Employers conducting interviews generally have a list of about 20 to 30 frequently asked interview questions. They tend to ask all interviewees an arbitrary mixture of around 10 interview questions. Before we begin, keep in mind that, in an HR interview, there is no perfectly correct or incorrect response. What matters most is your self-confidence and how well you are able to articulate your thoughts and views in front of the interviewer.
Here’s our list of 30 Most Common Interview Questions and Answers:
- Tell me about yourself.
This is the first and foremost question for any HR interview. The answer to this question sets the tone for the rest of the interview. The ideal way to answer this is to give a brief of your academic qualification, your family and location, any of your hobbies etc. Take the opportunity to mention few of your major achievements, if it fits the circumstance. Keep your answers to short, to the point and give room and time for further questions.
- Why should we hire you?
I am reliable and have complete dedication and passion about my work also my responsibilities are my top priorities. This job position assimilates with me and I believe this would be the ladder for me to move towards my goals.
Throughout my career, I have consistently strived to become the very best to my capabilities. The accomplishments I have achieved in my prior positions are the result of possessing the qualities you’re looking for in an employee.
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Strength: I am a quick learner and vibrant. I am extremely eager to enhance my awareness and knowledge. I always maintain a positive attitude for my work and never back up until I finish a task.
Strength: My strength is my flexibility to manage transformation. As a senior manager at my previous post, I was capable of revolving negative work situations and develop an extraordinarily supportive team.
Weakness: Here you need to turn a negative into a positive by sharing a weakness that is actually a desirable feature. For instance:
- I am an uncompromising employee.
- I work too hard at times.
- I worry too much about quality of my work.
- Why do you want to work at our company?
A good answer for this Interview Questions will demonstrate knowledge of the company and industry. You must complete your groundwork and recognize specific reasons for wanting to work for the firm. You can give the following reasons:
- Company’s repute
- Reputation of key leaders
- High regard of products/services
- Appreciation of other company inventiveness like marketing promotion, contribution towards society, training and workshops.
- Company’s awards, management philosophy, values, market positioning, growth/success
- What is the difference between confidence and over confidence?
This is one of the most interesting Interview Questions and your answer should well thought out an example to answer these type of Interview Questions is:
Confidence: is right estimation of my skills and trusting myself and over confidence: is extra estimation of my skills and being too proud of myself. “I can do it” is confidence but “Only I can do it” is over confidence
- What is the difference between hard work and smart work?
Hard work incorporates more of physical work with a smaller amount of preparation and plan on the other hand smart-work incorporates well-organized preparation and structured plan with reduced effort.
- How do you feel about working nights and weekends?
Definitely there will be no problem working in nights and weekend if work demands my presence. Otherwise I will be more contented in spending my nights and weekends with my family.
- Can you work under pressure?
Yes, I work well under duress. Nevertheless I consider that by merely reacting to a situation people build unnecessary pressure. In place of hastily reacting to a difficulty, I will evaluate all the specifics at a sharply and react to the situation with a solution all the while maintaining a clear head.
- Are you willing to relocate or travel?
To me, where I live is actually a minor concern. My career growth is essential to me, and I’ve been exceptionally awed with everything I have learned about your company and believe that this position in particular is a great fit for my skills. If your answer is undeniably ‘no,’ you have to say so. Later on you may face problems is they offer you the post, request you to relocate and you refuse.
- What are your goals?
My long-term goal is rising with an organization where I can continue to learn, take on extra responsibilities, and contribute as much of value as I can. My short-term goal is to get a break in the industry and start building a strong presence in the industry, working for a company I respect and doing a job that I enjoy.
- What motivates you to do good job?
I am a self motivated person. However whenever I lose strength of mind, I read spiritual books and watch motivational videos. This gives me enormous motivation to accomplish anything.
- What makes you angry?
I am actually a calm person. I didn’t get anger usually. But when someone cheats me I’ll get angry. But I don’t express it I just move away for a while and get myself to adapt to the circumstances. This way no one gets hurt. In case of a conflict I am able to easily forgive and forget.
- Give me an example of your creativity.
Express your creativity by using one of these examples relevant to your experience- Generating fresh solutions to work problems, discovering and telling fresh ways of performing tasks, applying existing knowledge and information in novel ways, using existing resources (people, skills, technology) in a new way, coming up with an original idea, improving a product/service/process by making gradual changes and refinements.
- How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
The best answer to these type of Interview Questions would be – As long as I’m satisfying the needs of company and company is satisfying my needs!
- Are not you overqualified for this position?
Yes, I might be overqualified, but you would have the benefit of my experience. You will acquire an employee who’s booming and who understands what is required to be successful and can do it yet again for your benefit.
- Describe your ideal company, ideal location and ideal job.
For me, an ideal company is one if it the company and its employees help each other in joint growth. Somewhere I’ll be able to exploit my expertise and talent and can gain more knowledge. An ideal job is one which gives self-satisfaction to me. Ideal location means a location where ideal company & ideal job come together & make a blast of successful environmental.
- What are your career options right now?
To answer this sort of Interview Questions you can say, My career goal is to get an opportunity in a well reputed organization and then I want to develop my skills and knowledge with the company growth.
- Explain how would be an asset to this organization?
My attitude is not just being an ordinary employee being one in a crowd but I would want myself to be known well among the firm not for negative reasons rather because of my hard work. I would want myself to be recognized as an excellent team player. I would want to play a pivotal role in the firm’s progress and contribute my potential to the fullest.
- What are your outside interests?
Life is not just work and work alone. One must know how to “relax” and find some other ways of therapy which helps to relax our mind and body. Personally, I like dancing and in free time I love writing and I like to interact with new people and love to listen about their life different opinions makes your mind logical.
- Would you lie for the company?
Lying and manipulating are two different things, lying is changing the facts and manipulation means stating the facts in a way that they look better. I won’t mind manipulating for the company, if the situation demands that, but I won’t lie, rather I will try to find out all possible solutions without lying.
- Who has inspired you in your life and why?
To answer this type of interview questions have a few heroes in mind, preferably Board of Directors or Leaders in your line of work, you can also pick an example of someone from history. Try to give examples of how their wisdom has facilitated in inspiring your success. Remember to prepare a response which demonstrates qualities that would be highly valuable in the position you are seeking.
- What was the toughest decision you ever had to make?
Give concrete examples of difficult situations that actually occur at work. Then talk about what you did to resolve the crisis. Maintain positive response.
- Have you considered starting your own business?
Yes, I have thought about it. But not yet .Moving to business should not be a compulsion it should be a passion. So this is not the case with me right now. I just want to make my career in reputable organization. I will think of this company as my own and would work here with complete devotion.
- How do you define success and how do you measure up to your own definition?
For me success is achieving self-satisfaction with my work. Therefore, I believe satisfaction would be the ultimate measure of my success. The more you succeed the more you are happy and vice versa.
- If you won a million dollar lottery, would you still like to work?
Winning a lottery sounds quite interesting but, it never gives me satisfaction. I don’t want to lose my self-respect for the sake of wealth. Hence I resolve to keep working and earn my livelihood with satisfaction.
- Tell me something about our company.
Before appearing for the job interview and facing the interview questions you need to go through the company’s achievements clearly, and current projects you can expect some more questions from these projects so gather some basic information about projects.
- How much salary do you expect?
This company is well recognized and well established, I am sure that I will definitely get the finest package as per my qualifications and experience. I’m sure when the time comes and I know more about the position and the responsibilities that come with it, we can come to a mutually agreeable figure.
- Where do you see yourself five years from now?
In 5 years time, I see myself succeeding in my field of work and learning new skills to the benefit of the organization I serve. I find this job position extremely interesting and encouraging. I can perceive several tests lying ahead of me, which I am keen to experience. To sum up – I want to be an expert in my (field).
- On a scale of one to ten, rate me as an interviewer.
This is one of the most trickiest Interview Questions and you need to answer this smartly, one way to answer this would be:
Sir, I am not a right person to rate you, however since you asked this to me I’ll rate you 9/10 because no one is perfect. If I give you a full score then there is no room left for improvement and there is no motivation.
Sir, I am not a right person to rate you, however since you asked this to me I’ll rate you 9/10 because no one is perfect. If I give you a full score then there is no room left for improvement and there is no motivation. Therefore, I will give you 9/10.
Or
I’ll rate you 10/10 because have been thorough and tough-minded, systematic and methodical, and I’m sure that approach results in outstanding hires for your firm.
- Do you have any questions for me?
Don’t hesitate to ask questions, if you say you don’t have any questions it’ll reflect a lack of interest. Asking good questions show that you are interested in this position. Ask questions like:
- What are the most significant skills required and expected from the person who does this job?
- What are the biggest challenges in this post on a daily basis?
We hope that these common interview questions and answers would be helpful in your next job interview; we wish you all the best for your dream job!
thanks a lot. its very useful to me
Glad these were useful to you.
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