If you are fully prepared for your interview and are feeling confident, you will quickly find that you can use any question to talk about a particular example of your work or a compelling story about a project you completed with your previous employers or at university.
Even by simply offering a different perspective on a question from an interviewer, you can stand out amongst other candidates and secure yourself that vital job role.
So here we consider a few more questions that can regularly pop up during interviews, along with the answers you may wish to give.
What do you find motivates you the most?
This can be an extremely popular question for employers as it can give them a real understanding of whether or not they can offer you everything that you need, while also learning more about you as a person. To give the best answer to this question, it is important to be honest and detail how you would be highly motivated to work for them.
Think about what it is that you enjoy doing on your university course, at your part-time job and also away from the office. Look at what links them together and you will begin to be able to detail what it is that motivates you.
You might play a lot of sports and like competition which may be useful if you are looking to become part of a sales team and are trying meet targets. Whatever you enjoy doing it is important to remember to link back to the job you are applying for – if the role involves working to tight deadlines, talk about how you are motivated by the sense of accomplishment each time you meet one for example.
Can you give me an example of when you had to cope in a difficult situation?
Whilst in an interview you are trying to give the impression that you are the perfect candidate for the position, employers are well aware that everyone makes mistakes, finds themselves in difficult situations or under pressure at some point.
Ultimately, the interviewer would like to know how you react under a little bit of pressure or when things were not quite going how you want them to. Try and show that your common sense, initiative, problem solving abilities and interpersonal skills are perfect for managing tricky situations and can help you in any environment.
Employers are looking for evidence of a calm, practical approach under pressure, so you can use examples of your time at university, volunteering or whilst travelling – anything that highlights your ability to react constructively when you are faced with a tricky situation.
If you’re a graduate looking to kick-start your career, have a chat with Discovery Graduates and see how we can help get you started.
