1. Tell me about your self
2. What is your greatest strength?
3. What can you offer us that someone else can’t
4. What are your three most important career accomplishments?
5. What is your greatest weakness?
6. What kind of recommendations will you get from previous employers?
7. What are your career goals?
8. Describe your perfect job
9. What is most important to you in a job
10. Why do you want to change careers?

1. Tell me about yourself. The employer is not asking whether you had a happy childhood or whether your mother loved you. Don’t try to summarize your entire life in five minutes. The employer wants to know why you should be considered for the position. Begin with a few summary remarks perhaps about your college or work history and then describe several of your keys skills or important areas of experience. You could continue by saying I m basically an analytical person. For example at Dependable services, no one really knew how much our services were costing the company. I had a little cost accounting in college, so I figured out the actual costs, taking depreciation of our equipment into consideration. I discovered that one of our services actually cost us seven percent more than we charged for it. We raised our fees immediately. That alone earned an additional $17,000.

2. What is your greatest strength? The question asks for your number –one strength, skill or asset and requires you to analyze yourself. Being with a brief statement and provide a clear example. A manager might respond, I would say it is my ability to train people, motivate them, and get maximum output from each one. For example, XYZ had a severe turnover problem of about thirty five percent annually of its first-line supervisors. Even without the benefit of a pay increase, which they deserved, I reduced the turn over to eight percent In just six months and to five percent by the end of the year. My analysis indicated that our foremen were receiving inadequate training when they were promoted to supervisors. They weren’t sure how they fir in or even what was expected of them. Most were unsure of their authority and how to use it. Many quit out of frustration. With the help of the human Resources Department. I developed a training program which is still used. Productivity in the plant rose substantially.

3. What can you offer us that someone else can’t? Since you can’t possibly know what backgrounds the other candidates have, you must respond by describing your known strengths. If you feel certain that you have some valuable or unique experience, you would certainly want to use that as an example.

4. What are your three most important career accomplishments? Choose accomplishments that are related to the job you are interviewing for, and ones which your interviewer can relate to. Avoid unnecessary detail. A question like this gives you a fantastic opportunity to sell yourself. Take full advantage of it.

5. What is your greatest weakness? When asked this difficult question, it is best to state a genuine weakness, but one which will not be required for the job you are seeking. I m not good at working with repetitive details. I learn methods very quickly, but if I do the same thing over and over, my mind starts to wander. I guess I need variety. I ‘m very good with details, however, when I’m working on a project. For example, I handled all the details for a large convention. Our president said it was the best-organized convention had ever attended. When using this response, make sure it sounds reasonable. If you were a chemist, you wouldn’t state that your greatest weakness is that you’re a lousy typist. You an also answer by stating a weakness that others perceive and then state your opinion. Some people tell me I’m not aggressive enough when I sell. Sometimes I agree with them, but then I remind myself that my sales are as high or highest than theirs. I think I’ve found the sales style that is right for me. Or you could state a weakness and then explain how you have overcome it. I don’t like to fire people. I’ve compensates for that by holding extensive interviews with the top candidates and performing thorough background checks. That way I hire only those with the greatest potential. If I don’t find what I want I won’t hire second best. I’ll keep looking until find the right person. Then I develop a complete training program. I haven’t had to fire anyone in three years. Everyone I’ve hired has been promoted and I believe each of them will be promoted several more times.

6. What kind of recommendations will you get from previous employers? You should know the answer to this question. Companies today are very hesitant to make negative statements about former employees because of possible lawsuits, yet some will. If you been fired from one of your last three jobs. You would be wise to contact your former boss or the personnel department and what they will say. If the termination was justified but you have since changed your ways, explain that to your former boss. Explain, too, how the firing was actually a blessing in disguise because you really learned from the experience. If you know you will receive good recommendations you might simply say, I’m certain each of my former bosses will have only positive things to say about me. We worked well together and I learned a lot from each one. You could also expand and describe some specific points the supervisors might make. In other words, let your supervisors sell you even though they are not present. You may have had excellent relations with all but one former employer, in which case you might state. I ‘m confident I’ll get high marks from all of them except possibly Simmons Company. I feel I made some very positive contributions there. I decreased staff turnover, and I also increased the hiring of women and minorities in my department. That was appreciated by personnel, but I know it wasn’t appreciated by my boss. I really don’t know what she will about me.

7. What are your career goals? This question tests whether your career goals match what the organization has to offer and whether you have carefully determined your goals. Sound clear and definite about your goals, but express yourself based on what you know about the organization. Mention only those goals that you feel the organization can help you attain. Express them in terms of the experience you hope to receive and the expertise you hope to develop. You could use the opportunity to describe your present level of expertise and then how you want to develop yourself. You want to leave the impression that you are a growth-oriented person with realistic expectations regarding promotion opportunities.

8. Describe your perfect job. Be careful. This is not the place to describe your dream job. Select those parts of your dream job, however, that you think could be fulfilled in the job you are interviewing for. If you dream of a job that would take you to Europe twice a year but this job offers no chance of that don’t mention your desire to travel. The greatest danger here is in becoming too specific. If you mention things that cannot be fulfilled in the job, the employer may assume you would soon become dissatisfied.

9. What is most important to you in a job? What do you value in a job-challenge, good working conditions, friendly coworkers, a boss you respect? Mention one or two items and explain why it is important. If money is number one, list at least one other aspect so that the interviewer won’t think that it’s the only thing that matters.

10. Why do you want to change careers? I define career change as a change of fields such that the skills and knowledge required to adequately perform the new occupation appear on the surface to be significantly different from what was required in the former occupation. The key phrase is on the surface. Most would agree that moving from teacher to sales representative is a career change, but when you get below the surface, you will see the similarities. Both motivate –one to buy, the other to learn. Both must be able to simplify and explain difficult concepts. Of closing techniques, but teachers frequently make excellent salespeople. Here’s my point. In most cases, refuse to accept the label of career change. Here’s an example. I really don’t feel I m changing careers. Basically I’ll be using the same skills I’ve developed during the last eight years of my career. My knowledge base will be somewhat different, but I took several college courses in this area, and during the last three years I‘ve been subscribing to three trade journals and devouring every article in this specialty. This is not just a question of semantics. The employer has stated that she believes you are making a career change. In essence, that’s an objection. The employer is actually saying. You don’t have a track record, so how can I judge your ability to perform this job? Unless you can overcome the objection, no job offer will be made. Respond by saying. I really don’t feel I’m changing careers. Avoid defensiveness.