How to Answer Tough Questions in an Interview

Using Your Sales Pitch in Answers

Write down your greatest achievements and strengths. Talking about your strengths and positive accomplishments may be harder than you think. To prepare for questions regarding this, you should write down a list of your greatest strengths and achievements.

Talk about your work experience. Write down the most relevant work experiences you've had, and strengths that have followed you from job to job. Adding a recent concrete example of a recent work experience will give credence to your pitch.

Write out and memorize your pitch. Once you've written down all the elements to your pitch, you can put it together into a cohesive statement. Start with an introductory statement about your experience, and then talk about your positive personality traits. Try to frame your experience in a realistic and concrete way. An example of a good pitch would be something like "I'm a 30 year veteran in writing and editing. My last job was as a senior editor at Shark Publishing Co. While I was there, I wrote over 30 different published manuscripts and manuals. One of the best things about me is that I'm a hard worker and always meet deadlines. As an example, last year we had a deadline that we didn't get the details for until two days beforehand. I worked 12 hours straight to make sure that the content got in on time."

Use your pitch to answer commonly asked questions. You can use your pitch to answer questions like "Tell me about yourself," "What experience do you have that would help you in this role?" and "What are your greatest accomplishments?"

Turning Weaknesses into Strengths

Prepare for interview questions that probe your weaknesses. Typical questions include "Tell me about a time when you failed," "Why did you leave your last job?" and "What are your greatest weaknesses?" Take these questions into consideration and start to form answers to them. These questions aren't aimed to make you feel bad or for you to reveal your current weaknesses, but are meant to expose how you learn from mistakes and how well you rebound from failure.

Highlight your professional growth over your shortcomings. When asked about weaknesses or mistakes that you've made in the past, make sure to highlight how these challenges made you grow professionally. Employers are looking for areas where you believe you could use improvement, as well as how well you can rebound from failure. If asked about why you left your last job, you can talk about limitations on your growth or advancement in the company. If you've miscommunicated on a team and it led to a failure, don't talk about the failure as much as you talk about how it taught you that communication is critical.

Practice talking about negative experiences in a positive light. If you've ever had a negative experience, there was probably something to be learned. Instead of emphasizing the negative experience, practice talking about what you were able to get out of the experience. To explain a weakness, you can say something like "When we worked on the project at Boeing I was new at working in conjunction with a team. I didn't communicate my part of the project as well as I should have, so it affected our results. The experience helped me get used to effectively communicating with others, even if I wasn't great at it to begin with."

Don't be disingenuous when answering. When employers ask about your weaknesses, don't take a positive and try to frame it as a negative for the question. This comes off as disingenuous. An example of this would be "I work so hard that sometimes I overwork." Instead, be realistic and concrete, and use specific examples whenever you can to explain the weakness.

Recognizing the Reasoning Behind a Question

Evaluate the meaning behind the question. Often an interviewer will ask you a question to get more information about your personality, aptitude, and experience. Sometimes the question is aimed at learning something that isn't apparent. Think about the actual meaning behind each question before you give your response, and cater your answer to what they are actually asking.

Don't talk badly about past co-workers. Blaming past coworkers for your own shortcomings could signal to the employer that you don't take responsibility for your actions and aren't a team player. Instead, talk about how their communication or management style didn't mesh well with yours, and emphasize how you were able to adapt and accomplish goals, even though this was so. If the interviewer asks "What did you dislike most about your last boss?" they want to understand your expectations of management and understand which management styles you have trouble working with. You can answer "Tell me about your worst boss" by saying something like "I had a boss who communicated differently than me. I learned that you have to be able to adapt to different personalities if you want a project to get done on time."

Have humility and confidence when answering questions about yourself. If they ask, "Why are you better than anyone else for this job?" they are looking to gauge your level of confidence and humility to see if you can fulfill expectations while still being a team player. Talk about your experience and why it makes you capable, but also talk about your passion for learning and getting better at your job. You can say something like "I have a decade of experience, and I work well with other people. Also, you won't meet a person more passionate about this than I am."

Give specifics when asked questions about your industry. Sometimes an interview will contain specific questions regarding your industry. These questions are designed to see if you understand the current standards and practices of the industry as well as your experience level. Make sure to have a solid grasp of the specific technical and operational aspects of your potential job. Jobs, where you may be expected to have an intimate knowledge of your industry, include biotech, pharma, business, coding, IT, medical, design, and much more.

Understand the person interviewing you. Think of the goal of the interviewer and what they need out of a person to successfully fulfill the role. They also want to make sure that you would be a good team member and pleasant to work with. Think about what would benefit them the most, depending on what role they have in the company, and cater your answers to their role. For example, an HR manager wants to know that you can communicate well with others and can adhere to the company culture. A director of a department will want you to communicate well and accomplish results in a safe and effective way. An external recruiter will want to know that you have the experience for the job and are a good candidate to send to the employer.

Dealing with Curveball Questions

Stay calm. Sometimes an interviewer will ask you a question that is entirely unrelated to your industry or to the job that you're applying for. This is usually to see how you handle pressure and how you will react to the situation. The most important thing is to stay calm and to act like the question doesn't phase you. Hiring managers want to see if you will become flustered or frustrated by the question.

Use a past experience to answer the question. If you can, try to answer the question by thinking of a situation in your life that relates to it. For example, the hiring managers at Mastercard ask employees "What do you do if you are approached by an employee who is complaining about a colleague who has horrible body odor?" You could answer by saying something like "Well, I actually had this issue in Highschool, and I was the smelly kid. The kids actually got me more interested in different sprays and colognes while we were in the locker room, and it helped me a lot. So I'd probably do something like that."

Try to answer truthfully. Sometimes these questions are aimed to see what kind of person you'd be like to work with. For that reason, when given a strange or curveball question, just try to answer truthfully without coming off as disrespectful. For example, Whole Foods Market hiring managers ask "Would you rather fight 1 horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?" You could say something like, "A horse-sized duck would be terrifying and horrifying. I'd definitely go with the 100 duck-sized horses."

Gaining Confidence Through Preparation

Research the company that is interviewing you. Candidates who know about the business will stand out from their competitors. Do a search for the company's website and get a sense of their core values, company culture, target customers, and the products or services they provide. As you do your research, write down any questions that you have so that you can ask the interviewer during the interview. An excellent question to ask the interviewer at the end of the interview is something like "What does it take for an individual to succeed in this role?" Search online for the most commonly asked questions in your industry and for your role.

Practice answering questions before the interview. Practice answering tough interview questions in front of a mirror or record yourself using your webcam. Examine your body language, vocal tone, and face to see if you are doing anything strange or seem to lack confidence. Try to be open, have a smile on your face, and speak in a clear voice. Rehearse answering questions in front of family or friends and get their opinion. Confidence can be exhibited by your voice, body language, and facial expressions.

Prepare well in advance. The more prepared you are, the calmer you'll be in the interview. Memorize the name of the person who is interviewing you, make sure to select an outfit, and print out or look up directions the day before your interview. Before you go into the interview, review the job description again so that it's fresh in your mind. If you are nervous because you are late or unprepared, you'll have a harder time answering tough questions.

Be prepared to give your desired salary. While you should never bring up salary without being prompted, having the answer in your head will make answering this tough question easier. Make sure that in addition to a monetary salary, you also have an answer for the things you'd want in benefits or additional bonus compensation if it's applicable to the job.

Remaining Calm and Focused

Answer questions with relevant information. One of the worst things that you can do when answering a tough question is ramble about something that isn't pertinent to the job or the position. Refrain from telling anecdotal stories from your childhood or personal likes and dislikes. Keep your answers short, accurate, and relatable to the role that you want to fill. A great way to keep on track is to talk about recent professional triumphs or victories.

Take your time answering. If you've prepared for the interview but the person interviewing you still throws you a curve ball, it's important that you take your time to think through your response deliberately. Pause for a moment and take the time to think about what you are going to say. Never answer a question with a "No" or "I don't know." Aim to expand your answers to give the interviewer some context.

Get to the interview early. When you arrive early, it gives you time to relax and concentrate on the interview. Make sure to plan your route the night before so that you can get to the interview feeling confident and prepared.

Think positively and be confident. Visualize yourself doing great on the interview and getting the job. Don't underplay your abilities or talk negatively about your past. Have confidence in what you do and try to smile throughout the interview.