There’s only one thing standing between you and the job that you want: your answers to common interview questions. When you know how to answer interview questions in a way that impresses the hiring team, then your chances of being extended an offer are much higher. Below is a list of 29 interview questions and answers. The suggested answers are meant to inspire your personalized approach to addressing these popular questions, weaving in the details that are specific to your own career background and skill set.
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. How did you find out about the position?
3. Why are you looking for a new job?
4. Why do you want to work here?
5. What interests you about this job?
6. What motivated you to apply for this role?
7. What kind of impact do you hope to have in your next role?
8. What do you find the most stressful about this type of role?
9. Have you used our product/service?
10. How would you improve our product/service?
11. What’s your greatest strength?
12. What’s your greatest weakness?
13. What do you hope to learn and contribute in your next role?
14. What would you do in the first 30, 60 and 90 days on the job?
15. What professional achievement are you most proud of?
16. Do you consider yourself to be a team player? Why or why not?
17. What would former co-workers say about working with you?
18. What annoys me most about working with others?
19. How would you describe your work style?
20. What type of manager do you work best with?
21. What type of work environment do you thrive in?
22. Where do you see your career in three to five years?
23. Tell me about a major challenge you’ve faced at work and how you overcame it.
24. Tell me about a failure you experienced and how you handled it.
25. Is there anything we should know about you that’s not on your resume?
26. There’s a gap in your employment history — why?
27. Why should we hire you?
28. What salary range are you looking for?
29. Do you have any questions for us?
[SEE: The Fastest-Growing Jobs in America.]
1. Tell Me About Yourself
While this may sound like an open-ended question that you can answer however you like, don’t let its simplicity fool you into disclosures that are too casual and personal. The interviewer is trying to get a sense of what kind of person you are and what you value to determine your level of professionalism and how well you would fit on the team.
How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself”
You might start by focusing on who you are as a professional, since this is a job interview, after all. Tell a bit about your educational and career background and some key facts about your job history. While it’s OK (and perhaps expected) to share something that’s a little bit personal and unique to you, be careful about what exactly you reveal here. Think in terms of sharing one of your key hobbies or interests outside of work — for example, playing volleyball, cooking or volunteering. Be cautious about revealing details about your age or family status that some employers may be unintentionally biased against.
2. How Did You Find Out About the Position?
The employer is trying to see if one of their marketing methods reached you, or if you found out about the job through some other way.
How to Answer “How Did You Find Out About the Position?”
Whether you learned of the opening from a colleague, online or through a job ad, share the method with the interviewer. You may get brownie points if you happened to have learned about the job from the company’s website. If you took extra time to learn about the organization while applying, be sure to mention it.
3. Why Are You Looking for a New Job?
If you already have a job and are conducting a job search, the interviewer might be naturally curious as to what has prompted your desire for change.
How to Answer “Why Are You Looking for a New Job?”
Be careful here, as revealing a dissatisfaction with your current company, boss, or co-workers could serve as a red flag for the hiring team. Instead of complaining about grievances you may have about your current position, focus your answer on your desire for greater opportunities and career growth.
For example, you might say: “While I’ve been excited about the opportunities I’ve had in my current position, I’m looking for a company that I can move to the next level with. I am very invested in this industry and want to be with a key industry player to further my career growth.”
4. Why Do You Want to Work Here?
Hiring managers use this question to try to gauge a candidate’s motives for seeking the opportunity. While your primary reason for applying may be financially motivated, this would not be the emphasis to share during the interview.
How to Answer “Why Do You Want to Work Here?”
Think of other reasons you chose to throw your hat in the ring at the specific organization. Maybe you like the company’s culture that you read about online, or maybe you’ve heard from current employees that they love their jobs. If so, spend some time figuring out the best words to use to explain that.
Another good answer could tie back to your career interests. For example, if you’re a marketer applying for an entry-level marketing position, you might focus on sharing what it is about the company that makes you feel this would be the right place to develop your career skills in your field.
5. What Interests You About This Job?
This question may seem tricky, since you may feel you don’t know enough yet about the job as simply a candidate and not a hired hand. But you can prepare for this query in advance by doing some due diligence before your interview.
How to Answer “What Interests You About This Job?”
Spend at least an hour reviewing the details of the company’s job description and determining how to draw links between what the manager wants and the talents you bring to the table. You might even bring a printout of the job description to the interview to refer to specific language as you answer this question. Point out to your interviewer that you have been thinking a lot about the specific needs of the position and how your background and experiences make you the right fit for it.
6. What Motivated You to Apply for This Role?
Early in the interview, you may be asked about why you felt drawn to the position. If the question is phrased to determine your motivation for applying to the role, the interviewer may be trying to determine whether your interest in the role is more self-serving or if it stems from a desire to tackle tough industry challenges that can help the company.
How to Answer “What Motivated You To Apply for This Role?”
A smart way to answer this question is to focus on the latter. Sure, you likely have multiple reasons for wanting the job, but highlight the ones that the company cares about, such as making an impact and helping the team reach their goals, emphasizing that your interest in the company itself was a motivating factor.
You might say something like: “At this point in my career, I have a ton of energy to solve complex problems, and our industry is at an exciting time for this. I chose to apply to your company specifically because of your industry-leading role, plus I love what I’ve heard about your culture.”
7. What Kind of Impact Do You Hope to Have in Your Next Role?
Hiring teams want to know what candidates can do for them, and this impact question gives you the perfect opportunity to impress them with your drive.
How to Answer “What Kind of Impact Do You Hope to Have in Your Next Role?”
The specific type of impact you emphasize will depend on the specific industry or job you’re applying to. But in general, you can stress that you want to build on the skills you bring to the table and that you hope to leverage your experience from your last position to help the company achieve its goals.
For example: “One of my biggest goals that I plan to achieve with my next employer is to take all of my learnings from my career to date to create something big. The first part of my career has been about understanding as much as I can about the industry, and now I finally feel like I’m in the perfect place to have a significant impact in whatever key projects I’m working on.”
8. What Do You Find the Most Stressful About This Type of Role?
This is another potential minefield that you should answer with care, rather than off the cuff. Interviewers are looking for examples that suggest you handle stress well. Your goal is to show that you do know how to manage stressful situations with grace.
How to Answer “What Do You Find the Most Stressful About This Type of Role?”
A winning response might be: “It’s true that this role can be stressful, and I’ve certainly dealt with my share of it in previous positions. If I had to say what the biggest stressor is, I’d pinpoint timing issues. I’m a stickler for meeting deadlines and delivering to my team what I say I will — so when it comes to crunch time, I feel the pressure until I’ve crossed the finish line.”
9. Have You Used Our Product/Service?
You don’t want to be caught off guard by this question having not tried out the product or service that you would be working with.
How to Answer “Have You Used Our Product/Service?”
Knowing that this is a common interview question, you would be wise to give the company’s tools a test drive prior to your interview, if at all possible. When trying it out, take notes about your experience and share specifics during your interview.
10. How Would You Improve Our Product/Service?
The employer wants to know specifics on the previous question and likely wants to gauge how you give constructive feedback.
How to Answer “How Would You Improve Our Product/Service?”
It takes a bit of diplomacy to navigate your response here, since you don’t want to imply with your answer that the product or service is substandard. By coming up with a good idea here — for example, for an additional feature or other bells and whistles that customers might enjoy — you could earn points with the interviewers for your creativity.
11. What’s Your Greatest Strength?
The challenge of answering the standard “greatest strength” question is that you want to strike the right balance between sounding confident but not arrogant.
How to Answer “What Your Greatest Strength?”
The strength that you share need not be related directly to the position that you’re applying for, but should be clearly tied to an attribute that the specific employer would value.
For example, highlighting your effectiveness working with teams and groups is something that would come in handy in most jobs, so this would be a good choice to share if it’s true for you.
12. What’s Your Greatest Weakness?
The best answer to this has changed over time. While the go-to response used to be to choose an area that shows your tendency to “care too much” about your job, this response has been overused. If you try it, you may receive pushback from a savvy interviewer who wants you to share a true weakness.
How to Answer “What’s Your Greatest Weakness?”
An effective approach is to share something legitimate that isn’t your top strength — but also share some concrete ways that you are working on improving in that area.
13. What Do You Hope to Learn and Contribute in Your Next Role?
This question is a variation of the “impact” question, but it’s more targeted at whether you value learning and development, and the contribution you see yourself making in the role, as opposed to what you hope to personally accomplish. Employers are looking for new hires who are eager to learn and be of service to the company.
How to Answer “What Do You Hope to Learn and Contribute in Your Next Role?”
You could say: “I’m always interested in learning new things about our industry, particularly in relation to my own role and self-improvement to help my team. I’m hoping to learn and ultimately master the job, and beyond that, to stay current and keep learning so I can continue to bring value. That way, I can maximize my contribution in my department and eventually, across the company.”
14. What Would You Do in the First 30, 60 and 90 Days on the Job?
Active listening will come in handy here. This common interview question may be hard to prepare for in advance, since details that you learn during the interview itself about the employer’s priorities may help you formulate a better, more specific answer.
How to Answer “What Would You Do in the First 30, 60 and 90 Days on the Job?”
If you need a refresher about any points that your interviewers have raised in terms of their priorities, or if they haven’t shared them yet, it’s fair to ask for clarification before you begin answering. Knowing what the hiring manager cares most about is key to how you should frame your plan for what you would do during your initial months in the position.
[Phone Interview Questions to Prepare For]
15. What Professional Achievement Are You Most Proud Of?
While you may actually consider saving someone’s life as a lifeguard in high school to be your proudest moment on the job, don’t take this question literally unless you are actually interviewing to be a lifeguard.
How to Answer “What Professional Achievement Are You Most Proud Of?”
The correct approach to describing your greatest professional achievement is to hone in on the position that you’re applying for and find a relevant experience in your past career arsenal to showcase something that the hiring manager would hope to find in an employee. An equally smart strategy is to focus on a general accomplishment that would impress any employer, such as creating a tactic to increase your department’s productivity.
16. Do You Consider Yourself to Be a Team Player? Why or Why Not?
Be careful here, as interpreting this question too literally can backfire on you. Companies are asking this question because teamwork is essential, on some level, in most roles — even those where you’re primarily an individual contributor. If you don’t consider yourself a team player and prefer to work on your own, it’s best to be diplomatic in how you explain this. Stating your preference is one thing, but flat out saying that you aren’t a team player will backfire and give you a red flag from most interviewers.
How to Answer “Do You Consider Yourself to Be a Team Player?”
If you truly hate teamwork and want to be upfront about it, try stating something along these lines: “I’m honestly an amazing individual contributor since in this role, focus is so important — but I also understand and very much value partnership and collaboration. I’m a team player when it helps everyone achieve our goals, and I’m also very self-motivated to work individually as needed.”
17. What Would Former Co-Workers Say About You?
When asking this question, the hiring committee is trying to gain a sense of your personality, work style and how well you work with others.
How to Answer “What Would Former Co-Workers Say About You?”
While not every past colleague may have reacted to you in the same way, focus on finding commonalities in how people have perceived your best assets. If it is in fact true, then you can’t go wrong with indicating that past co-workers and bosses have found you to be a dependable, trustworthy, conscientious and deadline-driven team player.
18. What Annoys You Most About Working With Others?
A variation of the “teamwork” question, this tricky question requires finesse. The employer may be hoping to hear about your pet peeves, or what triggers you the most about your past colleagues — but resist the urge to dish on this. As tempting as it may be to replay your worst work relationship ever, pointing out how annoying this collaboration was, this approach would be a big mistake.
How to Answer “What Annoys You Most About Working With Others?”
Instead, take the high road and keep your answer more general. You might say: “There are always personalities to deal with at work — nobody’s perfect and everyone has their own way of doing things. Sure, co-workers can be annoying sometimes, but I try to notice if I feel annoyed and think about where the other person is coming from. For example, the thing that used to annoy me the most was the way some colleagues didn’t use punctuation in their written communications, like emails, which made the message sound unfriendly. I later realized, though, that this is just a style preference of mine, and it didn’t necessarily reflect any negative intentions from the person who wrote the message.”
19. How Would You Describe Your Work Style?
Anyone considering hiring you may want to gain a basic understanding of what your work style is, so that they can determine whether that style will be a fit for the position. Work styles that many employers value are collaborative, team-oriented, detail-oriented, conscientious and supportive
How to Answer “How Would You Describe Your Work Style?”
There are no right or wrong answers here, though if you know something in advance about the types of qualities that this particular employer or company values, then that can help inform your response. For example, if you’re applying for a sales position, it’s more important to emphasize that you’re an energetic go-getter with people skills than if you have a work-from-home job as a graphic designer that you can do independently on your own schedule, where the work style of detail-oriented conscientiousness may be more valued by the hiring team.
20. What Type of Manager Do You Work Best With?
This is a very difficult question to answer when it’s being asked by a potential new boss whose working style you don’t yet know. The best approach here is to keep your comments general, so that you don’t end up describing the opposite of who the interviewer is. Another smart strategy is to express your flexibility in working with a wide range of personalities and management styles.
How to Answer “What Type of Manager Do You Work Best With?”
You might say: “I’ve been fortunate to work with a many different types of managers, and knock on wood, but I’ve gotten along with all of them so far! I value managers who communicate about their needs and the needs of their department, so that I can do my best to help them reach their goals. Beyond that, I think it takes time to adjust to a manager’s style, and I’m happy to work with my manager to create a productive partnership.”
21. What Type of Work Environment Do You Thrive In?
Much like the “type of manager” question, candidates need to step carefully when answering this one in an interview. If you end up describing the opposite work environment than the company offers, then you’ve just talked yourself out of the job. To avoid this, it’s best to frame your answer around flexibility. If you’re offered the job, then you can always explore specific setups and preferences then.
How to Answer “What Type of Work Environment Do You Thrive In?”
If it’s early in your interview process, an open-ended response is a safe bet: “I’ve worked in many different settings, and lots of different company cultures. I’ve found that as long as I have a supportive team and manager, and work that I love, the setting isn’t a deal breaker. I do love what I’ve learned about your company’s culture and work environment, though, and I think I would be a great fit.”
22. Where Do You See Your Career in 3-5 Years?
This question requires some diplomacy, since indicating that you see yourself in the hiring manager’s position might not be well-taken. It would also, in most cases, be a faux pas to share your dream of launching a startup, particularly if it’s in a different field altogether from the job for which you are currently interviewing.
How to Answer “Where Do You See Your Career in a Few Years?”
A more prudent answer would be to emphasize a vision of yourself making an impact in your industry and mentoring more junior members of your team as you move up the ladder.
23. Tell Me About a Major Challenge You’ve Faced at Work and How You Overcame It
Like with most interview questions, it’s important to tread carefully and phrase your answers in a positive way. This is particularly true with a question like this one that requires addressing difficulties. Your goal should be to share an experience that showcases your ability to persevere and move beyond obstacles without revealing details that could paint you or your colleagues in a negative light.
How to Answer “Tell Me About a Major Challenge You’ve Faced at Work and How You Overcame It”
While your answer will be unique to your experience, here’s a sample of how to strike this balance: “I once was faced with the challenging situation of needing to generate a key deliverable to the company’s top client in a tight timeframe that made it impossible for me to do everything I wanted. I solved this by recruiting some co-workers from a different department to lend a hand so that we could create the best product possible under the circumstances, and we ended up impressing both my boss and the client.”
24. Tell Me About a Failure You Experienced at Work and How You Handled It
Like the challenge question above, it can be tricky to talk about professional failures and career disappointments. But many employers will understandably want to know how you react in less than optimum circumstances, so you should be prepared to address the question of failure during your interview.
How to Answer “Tell Me About a Failure and How You Handled It”
When discussing missteps, always plan to end on a positive note. And avoid oversharing personal details to make your point; keep it professional and top-level rather than going into the nitty-gritty about the failure.
Here’s a possible response, which you can tailor to your own circumstances: “At my last job, my teammate’s department had been relying on my department to collaborate on a goal they had developed independently of me. I had initially agreed to help out, but quickly realized that doing so would jeopardize my own department’s deliverables to the CEO that week, so I had to pull out of the collaboration before we’d really gotten started. This felt like a failure on my part since I wished I had pushed back initially about my limited bandwidth rather than agreeing on working together. I apologized to my colleague and she understood when I explained about my own deadlines.”
[Read: Questions to Ask During a Job Interview]
25. Is There Anything We Should Know About You That’s Not on Your Resume?
Again, speak carefully here … This question represents an opportunity to share something personal about yourself and make a connection with the hiring team, but avoid letting it all hang out. Managers use this question as a “get to know you,” and it’s a bit of a wild card since it’s very open ended. Your best approach is to stick with fairly neutral topics rather than go out on a limb.
How to Answer “Is There Anything We Should Know About You That’s Not on Your Resume?”
While your answer will be very individual based on your own interests, you might share something about either a work achievement that you haven’t had a chance to share yet, and/or a hobby or interest that helps the hiring team see you as a well-rounded person.
Try something like this: “One thing I wanted to be sure to share is that I just joined the Marketer’s Alliance and volunteered for a committee — that just happened so it’s not on my resume yet. Also, I’m a huge gardener. I love to spend time on the weekends rebooting in the garden so that I come back fresh and ready to go, and I find it gives me great balance.”
26. There’s a Gap in Your Employment History — Why?
Astute managers will scrutinize your resume to see if you have a consecutive employment history, and will quickly pinpoint any gaps. If you have a gap in your resume, you need to prepare in advance to explain why you weren’t working for that period of time.
How to Explain Gaps in Employment:
Honesty is the best policy here, and many employers will understand that in times when the job market is tight, some candidates may have gaps in their work history. It helps if you can add some things that you did during your break from employment that facilitated your career goals, such as any volunteer work, education or training that you may have done.
A sample answer: During that period, my entire company faced layoffs, and we had short notice about the fact. I quickly set to work on my job search and landed a position pretty quickly, but it’s true there’s a small gap in my employment history because of that. During the time that I was job hunting, I also took an online course on [add industry topic] to learn a new skill that would help in my next position.
27. Why Should We Hire You?
You should be prepared to respond to this classic interview query no matter what type of position you’re applying for, so it’s a good idea to prepare and practice your response to it.
How to Answer “Why Should We Hire You?”
If this question comes early in the meeting, use it as a chance to hit on the most relevant points of your experience and skill set, pointing out how well your background fits with the job requirements. If it arrives toward the end of the interview, then take the opportunity to recap the highlights of what you would bring to the company, as well as how you would leverage your abilities to solve the employer’s biggest problems.
28. What Are Your Salary Expectations?
If this is your initial interview, err on the side of caution with this question by avoiding specifics. A smart tactic is to switch the question around and ask if a salary band has been identified for the job based on your experience level and location.
Some hiring teams save the most anxiety-producing topic for last: money. Some managers may be hoping that you’ll share numbers based on your prior salary, even though you aren’t obligated to do this — and it’s best to avoid doing so too early in the interview process. You’ll have more leverage as a candidate if you can get the employer to share the job’s salary band first. Otherwise, any number you put out there might end up either too low, pigeonholing you at a lower range than might have been offered, or too high, which might convince the hiring team that they can’t afford you.
How to Answer “What Are Your Salary Expectations?”
An answer like this can help you keep your options open, and hopefully lead to the manager being the first one to share a salary number: “That’s a great question, and I’m hoping you can help guide me on this one. Is it possible to share the range for this position?”
If they won’t share, stay guarded and try to wrap up the discussion by saying something like, “I understand. I’d like to keep this question open to learn more about the job and your needs, and revisit it later in the process.”
29. Do You Have Any Questions for Us?
While you may feel like wrapping up the interview experience as soon as possible, answering with, “No, I think you’ve covered everything!” won’t impress most hiring managers. Instead, you should come prepared to ask some standard questions of the interviewers, which shows that you’re interested in learning as much as you can about the position and company.
Some strong questions to ask include:
— What is your favorite thing about working here?
— What are the three biggest challenges that I would face in the position if I’m hired?
— Would I be working directly with you, and what are the other key departments that I’d be working with?
— What is the company culture like, and what do employees like most about it?
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29 Common Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 05/17/23: This story was published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
