Interview Questions
Before you head out to a job interview, it's a good idea to practice answering
the types of interview questions that interviewers will likely ask you. The Web
can be extremely helpful with that, as interviewing is among the most-popular
employment topics.
Even so, career advisors can't possibly tell you exactly which interview questions
to expect your interviewer to ask you; they especially can't tell you exactly
how to answer them.
Interview questions are just too personal and situational for that, and there
are no "correct" answers anyway. To make it more complex, interviewers
employ interview techniques (different types of interviews), resulting in an
infinite number of potential interview questions and answers.
However, career advisors can at least give you a feel for the techniques and
a list of the canned, common interview questions that interviewers ask, along
with suggested ways of answering.
That's the intention of this article. But first, a little something about:
Types of Interview Questions
Interviewers generally employ one or more of the following most-common interview
techniques, by asking the related questions indicated.
General (or Traditional)
Common interview questions about yourself and your work.
Behavioral
Tough, personal interview questions that probe your competencies and how you
historically acted in certain job-related situations.
Case (or Hypothetical)
Tough, specific interview questions about a hypothetical situation or "case" that
challenge your problem-solving abilities on the spot, such as by asking you what
you'd do "if".
Interviewers usually start with interview questions of the first type and then
work their way into one or both of the others over the course of one or more
interviews, depending on the nature of each job.
There are a few common behavioral interview
questions that interviewers ask when employing the technique. But there
virtually none that are common for case or hypothetical interviews. Cases are
typically unique, because they are based on hypothetical situations
that interviewers invent or tailor specifically for their employers.
Interviewers also usually keep case interview questions a secret, as they don't
want to enable job applicants to rehearse their answers. After all, the whole
idea is to place an interviewee in the hot seat, to test how well he or she solves
problems and other hypothetical situations on the spot.
So, the best that you'll likely find to help you prepare for case interview
questions, are a couple of example
cases,
professional
coaching or a written guide.
There are several brainteasers, riddles and other types of technical interview
questions, some with "answers", that have found their way onto
the Web and into self-help books, after interviewees attended technical interviews
and spilled the beans. Tech interviews are similar to case interviews, in that
they test problem-solving abilities on the spot, among other things.
However, outside of certain brainteasers and riddles, the interview questions
aren't common, other than maybe within each company that conducts tech interviews.
They are just examples that interviewers have asked techie applicants. Interviewers
also make those up and try to keep them secret too; apparently, not always with
success. Subsequently, they change with time.
There are, however, common interview questions that virtually all interviewers
ask in one way or another when using the first technique, that are no secret
at all and don't change much with time. The most common that interviewers ask
are on the next page, along with suggested ways of answering them.
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