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Worried about tricky job interview questions? Here’s how you can nail them!

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So you have meritoriously cleared the first screening round and have been invited for a face to face interview?

Firstly, congratulations on landing a job interview in this competitive job scenario, but the real test of your ability is yet to commence.

The Interview

With the growing need for securing a position in a reputable organization and the dearth of relevant skills and knowledge, the recruitment process especially the interviews are becoming increasingly tough to crack. The questions are no longer straightforward, “so elaborate me in this skill of yours?”, Instead, they have evolved and taken a more practical form.

The severity of interview questions depends on the industries, but there are specific reasons behind interviewers shooting tough questions:

  • This way they measure your experience level and expertise in the skill that you have mentioned in your resume;
  • This helps them analyze your body language and thought process when met with extremities;
  • This also helps them gain a better understanding of your personality.

But just like the tough and tricky questions, there are crafty ways of answering them. In our today’s post let us discuss some common tricky questions and how to answer them tactfully:

Q: What has been your greatest achievement so far?

Interviewers ask this question to gauge upon your values and how is your attitude towards problems. This way they observe what you can bring to the table and how can you contribute to the organization’s goals. The Interview board is looking for candidates who can fill the gap with their practical experience. Hence tailor your answer that best demonstrates your expertise with skills in equal measure.

Q: What is your weakness?

This is one of the trickiest questions, answering which without giving any thought could land you in a soup as it might reveal your shortcomings. Remember not to mention any of the skills that are required in the position you are hopeful of. A similar question they can ask is, “Do you have any regrets?”. Articulate your answers in a manner that it shows that you are self-aware but are also working on your being better day by day.

Q: Why are you leaving your present company?

The immediate answer of most candidates for this question is, throwing their current company under the bus for whatever negative experience forced them to leave it. But we would suggest you prepare for it if that is the case. Maneuver your answer so that it implies that your experience in the present company is fulfilling, but you’re looking for a greater playfield to enhance your skills and expertise. If you are being laid off, be honest and say that instead of bashing your previous employer.

Q: Explain the gap in your work history?

Unless you have explicitly mentioned in your resume that you have utilized your skills in those gap years, be prepared to get pressed on this subject by the interviewer. It is advisable to stay honest but also refrain from talking foul of your previous employer. Emphasize how the knowledge gained in your gap years will add value to the position you have applied for.

Q: How do you react in the face of failure?

Another way of asking the same question, “Are you willing to fail?” Although your immediate response would be “No” because to say yes would be to put your proficiency in a suspicious state of not being up to the mark. The contention behind asking this question would be to judge how to retaliate in tough situations and what would be your thought process in the event of a failure?

A smart way to answer this question is by acknowledging the importance of failure in helping you become a better person and then quoting examples of events where you have failed and learned a lesson from it and how that lesson will help you add value to the position and organization you are interviewing for.

So instead of sitting worried about the interview, we would suggest you brainstorm and come up with creative sometimes funny answers that you can reply to the interviewer. Just like it is not necessary that all questions will be tough; similarly it is not essential that all questions are going to be easy.

Like they say always prepare for the worst, a candidate should always stay prepared for whichever questions, easy or tough, where the aforementioned list will be of assistance.

HubSpot