Typical Job Interview Questions and How to Respond

Naturally, you can’t anticipate every question an interviewer will ask, but there are some typical job interview questions that are commonly asked. The wording may change, but the core answers will remain much the same regardless of how they are worded.

Rehearsing answers to these common questions will help ease your anxiety and make the interview process much smoother.

General interview questions

1. Tell me a little about yourself

“Tell me a bit about yourself” is perhaps the most commonly asked interview question.  It’s an excellent icebreaker because you know more about yourself than the interviewer or interview panel does. No matter what you say (unless you are lying), you can’t be wrong.

Still, this is not the time to talk about your family, where you live, your last holiday or anything of a personal nature.  Your answer needs to demonstrate a high-level understanding of who you are as a professional. Focus on your professional history, your work background, any study or qualifications that you’re undertaking, projects you have worked on, or challenges you have accepted and conquered.  Keep your answer relevant to the role for which you are applying. A carefully rehearsed answer will set the tone for whatever is to follow in the interview process.

The key to this is brevity. Provide an overview of who you are, your strengths, skills and qualifications. This will also allow the interviewer to probe more deeply into your areas of strength.

2. Why do you want to work here?

With this question, the interviewer wants to understand your motivation for applying for the job.

The key here is to showcase your knowledge of the company and to highlight insights you have discovered during your interview preparation and research. Give specific examples and try to match your skills, strengths and values to the job position and company.

3. What do you know about us as a company/organisation?

This question aligns closely with asking why you want to work at the company. Your responses should showcase what you’ve learned about the organisation from your pre-interview research.  You can talk about what you know about the organisational structure, its products and/or services, and how you align with the company’s values.

Start with a Google search on the organisation to find some current information. Look for recent product launches, charity or community initiatives, events they are involved in, awards or anything newsworthy. Look for information that is not on the organisation’s website, showing that you have gone out of your way to learn about the organisation.

4. What are your strengths?

With this question, the interviewer is looking to understand your professional strengths and how these will tie into the role. Choose a few of your key strengths that fit the role requirements, and, wherever possible, give strong examples to back them up. The interviewer wants to understand what benefit you would bring to the business. Strengths include the ability to work under pressure, delegate successfully, and to manage various projects and stakeholders.  Be prepared to explain how you apply your strengths to various real-life situations.

5. What are your weaknesses?

This is one of the trickiest interview questions to answer. The interviewer is trying to gauge your level of self-awareness. It can be tempting to try and avoid the question, and often job candidates panic and end up responding with “I can’t think of any” or “I don’t have any.” We all have weaknesses, and clearly you don’t want to emphasise them at this time.

When it comes to a discussion about your shortcomings, focus on one (two at the most) where there is room for improvement. What’s key here is an ability to both acknowledge and be self-aware, while demonstrating your ability and willingness to learn and grow.

For example, you might say that you have only a rudimentary knowledge of spreadsheets and that recently you’ve needed more advanced skills. You can explain that you have been struggling to master some of the latest features and learn more about formulas, but that you have identified a short course at the local community college to help you upskill.

6. What were the best and worst parts about your last role?

Here, the interviewer is trying to gauge whether there are aspects of the job that you may not be suited to. Focus on what you enjoyed in your last role. Then, when addressing the negative side, be cautious about criticising your previous employer, or colleagues – it doesn’t make a good impression.

Include examples that showcase your strengths, as well as the ability to adapt to challenging situations.

7. Why are you looking to make the move from your current company?

This question is also often tricky to answer, but reflecting positively on your current employer is important. Highlight the need for change, for new challenges, and a desire to learn and grow, rather than pinpointing things you don’t like about your current job or your workplace supervisor.

8. What are your goals for the next year?

This question is also measures your level of ambition and interest in career planning.

Prepare for this ahead of the interview. Really think about where you want to be and how it aligns with the role you are applying for. If your answer mentions continuous growth, learning and a willingness to adapt and take on new challenges, you’re on the right track.

9. If this role wasn’t on offer, what else would you be applying for here?

This question allows you to showcase your personality and experience. So, as part of your interview preparation, ensure you have looked at similar roles or positions. Have a strong response that highlights your strengths and skills, and demonstrates why you were attracted to the company and similar role attributes.

10. Why should we hire you?

Think of this interview question as an opportunity to summarise your experience, skill set, and passion for the job and company.

Your interviewer is essentially offering you an opportunity to present your personal sales pitch, so take the time to explain why you’re qualified to do the work and deliver great results (a combination of skills and achievements), how you can support the employer and the broader business in their goals, and why you’ll be a great cultural fit.

11. Do you have any questions for us?

While you may be the one being interviewed you also have a chance to ask some key questions to help you determine if you think you are the right fit for the role.

Use this opportunity to ask any questions that haven’t been covered during the interview. Questions could be about KPIs (key performance indicators ), what a standard day involves, team size, training or promotional opportunities, or anything else that will help you determine the role’s suitability.

Behavioural interview questions

Employers may ask behavioural-related questions to assess how well you handled specific situations in the past and determine your likely behaviour in similar situations in the future. These typical job interview questions about your past performance offer the recruiter insight into your competence level and professional maturity.

1. Tell us about a time when you have had to overcome a difficult situation at work and how you managed it?

Firstly, this question is designed to understand what you deem to be a difficult situation, and then how you solve problems and work with other people or departments. In this case, don’t be afraid to select a tough situation that wasn’t caused by you and explain the steps and measurements you took to overcome it.

Focus on your people skills, your problem-solving skills, and highlight the successful outcome and any learnings that occurred for you. Is there something you would do differently in the future? What did you learn from the situation? What improvements did you make?

2. Tell me about a successful project and your role in it.

This question aims at understanding your interpersonal skills and how you work with a team. Showcase your role, the project, and how you assisted your colleagues. Provide examples of communication, collaboration, teamwork and problem-solving.

3. Tell us about a time when you have been put under pressure to meet a deadline. What was the situation and what did you do? What was the outcome?

This question is intended to uncover how you respond under pressure. Employers want to see that you can stay calm, prioritised, and focused when a deadline is fast approaching.

When answering, clearly outline the timeline you were facing and the steps you took to manage your workload. Highlight how you communicated with your colleagues or team, and finish with a positive outcome that shows you successfully delivered on time without compromising quality.

“Cultural fit” interview questions

Sometimes interviews ask questions to determine if you will fit in with the existing organisational culture, or the one they are striving to achieve.

Typical job interview questions pertaining to “cultural fit” help recruiters understand how you’d operate from a personality and values perspective when interacting with colleagues, the leadership team. and clients or customers. The purpose of these questions is to determine if you are a good fit for the organisation and whether your behaviours will reflect the company values.

1. What do you like to do in your spare time?

Whilst it can be tempting to rattle off a list of hobbies, interests and sports, stick to examples which paint a fuller picture of you as a person. Keep it professional.

If you have interests which might complement those of the organisation you are applying to work for, establish a link. Perhaps you have done some voluntary work to support a cause you are passionate about.  How is the time to highlight that.

2. Which type of work environments are you most productive in?

Here, the interviewer wants to find out if you will be comfortable in the company’s workplace environment.

Be flexible in your answer. For example, you can say that while you enjoy working within a team, you’re also comfortable working autonomously as needed. This demonstrates your willingness to adapt to situations and fit into any environment.

3. Describe your ideal manager or supervisor.

Your interviewer might ask this question to find out how you would work with them personally, or how you respond to direction from team leaders or management.

Try to tailor your answer to the role you are interviewing for. Show that while you appreciate a manager who provides guidance, you’re also comfortable working independently if they prefer a more hands-off approach.

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Want help preparing for typical job interview questions?

Enrol in our course Job Seeking Skills – Part 2: Putting Your Best Foot Forward at Your Job Interview. We combine online learning with private, one-to-one coaching to make sure you’re completely interview-ready.

For in-house training information, download our PDF course outline for the Putting Your Best Self Forward at Job Interviews workshop.

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Liz Paine
Founder of Learning Insight
Phone: 0400 778807
Email: Contact form