Interview questions
Common interview questions
The questions almost every interview includes, and how to answer each one with your own evidence.
- How to answer "tell me about yourself"Answer in sixty to ninety seconds with three parts: where you are now and what you are known for, the two or three steps that got you there, and why this role is the logical next one. It is a positioning answer, not a life story.
- How to answer "why do you want to work here?"A strong answer connects three things: something specific about the employer, something specific about the role, and evidence that the opportunity fits your experience or direction. If your answer would be true of any competitor, it is not an answer yet.
- How to answer "what is your greatest weakness?"Name a real weakness that is not one of the job's core requirements, describe how it actually shows up in your work, and finish with the specific thing you now do to manage it. Self-awareness is what is being scored, not the weakness itself.
- How to answer "what are your strengths?"Name two or three strengths that appear in the job description, and prove each one with a single specific piece of evidence. An unproven strength is just an adjective, and interviewers discount adjectives.
- How to answer "why should we hire you?"Answer in three moves: name what you think the role is really about, give the evidence that you have done that before, and say what you would do first. Do not compare yourself to other candidates you have never met.
- How to answer "tell me about a time you failed"Choose a real failure that you owned, name the decision that caused it without blaming anyone else, and show the specific change you made afterwards. The interviewer is scoring accountability and learning, not the size of the failure.
- How to answer "tell me about a conflict at work"Choose a genuine professional disagreement, show that you understood the other person's position, describe what you actually did to resolve it, and end with the working relationship intact. Never choose a personality clash.