| Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. Welcome back to Top Words. Today, we're going to talk about 10 job interview questions and a few responses to those job interview questions. So let's go! |
| 1. Tell me a little about yourself. |
| Statement number one is tell me a little about yourself or tell me a little bit about yourself. This is a very common interview introduction question or the first question in an interview. Tell me about yourself is just an open question. Please share or basically introduce yourself. This usually means you should share what you studied in college, your work experience, personal projects you've tried to do or have successfully done, other experience you think is relevant. So this is an invitation for you to give a general introduction about yourself. |
| In an example sentence - Well, I got my bachelor's degree in biochemistry. |
| 2. How did you hear about the position? |
| How did you hear about the position? This question means how did you learn about this job that you are interviewing for? How did you find this job opening? So how did you hear about the position? This is where you can explain maybe where you found the information about the job. So you found it on the internet, in the newspaper, you heard from a friend, you were contacted by a recruiter. So there are a few different ways that you can share with your interviewer how you found the position, how you heard about the job. |
| In a sentence - I found an advertisement about the job on the internet. |
| 3. Why are you interested in this position? |
| Next is why are you interested in the position? Why are you interested in the position? This is your chance to explain why you want this job. Why are you interested in this position? So usually, you should not say for the money or because this is a really, I don't know, there are a lot of attractive people at this company, I don't know. You should say something in response to this question about your career goals or maybe something specific about the company that you like or something very specific about the job that is available there and how you feel your skills are a match for that job. So explain why you're interested in that position, the reason you decided to apply for that job. |
| In a sentence - I think I'm a good fit for the company and its goals. |
| 4. Why should we hire you? |
| The next interview question is why should we hire you? Why should we hire you? So this is your opportunity to explain why you feel you are the best candidate for the job. So if you have any special qualifications, you have certifications, you have specific experience, you have a specific goal in mind, this is the kind of question you can share that information in response to. Why should we hire you? Because I can speak six different languages and I know how to create a website in 10 minutes, I don't know. So if you have some kind of special qualifications, you can share those qualifications in response to this question. |
| In another example sentence - I'm a goal-oriented person who likes to work at a fast pace. |
| 5. What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses? |
| The next question is a common question, what do you consider your strengths and weaknesses? What do you consider your strengths and weaknesses or what are your strengths and weaknesses? So strengths means strong points, things you're good at. Weaknesses is your weak points, things you are not very good at. So you should be honest to a degree, but be careful. So this should be in a professional setting, keep that in mind. It's a professional setting. If you want to talk about your weaknesses, don't say like, I eat too much chocolate or don't say like I love sleeping or whatever. Talk about your professional strengths and your professional weaknesses and also with your weaknesses, it would be a good idea to talk about how you improve those weaknesses or how you work with your team members or work in a company to try to reduce the effect of those weaknesses. |
| So for example - I'm very detail-oriented, but I often take on too much at one time. |
| In my case that's the case like I'm very detail-oriented, but I often take on too much so do too many things at one time. So I could explain, okay, so I'm very detail-oriented but if I'm trying to take on too much, maybe I say I communicate with my coworkers about what should be prioritized and that helps me organize my time better. So when you introduce your weakness, talk about the ways you try to reduce the effect of that weakness. That can be one technique so your good points and your bad points in this question. |
| 6. Tell me about a time when you overcame a challenge at work. |
| Some interviewers may ask this question, tell me about a time when you overcame a challenge at work. So it's not really a question. They're asking you to tell a story. So tell me about a time when you overcame a challenge at work. So they want to hear an example from your professional experience about how you solved a problem. What did you do to solve a problem at work? They want to know what kind of problem it was and how you approached the problem and the results of that problem? So you could say, for example, our company party was scheduled for the day before Christmas, but the restaurant exploded and I had to find a new place to have the party, I don't know. That's of course a crazy example, but giving your employer an idea of how you solve problems and maybe the kind of mental state you have when you solve the problems, can be helpful in making a hiring decision. |
| So in an example - When I was having trouble communicating with a client, I reached out to a coworker for support. |
| 7. What are your career goals? |
| The next question is what are your career goals, your career goals? So not necessarily in this company but in your career overall. In the interview, it's probably a good idea to include the company where you are currently interviewing in your career goals. But keep in mind like you should be explaining a goal or you should be sharing a goal that is in line with the company's work. So if your goal is to open a cupcake shop, but you're interviewing for an IT job where you're going to be like, I don't know, installing Windows 10 on people's computers, maybe, this doesn't really match so make sure that your career goal and the job you're interviewing for align. Those two should be kind of aligned. It will help your interviewer and it will help you I think. |
| So in an example sentence - I want to create a global advertising campaign strategy. |
| So maybe you're interviewing for a marketing job for example. You could say that's your career goal. I would love to design a global marketing campaign strategy for example. |
| 8. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? |
| The next question, a very common one, where do you see yourself in 5 years? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? This question means, after 5 years, 5 years from this point in time, what is your vision for you? What is your vision of yourself professionally? So what do you want to have achieved after 5 years? So a good tip for this question is to explain where you will be having made contributions to the company where you are interviewing. So if I'm interviewing at Apple and Apple says, "Where do you see yourself in 5 years Alisha?," and I say, "I see myself at Microsoft.," like that sounds really bad. So try to share your goals for yourself in a 5-year period, but again, try to align them with the company where you're interviewing and explain how you plan to contribute to the company and develop yourself professionally. That can be a really good way to answer this question. |
| For example - I see myself in a managerial position in this company working on multiple projects for multiple markets. |
| 9. Why do you want to work here? |
| The next question is, why do you want to work here? Why do you want to work here? So similar to why are you interested in this position, that question is very much about this job in particular, but the question, "Why do you want to work here?" means why do you want to work in this company like in this place specifically? So share something about the company that you like or share something, some reason the company is attractive to you as a candidate. So maybe it's the location or maybe it's the ability to work overseas or maybe it's an international environment or maybe you can use your English skills. Some reason why you're interested in working at this company specifically, share that after this question. |
| So example - I think there's a lot to learn and I think there are opportunities for promotion. |
| 10. Do you have any questions for me? |
| Last one, the last question is very common, do you have any questions for me? Do you have any questions for me? Interviewers will often ask this question at the end of an interview inviting the candidate to ask questions about the company. It is usually a very good idea to prepare some questions for the interviewer. So it's also a good idea to research your company or research the university you're interviewing for before the interview. So if you have questions about the company, company policy, that sort of thing, it's a great chance to ask your interviewer. Generally however, it's not a good idea to ask specific questions about pay or vacation in the interview as you can be seen as maybe being too money or too vacation focused. That might come a little later. If you say, what's the salary for this job? Unless, it's a situation, unless it's a kind of a closed situation, that might be too direct a question. But instead, ask some things about the company, ask your interviewer what it's like to work there, what your interviewer thinks is good about working for the company or maybe what your interviewer thinks the company is planning to do over the next few years. Ask something of your interviewer so it shows that you are interested in that company and that you want to learn more and participate more with that company. So make sure to have some questions prepared when your interviewer asks, do you have any questions for me? |
| So example question - What do you think is the most rewarding part about working here? |
| So those are 10 job interview questions and a few different ways you can respond to them. So I think those are useful for job interviews yes, but maybe if you interview for a university or interview for a scholarship or something, you can use similar responses to similar questions. So if you have any questions or comments please let us know in the comment section below this video and thanks very much for watching this episode of Top Words. I'll see you again soon. Bye! |
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