5 Interview Questions and Answers
Job interviews are usually stressful, and a job interview in English can be doubly so. It’s worth taking the time to prepare for your job interview in English more thoroughly than you might prepare for a regular job interview.
Here are some questions that you might find useful to practice:
1) Tell Me About Yourself
This is probably the most-asked interview question, next to “[d]o you have any questions for us?”. And there is a reason for that. The answer to this question really tells the employer a lot about you and what you are all about.
In order to answer this job interview question effectively, you must be succinct, confident, but not overtly conceited. The answer should be longer than 1 minute but shorter than 3 minutes. Beyond a few minutes, you are just going to lose their attention. To answer this question, talk a little about where you grew up, your education, and any relevant work experience you have. Be sure to concentrate a lot of your time on your career.
This is not a question for you to talk about your personality or character traits—but the interviewer should be able to get a good grasp of who you are from your answer to this question.
2) What Makes You Qualified for this Job?
This is a tricky question to answer; you don’t want to come off as a braggart but you also want to expound on the qualities that makes you better than other candidates. To answer this, do not focus on your GPA or what school you graduated from. Instead, focus on specific skillsets that makes you valuable, as well as specific accomplishments that makes you the best candidate for the job. Remember to cater your answer specifically to the job announcement.
3) Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?
Do not ever bad-mouth your previous employer when answering this job interview question. It doesn’t matter if the previous employer really stuck it to you or not. Doing so is very unbecoming and unprofessional and can easily disqualify you from the job you are applying for. If you really did leave your previous job because you did not like your boss, you can simply state that you and the previous employer did not see eye to eye on certain aspects of the job.
Be sure to have specific examples in mind. Another good answer to this question is to say that there was no room in the company to grow professionally and further your skills. You should also never say that the previous employer did not pay you enough—this will make the interviewer think that you are only in it for the money.
4) What Do You Know About this Organization?
Before going to the interview, always do your homework on the company, and if possible, the people interviewing you. The more in depth you can go into detail about the company, the more they will be impressed. To answer this question, you can go into when the company was formed, who the leaders are and what they have accomplished, and what specific customer segments the company caters to. For bonus points, you can talk about the company’s financials and/or projects that are in the pipeline.
5) Why Do You Want to Work for Us?
Do not say “because the salary is high[er].” You need to be really specific as to why you want to work for the company that doesn’t involve a higher salary.
Here are some things you can say to answer this interview question properly:
Because your company offers tremendous potential for me to grow and contribute to the organization’s growth
Because you are the leaders in the field and the work you have done in the field is sensational—and I want to be a part of this growth. (Be sure to give specific examples)
And if you are really applying for your dream job at your dream company, you can say that it has always been your dream to work with them since you were young. But be sure to explain why it has always been your dream.
