31 Interview Questions You Should be Able to Answer (+one of my answers verbatim)

It’s impossible to know all the questions that will be asked of you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try. Similar to taking a test, although you don’t know the exact questions, you should know the types of questions that will be asked. The three main things your interviewer really wants to know is:

Your background and qualifications

Why you want to work with them in particular

How you handle problems (and if you’re a crazy person)

These usually get translated into a variety of questions, but regardless of how they ask it you’ll want to hit each of these points at some point in the interview.

The first and most common question is, “tell me a little bit about yourself.” This is SUPER IMPORTANT, do not tell them your ENTIRE work history.

Up until recently I always thought they genuinely wanted to know my journey, but as it turns out, they don’t really care (sad but true). What they really want to know is about your qualifications, which means you don’t need to tell them everything, only the things that really matter.

I recommend answering this question with a short and concise story. It should address

a) how you found your direction

b) how you got some skills and

c) finish with how this has led you to apply to their company.

Here is an example of, word for word, what I say to this question:

Well, most people usually want to know if I went to school for video production, and I love telling them I didn’t. I actually went to school for creative writing, which really helped me learn how to research and turn that research into meaningful stories. After college I worked at this place called 44Blue, which is this amazing Emmy award-winning production company. And there I was working with absolutely incredible professionals, really each of them was the best at what they did. So at 44Blue I was in charge of prepping productions and I quickly went from production assistant, to assistant camera, to camera-op, and then eventually to production lead. That really opened my eyes on how to craft stories that resonate with people, but then also how to execute a plan of action. So now at our small agency Pixel Press I’m in charge of running our production crews and it’s a very all-hands-on-deck kind of place so I get to be very involved with the content marketing side of it as well. But, I feel that I’ve been working with agencies for 3 years now, and while I’ve learned so many skills and gotten so much experience, I feel those skills are all being spread out in so many directions. I do a project here, I do a project there, but I’m really looking to take everything I’ve learned and use it to push something important in really big ways and that’s why I applied to work with you guys because I think you’re doing just that.

Okay so it’s not perfectly eloquent, but that’s okay. It hits some important points such as:

a) I have experience working with the best

b) I know how to lead and take action and

c) I know why I’m applying to this company over any others.

Above all else: keep it clean

This person doesn’t know you or your background and it’ll be impossible to catch them up on your life in a 20 minute interview, so keep the story clean. Have an intro, a middle, and an end.

In the above story I only told them about 3 out of the 8 places I’ve worked. It’s good to avoid telling too many stories right away. Let them ask you more questions and slowly build up that picture for them.

As a side note, the two other most common questions that are asked are, “why do you want to work with us?” and “why are you leaving your current job?” But, we’ve already addressed these a little bit in the intro, thus saving time for the more important stuff.

In the Interviewing for Introverts course we go over how to respond to each of these three questions and how to find your interview stories in more detail.

Other interview questions can vary a lot from interview to interview, but I typically use this list from The Muse, which I go over before every interview: 31 Most Common Interview Questions

Here are the top 9 interview questions they suggest preparing for:

1. Tell Me About Yourself.
2. How Did You Hear About This Position?
3. Why Do You Want to Work at This Company?
4. Why Do You Want This Job?
5. Why Should We Hire You?
6. What Are Your Greatest Strengths?
7. What Do You Consider to Be Your Weaknesses?
8. What Is Your Greatest Professional Achievement?
9. Tell Me About a Challenge or Conflict You’ve Faced at Work, and How You Dealt With It.

You can read the full interview questions list here.

Read more resume and interview best practices on The GHYC Blog.