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Interview Questions and Techniques

It is believed that 80% of all interviews are decided within the first 5 minutes. Therefore it is important to be not only well-dressed, punctual and attentive, but also positive and polite to make a good first impression. No matter if you are going to be interviewed for a permanent or a contractor role, there are some interview questions that are openly criticised by both candidates and recruitment specialists. On the other hand, they are also crucial and are supposed to determine whether you will fit within a company’s culture and their aim is mainly to test how a candidate reacts to stress.

We have prepared a list of some difficult interview questions and tips on how to approach them and what sort of answer to give to impress the interviewer:

“So, tell me about yourself”
This is a typical interview question that is often rehearsed by the contractors beforehand. That is when you get a chance to sell yourself but remember to keep is short. The general advice is not to over-elaborate and focus on personal life and choose the piece of information that will match the job advertisement.

“What are your biggest weaknesses?”
This is a common interview question and you can approach it in numerous ways, for example:

Turn a weakness into a strength
Talk about one that will have no consequences on your performance if you get a job
Claim you have no weaknesses at all - which will usually be treated suspicious and make interviewer think you are not credible

Make sure your weaknesses are not the elements of the position advertised.

“What are your greatest strengths?”
Out of all difficult interview questions this should be the easiest one to answer, as long as you stay positive. To make a good impression it is advisable to talk about the features and attributes that will show you are a good candidate for the job. The key is to determine which of your strengths will fit best with the advertised job.

“Why should we hire you?”
By enthusiastically and confidently answering this question, you will let an interviewer know what distinguishes you from other candidates. Talk about additional qualities and values that will make you stand out from the other candidates. Focus on the contribution you know you can bring into the company. Also, comparing your own aspirations to a company’s philosophy is worth mentioning.

“What has been your greatest work achievement so far?”
The past accomplishment that you choose, should be the one that helped your employer or client and also relates to the project that you will be working on as a contractor. In general, clients like to hear about accomplishments that contributed to a client’s reputation and revenue increase as well cost reductions.

“How do you handle stressful situations?”
If a client asks this question, it means your answer is important for him to assess your ability to cope with pressure. A good idea is to illustrate your answer with some examples and prove you are familiar with time management, problem solving and decision making techniques.

“What can you do for our company that someone else can’t?”
If you get this question right, you may be one step closer to signing a contract with your client. This is when you can be more egocentric and focus on your skills, accomplishments backing everything up with relevant examples.

“What is your biggest work related failure?”
Do not try to hide your mistakes but instead talk about something that you did wrong but managed to fix. The fact is that failures are a part of our work and personal life and it does not mean you are not a good candidate. To make a positive impression, talk about your mistakes as experience lessons and that you learnt from them.

“How do you deal with criticism?”
Claiming that it does not bother you at all will not make a good impression on your interviewer. Instead, what a client wants to find out is; whether you can act professionally. One of the ways to approach this question is to describe a situation when you were criticised doing something wrong but you handled it without being upset or acting negatively.

“Give me an example of a situation that annoyed you at work”
Like the above question, this one is also designed to probe your professionalism and verify whether you are able to work under pressure. The worst thing you can do is to appear as a generally angry person, who cannot control your negative emotions. Therefore, describe a situation where you remained objective and diplomatic.

“How do you handle conflicts at work?”
The interviewer uses this question to assess your emotional intelligence and whether you can successfully negotiate and mediate to reach a satisfactory and acceptable conclusion. It is always safer to use an example when you were a mediator in a disagreement rather than one of the parties.

“Tell me about your daily rate expectations”
This is quite a delicate topic. On the one hand, it may indicate that the client is interested in you and ready to negotiate terms of the contract, but on the other, if you commit to a certain rate you won’t be able to negotiate later or if you quote too much your client may not be able to afford it. If salary was not mentioned in the job advertisement, you should always research the daily/hourly rates for a particular skills set.

“It has been quite a long time since your last contract. Why is that?”
This is a question that you should be very careful when answering. If you say that there are not many contracts around in your particular field, this could give the client an indication that you are desperate for the position. Although this may not have a negative effect on whether you get the contract it will certainly put the client in a much stronger position when negotiating rates. You should explain a gap between contracts with reasons such as; you have enjoyed spending a bit of time with the family, or that your focus is working on an interesting and challenging contract rather than taking anything just to bring some money in.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”
This is a common question, designed to identify whether you have future ambitions in a particular direction i.e. to gain enough experience through contracting to be able to move into a permanent management position. Another reason for this question is to identify whether you are a long term planner or someone who just lives and works day by day. A long term plan can indicate to a client that you are a methodical and organised worker, whereas a day by day approach can indicate a lack of commitment. Therefore it is always a good idea to have a positive answer to this question, even if it is to continue contracting because you enjoy the challenge, independence and rewards.

Researching the role and the company will enable you to craft the right answers to the questions a client may ask, this will display that you have the appropriate knowledge and confidence for the role. Whereas putting little or no effort into preparation will, without any doubt, make you appear unsuitable.

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