Preparing for Interview Questions

Once you lock down an interview, it’s time to prepare. While you’ll likely scour the internet for company and industry information and comb linkedin for current employees you may contact, you also need to anticpate and prepare for specific interview questions.

Answering interview questions can be tricky.  You have to be authentic while balancing rehearsal with spontaneity. You don’t want to sound too canned. During my recent job search, I identified two questions that were asked of me most consistently.

Regardless of whether this is your first interview or your fiftieth interview, you must prepare to answer two key questions just like I did…

Question 1:  Tell me about yourself.

Ok, this isn’t really a question, it’s a statement.  The interviewer wants to hear about what you can do for her company and why you are a fit for the role.  Your answer needs to be succinct and relevant.  The way you answer this question demonstrates your understanding of the role and your understanding of the real question – how can you help me?

It’s critical to prepare for this question.  Fact, if you keep this question in mind as you research the company, the role, and the potential interviewers, you’ll find you can piece together your answer while you research.

You’ve read the position description from the job post and know what the interviewer is looking for, right?  It can be helpful to isolate key words from the job description so that you can see what’s most important to the interviewer or the target company.

When I want to be sure I get this right, I paste the job description into a free tool called TagCrowd.  TagCrowd is great because it builds a word cloud that shows you the priority words in the job description. I’ve also used jobscan.co, a teriffic service – but one you pay to use. Tagcrowd costs no money to use.

I recommend building a word cloud for both the skills/knowledge/abilities section of the post and the job requirements.  The default settings in tagcrowd are fine for your purposes.  These two word clouds give you an idea of the words that your target company values.

With word clouds in hand, consider your skill set and how well it aligns with the role.  Next identify a couple of your best examples demonstrating how you meet these requirements.

Finally, it’s time to tie it all together.  Open your answer with a hook – an interesting statement designed to get your interviewer’s attention.  Follow this with a quick example or two, and wrap up your answer in about 30 seconds or so.

Question 2:  Why should I hire you?

Why should I hire you? This could be a tough question.  If you focus on your past accomplishments you’ll miss the mark.  Remember, your target employer has specific needs.  Consider specifically how you alone can meet these needs.  It’s ok to rely on your past experiences, but you must tie them to the future – specifically try to demonstrate how your skill set meets the needs of the role.

This question usually comes in the second half of the interview.  Be sure to weave your pre-interview research with the insights you gained through your interview to demonstrate how precise the fit between your skills and this role.

Pro tip:  After you complete your response to this question, ask the interviewer  “how do you imagine I’ll fit in this role?”  This question requires the interviewer to look past the hiring decision and consider you as a member of the team.

If you have any interview questions you would like help answering, please ask through my contact page.  I wish you the very best in your job search.