Frequent Interview Questions

Tell me about your background. / Tell me about yourself.

• Keep your answers relevant to the job.

• Include the most important key words from the job advert in the answer.

1. Did you get on with management / your old boss?

• Never say anything negative about your previous employer.
• You could say something like, “At times we had different opinions but we always listened to one
another and respected each other’s ideas. It was actually beneficial for us as we saw things from
another perspective.”

2. What do you feel you can bring to this company?

• Again, add in some key words from the advert and your main strengths.

3. What do you know about us?

• DO YOUR HOMEWORK.
• They’re checking to see how much you know about the firm or if you’ve sent the same CV out
hundreds of times and have no interest in working for this particular company.
• Search their website, look at who their customers are, their products, their departments, their
rewards cards, the number of stores/hotels/offices they have etc.
• Who are their main competitors?

4. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

• Some key words you could use are:
• I’m personable and great with people, I’m polite, I’m flexible and want to work in different
departments so I can learn as much as possible etc.

Weaknesses – ALWAYS put a positive spin on them

Here are some examples of weaknesses that are actually positives.

• I’m a good listener when customers have problems but sometimes I can spend a bit too long
listening to them. However, by doing this I can try to resolve their problems so they leave the
shop/hotel satisfied.
• I’m a bit chatty but that means when I talk to customers I can give them good advice.
• Sometimes I can get a bit nervous if I’m thrown in at the deep end which is why I want to work
for [company] because I think you’ll have excellent training.
• I don’t like being rushed if I don’t know what the task is so I make sure I ask lots of questions and
take notes.
• I find I say yes to too many tasks and need to learn to say no a bit more!

5. Give me an example of how you dealt with a difficult work situation.

• Put a positive spin on it.

6. Why should we choose you? / What do you really have to offer?

• Again, give your strengths, add some key skills and say why you want to work there (never say
it’s because of the money etc.) Make them choose you!