5 Interview Questions You Must Be Prepared For

Because job interviews are so nervewracking, we often spend days or weeks preparing. But it's almost impossible to predict which questions you'll be asked or how things will go.

Bernard Marr, a global enterprise performance expert and a best-selling business author, says in a recent LinkedIn post that preparing for an interview is difficult. "In most cases we practice the answers to a long list of possible questions. The problem is that this can leave you over-prepared, and as a consequence your pre-conceived answers can come across a bit robotic."

So here we're going to share some basic interview questions preparing those you can answer almost any other types of question the interviewer may ask to you.

Introduce Yourself

Let’s be direct. This is the one question almost every interviewer asks, and admit it or not, most interviewees despise it. You have to explain your whole life and what you can do in a few sentences, and it definitely isn’t an easy job.
With such questions, it is important to note that you don’t need to waste many of your words telling about where you graduated from. Just mention it one sentence, and move on. Focus more on your qualifications, and what you can do. Tell them about your qualities such as honest, hard-working, etc. Don’t be too blunt about it. Say things like, “I expect you want great input from me, and I am sure I won’t disappoint you” (bla bla bla).

What Brings You To This Interview?

Most interviewers will ask you how you got to know about their job vacancy, and will also inquire after your previous job, and how you learned about that. This might seem like a straight-forward question, but it’s much more complicated on the inside. For the first or second time, finding a job through online job portals is fine. But any subsequent job searches there will raise the red flag, because people looking for jobs on online job portals are usually just looking for any job. This doesn’t give a very good impression about your commitment. It’d always be better to go for answers such as “Read your vacancy listing on your website” or something similar, which makes them feel important :)

Why Do You Want This Job?

Interviewers will also ask you what you know about their company. A lot of people don’t know exactly what a company does when applying to it. For example, a sales manager doesn’t need to know what exactly his software house specializes in. For most candidates, not knowing what a company does can be a deal breaker right there. Always do your homework, and research that company. Crawl through their website, and see what products or services are they offering. In the interview, if you can relate to a certain product or service, and suggest an improvement, you’ll gain instant favor in the interviewer’s eyes.

What is Special About You?

Let’s face it; every candidate that comes through the employer’s door will be praising themselves in their interview. This means that not only do you have to brag about yourself, but in order to be credible you will have to give specific examples from when you have achieved greatness in the past. Tell them about when you solved that huge issue for your company’s biggest client and saved the Christmas party for everyone. Whatever nice and tangible achievement makes you special, memorize it and get ready to deliver it when prompted.

What Are Your Weaknesses?

Keep your answer positive and upbeat.Acknowledge where you are short on skills but describe what you’re doing to build on your strengths.For example, if you lack management experience, a recent role as a team leader that required you to co-ordinate a group.

Why Did You Leave Your Previous Job?

That is, if you had any. Interviewers want to know why you left your previous job, so they can asses your character. Don’t say things like “had a fight with the boss” or something that might degrade your own self. Instead, tell them how the work environment wasn’t very good there, or how you’ve always wanted to work for a better company such as the current one you’re applying to.

What Value Will You Add to Our Company?

The interviewer is hoping you might be the solution to their problems, so let’s tune in to WIIFM and crank up the volume. List your main skills and how these will be directly applicable if you get the job. Back your claims up with achievements from your previous jobs, preferably quantified ($x increase in sales, 30% savings on paper clips). Forget what you want to get out of the job you are interviewing for, this is all about what they will get from you.

Can You Work Well With The Team?

Here’s your chance to elaborate on how well you get on with people from all walks of life. Tell them how you have a strong opinion of your own, but always make compromises and move forward for the best interest of the team and the company. Throw in some examples where you went the extra mile for your team and indicate how you will do the same for the team you would join.

How Much Salary You Expect?

Aah finally, this is the trickiest of all. Most interviewers ask this, and most interviewees feel it awkward. There’s no need to be subtle about it. Just tell them what salary you expect. The trick here is to find the right value for yourself. If you over-price yourself, most likely, you won’t be hired. And if you under-price yourself, then you would be giving away your services cheaply. Research on this, and find out what average salary a person of your qualification has in an industry you are applying to.



There is an awful lot of chitchat, jibber jabber and small talk going on in interviews. When you take a closer look at the exchanges, you can see that there are only a few questions the interviewer is really bothered about. The rest are simply there to create rapport and filling the gaps.


The reason you will always struggle to prepare answers to every single question you are asked in an interview is that the interviewer themselves didn’t prepare them. They don’t really care too much about all the answers you give either. What we do know is that an interviewer has one major objective to fulfill and that is to get the answers to some basic questions. Based on the answers, he or she will then compare the answers to that of any other interviewer’s and they will then rule you in or out. Here is the list:

So these are the pick of our most popular interview questions. If you have had success in interviews, then do share your experience with us through your valuable comments.