As the tech industry’s seemingly never-ending rounds of layoffs continue on and on, we’re all getting a lot more interested in acing job interviews.
In a way, interviewing well is the most in-demand skill of them all: If you don’t know someone who knows someone, it’s practically a prerequisite for getting any job at all. And, since we’re all too busy doing our jobs, it’s a rarely practiced skill to boot.
Luckily, job interviewers tend to stick to the same types of questions: They’ll ask about your past job experience, and they’ll try to figure out if you’re a culture fit. Here, we’ve rounded up all the top questions that a job interviewer is likely to ask, along with a handful of questions that you may want to ask them.
Tell Me About Yourself
You should consider preparing a quick summary of your work persona: Mention a few hobbies, how much you love your pets, and, just to really blow them away, throw in your favorite ice cream flavor.
They’re likely to ask for something more specific about yourself as well, too. Here are the usual questions to be ready for:
1. What are your strengths?
As with all the questions in this category, you’ll need to find an answer that’s honest to your personality. But it never hurts to consider some of the greatest hits here: Perhaps you’re great at communicating effectively, collaborating with others, or problem-solving under pressure.
2. What are your weaknesses?
Some will suggest that you answer with a version of “I care too much” or “I work too hard.” But even if this is true for you, it’s cliche and weird to flex about your terrible work-life balance in 2024.
Instead, pick a genuine weakness (nothing too terrible), and then follow up immediately to explain how you’ve already begun working to address this issue. For example, you could say that you sometimes get caught up in the details, but this has led you to realign your workflow regularly to ensure you move on to the next task at an appropriate speed.
3. Why do you want to work for this company?
To answer this one, think about what stands out about the company. If they’re small, you can benefit from how agile and scrappy they are. If they’re large, you’ll benefit from the internal network of knowledgable coworkers.
4. Why are you interested in this position?
Find an answer to this that’s personal to you, but that makes it clear that your values align with the organization, and you see a path towards growing your skills and experience at the new position.
5. Can you walk me through your resume?
When answering this one, focus on two points. First, you’ll want to highlight why your past positions are relevant to the current position you’re hoping to land. Second, you’ll also want to emphasize the diverse range of experiences you’ve banked in the past.
Prove Your Experience
A job interviewer needs to know you have the proven industry knowledge to handle everything in real life that you can already do on paper. Here are some questions about your job history they’ll likely ask some version of.
6. What relevant experience do you have?
Look through your employment history for positions in the industry or the same job role. If you don’t have them, focus on the most relevant skills. Any growth statistics you can highlight from your time at the company will be good to keep in mind.
7. How do you handle pressure or stressful situations?
I don’t know, how do you handle them? If you love them, say so. If you hate them, say that and then explain the steps you take to avoid feeling like a situation is stressful, like establishing a gameplan ahead of time.
8. What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
This is a broad question, so start out by narrowing the field: What was the biggest project you worked on at your most relevant previous position? That’s likely the best area to focus on, although you might win a few brownie points by saying your greatest accomplishment was raising your kids.
9. What motivates you?
You’re likely best of answering this by focusing on the work itself: You like challenging yourself, growing, and gaining new skills that add up to more than the sum of their total.
10. Where do you see yourself in five years?
If you have clear career goals, discuss them. For everyone else, highlight the skills that this position offers and that you’d love to develop.
11. What do you enjoy most about your last job?
You can add a little structure to your response by opening with a summary of a project or goal that you helped work on, followed by the actions you enjoyed taking to address the issue. The point is to bring up a skillset that will transfer to your new position.