The interviewer is quite clear with what he seeks in a candidate with every question that he asks. Let’s a few common Interview questions and learn how to answer them.

Q1 ) Tell me about your self.

The interviewer can read everything about you in your CV so he doesn’t want to listen to everything written there. All he is concerned about is your education, your experience, and your achievements. I pity those who start telling about their hobbies as the interviewer is least bothered of what they do in their free time.

This is how I would answer it : 

“I am Sumit. I did my 10th from Ryan Internation School and my 12th from DPS. I did my graduation from Delhi University in Political Science. I took a Post Graduate Diploma in Management and after that a Master’s Degree in English Literature. I have worked with different institutes and colleges as a Verbal trainer and I have trained students for Interview Skills, Communication skills and above all Social Etiquette. Also, I have trained professionals and students for IELTS, TOEFL, GRE, and GMAT for more than 7 years. I am a writer at SumitSodhi.com, which is my own website and have many people reading what I write.”

If you don’t have this much experience, you can start with your qualification, talk about small achievements at school and college and talk about your internship a bit.

The achievements that you mention should prove something wonderful about you. It can be about winning a debate, something at the state or national level or something strong to help the interviewer know that there is something good about you.

Your achievements cannot be that you stood first in a “salad making” or a “Maggie making competition”. Even if you won a prize in dance or singing, don’t talk about it as it doesn’t prove anything about how you would be an asset to the organization. It doesn’t even contribute to the skills that you would need in office. (They would never ask you to dance before your senior to entertain him).

If the achievements are to do with leadership, speaking, reading, writing or handling a tough situation, they are worth mentioning.

Q 2)  What are your Strengths?

The strengths are again written there in the CV but he wants to listen to it from you and he even wants you to justify them. How would you justify them?

Mention your strength: ” I have a positive attitude.”

  Now don’t wait for the interviewer to ask you to justify it. Do it this way:

“Every time I have a challenge, something which I haven’t experienced before, I handle it without feeling bad about it. I have seen people calling challenges as problems, but for me, there aren’t any problems, there are challenges which can be worked out. I remember, in class 12th, the school teachers failed everyone in preboards by keeping the checking really hard. My friends were crying over it, but I took it as a learning. I thought that if checking goes this strict in the real board exams, I can fail. I thought it’s time that I make myself even better and raise my standards than asking the school to lower their’s.” There is another example about how I have a positive outlook. When I started teaching, a student kept on asking questions in a way that I felt there is something wrong about the way I was explaining. As I discussed it with another teacher, she said that there are many students who try to challenge the teacher and I must scold him. I thought he can challenge me only if I lack knowledge. I prepared even better and instead of scolding him, I answered all his questions and he got to know that the teacher can’t be challenged. I never had that student challenging me again.”

You can make such justifications for all your strengths.

Q3) Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

The interviewer wants to know how promising you are as an employee. He wants to see If you would want to stick to the organization for long or not.

Answer it this way: “I see myself as a senior professional in your esteemed organization. I am sure I will work hard and have promotions to be a manager in your organization one day.”

HR recruiters are answerable if an employee runs away. They have to answer the senior management and therefore they want someone who can stick to the organization for a long period.

Q 4) Why do you want to join us?

The interviewer again wants to see if you are sure enough to join and stay with the organization. He is looking for concrete reasons from you so that he can close the offer on you.

Do a little research about the company you are going for and how has the company been successful for all these years. Also, how is it that you relate yourself to the company and feel passionate about joining it.

Example: Jagran Prakashan Limited (Dainik Jagran)

Answer it this way: “Sir, as I was reading about this company, it has been there since India’s struggle for freedom and is the largest read newspaper in the country. It is like a dream come true to sit in an interview for such a huge and famous organization. Also, I think I have always had an interest in writing and being an executive for a publishing company would keep me very close to writing and publishing. Apart from that, I see my future secure with a company which has prevailed unrivaled for such a long time.”

Don’t speak anything that you cannot prove. Don’t say that you have a passion for writing if you don’t really mean it. Look for other reasons that help you relate to the company.

Q5) What are your weaknesses?

This is to check that how well you have analyzed yourself and how honest you are to yourself and to the interviewer.

Mention your weakness and the steps you have taken to work on it.

For example ” I can be a little disorganized and lose things but I have been working on it. First of all, I try not to keep anything pending so that there is nothing left to be clumsy about. Also, I keep a notepad to jot down everything that I need to do and I prioritize my tasks by ranking them from 1 to 10. This way I start with the most important and urgent work first.

For any help, email me at: sumit.trainer23@gmail.com