By understanding what interview questions an employer will ask in a job interview, allows an applicant to prepare relevant job interview answers.
Opening Questions
The initial questions asked in an interview are really designed to relax an applicant. These ‘welcome’ questions are not scored against the job criteria (they won’t even reference the job role) but do help an interviewer create a first impression about an applicant before the start of the ‘official’ interview.
“Did you have any trouble finding the premisies?”
“Did you drive or use public transport?”
“Did you watch the (insert any big event) last night?”
Organisational questions
The first official interview questions, commonly, will be based on the applicant’s knowledge of the organisation. Employers here to wanting to check keen an applicant is to work for their organisation.
“Do you know what the company mission and vision is?”
“How long has the organisation been in operation?”
“What made you apply for this role?”
“What values do you look for in an organisation?”
Work ethic questions
Employers, these days, are asking more work ethic related questions thanever before. The changing job market driven through globalisation and technological advances has resulted in career professionals ‘job-hopping’ on a regular basis. Employers will question applicants or their employment reliability
“When did you go above and beyond in a previous role?”
“What is the average time you spend with an organisation?”
“What keeps you motivated in work?”
“How would a previous employer describe you?”
Experience questions
The key section to any job interview is the question around a candidate’sexperience. It is the answers to these ‘experience’ questions that result in job offers or the ‘unsuccessful’ phone call.
“Give me an example of when you have solve a problem”
“Tell me a time when you (add any industry related situation)?”
“How do collabrate with other team members?”
“Explain a set back that you had to overcome to achieve an operational objective?”
“How would you deal with (add any industry related problem)?”
Questions to ask the employer
At the interviewend, applicants will be given the chance to ask their own questions. This creates a two-way process for the interview; the interviewer checking if the candidate is a suitable person to recruit and the candidate deciding if they would enjoy working for the organisation.
“Can you tell me why do you enjoy working for the company?”
“What does an average day working here consist off?”
“What development and training opportunities are available for new members of staff?”
“How does the company ensure its values are being met?”
The scoring process, for a structured job interview, is to score the interviewee’s answers against the job criteria.
Each of the essential criteria, on a job specification, is discussed through the process of interview question(s) and answer(s). If the job criteria are referenced in the applicant’s answer, the answers are scored higher on the employer’s scorecard.
By identifying the job criteria for each job interview, applicants can prepare high scoring interview answers. The highest scoring candidate is offered the advertised position.
Step 2 for a successful job interview
Deliver answers within a structured framework
Two mistakes can kill job interview success; not talking enough and talking too much.
A lack of information results in low scoring job interview answers, whereas verbal diarrhea ends with too much irrelevant information that can be confusing for an employer.
The solution is to use an ‘interview structure’ for each answer. Typically, a perfect answer follows 3 steps:
Step 1 – Use a hook to grab the employers attention
Step 2 – State a problem and solution
Step 3 – Explain how the discussed ‘skill’ can be beneficial for the new employer
Step 3 for a successful job interview
Be a self-promotor
Interviewers can only score applicants based on their answers.
If you don’t self-promote, employers won’t have any idea of what the applicant can bring to the team. For some, self-promotion feels awkward, but in the job interview self-promotion, isn’t just required, it is expected.
To be successful, the interviewee needs to give an answer to tricky interview questions that not only highlight their strengths but that also sell the career professionals unique selling point
Step 4 for a successful job interview
Communicate with confidence
No matter how much criteria are mentioned in each job interview question, applicants will only score high if each answer is communicated with confidence.
This is because non-verbal communication affects the employer’s likeability factor. If an employer views an applicant as confident, they are more likely to have a stronger rapport with the applicant, which can be the difference between or 3 or 4 scores.
As job offers often go to candidates with only a few points higher then there nearest rival, each additional point does make a difference.
Step 5 for a successful job interview
Ask questions
Most interviewees wait until the interveiw end to ask questions about the company vision, CPD and salary. But the job interview is designed to be more conversational.
Successful applicants will ask questions throughout the job interview. The key is to ask for specifics when the interviewer has asked a generic question. This ensures that the candidate’s answer is relevant to the asked question, ending with a higher scoring answer
Employers are looking for the best suitable applicant. They don’t want to trick the interviewees, but the job interview process has flaws – the most suitable candidate doesn’t always get offered the advertised the position. To be successful in the job interview, the candidates need to present themselves in the most positive light.
The interview prediction grid is one way of understanding how an employer sees you in terms of value.
6 job interview tips to help you pass your next job interview.
Need more support? Scroll down to access 101 job interview questions
Job Interview Tip #1
Focus on criteria, not confidence
The biggest mistake job applicants make is not referencing enough of the job criteria in the job interview. Instead, they focus on small talk, having a quick response and asking the interviewer mundane questions about salaries and annual leave.
Criteria is king in the job interview
Ignore it at your own demise
Job Interview Tip #2
Posture creates perfection
Candidates look confident when their posture is perfect. A straight back, head held high and relaxed use of gestures results in an impression of confidence
Confidence creates authority, authority results in job offers
Job Interview Tip #3
High performing answers show value
Giving everyday examples for technical questions doesnt cut the mustard. To stand out, always present ‘best performing’ answers. Each answer should state an industry-related problem that would cause a major disruption, before blowing the interviewer away by explaining how only you could save the day.
High performing answers create high performing employees
Job Interview Tip #4
Self-promotion isn’t only good, it’s expected
If you don’t self-promote in a job interview, the interview is dead. Interview self-promotion is gold. To be successful in the job interview you must always state clearly what it is you can bring to the team, your unique selling point.
Self-promote for a promotion
Job Interview Tip #5
Dress to impress
Your interview outfit is your armor. What you wear creates that all-important first impression. Your outfit, haircut, scent, everything about you helps to showcase you at your best.
Your armor needs to shine
Job Interview Tip #6
Worry about self-disclosed weaknesses
The biggest barrier to interview success is self-disclosed weakness. Stop giving away information that will ruin your job interview. Focus on strengths, not weaknesses. Focus on successes, not failures. Focus on the good, not the bad.
Employers hire people for their strengths, not their weaknesses
If you asked a career professional what is the key criteria when assessing which positions to apply for most would answer – salary.
I would disagree. What is more important then a small pay rise is the company culture. An organsiations vision, mission and values set the culture. It is the culture, the day to day running of a business, that indirectly affects employees’ motivation levels.
Let me ask you this – is a £4000 pay rise worth leaving a job you love, to go to an organization that you feel you don’t fit in with? To go from motivation to demotivation? From workplace happiness to workplace misery?
£4000 per year is less then £77 per week – £77 to lose your workplace motivation and career happiness! This article will teach you how to uncover the organisational culture during a job interview, helping you to find the right employer based on what you deem to be important in the workplace.
Happy Career Choice
Content career professionals will work in a job sector that has a natural affinity to their personality, or will for an organization that has a mission the employee believes in. This is easily achieved by taking a career test to help understand what drives you when choosing a new career.
The second factor for career bliss is company culture. Most people fall into a career due to happenstance, but for true workplace satisfaction employees need to find a business that has a culture that links to their motivational traits.
Motivational factors can, on the face of it, look simple – do you prefer wearing a smart or casual dress? Reading this question you may ask “does workplace outfit choice even matter?”
For some people yes; a casual preference employee can feel awkward wearing a suit, or someone who feels professional when wearing a suit feels like they can’t be taken seriously in casual clothes.
Recently I was explaining the motivation of company culture to a friend who works in a professional setting. He joked, saying that people can go to work wearing beach shorts and a loud shirt, but their business won’t ever be that successful if people (employees) are always messing around.
Ever heard of innocent Smoothies? Innocent smoothies are a multimillion business who has company culture at the heart of their business ……and no, you don’t wear suits and ties in their office!
Just read their mission statement: “When we’re old and grey, we want to be able to look back and be really proud of the business we helped create. We think the best way to achieve this is by living the values that are closest to our hearts. Our five values reflect what we are, how we do things, and where we want to be. They hang above every loo in the building so we get to look at them every day.”
How Can You Predict the Company Culture?
In the job interview, you can easily gain an insight into the culture of the business. Vision and mission statements are a good start but not all businesses truly believe in their statements creating a conflict between the face of the organization and the day to day business operations.
Company culture comes down to 3 key elements; the day to day working environment, conflict resolution, and employee engagement. Each of these elements can be discussed in the job interview, helping an applicant make the right choice when offered multiple job offers.
Job Interview Questions for Company Culture
The questions below can be asked throughout the job interview, at the appropriate time, or during the final section of the interviewer when candidates are given the opportunity to ask some questions of their own.
Day to day working environment
Interview Question 1 – how are staff successes celebrated by the organisation?
Interview Question 2 – how do managers keep employees supported?
Interveiw Question 3 – can employees work from home?
Interveiw Question 4 – how manay managers use to work in team poistions?
Interview Question 5 – do you support staff to taker up voluntary positions during work time?
Conflict resolution
Interveiw Question 6 – how are key company decsions that affect teams made?
Interview Question 7 – are there any conflicts of interest across any departments?
Interview Question 8 – what is the approach to resolve anyconflict?
Interview Question 9 – how do senior leaders and stakeholders engage together?
Interview Question 10 – how is employee feedback collected?
Employee engagement
Interview Question 11 – what is the average duration of an employee working for this firm?
Interveiw Question 12 – describe an normal day for you?
Interveiw Question 13 – how much staff development is on offer?
Interview Question 14 – what is your proudest achievement while working for the organization?
Interview Question 15 – how can the company improve in terms of a supportive environment?
Understanding how one’s level of knowledge and experience is perceived by an interviewer is often misunderstood.
The unconscious bias created the first impression when the interviewer and interviewee were both introduced to each other. As the first interview question is asked the interviewee’s level of knowledge and experience can alter (or reinforce) the initial assessment.
The schema, fired by the initial meeting, subconsciously creates a prediction that the interviewer will be expecting (cause and effect) on how an applicant will react to a question. When this pattern is interrupted via a confident self-promoting answer, for a perceived nervous candidate, the interviewer’s mind becomes fully alert. It’s the same process when you are walking through a busy town center, minding your own business when a car backfires – you become instantly alert (your conscious mind kicks into action – in this case looking for danger) because something isn’t as it is expected to be; the pattern of walking from A to B was interrupted. In the job interview, the interruption of a pattern (initial impression = unsuitable for this position) creates a second chance for an applicant to redeem themselves.
The interview environment is an analytical process whereas the original opinion of an applicant is subconscious. Because interviewers are forced to be highly conscious, in the interview environment, analysing the interviewee’s answers, a new funnel can be created through the creation of an interview identity.
Within a structured interview process, the interviewers will be making notes that they later reference against the score criteria. An applicant who is referencing the high scoring criteria, especially when delivered in a confident manner, can be seen in a new light overriding the pre-interview assessment.
Therefore the perceived level of knowledge and experience is, in the main, a logical process; the interviewee states or doesn’t state the criteria on the scorecard. The initial bias, though, can still influence the logical decision, potentially giving a point higher or lower than a similarly skilled candidate, delivering an identical answer who didn’t create the same bias at the interview start.
Imagine, as an example, that an interviewer doesn’t believe a female should perform a traditionally masculine role. The initial bias is a negative one. As the female candidate states her skills, knowledge and expertise with a confident and charismatic delivery style, the interviewer is swayed and the limiting belief is first interrupted then changed – this female is suitable for a traditionally masculine role. The next candidate has the same experience, skills and qualifications as the female applicant, but is male. Even if both the female and male applicants possessed the same experiences, gained working for the same employer, and, word-for-word, gave the same answer, it is likely that the interviewer will score the male candidate higher due to their initial schema.
It is very common for employers to be torn between two similar scoring applicants. While reviewing the allocated points against the job criteria, it is often the intuitive ‘gut’ feeling (affected easily by bais) that makes the difference between an applicant being offered the position over another equally suited candidate.
Do you know the difference between successful career professionals and those who get left behind?
“Career success comes from interview success“
To develop your interview skills research explains that you need to follow 3 interview rules
Rule 1 – Identify the Job Criteria
Rule 2 – Be a Self-Promoter
Rule 3 – Communciate with Confidence
To improve your interview ability use the 10 interview reflection questions
Interview Reflection Question 1 How did you showcase your strengths?
Interview Reflection Question 2 Which question(s) did you answer well?
Interview Reflection Question 3 Which job criteria did your answers reference?
Interview Reflection Question 4 In what way did you actively promote yourself?
Interview Reflection Question 5 How did you portray confidence?
Interview Reflection Question 6 What do you need to do differently?
Interview Reflection Question 7 Which question(s) were you less confident in answering?
Interview Reflection Question 8 In which way did you show nervousness?
Interview Reflection Question 9 How did you self-disclose weaknesses?
Interview Reflection Question 10 What do you need to do to improve your interview performance?
By reflecting on your job interview process you can review what you need to develop in terms of increasing job offers. When answering these 10 job interview reflection questions for several of your previous job interviews, not just one. This collated data will allow you to understand in your job interview performance meets the 3 interview success rules
During the job interview and in generic social interactions, humans want to be ‘accepted’ and will avoid situations that draw negative attention towards them.
Being seen as weak or vulnerable is perceived to be negative. This ‘weakness’ rule is prevalent in the job interview, not only with an interviewee but with an interviewer.
If a candidate states they have expertise in an industry sub-niche that the employer isn’t familiar with, many interviewers, depending on their level of self-esteem, will make reference to the sub-niche but wont specifically question the interviewee on their knowledge level.
The belief is, if the applicant knows more about the sub-niche then the interviewer, the interviewer will look weak. An ‘expert’ interviewer, an interviewer with the highest levels of knowledge and experience, or a highly confident interviewer, will happily challenge the candidate to test the levels of expertise to help predict the applicant’s job performance levels.
When being interviewed by an interviewer with a low level of knowledge/experience within a sub-niche, a self-promoter (possessing high levels of confidence) recognising a lack of employer expertise, is likely to increase self-promotion during the answer to this specific question to create authority.
A confident applicant attempting to trick an ‘expert’ interviewer into thinking that they possess a higher level of knowledge/experience than is true, will do so to their detriment. Interestingly, the applicants at the extreme end of high levels of confidence (the extremist being a narcissist), will argue a point with an ‘expert’ interviewer who is an authority on the subject, even when evidence contrary to their statements has been presented.
The goal of an interview, for the employer, is to assess an applicant’s job performance not provoke that applicant’s behaviour, but as each cause has an effect, all actions influence the interviewee’s behaviour.
One reason why many interview processes start with asking non-job-related questions “did you find us OK?” or explaining the organisations history, is to help to relax the candidate so they can, ideally, be ‘themselves.’ As explained, this ideal is impossible, as each applicant is affected by the behaviour of the interviewer.
Understanding how the subconscious cause and effect influences the recruitment process explains why the job interview process isn’t as fair people believe it is.
Recognising their interview identity allows an applicant to develop aspects of their persona within the interview environment to create a more positive perspective from the employer’s viewpoint.
A psychological barrier to a successful interview outcome is ‘projection’. When an interviewer has a strong dislike, based on a prejudice, that makes them uncomfortable – “I don’t think females should work in masculine jobs but I know I shouldn’t be thinking this” they will deflect their own emotional turmoil by projecting their emotions onto the applicant.
This reaction, which is common in all areas of life, is a self-defense mechanism. Humans are more comfortable observing negative qualities in others then confronting a negative trait that detracts from the identity they are portraying to the world.
Projecting emotions or beliefs onto others, that they themselves are struggling to come to terms with, is just easier.
But projection has a secondary implication: If the interviewer dislikes someone (because of a deep-rooted prejudice) and projects this feeling on to the candidate, they can then come to believe that the candidate themselves dislikes them, the interviewer.
Evidence shows that people like other people more if they believe that said person likes them first. If the interviewer presumes that the candidate dislikes them, there will be a decrease in rapport.
Dyadic social interaction research shows that individuals will reciprocate the behavior that is projected by another person. If, for example, an interviewer has good eye contact and smiles at the applicant, the applicant will reciprocate the behaviour.
The reaction to these nonverbal cues can alter the applicant’s level of confidence. A ‘warm’ interviewer, offering encouragement with smiles and nods of the head, will increase the interviewee’s confidence levels. In contrast, a ‘cold’ interviewer, frowning and tutting, will reduce the candidate’s confidence and self-esteem.
Applicants with low self-esteem perform as well as high self-esteem candidates when interviewed by a ‘warm’ interviewer (both interviewee types will discuss their knowledge/experience) but when interviewed by a cold interviewer, the low self-esteem applicant is more likely to withdraw.
The employer, perceiving the lack of communication as an indication of a low level of knowledge/experience, can also withdraw becoming more ‘cold.’ This ‘cold cycle’ process rarely allows the interviewee to promote their skill set, resulting in a distorted version of the applicant, as an inaccurate and unfair assessment of the candidate has been created.
As mentioned earlier highly confident interviewees, through their ability to externalise the interviewer’s behaviour, are rarely affected by a ‘cold’ interview.
An interviewer’s temperament, beliefs and actions within a job interview can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If, for instance, an interviewer has a subconscious negative bias towards an applicant, due to any number of characteristics, their behaviour towards the candidate will be influenced. This behaviour indirectly affects how the applicant acts.
The applicant, now (potentially) acting out of character, confirms the interviewer’s initial negative assessment, resulting in a less than favourable scoring, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This process is more persistent with low confidence candidates who are more inclined to internalize the negative behaviour of an interviewer, believing they, the interviewee, have given cause for the interviewer to act in this way. This belief further decreases the candidates confidence levels.
For high self-esteem applicants, this initial assessment, and therefore the interviewer’s behaviour, rarely impacts the interview performance.
High level of confidence candidates will take a similar approach to the interview regardless of the interviewer’s behaviour due to the ability to externalize the interviewer’s actions, believing the actions are in no way a reflection of them, the applicant. The result of which is continuous self-promotion, delivered with conviction.
This contrast between the initial impression of a candidate and the observation of the interviewee not conforming to type, can be a powerful ‘pattern interrupt’ that results in a subconscious change of assessment.
Even with blatant evidence contradicting a schema, some interviewers with a strong belief, based as an example, on ethnicity or sex, will be ‘blind’ to the reality presented to them.
Evidence shows that the way an interviewee perceives the interviewer, positive or negative, will be, in most cases, the same view the interviewer has of the applicant.
One way humans understand other people’s actions is through mirror-neurons. When an interviewer frowns, smiles or, as an example, shows disgust via a fleeting micro-expression, the applicant’s mind, using mirror-neurons duplicates the expression, accessing the same emotional response the interviewer is feeling.
Using the interview prediction grid, a career professional can gain an insight into how an employer will view them in the job interview and improve any areas of weakness.
Bias, prejudice and stereotypes create an initial impression (a filter) that interview answers are processed through. As this interview perception process is automatic, interviewers are often unaware of how their opinion of an applicant is influenced.
Not all biases are negative; the ‘affinity’ bias shows that it is advantageous to have shared experiences or beliefs with the interviewer, even when the similarity is minimal – both the interviewee and interviewer attended the same university.
Similarity is so powerful that believing an applicant has the same opinions (gained from the candidate’s social media feed, application form or from hearsay – the comments of other department team leaders for an internal vacancy), the interviewer will create a positive pre-interview opinion of the applicant affecting the job interview outcome. And in the interview itself, if the interviewer subconsciously believes the interviewee ‘likes’ them, through reciprocal liking, they will favour the applicant more, even if there is an absence of similarity.
Therefore what an interviewer reads, views or believes has a powerful effect on how they initially view each candidate and if they will be predisposed to ‘like’ them or not.
Recruitment professionals are aware that prejudices are subconscious and many will disagree with the negative stereotype. Organsiations even go to the trouble of training HR staff to understand the effect of unconscious bias in the recruitment process.
Even with awareness, automatic processing happens. Within milliseconds of meeting a candidate an impression, a prejudice, is formed through that interviewer’s experiences (an interviewer may have lived in a household where the stereotype was regularly expressed).
Because the bias is automatic it can’t be stopped, it simply pops into one’s mind. For example, the stereotype “women can’t perform male roles” can be the initial thought as an interviewer meets a new applicant, even if the interviewer doesn’t consciously believe the stereotype to be true. The automatic response to seeing a stimuli is just too powerful, the (stereotype) appears without warning.
To counter this automatic process an interviewer can consciously override it, by searching for evidence that disproves the belief “Janis our best performer is female and works in a stereotypical male role.” This is the conscious mind (the slow thinking analytical part of the brain) in play.
This conscious overriding of automatic thinking is harder to complete when stressed or tired – towards the end of a full day of interviewing candidates.
If the interviewer believes the prejudice, they are more likely to go with their schema rather than to challenge it, making it harder for the applicant with that (characteristic) to create a positive impression.
A racist or sexist interviewer, as an example, will be predisposed to conform to their bias even when the applicant has high levels of knowledge/experience and high levels of confidence. The interviewer’s beliefs are simply too powerful to alter their perspective, even when evidence is presented proving the value of hiring said candidate.
There are, of course, people who do not have an automatic process for (stimuli = stereotype) and won’t be affected by the (prejudice). At the interview start, even though an initial opinion will be formed (possibly from a second schema), the said interviewer won’t be affected by the first stereotypical belief.
Legislation is helping to create a fair recruitment campaign. Non-job related factors; age, race, gender, ethnicity, disability, etc that can be used to discriminate against certain applicants are no longer allowed to be considered as part of the application process.
An example of this is organisations no longer being allowed to advertise for a job role that requires the applicant to have ‘a number of industry years experience’ (age discrimination).
Even though, in this example, an older applicant can be offered a job interview based on their application form without their age being taken into consideration, in the interview itself a prejudice based on how old they appear to be, can be created subconsciously, affecting the older applicants interview scores.
Interestingly there is no legislation around physical attractiveness in a recruitment campaign even though the evidence is proving the ‘beautiful is good’ schema to be true. One answer to this would be job interviews based on the TV show ‘the voice,’ where singing auditions are judged blindly and judges can only ‘turn their chair around’ once they pick an auditionee, based on their skill set alone (in this case their voice.)
The evidence states that it is impossible for each applicant to receive a ‘fair’ interview, as candidates are judged differently by the interviewer(s) at an unconscious level.
This could be the difference between an interviewer, who sees commonality with themselves and the interviewee, subconsciously encouraging a candidate, due to high levels of likeability, to give a higher scoring answer or, due to an interviewers negative projection, will hear the applicant answers less favourable then the evidence suggest they actually are, resulting in a lower score.
Or due to a schema based on, as an example, physical appearance, or a stereotype, or a long-held belief, an interviewers bias can affect the applicant’s ability to showcase their predicted job performance.
To override an initial negative prejudice, an applicant, by highlighting their high-level sector knowledge/experience and high level of confidence during the first interview questions can create an ‘interview identity’ that becomes the interviewer’s new filter, often bypassing the initial cynical impression, unless the said answers show a low level of knowledge/experience and low level of confidence which, instead of helping an applicants cause, reinforces the primary bias.
