Interview questions you might be asked

The types of questions you'll be asked will depend on the role, organisation and industry you're applying for.

Practicing your answers to common interview questions and question types can build your confidence in doing interviews. You can't be sure what you'll be asked, and some questions will be industry-specific. But you can prepare answers on different topics, such as your competencies, strengths, values and how you've responded to your weaknesses or past failures.

Motivation and suitability questions

Central to the interview process will be the employer's need to understand your reasons for applying to the role.

• Why do you want to work for us?
• What attracts you to this position?
• Why do you want this job?

Researching an employer is essential if you want your interview to be successful. The knowledge and understanding you gain through your research will help you perform confidently during an interview and show that you have a genuine interest in working for the company.

However the employer chooses to phrase it, don't underestimate the importance of your response to these types of questions. By asking motivational questions, the employer is likely to want to establish:

• What do you know about the company and the position?
• What evidence do you have to back up your interest?
• What do you hope to get out of the job, apart from a salary?

The 'evidence' you offer to justify and demonstrate your interest needs to be concrete. Simply stating that you've 'always wanted a career with an organisation like this' won't be enough. Consider relevant experience you've gained through internships, projects, university modules or involvement in volunteering, activities or societies.

The recruiter will also want to address some 'unspoken questions', including:

• Do you have a good understanding of what the job role involves?
• Do you want the job?
• If you were to take the job, how long would you be looking to stay in the role and with the organisation?
• Are you serious enough about the job to have carried out thorough research?

Why does good employer research matter?

Knowing about new developments or key issues in the sector you're applying to can help demonstrate your enthusiasm and knowledge. So keeping up to date with industry press and news is vital in your preparation.

We've put together our top tips on gathering information about employers and where to do your research. This will help you in your response to the question, "why do you want to work for us?".

Consider who the organisation works with, what their mission statement, objectives or values are and what projects they've worked on recently. Relate these to your desire and enthusiasm to work with them. Also review the information you've got about the job role, including the person specification and revisit the content of your application.

If you choose not to spend time on research, you may end up resorting to empty flattery and waffle in your responses. This won't impress the recruitment panel.

Competency-based questions

Competency-based questions are popular with recruiters as they let them compare candidates. They can also be used on the principle that past behaviour is the best indicator of future performance.

While competency-based questions can be used by employers across all sectors, competency-based interviews may be particularly favoured by large graduate recruiters as part of an assessment centre.

Key competencies frequently sought by employers

• adaptability
• communication
• commercial awareness
• conflict resolution
• decisiveness
• independence
• flexibility
• leadership
• problem-solving
• organisation
• teamwork

Make sure you refer to the person specification for any additional skills or attributes they may be looking for. These types of questions aim to test a variety of skills and you'll need to answer in the context of actual events.

Expect questions opening with:

• "Tell us about a time when you…"
• "Give an example of…"
• "Describe how you…"

Examples of competency-based questions

• "Give an example of a time when you had to coordinate the work of other people."
• "Describe how your planning and organisation resulted in the achievement of a personal or group task."
• "Tell us about a time when you had to work effectively as a member of a team."
• "Give an example of a time you handled conflict in the workplace."
• "How do you maintain good working relationships with your colleagues?"
• "Tell me about a big decision you've made recently. How did you go about it?"
• "Give me an example of a challenge you faced in the workplace and tell me how you overcame it."
• "Describe a situation where you solved a problem creatively."

Answering competency-based questions

You can find your responses and examples from experiences including your studies, part-time work, volunteering and leisure interests. When answering these questions give clear examples and analyse the situation.

As a student or graduate, you may have a limited amount of work-related examples to draw on but aim to use a different example for each competency you're asked to discuss.

To give a thorough response, use the STAR technique:

• Situation – briefly describe the background to the situation and provide context
• Task – specifically describe your responsibility at the time
• Action – describe what you did
• Result – describe the outcome of your actions and what you could have done differently

Where possible, try to relate your answers to the role you're interviewing for. Don't attempt to wing it by thinking on your feet; the quality of your responses will suffer.

Find out more top tips from our advisers in the video.

Strength-based questions

Strength-based questions are about predicting your future potential. They let the employer identify what you're particularly good at and what inspires you.

By asking strength-based interview questions, the employer is looking at:

• How well you're likely to perform in the job role, not just whether you can do it
• Whether you'd be motivated in and energised by the job
• Your behaviours, including how you typically respond to situations you may come across in the role

The employer will want to make sure your abilities match the role. Questions may be more personal so the employer can get a genuine insight into your personality and see if you'd be a good fit for the company.

The questions could be:

• closed – requiring a 'yes'/'no' answer
• open – requiring a longer answer
• hypothetical – focusing on how you would act in a situation
• behavioural – focusing on how you respond

Examples of strength-based interview questions

• "What motivates you?"
• "What do you find draining or tiresome?"
• "What energises you?"
• "How do you judge success?"
• "What has been your most significant achievement?"
• "What has been your biggest failure?"
• "Would your friends say you have a strength/ability (such as the ability to learn quickly)?"
• "How do you feel when you're faced with a sudden obstacle to your plans? What do you do to resolve it?"
• "If a colleague was struggling to make a complex decision, what would you do to help?"
• "Do you think this role will play to your strengths?"

As with any other interview questions, you'll need to include specific examples to justify and illustrate your responses. These can come from your studies, work experience, previous employment, volunteering or extra-curricular activities. Using specific examples will give you more to talk about and show evidence of previous capability.

Keep in mind what recruiters are looking for in their candidate, but don't become too focused on this. Research has indicated that when we're motivated by what we're talking about, we tend to give longer and more detailed answers. We also use positive language so, where you can, be natural in your response.

Value-based questions

Value-based interview questions are increasingly common in recruitment processes and across different work sectors. Recruiters use them to see if you share the same values as the organisation and to assess your overall fit in the workplace.

Remember, an organisation's values often define and determine how their employees collaborate, the type of developments they'll commit to and the types of people they want to recruit and retain.

By using value-based interview questions, the employer will be looking to see if your priorities align with the organisation's goals and what drives your behaviour in the workplace.

Common values that employers may be looking to identify, especially in a corporate environment, may include:

• Social responsibility – this includes consideration of social and environmental solutions to business issues and operations
• Integrity – this involves acting with professionalism and transparency and adhering to the organisation's policies
• Collaboration – working effectively with others to meet shared goals
• Innovation –developing and implementing new ideas to improve the performance of the organisation/business
• Customer/client orientation – working positively to both maintain and increase customer or client satisfaction
• Accountability –taking responsibility for both actions and decisions in team and individual projects

Questions about weaknesses, failures and resilience

If employers want to know about your strengths, they'll almost inevitably want to know about your weaknesses. This can also be about figuring out if can learn from mistakes and how resilient you are.

Questions about weaknesses or failures

• "What has been your biggest failure to date and what did you learn from it?"
• "Identify three of your main weaknesses."
• "Describe a time when something didn't work out as you had planned. What did you do and what did you learn from it?"
• "Tell us about a mistake you've made."
• "How do you deal with setbacks?"

When discussing weaknesses, you can positively frame your answer by picking characteristics that you've actively taken steps to improve. For example, self-confidence issues could have previously led to difficulty accepting criticism, but tell the interviewer that you've learned to embrace constructive feedback as it allows for self-improvement.

Avoid saying you have no weaknesses, that you're a perfectionist, or that you work too hard. These are generic responses that the employer might interpret as a sign of a lack of self-awareness.

When addressing questions about failures and/or mistakes, employers may be looking for you to reflect on your experiences. Again, frame your response positively. Evidence how you've been proactive in changing your behaviours.

Remember, practising these types of questions are also good ways to test your problem-solving skills and assess how aware you are of your areas for development.

Questions about resilience

Resilience can be described as the ability to:

• overcome barriers
• adapt to problems in different contexts
• develop appropriate solutions

Resilience is increasingly seen as a desirable attribute by graduate employers. So they may design some of the questions to asses this during your recruitment process. They may ask:

• "How do you respond to setbacks?"
• "How do you cope with pressure?"
• "Tell me about a time when you worked with someone you didn't agree with."
• "How would you respond if you received negative feedback from your manager?"
• "Outline an example of when something didn't go to plan. What action did you take and what do you feel you learnt from the experience?"

Remember, an employer isn't expecting you to be a 'superhuman'. Don't be afraid to talk about examples of where you asked for help. Resilience isn't about being unaffected by stress or pressure. It's about the ability to recognise this and build on coping strategies to manage it. Resilience isn't a static quality.

Employer may be assessing your ability to adapt to a new workplace and role. They'll also assess your ability to take a logical approach, think innovatively, take ownership, and not give up at the first hurdle.

Scenario-based questions

The questions asked in interviews won't be limited to your motivation, competencies and strengths. Employers use a range of questions and may choose scenario-based or situational questions to diversify the interview process.

These questions are designed to see if you can think on your feet and to find out how you'd deal with a particular situation. Rather than being asked to describe a past experience, you're presented with a hypothetical scenario.

The interviewer may start with an ambiguous prompt, such as "How would you respond to...?" or "How would you deal with...?"

Examples of scenario-based questions

• "You're due to deliver an event as part of your role, but find that you're short-staffed. How would you manage this?"
• "You're managing the front reception desk and you need to deal with an angry and disgruntled customer. How would you respond to them?"
• "Two important colleagues in the organisation demand your attention at the same time. What would you do?"
• "How would you handle it if you believed strongly in a recommendation you made in a meeting, but most of your co-workers shot it down?"
• "How would you deal with a colleague at work who you seem to be unable to build a successful working relationship?"
• "You disagree with the way your supervisor tells you to handle a problem. What would you do?"

Remember, the employer is looking for logical thought and a demonstration of your analytical and problem-solving skills.

There is not a right or wrong answer scenario-based or situational questions. However, you must provide a clear plan of action about how you would deal with such a situation.

Where you can, back up your answer. What is your thought process behind this – to support colleagues, to follow procedures, to manage expectations of others, to limit the impact on the workplace and individuals involved?

It can be tricky to prepare for these types of questions, but it's important to think through the types of situations you might find yourself in based on the role description. Also, consider the skills and qualities they may be looking for in their suitable candidate based on the person specification.

Technical questions

For some job roles, the employer wants you to demonstrate a technical skills-set. These questions are more common for particular career sectors, including scientific, engineering or technology-based roles.

They are designed to assess specialist skills essential for effective performance in the job role. Some employers will favour a separate technical interview, while others might combine technical questions with general questions in one main interview.

Top tips for technical interviews

• Where you can, avoid using jargon – assume your interviewees have limited knowledge so you don't miss out basic, but vital information.
• When discussing your experience and achievements, make sure you focus on your contribution to these events.
• Listen to the questions carefully before starting to respond and be confident in asking for clarification, where necessary.
• Don't forget, even if it's a technical interview, the employer will still be looking for you to evidence and demonstrate transferable skills, such as communication and personal skills – you need to show that you can work well with others and communicate your ideas clearly.

Technical question resources

• TARGETjobs – technical interview tips for graduates, by graduates
• TARGETjobs – technical interviews: putting your graduate science skills to the test
• TARGETjobs – impressing in quantity surveying and building surveying technical interviews
• TARGETjobs – technical interviews for graduate engineering jobs

General questions and typical difficult questions

Hopefully your interview will run smoothly. However, it's good to spend some time thinking about how you'd deal with difficult questions.

While people may find certain types of questions more challenging than others, we've identified common questions that might need more preparation.

Questions to ask the employer

The interview is also your opportunity to find out more about the organisation. At the end of the interview process, the employer will offer you the opportunity to ask them any questions you may have. Anything you ask should cover the work itself or your career development.

Prepare some questions in advance, but don't panic if all your queries have been answered – mention this positively. Remember to ask questions if the moment naturally arises during the interview itself.

Examples of questions to ask the employer

• "What support does the organisation offer to new graduates?"
• "How often is a graduate's performance appraised?"
• "What development plans does the organisation have?"
• "What is a typical career path in this job role?"
• "What are the company's expectations of the role?"
• "What will the priorities be?"
• "What's your experience of working for this organisation?"
• "What challenges do you see in the role?"
• "What do you think will be the major challenges facing this company over the next three years?"

Is there anything I've missed?

You may find that following an interview you leave cursing yourself for not mentioning a key piece of information. Asking this question lets you make sure everything has been covered. It can help prompt some initial feedback from the employer about how the interview has gone or offer them an opportunity to prompt you on areas they want to find out more about.

Avoid undoing all of the good work you've done during the interview by asking ill-fitting or inappropriate questions at the end. An interview isn't usually the time to ask questions about pay, benefits or perks unless the employer raises this.

You might get more chances to ask questions during the recruitment process, such as talking to other staff outside of the formal interview. You may be introduced to a recent graduate to chat about their job, taken on a tour around the building or be joined by other staff for lunch.

Use this opportunity to find out more about the employer and the role. Appropriate questions in this context might include:

• "What job do you do and what does this involve?"
• "What type of products/projects/cases do you work on?"
• "How long have you been working with the organisation?"
• "Did you start in your current role as a graduate?"
• "Is this a friendly place to work? Are there social events or other activities to get involved in?"

The interview panel might get feedback from everyone you meet during your visit - so be aware of what you ask and how you come across in more informal situations. Remember, they'll be looking for a 'good fit' for their organisation and team.