The Interview Series
Types of Interview Questions and How to Nail Them
Congratulations, you landed an interview for your dream job. You have the perfect outfit, your hair looks just right, and you’re arriving 10 minutes early. Hate to break it to you, but the hard part is yet to come. Just like all those kids’ movies, what matters is what’s on the inside-inside the interview office that is. The questions they ask, the questions you ask, and the responses you give are the most important part. Lucky for you, you have just landed in the goldmine of interview question information. This mini-series will help you prep for any question format and generate questions to ask the hiring managers. Think of it as a Netflix show binge, but instead of doctors or dragons, you’re enhancing your real-world self.
|You’re welcome.|
To start off “episode 1”, let’s talk question category. The broad scope of what types of questions hiring managers will ask and what kinds of questions you should ask them.
Credential and Experience Questions
These are exactly what they sound like, “walk me through your resume,” “what did your previous role look like,” etc etc. This type of question is an opportunity to showcase your previous accomplishments, highlight your specific skills, and prove you are qualified. This is not when you go on and on about your college days, why you hated Bill from HR, or that promotion you almost got. Hiring Managers want to hear about your projects, goals you reached, and how great of a worker you are. Think of this as your time to brag about how great you are without anyone rolling their eyes when you turn around.
Behavioral and Opinion Questions
Here are the “What would you do for a Klondike bar,” kind of questions. Hiring managers will usually give you a situation involving a project/task/issue and ask how you would go about solving it. They want to know how you think and what your initial tendencies are. Make sure you take your time to think through how you want to answer, be clear in your thought process, and include any relevant past experience in a similar situation. Make sure you are genuine and honest, it’s easy to say you’d handle something one way, it’s another thing to mean it.
