1. Tell me about yourself.
This is generally one of the first questions you are asked in an interview and it is one of the questions that most people have trouble answering. Sometimes your answer just doesn’t share enough about who you are and other times, applicants use this question as a go ahead to share their entire resume – education, experience, certifications – and their life story. Neither one of those strategies are correct.
To answer this question, you want to make sure that you:
· State your name and 2-3 qualities or characteristics about yourself
· Briefly discuss your work experience and education history – you can mention your degrees or diplomas but not all the courses you have taken. You can share the industry you work in and how long you have been in the field as well as your most recent job titles but you don’t want to go through your entire work history and tell the interviewer about what you did in each job.
· Share any relevant designations or certifications you have if applicable
· Tell the interviewer something about who you are personally – employers want candidates who are able to balance their work life and home life well.
· Answer the question that is being asked – tell me about yourself and who you are – not tell me your entire resume
2. Why do you want to work at insert company/organization here?
The key to answering this question is to focus on the employer specifically. They don’t want to hear about why you want to work at a college or university, for example. They want to hear why you want to work for that college or university in particular. Candidates can easily confuse this question with why they want to be in that environment or that industry but not why they want to be working at that company or organization.
Make sure you do thorough company research. You should know their mission, vision, and values. You should know about their products or services, any initiatives or campaigns, who their target market is, and who their competitors are.
The goal is to align your answer with their needs, explain how you can provide value to them (not the other way around), and be clear with why you want to work there specifically.
3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
The hope here is that you can see yourself with that company or organization, that you are in a place where you are stable and desire to grow with the company. This is also a good opportunity to tell the employer a little bit about who you are personally. If you have a personal goal you hope to obtain in 5 years, you can share that! Employers want to hire someone they can see themselves going out to coffee with and having good conversation with – someone who can fit in to their team and their workplace culture. That being said, stating that you want to be with the company five years from now is always a good thing.
4. Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a manager and a supervisor and how did you handle it.
Here is a behavioural-based question! These are the questions that you usually begin with, “Tell me about a time when…” or “Can you give an example of when…”. Employers here are looking for you to answer the question using the STAR method. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Start with stating what the situation was (what is the context, where were you working or in school, what was your role, etc.), then explain the task (what is it that you were tasked to do or complete, what was happening), next you talk about the specific action (what did you do specifically in the situation), and lastly you end with the result (what happened in the end – hint: a positive result is the right answer!)
Now what if you haven’t had a conflict with a manager or supervisor before? You are still using the STAR method to answer this question but you will be explaining step by step what you would do if you had a conflict with a supervisor or manager.
The most important of the STAR points is the A for Action. Make sure you choose to talk about stories and experiences that really highlight the action that you took – make sure it is a strong action!
5. What is your biggest weakness?
This may be the most dreaded interview question for many candidates. Employers want someone who is honest and understands that they do have weaknesses because we all have weaknesses. No one is perfect, we are all human with human flaws. Your weakness should be something that you have struggled with or currently struggle with and the key here is to talk about how you have overcome your weakness or how you are currently overcoming it. You always have to end with a positive spin on your weakness. Consider stating a weakness that will not impact the expectations of that specific job – if you struggle with public speaking, for example, and the role does not require you to speak in front of an audience often then that could be a good weakness to state.
6. What are your salary expectations?
There is a right way to answer this question and that way is to do your research! In some of my first few job interviews, when I was just starting out in my career and eager to secure any opportunity I could, I used to answer with a polite “I’d be comfortable with whatever the salary is for this position.” Most employers are not fond of this answer. You need to be confident in stating your value and provide them with a salary range, whether that’s hourly or annually that is in line with industry standards. Make sure you check out the Government of Canada’s Job Bank to find out salary ranges for specific jobs in specific geographical areas, taking into account how experienced you are. Here’s the link: https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis/search-wages
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