Sitting down face–to-face with your potential employer can be one of life’s most nerve-racking experiences.
You, the candidate, may think all you can do is cross your fingers, talk up your ability in the workplace and hope for the best.
Wrong.
We have has put together a list of the trickiest – but most common – questions you can be asked in an interview with the help of jobs site Fish4Jobs.
Fancy a sneak peak at the toughest questions you could be asked in a job interview? Here they are.
1. What do you consider to be your biggest failure?
The best way around this question is to give it a positive spin and use your answer to work to your advantage.
According to experts, the biggest mistake you can make with your answer is to say that you haven’t had any failures.
Instead, find an example where you turned a failure into a positive. Talk about what you learnt from this and how you used the experience to improve.
Own your mistakes and make sure you show how you used this mistake to succeed later on.
2. Why is there a gap in your work history?
If you have a gap on your CV you need to be prepared to talk about why this is.
This can seem daunting but it’s important you don’t shy away from it and address it head on.
Chances are an employer will ask you about it and want to know what you were doing.
Whatever the reason make sure you talk about it in a positive way and how it helped you improve.
It doesn’t matter if it was a break to travel or have children, there will be something you took away from the experience that you can use to your advantage in a job interview.
Even if you were let go from a job you need to be honest because an employer can easily check up on what you say.
3. What are your salary expectations?
Before you go into interview you should have a good idea what the salary is for the role.
If it wasn’t specified on the job advert then make sure you have researched pay scales for that sector so you know what the expected salary is.
The last thing you want to do is ask for a salary that is unrealistic.
This could ruin your chances and make you seem greedy.
Do your research into the industry and what other companies pay their employees for the same role to inform your answer before the interview.
4. What motivates you?
There’s no right or wrong answer for this question.
Everyone’s answer will be different and it’s important to have an answer that reflects your personality.
The interviewer is really looking to find out about you, what you are like, and what drives you.
You need to be honest and say what your reasons are behind your motivations.
Be careful saying that money – this can lead your employer to worry about you leaving the company at the first sign of a bigger salary elsewhere.
5. Do you prefer working by yourself or working in a team?
This is perhaps the toughest question of the lot because both are important and what employers want to see.
A good way to approach this is to find a happy medium, and sell yourself as both a team player and a solo worker
