Top 5 Interview Questions (and how to answer them)

hello welcome to super chat fridays how are you where are you come in the comments jump in and say hello good to be here it's the 50. hmm i have to write these things down because i can't keep track anymore it's 58 weeks of supercharged fridays in a row without a break how are you guys doing if i'm live if you can see me respond tell me your tell me you're watching if you're on youtube linkedin facebook drop in the comments and say hi we have a lot of stuff to cover today i can't wait to get started i've got my cup of tea hopefully you have something to drink as well drop in the comments it's really quiet so i wonder if anybody's even watching um we have a juicy topic to talk about and it is so much that i'm gonna get started because if i keep chatting then it's not fun for me for people who are watching the replay so i'm very conscious of that having said that i am gonna say hi because we have a few people who are already live on linkedin fantastic i i wish i know i wish i knew how to pronounce your name it's wonderful that you're here welcome rasu did i say that right anvarasu rana risto how are you my friend the walker abhay books james lovely lovely to see you some new faces here very welcome some familiar faces we have some people from the supercharged club what is that um that's a membership which is extremely affordable for people who are ambitious and don't just want like free stuff from youtube but want to be taken seriously um you know have a little bit of handholding and a little bit of training all of that stuff so if you're interested in that check out this link superjudge yourself.com and i promise you it's going to be a lot of learning we have two life coachings every single month um mahesh victoria hey namrata redha fabulous lovely to have you guys uh join us here and we're gonna talk today about the top five interview questions we've got a lot of ground to cover so these are classic interview questions that have come from some book somewhere in the 20th century and these questions have been recycled we are in 2021 and you might as well be in 1951 70 years ago because some of these questions have just not changed um and some of you who have been around and have interviewed in the past century you know what i'm talking about the evolution has hardly happened in the in the career space so that's not a good thing but can we do something about it as a job seeker not really i mean once you become an interviewer yes you can definitely do something about it oh by the way quick um hopefully everything is clear because i have a new camera i have a new microphone hopefully you can see this hopefully there's a better sound and video quality i've tested it out of course but hopefully everything is fine tegan you must be on your morning commute so we've got people from around the world lovely to have you guys so these questions are um what we're gonna talk about today there's five of them in speci you know specifically and i'll tell you all about these five one by one you're gonna have to hold your horses however i don't wanna be live for too long you know when i'm alone i i was supposed to have a guest today but unfortunately he wasn't able to make it then i had a backup guest that guest couldn't make it either so i'm like oh no problem i can hang out i i love hanging out with you guys uh however i do i am very mindful of your time as well so we're going to look at these questions and we're specifically we're not going to judge them they are what they are i told you i don't like them they're from a different era however if we can figure out how to answer it in a way that not only pleases them but makes us feel good at the end of it then mission accomplished so i have to give this disclaimer every single time take whatever i tell you take it with a pinch of salt you may like some of it you may absolutely not like some of it so if you don't like anything or it doesn't resonate please throw it out the window if you like something don't copy paste it just take it and apply your personality your colors your texture so that the answer sounds like you do you know what i mean it doesn't sound like it's a canned response from some coach who's told you to say something or or you know um say this in a certain way because it's gonna be more um acceptable so cheers we're gonna get going fabulous i'm glad that the camera is all right so uh excellent hey serbi excellent fantastic so hi sir b let's get cracking into these questions we're gonna talk about why do they ask you these questions what you i don't like should what you can include and what you should definitely avoid but definitely avoid bit i can hold my hand to the fire and say please they will read you like a book so avoid those and these tips will work for you whether you're looking at the executive position entry position a fresh graduate or a middle management position these are across the board because i've hired across the board sounds good um perfect so um hey jeff uh santosh this is gonna be available on my on my uh linkedin profile forever so you don't have to do anything about it let's get going the first question love it or hate it it's not going anywhere so tell me about yourself it's like oh man like kill me now yeah it's there it's there whether you like it or not tell me about you know the thing with tell me about yourself is it's not just in an interview scenario it's in any high stress meeting um you know if you have your own company one day you're looking for funding or you're meeting an important client it doesn't have to be only job interviews you know um and why is this question asked well i think that it's a blank slate when people ask this they know that this is not something that people like to hear why it's too darn open it could go anyway it could go either way right so i think they ask this question because they want to see what are you like when you get something like this which is open and uncomfortable the second reason they ask you this question is they want to know what's important to you and will come to that because the composition of your answer tells them what's important to you and the third reason oh this is a little secret that i bet you didn't know unless you're a recruiter and if you're a recruiter tell me you agree with me because if you don't agree with me you're probably lying when you have back-to-back interviews do you have time to do your homework and actually read every single resume properly cover to cover no you don't no you don't you don't so when you are asking this question you are literally listening you're nodding you're pretending to hear but what you're doing is you're reading the resume at the same time am i right am i right or am i right am i right it could be because you're overworked that you had these back-to-back interviews or it could be because you're lazy we are not judging we are just explaining the facts so that is the reason they ask this question lauren is a recruiter so if lauren agrees with me you know what i you know that this is correct um fabulous so i see that we have some people who are joining us from youtube as well because i have a a growing channel on youtube uh oh i'm so glad that my my video was helpful to you that's fabulous hi vinayak how to avoid giving payslips at the beginning of the hiring process when i i'll come to that in a bit because i have one of my questions related to salaries so hold that thought okay um antigua tegan's a recruiter and worked a lot in the in the recruiting space um and in fact she's doing some work for corn and ferry correct the initial question can be asked in so many ways and it comes down to this yeah that's it um you know everyone who's like yeah i've been there done that so how do you how do you approach it first i'm going to tell you what not to do remember we said we're going to talk about why they ask this question what to include what to avoid i'll come to what to include but what to avoid is avoid personal information it was a raw a rainy dark night the year was 1972 yeah so i'm exaggerating but you'll be surprised how many people get on this uh saturday night live monologue for eight minutes you don't want to have any monologue you want to have a two-way street from the get-go and the reason i say this is this question is usually asked at the very beginning and it sets the tone of your entire meeting because if you answer this well you feel so good nothing can stop you you know you're like unbeatable like you rule the world i'm the ruler if you bomb this question you're like this downward spiral even if you know things by heart and you know and you have a personality you're wonderful and you're lovable and if you feel you bomb the first thing chances are it's a little difficult to recover i'm not saying it's impossible to recover but it gets harder you don't want to be in a situation which is already high stress and you're already like you know uphill it shouldn't have to be an uphill battle so you want to be in control of this question and how you answer it so avoid anything that can come and shoot you in the foot personal information you're married how old you are um i know that maybe in you know some parts of the world you would never say this because it's a very um regulated environment particularly in in the us but in some parts of the world people have no problem saying you know i'm i'm uh i was born in this city i'm 48 years old it's unnecessary and i'll tell you why it has absolutely no relevance to the job it has no relevance to the job unless you're going to be lifting heavy machinery equipment and you happen to be 84 years old yeah okay that might be an issue but otherwise your age has no relevance to the job marital status i'm mad i have three children please keep that out keep that out some people talk about their personal interests i had a can a candidate back in india talked to me about five minutes i almost fell asleep uh he was talking to me about five minutes about cricket and his favorite players it's irrelevant i lost interest i'm human i am biased we're all human so keep it sharp and we'll get into how you can do that the other thing i want to say is avoid selling yourself at this stage too much too much there is a way to do it and i'll show you how to do it but don't dive in and start like attacking on the offensive when it might be a bit premature there's a way to do it and we'll get there cool so how do you answer this question there's a driver's seat formula and i'll explain it to you it's very simple actually and it works like a charm every single time so um [Music] everything applies to veterans as well um we can commander definitely um you know so so there's nothing specific which is only you know for youngsters or or people from the corporate world uh everything is um transferable yes sir you got this right so that's exactly what i'm talking about the driver's seat formula so let's talk about the driver's seat formula what does that mean there's four parts to it start with pleasantries and i'll give you examples start with pleasantries number two um try not to spell incorrectly uh apologies i'm a bit of a spelling snob so when i get something wrong i don't like it stop at pleasantries describe what you do today very briefly okay there's a subtle achievement that you sneak in there which is related to what they are looking for very sneaky and the fourth is why do you want this job right so pleasantries when you say hey so you know chances are it gets down to business really quickly and you're like oh i didn't get any you know there was no warm-up time sometimes there's no icebreaker some people are like that so if you find that a little uncomfortable what you can do is very basic pleasantries no more than a sentence say first of all you have the guy interviewing you is john um john it's a pleasure to be here thank you so much for taking time uh to see me today i really appreciate it done do you know what that does it forces the other person to say oh no problem why that's how human beings are if somebody says thank you you will say something back and when they do that it gives you a nano second to think about your next move particularly if you are someone who gets nervous this will help you to get in smoothly and not worry and not get sweaty right sounds good pleasantries b describe what you do today i'm a senior financial analyst and i have been in this role for the last three years brief to the point you don't have to talk about the entire career history you can say yes i'm a senior financial analyst i've had about 15 years experience and for the last three years this is what i do it's to the point it's very brief you don't have to get into description of your job why a lot of it will be mentioned in your resume you don't have to repeat everything there now you sneak in a subtle achievement you know i'm a financial analyst i'm not in any i'll make these reports for senior management in fact i'm working on this project today where i'm leading a team of about i'm leading a team of four people and we are working on how big data has an impact on management decisions key decision making and the bottom line why are you sneaking this in are you silly no you are smart you're sneaking it in because you saw in the job description that they're looking for something like that and you're connecting the dots for them and if you speak their language you will even use the same words that they have in the job description just like keyword matching seo but in real life uh if i'm the recruiter oh my antenna just went up i'm listening to you there is no way i'm sleeping through this but you kept it brief right and finally why are you here why do you want this job get into that immediately so you know you've already spoken you must have spoken for maximum 40 45 seconds so far trust me it's not that long when you keep things um to the point particularly if you use this formula maybe 60 seconds have gone by and then you immediately attack say it with a smile you're going to be more uh people people will want to listen to you more people will want to be around you more if you're pleasant if you're going to be doing pleasantries you might as well be pleasant so john i was really excited when i read this position and i was you know the thing is i've been in my role and i feel that in terms of learning and in terms of growing i think that i'm ready to take the next step in my career and i when i read this opportunity when i read about this role on linkedin it just got me super excited and i felt that this is a fabulous match so that's why i'm here today what have you done you've taken control of this entire conversation that's why i call this the driver's seat formula you are not at their mercy you know what's gonna happen if you do if you do this the right way that feels good to you and authentic to you and at the same time is interesting to the other party if you do it like that what's gonna happen is they have listened to you and they're have a bunch of questions they want to ask you but you gave them this hook about that project chances are if it's a good recruiter they're going to want to know about that project tell me about that project that you said you're leading a team oh yeah tell me about you've given them a hook what happens when you give a hook in fishing there's a bite it's a good thing like it i hope it's helping give me a little bit of um likes hearts if this is helpful to you give me some feedback it's really really quiet um tell me about yourself is also code for tell me about yourself as it relates to the company exactly so that's what we're doing and which is why i i said description of the role and the subtle achievement is always related to what they want because you're giving them what they want right so okay fabulous so i'm having a i'm getting a couple of comments here on uh youtube hi uh give me a moment you have an interview coming up um when you're asked why are you leaving so i literally answered that right now if you didn't listen don't worry go back and watch the replay you talk about it do you talk about why you're there in in the first place why are you on the job okay in the interest of time i'm gonna unfortunately not have time to repeat it um our friend risto wants to add something if you are between jobs subtle achievement is still tricky but possible yeah um i agree uh risto but your subtle achievement can also be relevant even if you're not in that job anymore because you've connected the dots with what they're looking for even if it's in the past you're right subtle achievements we tend to think of it as an achievement today but it can also be an achievement in the past which is very relevant to what they're looking for um and maybe you've done some in since then maybe you've done some volunteer work and you've shown them uh you you can talk about um how you you know brought together communities resources for a voluntary you know community drive or um you know donation drive for covet anything like that if you know that's something they're looking for don't talk about unrelated stuff because people don't have uh time for that um so i'm seeing a lot of questions coming in guys so i'm following a certain uh framework if you don't mind please hang on with me because i'm if i answer the questions i'm gonna lose the flow but i'm talking about today the topic is ha um five top five interview questions right so hang on with me i promise to get back to you but you need to ask me those questions towards the end and i'll keep time in the end for your questions otherwise we're gonna be here for a couple of hours which i know nobody has time for um and tanvi same goes for you fabulous all right so that was tell me about yourself i hope that helps you now let's uh talk about the second one and i'm going to keep this very brief and why am i going to keep this brief i released a video on this on youtube and linkedin this week and it talks about a certain approach why did they ask you about your weakness and development areas why do they do that they barely know you and it's such an uncomfortable question right it's very simple they want to know are there any red flags that they should know about and they want to know how well do you know yourself which is why one thing you never do is you say i'm actually perfect i have no don't do that because nobody is we all have certain flaws certain weaknesses certain areas of development uh so if you say that you just sound like a fool you don't want that particularly in such an important decision making um part um and avoid giving rehearsed responses canned responses like i'm a perfectionist i don't know how to delegate don't do that you know why these recruiters and interviewers have grown up in their career watching and reading the exact same books and videos and they can read you like a book so don't give out those negative positive twisted into a negative don't do that okay tried and tested this is one of those things that honestly belongs in the 20th century um not good advice anymore yeah that's it um okido um nishita you can definitely negotiate uh your job if you're a fresh graduate as well watch my video a lot of those tips apply to you as well and even if you've been laid off it's okay you still can talk about the value that you bring you've got to connect the dots with what they're looking for just because you've you've been laid off by the way most of the world has been laid off most you're not the only one um and find companies that celebrate your values your your value your achievements and they don't tolerate the fact that you've been laid off celebrate by your go away or celebrated not tolerated i heard that recently go away or celebrate it not tolerate it if they don't like it somebody else will okay so perfect let's move on to the next one uh so what we were talking about is what are your weaknesses why did they ask you this question avoid canned responses how do you answer this i'll keep this very brief there was a video on this this very week the flaw approach right what is the flaw approach it's um talk about something that is in the past that you've overcome perhaps you used to be scared of public speaking you're better at it h i'm keeping this one brief because like i said there's a detailed video age is hard skills specific things i've learned by i need to work on python i'm currently doing java or i'm learning french or um um you know i'm taking a co so those are specific teachable skills this we call them hard hard but they're actually easy because they're teachable and law is the slightly more tricky one livable acceptable weaknesses and that's tricky because you need to know yourself very well and you need to understand what they're looking for and be able to express it and this you don't really need to do unless you are really pushed into this corner and people are like getting into this deep psychological type interview and behavioral and want to know your deep talk secrets etc you can talk about something that you're working on it's not done but at the same time it's not going to be a problem it's not going to self-sabotage you or your chances to get a job just like for example if you know the role is individual contributor and if you feel sometimes you have problems with conflicts and you withdraw into a shell you can say that but if the role is for a team leader you cannot say that so don't do anything that will shoot you in the foot um you know if it's a role whether it's a lot of events etc you can you can say oh you know there are times for example i need to work on details when it comes to details but if you're an account if you're looking at a role for an accountant or a lawyer and you say detailed orientation is an issue you're not going to get hired so don't shoot do don't don't share anything that will shoot you in the foot got it co um yeah so um indirect regarding your gaps in employment i have a very detailed video on this on my youtube channel go and check it out it's 17 minutes it's almost a master class and i've also done a detailed live stream on how to address gaps in your in your career in fact i might do that live stream again our youtube is actually really um active mention a big mistake and how your boss addressed it not sure that's the i'm not sure if you want to address a big mistake and and you know in that type of a forum i'm not sure um i'm impatient yeah yeah james just be careful that you don't sound because impatience is one of those things that old-time coaches used to say you know imperfectionist impatient so make sure it's really authentic um and talk about how it actually was detrimental to your career and what you've done to address it because otherwise it's just gonna be one of those um you know you don't want the person listening to like mentally like rolling their eyes you always want to be honest you don't want to raise red flags but you don't want to talk about deep dirty skeletons in the closet type of thing because honestly everyone's got that but there's a time and place for everything you can talk about that with friends okie doh the third one oh this is my favorite one some people hate this question i like this question top three questions top five this is number three why should we hire you some people find like they're listening to it and they're like oh my god that makes me very nervous because i think i have to sell myself yes yes yes what's wrong with that why did they ask you this question they want to know can you sell yourself can you influence people can you persuade people in any job any job unless you're a monkey in front of a laptop and that's all you do all day unless you're a monkey you need to be able to work with people and you need to be able to convince persuade influence and sell sell your point sell some phys physical like a product sell a service or sell your points so this is your opportunity to shine and say how awesome you are and the second reason they ask is if they've had any doubts about you throughout the interview this is something they usually tend to ask in the end right and that can help them to go this way or that way so you don't want to mess this one up you want to get this right the third reason they ask you and again this is an honest confession the recruiters in the group chat will confirm to you sometimes the interview is going really well and you know recruiters have a very busy mind they've got deadlines they have targets they have things to take care of they have unhappy bosses and in all of that brain fog they forgot to ask about strengths maybe this is an opportunity for you to showcase your strengths you can you can slide it in somehow so that's the reason this question is asked what you want to avoid when you answer this question is talking about you and how much you love this company don't do that this is not about you at all funny it's not about you i remember asking this question when i was at google um when i was at ge ma'am i've always wanted to work at ge it's the company of my dreams but it's not the question the question is why should we hire you and the you is in capitals they can hire anyone else why you the question isn't why do you want to work with us many times that is misunderstood so remember that very well and so now that we've talked about how to what what what to not say you know ideally what to avoid um i understand that we've talked about that as well follow me around on linkedin we talk about it as well um it is a challenge but you're not the only one remember that you're not the only one and it comes down to your values if you go on the back foot and you say you know you feel bad which we all do by the way i've lost my job three times and the first time it was two and a half years so six months two and a half years it's not easy there is a way to do it and you can even negotiate people have been you know commenting on my youtube that oh you can't negotiate your salary no no no no you've been laid off you take what you get oh please fine then your self-worth is out the window right and the best time to negotiate is at the beginning it's much easier to negotiate at the beginning than later um okido yes why should we hire you i love that you're taking notes tegan um fabulous so yes the swot analysis so i'll tell you how i answer this question why should we hire you i have this my americans in the audience are gonna love this i call this the kennedy approach famous president john f kennedy had this um speech ask not oops ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country now fill in the blanks take out country and use my formula ask not what your company can do for you ask what you can do for your company and when i say company think about this organization it's not yours but you know let's just play along with me this company and talk about the role this position company slash position right now how do you do that um break up the sentence i see what i've put in capital letters company you do this is the meatiest part of this question so pay attention if you've if you're in the process of interviews and you know this question might be coming up please pay attention watch the replay take notes trust me it really really works company is the position what you need to do is you need to go back and read the job description like a 40 times literally take breaks rest your eyes go out for a walk see some plants see some trees come back read it again because if you read it non-stop it won't make sense to you the pages the words are just gonna rolling around in your eyes but when you do that again and again and you read it out loud to yourself you look in the mirror and you read you're looking in the mirror and you're reading the job description you feel like a fool what's going to happen is if you do it with an open heart and an open mind you're going to be able to read some pain areas why does this position even exist why do they want to spend money in this position there's a reason find out what that reason is and find out how you can address you can address those pain areas and those gaps because that is the reason the position exists today and that's the first part so that is a company slash position then you now when i think of you i think of your unique selling proposition usp you've got a unique set of skills and a unique personality that no one else does that's your superpower people say ah it is the way you approach something nobody else can do that it's literally like a thumbprint nobody else has that now you have to you can't complain here people complain i don't i'm not that talented i don't have unique selling proposition i'm i don't agree you're not a robot you're a human being so you may have had a forgotten talent and you're gonna ask me what does it have to do with the job bear with me here okay perhaps you wear two hats perhaps you're an mba and an engineer that's interesting you can talk commercial and technical at the same time as an example right perhaps the role is for a business analyst but you're very good at writing you've always enjoyed writing as a kid which means you are very comfortable synthesizing complex reports and you can write complicated emails to clients without an issue you enjoy writing think something you have with something that you're good at in a totally unrelated field and nobody else has that and here i'm going to show you something [Music] um okay now uh let me know if you can because i can't can you see no okay that's not working yeah that's not working just one moment you know this is the beauty of life because you know i'm live when um it's uh it's not working okay i'm gonna try again something has happened with my broadcasting platform ah i got it i got it i got it okay hopefully you can see my screen now okay now there's something that the interviewer is looking for right tegan said it they need something in the perfect world do you see this um in the perfect world what they're looking for and what you do well and you know the the the part in the middle that's perfect that's in the perfect world that's why there's something you do well and there's something they're looking for but the reality is there's other people who want the same damn job yeah duh so because of that you want to avoid being in the red zone and the red zone is what i call the zone of failure which is what other competing candidates do well but you don't and that's what the company needs avoid that completely avoid it like the plague you can't focus on it focus you don't want to talk about the zone of equality either zone of equality who cares right that's what they do well and you do well nobody cares about that what you want to focus on maybe i should be a little yeah what you want to focus on is the zone of success the green part what is the zone of success what you do well and what they're looking for and the competing candidates don't have that is your unique selling proper position you s e you cannot get this in a two minute or twenty minute webinar you gotta think hard and it's work but it's worth it is that helpful say something exactly prove that you can solve their pain point definitely prove that you can solve their pain point um yes yes that is kennedy how do you identify their pain areas in the jeep read their job description check out what's going on in the news check out social media there's always a way i don't need to spoon feed you there's always a way find out it's homework put on your detective hat got it and that's it lee what i have a couple of recruiter friends in the audience on linkedin so pay attention to what they're saying because these are the people that do very complicated hiring what is your differentiator what is your discriminator what is it that no other candidate has that you have that's exactly what i'm saying yeah awesome i'm gonna stop sharing then uh this one took a little bit of time but hopefully it's worth it because this is really important um so how do you answer this question remember we said the kennedy approach just take the kennedy approach so how do you do this um i said three things right company you that was the unique selling proposition and do this is the part three do means do some storytelling give examples massive achievements this is the time to shine this is not the time to be humble i personally don't like arrogant candidates you know who think they are the best thing that happened to the world since sliced bread no thank you i'm allergic however this is not the time to be humble so there's a balance between humble and arrogance just be proud proud of what you've done and and communicate in a way that's convincing yes and the second thing i want to say is um bring something if you can and we're on covet days right now so you may not be able to bring something physical to the meeting the meeting may be on zoom but tell them may i take your permission to share my screen show them some stuff that you've done in any position that you have trust me you've done something which is related to the position which doesn't have to be unidimensional if you're a designer maybe you've done a website if you're a finance guy maybe you were a response finance guy or finance gal maybe you were working on a deal in m a and the deal is now public show them that um people don't do that enough i must have interviewed more than 5 000 people in 15 to 20 years i can tell you less than less than 5 percent have actually made an effort to bring something physical or share like you know an exhibit share something that helps you also to stand out if you want to stand out that is one way to do it so this helps with the question why should we hire you i hope that helps you yeah i'm going to take a little break and uh popping into the uh comments you're very welcome uh indrajeet um beautiful finding your usp can be quite difficult use your friends as a coach or hire a coach or read a few books that are asking you meaningful questions you've got to take out a little bit of noise from your mind to be able to do it and i don't just mean sit in a quiet room i also mean shutting that voice down that says yeah yeah you've been unemployed for six months it's not gonna happen and that's why i think good friends can help you we all have friends not the friends who are jealous mind you you can see if if they're really good friends or not when something good happens to you at work you can see the reactions the ones who are good friends are genuinely happy for you and the ones who are like ah okay congrats watch out um cool so ashley this is such a tricky one oh my gosh i'm gonna come to that right now um that's my fifth one in fact now i'm gonna get to the i'm gonna get moving um because we're gonna otherwise be here for a while question number four remember for those who are who are just joining us a little bit late our our topic today is top five interview questions question number four is tell me about a time when this is what is called a behavioral question um by the way please understand all of these are inaccurate ways to determine if you're going to be a good person on the job or not there are inaccurate ways to determine future success however this is the way we are in the world today yeah we're not being interviewed by robots so behavioral questions give the other person an idea of how would you be in their company if something like this happened how would you react they want to know how they want to see they want to gauge how do you handle stress pressure because i again unless you're a monkey on a laptop there is no job which is immune from pressure and stress right you can have a very cool chilled out job but there'll be certain times when it's not cool and chill down and honestly that helps a little bit adrenaline doesn't hurt anyone and they want to see do you learn do you give up they can tell how can they tell they can see your body language which speaks louder than words and they can tell with the examples you choose if you choose an example which is a little small and cute and you're like and then it was done you're like oh okay this person's not yet ready for this type of role they're not senior enough they haven't lived enough you know what i mean uh so how do you want to address this tell me about a time that you failed tell me about a time there was a crisis right i once interviewed a guy for a role in um senior corporate communications and i asked him about because crisis communication is a big part of that job and nobody likes that because that's when big egos are out in public and they are like ready to kill people so um but that tells you a lot about how you know can it can you really determine if this person will be calm when it actually happens no you cannot but you get an idea you get a little bit of an idea so what do you want to avoid when you get this type of question you what you want to avoid is this is a very simple answer i'm not going to go into detail here you want to avoid explaining the context too long and be very careful here because i used to make this mistake when i was being coached for interviews back in 2009 when i completed my mba i was told by my coach that you're giving good answers but get to the point faster about what you did because you've painted the picture too long and the interview is coming close to an end so be in control of the situation remember the driver's seat formula it's actually going to help you if you don't know what i'm talking about go and watch the replay um so how do you answer this my friend lauren if she's watching she talks about power and many people talk about power problem action result problem action result this was the problem don't spend more than twenty thirty percent of the time explaining it don't you you're wasting precious real estate this is prime real estate for you action is where you spend time and the result is the cookie the cookie the cherry on the cake beautiful this is what happened great so i would say do a 30-70 split between p and r a-r got it what is whitmer is an acronym of mine that my members of the supercharged club know what i'm talking about with him is what you did wyd what you did and i am is impact um we use this formula particularly in resume building because a lot of people talk only about what they did they don't talk about the impact and impact can be measured not always but most of the time it can be measured so when you say the r the result make sure it's there's impact it's not out of the blue something totally unrelated think about how this can help them think about how this can help them to make the decision in your favor got it anybody who's thinking oh gosh this is so hard it gets easier with time gets easier with practice one day you'll be the one interviewing and then i beg you don't ask boring canned questions like tell me about yourself what is uh what is this one um one of my least favorite ones weaknesses tell me about your weakness yeah yeah that's interesting cool uh ah leo lee man lee talked about um singing in her head these are my recruiter friends in the audience for those who are new on youtube uh yes yes i have an mba from insead tegan tell me about a time when i love tegan i don't know how you're typing if you're on your morning commute just be careful um yes yes exactly friends help you put put you in your place um okay i have a quick question here on youtube hi chirag please don't call me ma'am i feel like i'm 85 years old i have an 18-month operational work experience i'll be appearing for an mba hr interview okay that's a very good school in india any tips just um uh no that's a great question go and watch my video on career change and talk about why you want it not because you're running away from something but because something else is calling you i don't want to go into detail right now because we might lose our train of thought but definitely watch that video on career change it's on my youtube channel and i'm sure it'll help you and i wish you great success with the interviews uh par is global yes yes give a lot a huge applause to power problem action you know why i like it better than star situation task action nothing wrong star is fine situation you know that's where you get lost in the weeds we don't want we don't want that we want you to be a rock star this is your type you're like this rock star you need to shine and not you know one another faceless person who's forgotten we don't want that for you do we okay though um the last question in my five part series is a very tricky one i think ashley you asked already um let's see where you are i have to give you a massive disclaimer ashley ashley um i've got a lot of heat for this so i'm going to be careful yeah and by the way this is a very good lesson i don't want to you know have a pity party here this is a very good lesson in human psychology um i have a video on youtube about this and i've done a detailed live stream on the topic of what are your salary expectations and there i talk about the question what is your current salary now in parts of the u.s i think only i don't know anybody anywhere else in the world i could be wrong this is a question that you are not allowed to ask and it's supposed to be anonymous why there's massive biases because candidates have felt that they've been discriminated against and if people know their salary they will not be offered more this topic alone i can spend an hour on it right i kind of disagree with it i feel like it's like going to buy a dress without a fitting like i need to know the measurements right however there's good hr and there's bad hr bad hr will see what you're earning and they'll maybe give you like a one percent increase they're stingy they're cheap good hr wants you and they want to make sure you're very well compensated and you're in the right job at the right you know opportunity to grow um and they're not stupid because they know you're not stupid because if you are earning 60 000 for example and your friends around you are earning 75 or 80 000 hr knows one day you guys may go out for a drink in a over a cup of over a beer people are discussing money and salaries and you find out what they're earning 80 i'm earning 60 65 i'm out of here they don't want that it's taken too darn long to get you to train you to get you up on the job so if they're good and they're clever they're gonna make sure you're very competitively compensated and how does that what does that mean the market as well as the internal internal parity as well as what would this position make for a similar in a similar industry in a similar sized company so i personally when i get this question i don't feel uncomfortable i have answered this question truthfully that is not where negotiation begins for me many people disagree so please take this with a pinch of salt don't take my advice at face value there are people who will hate this advice if you don't like it change the channel okay go because i've got a lot of heat on this um and i've got a lot of hate mail and comments but if this makes sense to you don't eliminate yourself just explain the truth if you're too low they love to delight you with a good offer if they're good if they're not good i don't know if you want to work with them if you're too high that might be a point of concern it might be right would you want to hire someone who's too expensive because you might think oh i don't want to disappoint them right so one step at a time so i uh want to get into um ah okay so i'm gonna get into the the way to answer this one which is um what are your salary expectations right yeah exactly uh there's restrictions in certain states so be careful because the audience here is global right and i'm detailed about which state in the u.s i don't have and i'm not a i don't even have a jd right i'm not a juris doctor so i don't have that authority to say anything um cool so i'm glad you're not driving too good so what are your salary expectations now why do they ask you this question it's very simple right i'm not just talking to ashley they want to make sure they don't waste their time and your time but mostly their time if the position has a budget and the budget is 100 right and you're at 180 today it's very rare to see someone who's at 180 today saying i can come for it it i can come for 100. it's very rare of course it's possible but if you're cringing with this and you don't like this and you're like oh data privacy illegal etc don't don't take don't take this advice but this is how the real world mostly is working and it's not always out to get you as a job seeker right so why do they ask this question they want to make sure they don't waste their time uh that there is a fit from the very beginning what you want to avoid when you are asked about salary expectations you want to avoid giving a number or a range so if you are asked this question by default you know those forms that you have to fill out ats etc might come up my personal advice is to put a dot if it doesn't accept a dot put zero or if it accepts text you can write um to be negotiated at a later stage i don't want to give that right now why because there's too many variables you don't know it's very premature you don't know enough about the job you don't know about you know responsibilities the growth how much money does the company make so maybe sometimes you know it's not a price it's a not a publicly owned company etc so i feel like this is where chris was the guy who wrote um this book i'm getting a brain fog this book is called never split the difference the one who gives the you know the one who in um in um in a pack of cards in um what is that game called oh my god like shoot me now uh poker the one who blinks first you know poker face so the one who gives the number first i feel like they lose so avoid if you can giving a number a range so i'm gonna explain to you how this works uh this is a formula i have you see i have formula for all my top five questions hopefully this is helping you and taking something away i and i have a thing for acronyms lauren's watching she knows i have a thing for acronyms easy to follow easy to remember this is how i learned back in school um i have something called a salary approach but i added an h because i needed an h in there so for a second we imagine that we are sean connery i did a whole live stream on this back in the summer for an hour on this topic so we add an eight so it's a shallow approach so this was sean connery and the sort of strawberry approach got it bless his soul oh man i was heartbroken when he passed away so this is the shallow approach what is the shadowy approach s stands for sell yourself this is the time to sell yourself so that they absolutely fall in love with you and you know what when they fall in love with you they'll hire you at any cost trust me they make exceptions all the time they say they are the rules but they make exceptions are made all the time i know what i'm talking about h is holding your ground when people say no but you need to give me number or range it's not easy you're holding your ground you're being assertive it's not easy but you got to do it as much as you can a is avoid avoid giving number or range which i already explained l is let them negotiate let them initiate the topic of money don't be the first one to do it i don't know i just feel personally let it come from them otherwise it might come across that you're a bit money-minded or greedy even if you're not right at this point everything is kind of looked at with a magnifying glass so don't give them any ammunition right a is answer with a statement which is kind of obvious but what does that mean some people are told by certain coaches when people ask you what are your salary expectations you should answer this question with a question so what's your budget what are you willing to pay me don't do that so answer with a statement don't answer with a question it's a little bit cocky for me r is research why worse comes to worst if you're you know hand on the fire and you have to be able to give a number at least you should know what does this mean in glassdoor on payscale.com on salary.com talk to headhunter friends what does the position like this earn in the market you should know what you're talking about you should not be clueless this is very important salary is very important for your future like i said i have a detailed videos on this on youtube so check it out and why is when you answer this question your body talks louder than words so when you answer answer with a smile back straight high energy and not like you know uncomfortable it's embarrassing um something to hide don't do that be confident it's money sure it's important it's important to them as well there's more to this but this is true in everything body language right they say 70 to 80 is body language and the remaining is actually the words that you use so that's the shadowy approach i hope this is helpful oh boy lots of talking and we're 57 minutes past the hour um cool any uh burning questions so this would be a great time to ask me uh questions that's exactly what i said so in india ctc is your cost to company that's exactly what i said what are your that's exactly what uh ashley asked if you haven't watched it naveen go and watch the replay i said yeah i think you can hey john uh sorry jonathan yes thank you for my brain fog uh and arun thank you for poker thank you you're very uh kind asking 100 hike on a junior level yeah okay um go and do it i wish you luck what's your reason you better be worth it i don't know there has to be a really good reason um oh yeah we have somebody who just did a negotiation class and the research on the topic is huge and there's also details on men women [Music] i love this topic as well and i've done two live streams on negotiation so you know if anybody's interested check definitely check it out in my either in my youtube channel or on linkedin just do hashtag supercharge fridays and i think hashtag salary it will all come up um and perfect so this is actually a good time to ask questions i'm going to do a quick recap but before i do that i want to say one thing um i want to say thank you for being here today and i appreciate your time next week because i have these every week these sessions next week we're gonna have a rock star on all things job search his name is mark anthony dyson he says we're going to talk about the modern job search what's new what's changed and what's not the same and he's been writing about careers in job search for a long time so if anybody knows on this topic more than um mark anthony where am i going with the sentence it was a grammatically incorrect sentence if there's anyone who knows on job search and careers for over two decades it's mark anthony so definitely be here and and um join me for that conversation because we're going to have a brilliant conversation on this topic i'm going to do a quick recap so all the people on youtube who had questions this would be a great time to ask me uh we talked about the top five interview questions the first one was tell me about yourself and we said how do you answer it remember we said the driver's seat formula where you focus on pleasantries uh describe your current role briefly bring in a subtle achievement which has something to do with what they're looking for and you know their pain area and why do you want this job right then we said uh how do you answer the question what are your weaknesses or your development areas and how do you answer this we have the flaw approach which is talk about something that's in the past talk about a hard skill um and then if you dare to go there a livable acceptable weakness that is not going to shoot you in the foot for the job concern then the third one was how why should we hire you and this was all about the kennedy approach and we said focus on what you can do for the company and what you bring to the table your unique selling proposition remember that graphic we shared um and the do part is very important then the fourth one was behavioral questions tell me about a time when this happened and that happened and the shizzle hit the van and what did you do they want to know that stuff they want to know because that will happen in their company as well are you going to be one of those people that runs for the hills are you actually going to save the day they want to know that um and the last one was where what are your salary expectations and we said how do you answer this use the salary approach which is all about selling yourself holding your ground avoiding giving the number in range etc etc cool so this is it really um so if you've hung around till the very end i really appreciate your time if you got to go you got to go but now i think will be a great time for me to answer some of the questions which are on the youtube channel definitely definitely um sean you are so right about body language and dress code there was a recent post by someone you know what it's not that hard to impress someone these days because you know somebody was complaining that she was interviewing someone and that guy was in sitting in a bed like probably in his pajamas make an effort right if you make an effort and you wear a suit people aren't used to seeing people in suits today it's like wow you would think this is normal but wow so honestly it's um it's not that hard um hi vipin so vipin says should i mention to them that i have an offer from another oh yes no what's best for you but you don't do that yet you only do that in the end when there's a negotiation don't do that yet you might look like you're you know threatening blackmailing you don't want to do it but definitely towards the end i would mention it and if the company i will want you more this is human nature you always want something more desirable to know that you may not be able to have it yeah mark anthony is incredible uh hi barack good question professional emailing etiquette i think the best way to learn prague is by doing uh and getting feedback but i'm sure you can check out a couple of articles online mark anthony in fact um the one who's coming next week writes a lot about uh careers that's his name check him out on linkedin he's got a couple of blogs and i have another friend called bob mcintosh who has a blog as well which is very helpful his blog is called things career related dot com so check that out that should um be helpful as well there's tons you know there's lots of these great people and the cool thing is a lot of them have actually come on my um live stream another one which is amazing is hannah morgan and she has a blog called um you who no it's not called you who it's called career sherpa darth net if you search in there you'll definitely find uh the things that you are looking for okay sorry i'm just a little tired how do you initiate salary hike discussions when the appraisal is skipped or the appraisal discussion is still a long time away you don't i suggest you don't you try and find out instead your name is yeah what you try to do is focus on asking the right questions what do i need to do to get to this position focus on position not so much about the salary aspect because if the position is going to be increased and you're going to be given more responsibilities then there's more money with it usually got it um fabulous um if there are any questions that i haven't answered please feel free to um you know uh check them out uh please feel free to write about them right now because then i i'll hang on otherwise i don't um you know i i'm gonna go and i'm sure you have to go as well i'm going back and seeing if there are any questions from youtube that i haven't answered yet or linkedin or i'm actually it's just quite a few um and i um so hopefully barack that that helps you um with the answer all right fabulous era i'm glad you're here so thank you so much for being here um this was our week 58 of supercharged fridays if there are other topics that you want to know about check out this hashtag superchat fridays there's lots i've been doing this for 58 weeks so chances are if you're gonna ask me a question i've already done that in one of the sessions so go and check it out thank you for being with us today i appreciate your time guys take care be safe um you know and i shall see you next week with mark anthony dyson same time 2 p.m belgium 8 am eastern 6 30 pm india 9 pm singapore take care bye and have a good weekend

Channel: Sonal Bahl - Career Strategist

Views: 55,586

Keywords: top interview questions, top 5 interview questions, how to prepare for an interview

Id: 4mLmAtxMifs

Length: 65min 58sec (3958 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021