Have you ever been in a job interview where you were asked a question that left you wondering what the interviewer was looking for? Well, if you have ever felt “lost” in a job interview, you are not alone, in fact we have heard from many candidates who have felt the exact same way.
The good news is that you can improve your job interview skills and deepen your understanding of what the interviewer is looking for. There are many great books, courses, websites and so on where you can go to gain some valuable insight in what is behind some of those weird interview questions. In addition to these resources, there are job interview coaches who specialize in preparing you to handle almost any question.While there are hundreds of tough interview questions designed to baffle even the most seasoned job seeker, today I will cover a couple of the big ones that I have seen applicants struggle with from an HR perspective.
For example, what do you think an interviewer is looking for when he/she asks, “Tell me about a time when your work was criticized?” This is one of those questions that no applicant wants to get. It’s what is sometimes known as a classic “negative question“. In this case, the interviewer is trying to assess is how you react to stress. This question is especially prevalent in job interviews for positions that need someone who can think on their feet and speak under pressure (PR or Sales).
The other thing an interviewer might be assessing is your self-awareness and openness to criticism. In work environments that are very team or group work oriented the ability to take criticism is paramount. For example, in labour or industrial relations, the ability to handle criticism well is vital to job success. In grievances and arbitrations, the union representative or lawyer will be attacking or “criticizing” your argument or position as the HR professional. Therefore to be successful in this type of environment, you must be able to handle criticism well. As for responding to this type of question, the standard protocol applies which is be honest. Also, show your openness by describing how you carefully considered the criticism. Show your emotional intelligence by taking the other perspective and identify both the emotion and content of the critique. Demonstrate your communication skills and describe how you overcame and responded to the criticism. Lastly, it is important to describe what you did to correct any deficiencies if the criticism was well founded.
Suppose you are asked to “Describe a time when you saw a colleague break a company policy. How did you handle it?” What do you think the interviewer is looking for here? Here, the interviewer is looking to assess your ethics as well as get a sense of how you handle sensitive situations. The kind of job interview question is used for those jobs responsible for finances, handling cash and so on. This one is easy, when it comes to ethics there is no bending the rules. In the age of Enron scandals, employers understand ethics is something they cannot afford to be without. As for how you handled it, again, demonstrate your interpersonal skills using the techniques described above (perspective taking, communication, etc.).
Anyway, these are a couple of the common questions I have seen applicants struggle with in job interviews. You may have already had to respond to these questions in past job interviews. If you haven’t it might be it might be worth your while to practice responding to them. So make sure you prepares by researching job interview tips before your next interview. Here is an online course we developed where you will learn effective techniques through interactive exercises and demonstrations. Using actual clips from real applicants, you will have the opportunity to see first-hand common mistakes made and obtain practical tips for improvement
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Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview! |
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For more information see our online job interview and resume writing courses. So until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your career search.
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