English Part IV
Hey there! – Interested in further details on job-interviews? Here they are:
Questions and answers presented here are designed to be as specific and realistic as possible. No preparation can anticipate thousands of possible variations on these question. The important thing is that you familiarize yourself with the main stretegies behind each answer. Simply try to commit to memory a few key words that let you instantly call to mind your best answer.
About 80 % of all interviews begin with this ‚innocent‘ question: Tell me about yourself…
You remember? as I pointed out in my last blog, the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. So, before you answer this or any question, it’s imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer‘s greatest need, want, problem or goals. Thus, make sure you take these two steps:
- Do all the homework you can before the interview to uncover this person’s wants and needs (not the generalized needs oft he industry or company)
- As early as you can, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails. You might say: „I have a number of accomplishments I’d like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together and talk directly to your needs. To help me do that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position?“ and additionally „Is there anything else you see as essential to success in this position?“
If you practise asking these key questions before giving your answers you will be light years ahead of the other job candidates. – After uncovering what the employer is looking for, describe parallels to tasks you’ve succeeded before when answering the question: Tell me about yourself….
What are your greatest strengths? Prior to the interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths plus a specific example which illustrate each one, chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.
As a general guideline, the most desirable traits that all employers love to see in their executives are:
- intelligence… „savvy“…. Honesty
- good fit with corporate culture
- positive attitude …. sense of humor
- good communicative skills…. clear goals
- high level of motivation…. willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence
- confident….. healthy…. a leader
What are your greatest weaknesses? With the background you should disguise a strength as a weakness, you should describe what you like most and like least, making sure that what you like most matches up with the most important qualification for success in the position, and what you like least is not essential.
Find some more of the most frequent used and toughest interview questions in my next blog.
See you then!
