"What is your greatest weakness?"
"How do you handle stress and pressure?"
"Describe a difficult work situation/project and how you overcame it."
"How do you evaluate success?"
"Why are you leaving or have left your job?"
"Why do you want this job?"
"Why should we hire you?"
"Where do you see yourself in five years?"
"Tell me about yourself"
These are some of the most popular, or rather common questions asked during a job interview. Don't they make you quiver?
And will there be one, two or three interviewers? Who are they? Who is the decision maker? What should you wear?
The day before the interview, you make sure your clothes are nicely pressed, your shoes shined, your documents are in place. Not forgetting the extra alarm clock you set just to make sure you do not hit the stop button on one. This is on top of reminding your mom to wake you up on time.
On the actual day, you brush your teeth again after breakfast to make sure nothing got stuck in between your teeth. No coffee in case you spill it. Pray that it does not rain and the train does not break down.
And when you reached, you keep reminding yourself to mind your body language and to look in the eyes of the interviewers when speaking. Smile, smile, smile.
Of course, some people take it in their stride. You can say that they are confident. Maybe they are seasoned. Maybe they are well prepared.
And whether you get a job offer depends on your performance during the interview.
In job interviews, the interviewers will choose someone whom they believe have the relevant skills, experience and knowledge to perform the job. And the person has to fit into the culture and be pleasant team player.
In most job interviews, the interviewers lead the interview. The interviewers ask questions. The interviewers ask the interviewee if he or she has any questions. The interviewers decide when to start and end (depending on his schedule). The interviewers play an active role while the candidate follows passively wherever the topics lead to.
Interviewers know that the candidates will come prepared to answer some of the more common questions. And so they try to catch the candidates off guard by asking questions unrelated to the job in order to test their reactions.
Candidates have also come to expect these odd questions.
What if the interviewers give up the need to lead an interview? How about letting the candidates ask as many questions as they want to know about the company? How about letting the candidates to decide whether to join the company after finding out the answers?