10 Common Job Interview Questions and Answers

This is exactly the video you need to ace your next job interview.

With these 10 common job interview questions and answers. And it's so wild. These 10 questions are so common that if you do not practice them ahead of time, you're likely to bomb your job interview. And at this point, I have generated the most job interview success stories out of anyone on this platform. Just look at the comments for the videos so you know you're in the right place and stay to the end. Because I take horribly vague questions like how do you handle pressure? And give you the perfect answer to stand out. Oh, and how rude of me. I'm Madeline Mann. I'm a human resources leader and best selling author of Reverse the Search who turns job seekers into job shoppers. I'm a top job search instructor on Spotify and LinkedIn learning and I've been featured on ABC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and more. Subscribe because what's the best that could happen? You feel super confident in interviews and you land lots of job offers.

What do you want in your next role? This is a job interview question that you can greatly mess up if you're not careful. And a lot of job seekers forget that. Employers desperately want to make sure that you are not only capable of doing the job, but that you also sincerely want the job. Too many hiring managers have been burned by hiring someone overqualified or wanting to make a career pivot and then settling for this job opportunity and then leaving as soon as they get a better job offer. So your answer here could allay concerns that you are not strapping on your sneakers and going to pull Runaway Bride.

A mistake is to be abstract here or say something super super vague like I am looking for roles with a lot of creative problem solving at an innovative company. Translation, I don't know what I want and I'm keeping my options as open as Denny's at 2am Good value for 40 years at Lenny's Denny Denny's. Instead, say the exact job titles you're targeting, which should be essentially the same as the role you were interviewing for. And then pretty much describe the job you're interviewing for without saying you're describing it. It sounds like this. Let's say you're interviewing for an account executive role at Salesforce. You could say I am looking for account executive roles at mid sized and large SaaS companies, ideally with a focus on selling to C suite executives and managing a couple dozen accounts at a time to keep me really engaged. And that's it. That is going to make them so confident in you and heck, I'm just pulling this straight from the job description.

When answering, why do you want this job? Why do you want to work here? You should touch on three potential areas. The first is the role. This is the most important thing to talk about because they aren't looking for someone who simply loves the company, is trying to get their foot in the door. No, they want someone who is all in on this specific role. The duties, the projects, the goals. They want you to be a master of it and see yourself in this role for years to come. So say specifically why this role is the best next career move for you. Geek out about what you like about the duties, how you're eager to jump in on the projects that you'd work on, and how you feel like you could make a great impact. Next, you can talk about the team. Talk about the people you've met in the interview process. If this question comes up, a few interviews in and say their darn names, okay, it's going to sound like you're already a member of the team. Say specifics of what stood out to you in the conversations with them, how you could learn so much from them and vice versa, how you could see you all working well together and how working with great people makes all the difference. You know, you're lobbing on that sweet praise of true things that you noticed about the team. Finally, you can talk about the company. Discuss what you like about the product, what you're looking forward to accomplishing, why you're excited about the future of this industry, and how you feel that the company is aligned with your values. Now, warning, I would say stay away from an answer that includes things like the, the location, commute, salary, benefits, because a lot of that is quite similar across roles and companies, such as a huge mistake I see people making is they answer this question with one of the reasons being I'm really interested in this role because it is remote. Okay? Millions of jobs are remote. It's like asking someone why are they interested in dating you? And they say it's because you have brown hair. Not really a reason with any sort of depth that you would feel good about. Alrighty, let's walk through an example answer that is from my own life. Okay, so I decided to take the interview with this company and we were several interviews deep and an interviewer asked me why I wanted to work there. And well, I was certainly interested to learn more about this position, but it didn't immediately jump out to me as perfect. But I always look for the best things about a company and I was able to craft an answer through that lens. This was a company that built software to manage shipping logistics. I know shipping logistics not so sexy, but what I recognized were some cool things about the business. And do note that this interview happened when Amazon prime was just starting to get hugely popular. I know it's a mainstay at this point, but this was a different I said the reason why I'm so excited to work for your company is I see entire industries going from brick and mortar to fully online and shipping is the centerpiece as well as Amazon prime, revolutionizing what it means to have fast shipping and setting a standard for other companies and you all being at the forefront of this highly needed technology. So I'm excited to be at the bleeding edge of a facet of these industries that is only going to get larger. And so I talked about the company and then I moved to talking about the role which this role would have been the first human resources hire on their team and their lack of HR has been noticeable.

All the leaders were disgruntled. One even said straight up that the culture wasn't very good. Yowsa. So I dug to find some positives there. I said I'm interested in this role because I see a lot of low hanging fruit here where I could come in and make a big difference quickly. My specialty is building processes from the ground up, so I would be playing to my strengths and make all of the leadership team's jobs so much easier. Notice I was complimenting the company in a way in the first part and then focusing on the value I could add to the company in the second. So you don't have to be in love with a company to see the great things about an opportunity. This is such a great question where you can start a conversation back and forth with the interviewer about the opportunity. And so I'll put a list of the best best questions to ask in a job interview that are not overdone and that's linked for free in the comments and in the description.

Tell me about a time you failed or tell me about a time you made a mistake. When picking your answer, look for a story in your past where it truly was a mistake or a failure. We don't want to dodge this question, but the most important part is how did you react to that failure? How did you rectify it? A story with a strong lesson is the one you should choose. Here's an example Answer in my previous role as a product manager, I spearheaded a launch for a new software feature I underestimated the time required for user training and documentation, which resulted in users struggling with the new feature and needing more support than anticipated. After realizing the issue, I gathered feedback from users and the support team to understand the main difficulties, and they pointed out that the training materials were too technical and lacked practical examples. I quickly organized additional training sessions and revamped the documentation to be more user friendly, incorporating clear instructions and practical scenarios. The additional support led to smoother adoption of the feature and and a reduction in support requests by 40%. The feedback helped me learn the importance of thorough user preparation and accessible documentation, which I've applied to future projects to ensure for better user experiences from the start.

What do you do in your free time? Why is answering this job interview question so difficult? What are your hobbies and interests? I enjoy laying by the pool a lot. That is not a hobby. A hobby is an interest outside of work. What are your interests? I love Vegas. Okay, what do you like to do in Vegas? I like to lay by the pool. They are trying to get to know you on a personal level and get an understanding of what you're passionate about. So actually take some time to think about this. I want you to think of a hobby and and then make it a step more specific. If you went broad such as don't say I listen to music. Say something like I was raised on jazz music and I love to spend an evening at a jazz bar. And I wouldn't say I like eating and food because that's just like saying I like sleeping and laying down on a great mattress. You could say though cooking, but say something more specific like I'm really into cooking and I'm known for my vegetarian lasagna. Now the best answer, and only if it's true, is something that says something about your character and that could be volunteering for charity, training for a marathon, or learning language. Just be cautious about political activism, religious affiliation, and something that seems like it could eventually be your full time job. Like preparing to own your own coffee shop or having your own freelance clients.

Kicking it right off with part one of the tell me about yourself formula. It's who you are. Too many of us have autobiography syndrome where when we're asked this question we feel obliged to tell our entire life story so they fully understand how we got to where we are or or at least our entire professional story. The thing that you have to realize is a company doesn't actually care that much about your work history. Really what they care about is are you going to blow this role out of the water Shamu, can you solve our problems pretty please? Let me put you in there. And what that means is you can say a lot less in your answer, but you just want to say exactly what they want to hear to be confident in you. So for this first part of your answer we where you say who you are, you want to be very concise about a sentence or two about the type of professional you are. And the key here is to not talk about careers and jobs you've had in the past that aren't directly in line with this one you're interviewing for. It's really about stating the exact profession they are hiring for and being specific about the type of work you do. I realize that this explanation may be as clear as scrambled eggs, but trust me, at the end of this video I'm going to give you three examples so you will have no choice but to understand exactly how to do this. If your current role is not directly related with the role you were interviewing for, you should prepare a through line that connects your past experience to the role that you're going for. For example, if you are a graphic designer interviewing for a digital marketing role, you might say something like I'm a digital marketing professional who specializes in branding, contributing to marketing campaigns and visual storytelling. These things are all true in your graphic design role. You did team up with marketing teams from time to time and you have put together personal projects and taking classes that have given you the skills to be a well rounded digital marketing professional. So claim it you humble goose. You already got the interview. You already know that you're quite qualified. Don't go trailing off about your graphic design role and unconvince them. Let's move on to part two. Your highlights Here I want you to highlight some of your past accomplishments that again are directly in line with the qualifications of this role. I don't want you spouting off your biggest accomplishment such as I closed a $10 million business development deal. Okay, but you're to going going for a project manager role and closing big deals isn't a part of that. Even though that was super fancy fancy, Leave it out so you'll want to share what you've been up to in your past few jobs, highlighting several things that you've accomplished that reflect what are the main requirements on the job description. If you're a recent graduate or a career changer without as much professional experience, you can draw on academic, volunteer or project based activities to demonstrate your potential. For example, if you're applying to a recruiter role, but you don't have any direct experience recruiting. You could touch on your volunteer opportunity where you were helping to bring in new members to that nonprofit organization. Okay, this is the portion of the answer where it can get really long, so make sure to watch out for this. Especially if you have lots of great work experience. You're likely going to think that you need to talk a lot, but I would say air on the side of a shorter answer rather than long. I call this answer the theme song because it should be short two minutes or less. And just simply get them interested in watching the whole show. And if they want more details, they can just ask. And I mean, I already said it, but I'll say it again. They already have your stinking resume. Okay, it's there. The hellscape that is the job interview process. I'm so sorry. This brings us to part three, why this role? You'll want to end your answer by explaining why are you interested in this particular company and role? This is truly the key to not rambling too much in the interview and answering your answers with so yeah, I used to do that all the time. So by adding this part three, you're also answering the question why do you want to work here? Which is actually one of the most important questions that they need to ask you. And so the fact that you're making sure they ask you it is really important. From hiring thousands of people and hearing the feedback from so many hiring managers time and time again. When all things are equal, a hiring manager will often extend an offer to the person who wants the job more. They want people who are intrinsically excited about the work and are more likely to stay in the job long term. Gives heads up. These people who who are doing all the hiring, they don't want to replace your role every six to 12 months. Okay. It takes away from their core work. Hiring takes so much energy and they want to choose someone who's really excited about the work and it fits their career aspirations perfectly. So you're going to show your interest in this answer. I want you to come up with specifics of how the tasks you're going to be doing in this role fit your career trajectory and then anything about the company that starts stands out to you. Now let's walk through three examples for you to effectively answer this question. The first one is if you are early career. The second is if you are a career changer. And the third is if you've gotten years of experience in your profession under your belt. I do recommend watching all three so you can pick and choose some elements of each. Let's kick off with the early career example where the person doesn't have much experience. I recently graduated with a degree in psychology and I'm thrilled at the opportunity to interview for this human Resources Assistant position at your company. During my final year of studies, I collaborated on a project that examined team dynamics and their impact on workplace productivity. Through surveys and data analysis, we explored how different personalities influence team performance. Additionally, I gained practical experience by volunteering at a local community center where I facilitated discussions on stress management and provided individual counseling. The reason I am so interested in this role is I'm looking to contribute to training programs, performance evaluations, and employee support initiatives. And based on your company blog, I can see how focused this company is on employee engagement. What went right? Even this person who has zero paid experience was able to share specific examples of how they have been building the right skills and the right interest for the role that they're going for. Excellent. Our second example is a career changer who is transitioning from being a teacher to working in sales. I am pursuing a role in sales, leveraging my background in communication and relationship building to excel in a great sales team. I took an in depth course on prospecting, cold calling, and objection handling to hone my abilities in these areas. In addition to formal training, I have applied these skills in real life situations. For example, I volunteered to lead a membership drive for a local organization where I utilize cold calling techniques to reach out to potential members and effectively communicate the value of joining. I also participated in fundraising initiatives with where I successfully close deals with donors by addressing objections and emphasizing the impact of their contributions. And as my next crew move, I'm excited about the opportunity to sell solar panels at Green Eco Solutions. Solar panels potential to address the growing need for renewable energy resonates with me so deeply. And I personally have solar panels. So I know I could close many people on how great Green Eco Solutions is because I truly believe in the mission and I live it. What I love about this answer is that this powerhouse isn't dwelling on the past. They did not give any distracting details about their teaching work. No, they jumped right in on what they are actually doing now and focused on taking any experiences they have from their past, paid or not, and translating it to being appealing for this sales job. Oh yeah. Now let's dive into an answer from an experienced professional. I'm the Director of Product Management specializing in software solutions for the healthcare industry. I've successfully led the development of cutting edge software products and have transformed patient care and operational efficiency. In my current role, I led the launch of a groundbreaking electronic Health Health Record system, which streamlined medical record management and significantly improved patient outcomes. Prior to that, I managed the development of a telemedicine platform that facilitated remote patient consultations, addressing the growing need for virtual healthcare solutions. What particularly drew me to the Director of Product Management position at ABC Healthcare Solutions is the company's commitment to revolutionizing healthcare through an innovative technology. The opportunity to lead the development of next generation healthcare software aligns perfectly with my passion for leveraging technology to improve patient care and drive positive outcomes. Okay, this one dropped a lot of great specifics that are relevant to the role and are oh so enticing to the interviewer. There's no way that the interviewer is second guessing whether or not this person should have gotten this interview. This was a really great, well rounded answer. A good job how often are you asked the question tell me about yourself or some version of it? Interviewers cannot stop asking this question, so put in the comments. Asked all the time or ask sometimes or I'm hardly ever asked. I'm very curious to hear.

Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult coworker or another version is where you had to resolve an interpersonal conflict. Raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by this question. Oh, this is a very common question, and one that I've had to help my clients with a lot because this answer could make you come off the wrong way, like you're talking smack on your coworkers. Essentially, the interviewer is asking you this because we've all worked with difficult people in our day and they're trying to understand your ability to communicate and adapt. So pick a scenario where there was a bit of tension and where you were the bigger person. Don't share that you avoided them or you had any sort of attitude about it. A good answer would sound something like this. I once worked with a colleague who frequently missed deadlines, causing delays in our project timeline and frustration within the team. I decided to have a conversation with him where I expressed the impact that his delays were having on the team and also showed empathy asking how he was doing and about his workload. He then revealed that he was juggling one more project than usual and he was hesitant to ask for help. We came up with a solution where we looked at his deadlines and adjusted them to not land on the same days as other projects projects, and then we identified several tasks that could be redistributed to other team members as a result his performance improved and our project timelines became more consistent. This proactive communication resolved the tension and strengthened our relationship.

What did you like doing most in your previous job? Have you been asked this in a job interview? This is a common strategy to understand what motivates you in a job, what gets your juices flowing, what gets you in the zone auto zone.

Where you can go wrong. Here is focusing on a part of the role that isn't relevant to the role you are interviewing for. So if you're going for a heavily customer facing role and you talk about how much you love project management and managing stakeholders, that's not really the main feature of this role. So the interviewer might think this person isn't going to enjoy this work. So think of something really core to the role you're currently interviewing for and then explain what you liked about that in a previous role and even throw in an accomplishment for good measure. This could sound like the part of My previous role that I enjoyed the most was interfacing with customers, especially when I was able to help them solve a complex, complex issue or connect them to a solution that they didn't realize was possible. In my last role I led a pilot program where I met one on one with our top tier clients to understand their biggest pain points and we ended up increasing renewal rates by 18% in one quarter. I love the process of listening, problem solving and seeing that immediate impact. Adding in that example at the end is an advanced strategy and and I'll link my Story toolbox worksheet to help you get these examples prepped for every interview.

What did you not enjoy about your previous role? Oh, be very careful if you were asked this in a job interview, but I do have the perfect answer. The interviewer is trying to understand what about previous roles motivates you less so that the team can properly place you in the right role and manage you. That being said, if you say the wrong thing, it is very easy to get yourself disqualified here. So make sure that the thing you like the least is not something that is core to the role you're doing next. Such as don't say you didn't like that you didn't get much credit for your work if you were doing more of the behind the scenes administrative work. Additionally, don't say something that looks a little poorly on you, such as don't say how you don't like working with jerks and then continue to complain about people who you've worked with in the past. What's the advice you give to your younger self spend less time with their kids. Spend less, less less time with their kids. They just waste your time. I can't believe a father would say spend less time with your kids. No Dickheads. What's he saying? Dickheads. Dickheads.

This just makes you seem hard to work with and quite negative. So choose something that is relatably not enjoyable. Such as I loved managing all the different vendors, but sometimes when we were on a tight deadline I had clients that would go dark. That was my least favorite part was chasing them down. It always worked out, but I really prefer vendors who are responsive. This answer is so relatable. Who wouldn't be frustrated by being ghosted.

All right, let's get into the three step formula to answer why should I hire you? And an example answer of this all in action. Step 1 Review the role when asked this question, rather than dive into who you are, take a moment and reiterate what you you know about the role and what challenges you see that you'll be facing if hired. This tells them that you're business minded, that you're focused, and that you did your homework. For example, you might say something like from what I understand, this role is meant to streamline the process for X and help clients with Y. And the biggest challenge is likely going to be Z. This brings us to step two. Tell them about your relevant experience and skills. Don't be a generic Eric here. Tell them about specific skills you have that address those challenges and things that need to be done that you just made. This should sound something like based on those business goals, I can bring my experience doing X in Y industry to achieve goal Z. This is so powerful because at this point you're essentially matching the top priorities to to your skill set. It is the best way to clearly show your value and then to drive it home and move your answer from mild to fire to diablo. Give a few examples of experiences from your past that are relevant to the challenges this company is facing now. Ease up their sport and remember, you don't have to list every seemingly relevant accomplishment. Clear and concise answers be long and rambling ones. Step 3 Ask your interviewer. Now is the grand finale where you turn your answer to why should I hire you? Into a conversation and make absolutely sure that you ace this question. After answering it with the first two steps, I want you to flip the question and ask the interviewer. Is this how you see me in this role? Seriously? This approach is so powerful. It keeps the interview flowing naturally like a conversation, and it gives your interviewer the opportunity to either agree that you are the perfect fit and they'll hear themselves say it out loud of how you're great fit. I mean music to my ears or address where maybe you're misaligned so that you can answer any of those concerns right on the spot immediately. You know if you flubbed this answer or if you did a really great job and you have the chance to expand further in the moment, can't you see why you are going to want them to ask this question? It is an absolute ace in the hole. Now here's a sample answer for how to respond to why should we hire you in the job interview? So with this formula in mind, your answer should 1 clearly review the role to share relevant experience and then 3 flip the question on the interviewer. Here's the example as I understand this data analyst role will involve analyzing complex data sets, generating insightful reports, and providing actionable recommendations to support business decisions. One of the biggest focuses is ensuring data accuracy and timely delivery, especially during quarterly reviews when quick and precise insights are crucial. I can see that strong analytical skills and attention to detail are going to be key for a position like this, which is something I honed during my time and at Company X where I developed a new data validation process that improved our report accuracy by 15% and saved the team over 10 hours per week. As a data analyst at Company Y, I also gained extensive experience in using advanced analytics tools and working with cross functional teams to drive data driven strategies. I believe my experience with complex data analysis and delivering precise insights sets me up perfectly for this role and I would be really excited to apply my skills and help this company make informed decisions and achieve its goals. Is that how you see me in this role? Did I miss any key challenges that you'll think I'll be facing? And just like that, your new nickname is Beaver because damn Foreign.

How do you handle stress or pressure? This is a common interview question and I hate it because it so rarely leads to helpful answers. But I know the best answer to it, such as imagine going out on a date with someone and you ask them how they handle conflict and this person is an immature pressure cooker of anger and gaslighting. They aren't going to say that. They're going to say, well, I tried to talk it out with my partner and that generic, not very believable answer is similar to what you are likely to say. The way I want you to take it up a notch is for you to explain yourself a little bit and then give an actual example, tell a story about a high pressure situation that you overcame. So that would sound like I learned that I actually do pretty well under pressure, which is because I've learned I need to communicate a lot when there is a time pressure and cut projects to the most essential actions. One example of that comes to mind when we had a major product launch that was delayed by a vendor issue and we had to turn around a brand new marketing campaign in under 48 hours, I pulled the team into a quick triage meeting. We collaboratively determined which parts of the campaign were absolutely essential and then I delegated based on everyone's strengths. We ended up launching on time and the campaign actually outperformed our original projections. It was stressful, but it was also a good reminder that pressure is manageable when you break it down and stay solution oriented. Be sure to grab your free resources. Down below. You've got this wi fi high five.