27. Do you have any questions for us?
Do not ask about salary, benefits, time off, or anything that isn’t related to

the work.Wait for them to bring it up, or until we know they want to offer us

the position.

If we don’t ask good questions to each person we speak with, we're very unlikely to get
hired.

Good answer sample:

“Yes, I have a couple of questions actually. The first thing I wanted to ask: is this a
newly- created position, or did somebody hold this role in the past? And if so, what did
that person goon to do after this position?”

Source: Top 27 Common Job Interview Questions and Answers Samples