Job Interview

1. Tell me about yourself?

(Don’t make the classic mistake of sharing too much personal information with your
interviewer. All the interviewer needs is a snapshot- a summary lasting no more than a
minute or 90 seconds- of your background and experience).
“I’m currently the floor supervisor at Molly’s, which is a busy bar and restaurant in
Brighton. I’m responsible for all aspects of management, ranging from stock taking and
ordering to end of the day cashing up. I run a team of seven staff and I am responsible for
training, hiring, and firing. The hours can be quite long, but I enjoy it and like the mix of
activities from dealing with customers to managing the staff”.
2. What are your strengths?
(When paraphrasing key skills and characteristics, make sure to change the wording slightly-
simply repeating them verbatim will make you sound like a mindless parrot).
“I’ve been told that I’m a very good manager. My team tells me that I give them a lot of
freedom in how to do their work, which they really appreciate. They also sat that I’m really
enthusiastic, so when we’re faced with too much work, they tell me that my manner really
helps to keep them motivated and calm. My boss also tells me that I’m very innovative in
terms of finding new ways of working that cut out inefficiency.”
3. What are your weaknesses?
(When discussing your weaknesses, always talk about how you compensate for them, too.
Describe the actions or steps that you take to ensure that your weaknesses don’t affect your
performance at work).
“My natural tendency is to make up my mind very quickly and in the past this has got me
into trouble. But I have come to realize that speed is not always appropriate so I always
remind myself that I may need to collect more information and weigh up the pros and cons.
Nowadays, if I am at all uncertain about a decision, I will seek input from colleagues.”
4. Why we should hire you?
(This question is often used to bring an interview to a close, so treat it as your opportunity to
sell yourself boldly to the interviewers).
“Your advert said that you were looking for someone who is highly numerate, has good
team working and presentation skills, and a willingness to work hard. I hope that my
 experience as a financial analyst at Transworld Bank shows that I’m good with numbers.
Both of the jobs I’ve held so far have require me to work often long hours in a close-knit
team and it’s something that I very much enjoy. And my boss singled out my presentation
skills in my last appraisal. So I think that I am a very strong candidate.”
5. How would you describe your time management skills?
(Go on to demonstrate your time managements skills by giving an example of a time when
you had to prioritise between different tasks).
“As an example, just the other week I had a customer who wanted an emergency order dealt
with immediately at the same time as my boss needed some financial data. There was no way
I could have done both, so I asked a colleague to deal with customer order while I put
together the data that my boss needed.”
6. Do you work well under pressure?
(Try to relate your answer to the demands that the job is likely to make on you).
“I can cope with occasional bursts of having to work under pressure- for example, for the
final couple of month it always gets a bit frantic. But for the most part, I enjoy the fact that
this is a job that I can really learn and understand in detail and get good at.”
7. Would you say you’re good in detail?
(If the job requires highly detailed work, give a simple example of how you ensure that your
work is of a consistently high quality).
“In my job it’s really important to get all the numbers right, so I always double check the
data after I have entered it. And I’m glad to say in my two years in the job so far, no one has
ever found an error in my calculations.”
8. How are you with new technology?
(Give a concrete an example as possible of getting to grips with some new facet of
technology that has been introduced into your workplace).
“We used to use transparent acetates and old-fashioned overhead projectors for teaching
seminars. But the university decided to introduce laptops and projectors and asked us all of
prepare our materials using PowerPoint. I’m pleased to say that after attending the briefing
sessions on how to use the new technology, I’ve become a real fan of this new way of
working.”
9. What makes you lose your temper?
 (Explain to the interviewer exactly how or why you manage to keep your temper at bay
when you’re at work).
“I’m not the kind of person who ever gets angry at work. Anger just isn’t productive and
even in a crisis it’s more important to figure out what can be done to sort out the situation
that to shout and scream and point the finger of blame at people.”
10. How do you deal with disappointment?
“Of course I don’t enjoy being disappointed, but rather than dwell on the past I try to focus
on the future. As such, I always try to make the best of any situation. If I feel that I can do
anything to better the situation, then I try to do it. But if I look as if the chance has gone,
then I try to see what I can learn from it.”
11. What would you say your unique selling point is?
“I’ve been working as a beauty consultant for a few years for a few years now. But without
wanting to sound too big-headed, I’ve noticed that I tend to pick up information about new
products a lot more quickly than just about any other consultant. I’ve worked with. And that
enables me to sell the products much more successfully.”
12. Do you prefer to work on your own or in a team?
“To be honest I get my best work done when I can sit quietly and think on my own- so that’s
why I’m attracted to this job because you’re offering the successful candidate the
opportunity to work from home for up to three days a week. However, I couldn’t work from
home all week because I’d miss the human contact- so again this job is attractive because I
would get the chance to share ideas with the rest of the team in those days in the office.”
13. Do you have good presentation skills?
“I would day that I have quite solid presentation skills. We pick a teacher every week to give
a seminar to the whole college. When it’s my turn, I always spend a couple of evenings
creating a PowerPoint presentation and writing bullets point s onto pieces of card. Doing
that preparation means that I can get my point across in a clear and effective way.”
14. How are you at handling conflict?
“When I’m dealing with customers, I realize that it’s my job to take some of the flak, when
they are unhappy. If you try to argue back with them, that will only escalate the situation, so
I always apologize on behalf of the company and try to find out what went wrong. I find that
 if you are sincere enough in your apology and explain that you are going to do your best to
try to sort the situation out, the customer quickly calms down.”
15. What would you do if you disagreed with a decision taken by your manager?
“How I behave would depend on why I disagreed with the decision. For example, if I
thought that the decision was not in the best interests of the organization, then I would raise
the issue with my manager and try to convince him or her of my arguments. If my manager
listens to me and understands my reasons, but still wants to go ahead with his or her
decisions, then I would have to abide by it.”

*NOTE:
- Don’t answer the question by Yes or No. Try to change that words by using
basically, to be honest, in my view, telling the truth, well,…..ect.
- Try to do more than conversation but it’s not investigation.
- When you mention the weaknesses, don’t throw smiling at interviewer.