Hi, everybody, and welcome. My name is Jen, and
I'm a career coach at Indeed with over
10 years of experience working in career services. Over the years, I've worked
with hundreds of job seekers to help them prepare for
their next interviews by showing them how to
create compelling talking points that they can
apply to answering a variety of
different questions. Today, I'm going to share
a little bit of that advice with you. In this video, we'll discuss
five common interview questions. For each, we'll discuss
what employers are really looking for in an
answer, and break down how to craft a really
strong response. You'll also get examples
of answers along the way. At the end of the
video, we'll also cover a tricky question
that's very common to pop up in an interview room. It's a tough one, so
be sure to stick around to learn how you can
answer it with confidence. Let's start with
our first question. Why do you want to work here? Now, interviewers
often ask this question to determine whether
or not you're going to be a good fit for
the role and the company. Your answer will
demonstrate whether or not you did your homework. If you can speak
well to why you would be a good match for
the team, it shows that you took the time
to do your research and that you really
reviewed job description. The best way to prepare
for this question is to learn about the
products, services, mission, and workplace culture
of the company. Try to mention the
aspects of the company that align with your values
and how this role really fits in with your career goals. Here's a sample answer. As I've thought about
my next career move, it's really important
to me to work for a company with
strong values. This company's mission to
help recent graduates pay off student loan debt
really speaks to me. I've been in that
situation myself, and I know how impactful
this work can be. Finding a company that has
a positive work environment and is mission-driven, is
one of my main priorities, and this company is
at the top of my list. Let's break down that
answer piece by piece. We started by saying that as
we thought about our next move, working for a company
with strong values is important to us. This lets the interviewer
know that we've developed a criteria for the
type of company we work for and that their company
was carefully selected. Next, we made a
personal connection to their company
mission, and let them know that their company
values align with our own. As a bonus, we also let them
know that they're currently our top choice. Now, if you'd like
some more tips on what company information is good
to research to help you answer this question, be sure to check
out this career guide article. Next question. What are your
greatest strengths? While this question can
seem really straightforward, it can be surprisingly
difficult for many people to talk about their
strengths in an interview. It can be challenging
to balance humility with projecting confidence. When an interviewer
asks this question, they're looking to hear
about both the skills, and the personal
attributes that are going to make you
the best suited to be successful at this role. As you prepare, use
the job description as a guide to decide what
skills you want to speak about. As you craft your answer,
consider using this formula-- strength plus context and story. Here's an example answer
if the role that you're interviewing for is looking for
somebody with strong leadership skills. I've always been
a natural leader. With over 10 years of
experience in finance and sales, I've been able to exceed
my KPIs every quarter, and I've been promoted twice
over the last five years. I look back at those
successes, and I know I wouldn't have
been able to achieve them if I hadn't built and
led a team composed of highly skilled and
diverse individuals. Over the years, I've been able
to sharpen my leadership skills by conducting 360 reviews
and holding candid feedback sessions for my team. I know that working on
my leadership skills is something really
important to me, and it's really something
that I'm looking forward to in my next role. Using this formula, we first
highlighted the strength that was relevant to the role-- our natural leadership skills. We then provided
context in a story by talking about how our
strength led to many successes in our previous role. And we also concluded by talking
about how this strength is something that we're
looking to build upon in the next role we take. Preparing to answer
this question is going to be a valuable use of
your time before the interview. While you may not be
specifically asked to provide a strength, preparing
to answer this common question is going to help you articulate
what your skills are, and how you're looking
to grow in your career. This leads us to the common
counterpart to this question. What is your greatest weakness? It can feel awkward to
talk about weaknesses in an environment where you're
supposed to be highlighting your accomplishments. However, being able to speak
about weaknesses can show a certain level
of self-awareness, and a desire for
self-improvement-- Two traits that are very
attractive to many employers. Here's another formula to help
you craft a strong answer. Weakness plus context
and improvement measures. Here's an example answer. Early on in my career, I had
a lot of curiosity and energy that led me to say yes
to taking on projects without understanding
what my bandwidth was. At one point, I had
taken on so many projects that I found myself
working nights and weekends to get the work done. It became really stressful,
and the stress actually started to impact the
quality of my work. Eventually, I became aware of
how saying yes to every project was actually counterproductive. So I started to implement some
workload management tools that allowed me to set better
expectations for myself, and for my teammates. In our answer, we started by
stating what our weakness was-- saying yes to
additional projects without setting
good expectations. We then describe how
this impacted our work. We ended by demonstrating
the awareness that saying yes to every project
without setting expectations was actually counterproductive. So we implemented some
workload management tools that allowed us to set better
expectations for ourselves, and for our teammates. As a best practice,
always end your answer by discussing what measures
you've taken for improvement. That way, you're ending
on a positive note. For more examples of
strengths, weaknesses, and how to address
them in an interview, be sure to check out this
career guide article right here. Before I move on to
the next question, let me know if
this information is helpful by liking and
subscribing for more advice. Moving on, where do you
see yourself in five years? Understanding how you
imagine your career evolving can help employers understand
how this role and their company fits within your personal
development goals. This question is
also used to gauge expectations of your career,
and your ability to plan ahead. This question can come in a
number of forms, including what are your future
goals, and where do you see yourself in 10 years. The best way to
handle this question is to think about what your
current career trajectory is, and how this role
in this company fits in to help you achieve
your ultimate goals. To enhance your answer,
provide general ideas about the skills you want
to develop and things you want to accomplish. Let's look at this
example for a UX designer. In the next five
years, I'd really like to become an industry
expert in my field with the ability
to train and mentor students and entry-level
designers alike. I'd really like to gain
specialized experience in user experience so that I can become
a well-rounded contributor who works with teams like
design and marketing on large-scale projects that
make a difference in both the large-scale community
and for this company. As I was researching
this company, it looks like this role
offers the opportunity to gain these skills with the
potential for long-term growth. In our answer, we
started by identifying our goal of becoming an industry
expert and specific skills we'd like to gain-- to train and mentor students
and entry level designers. We also strengthen our
answer by signaling that we could see a
future for ourselves here indicating that we're
looking for a company to stay with long term. Now, this next
question might seem a little intimidating at first. But interviewers
generally bring it up to give you one final
opportunity to explain why you are the best candidate. Why should we hire you? Your answer to this
question should address what unique skills
and experience you offer, and why you would be
a good culture fit. Consider following these steps
when crafting a response. 1-- study the job posting to
find commonalities between what the employer is looking
for, and what skills and experience
that you can offer. 2-- research the company's
mission and goals. Use this information to
share how your values align, and how you can help them
accomplish their goals. 3-- Tie your
background to the job posting by explaining how
your skills, experience, and attributes make you the
best fit for their company in the position. 4-- quantify your
accomplishments with numerical results
whenever possible. 5-- go above and
beyond by calling out any relevant qualities
or experience that you have that sets you
apart from other candidates. Here's how a social worker
can answer this question. You should hire me because
of my proven ability to maintain strong
interpersonal relationships with several clients. I'm passionate
about providing care to those in need
in my community. And that motivates me, and makes
me excited to do my best work. I understand that you
need a candidate who can be consistently
available to be there for the events in
a client's life. I have a 100% attendance rate
for weekly case proceedings, and meetings with my clients. In addition, I can bring
leadership experience to your team having
trained over 20 new hires to become familiar with
day-to-day operations and become comfortable
in their roles. And now, for the bonus
question that I mentioned at the beginning of this video. Can you recall a time where
you experienced conflict with a co-worker? Workplaces are often filled
with many stakeholders with differing opinions. So hiring managers often
want to know how you approach conflict in the workplace. Your response should provide
insight into your personality, and indicate how likely you
are to fit well within a team. Past experience often
shows how you could react in a similar situation. So be sure to provide an
example that you're proud of, or explain the key lessons that
you took from the experience. It's important to emphasize
the resolution that took place rather
than just dwelling on the conflict itself. I recommend using
the STAR format whenever you have to answer
a question about conflict. STAR stands for-- Situation. Briefly explain
the issue that you were dealing with in a
positive and constructive way. Task. Describe your role
in this situation. Action. Discuss what you did to resolve
or address the situation. Result. Emphasize
what you learned and how your actions
had a positive outcome. Here's an example. I was working as a project
manager on an IT project when one technician was
consistently late finishing their tasks. When I approached him
about it, he initially reacted defensively. I kept calm, and I
acknowledged that the deadlines were challenging. And I asked how I could
assist him to help improve his performance. He then calmed down. And he relayed that he was
working on another project that involved tasks that were
outside of his job description. So I set a meeting with
the other project manager, and we were able to come
to a resolution that made the technician's
workload much more manageable. For the remainder
of the project, the technician
delivered great work. So there you have it. As a recap, here are some of the
best practices that you should keep in mind as you're
crafting answers to these common
interview questions. Show off the company
research that you conducted. And align your personal
values with the values of a company when they ask,
why do you want to work here. Use the formula. Strength plus context and story
when highlighting strengths that are relevant to the role. When referring to a
weakness, end your response with what improvement
measures you've taken to end on a positive note. Use why should we hire
you as another opportunity to explain why you're the
best candidate for the role. And finally, when discussing
conflict in the workplace, emphasize the resolution that
took place not the conflict. So there you have it. I hope that you find these
tips and formulas to be helpful as you prepare for
your next interview. I think that you'll
find that by developing the skill of creating
compelling talking points, you're going to be able to
apply it as you practice other additional questions. If you found this
information to be helpful, be sure to let us know by
liking and subscribing. And hit the notification
bell to stay updated. Thank you for watching. I'll see you next time.
