You may well be intimidated by the question and answer section of any job employment interviews that you attend. This need not be so. Just like political leaders like Barak Obama and Sarah Palin come off well in interviews you can as well. It comes down to preparation, anticipation and even practice.

It is no secret in the H.R. human resources trade as well with experienced managers and interviewees that in the end there are only so many questions that can be asked. The same questions get asked and answered again and again in job interviews – so why not prepare for the eventuality of these probing questions so that you come off looking assured , confident and ahead of the rest of the pack. You will become a real find, a real gem for most employers to hire.

It is true that the core of an interview comes down to a question and answer period. Generally this includes questions and answers from both the interviewer and you as well. Not that you want to be in “control” of the interview. Such tactics early on often indicate trouble already for the employer with their candidate even before being hired – and often lead to an early ending for the specific interview. Just answer the questions – easier if you are prepared and be prepared to ask a few or several thoughtful and relevant questions. Generally it’s expected if the interview is serious about the job in question they will have a few questions to ask.

Generally it can be said that the standard questions that you will be asked in a job employment interview fall into three general categories. General information questions, behavioral questions and lastly character or character values questions.

Firstly in terms of general information and general information questions to test the waters initially and start initial conversation you may well be asked standard questions to be expected for example – Why do you want the job ? , What type of work do you most enjoy or excel at? , What are your strongest skills? And the classic “You look like a person who knows what they want and where they want to go. Where do you see yourself in 2 or 5 years? These questions may well go along hand in hand with questions of your long term goals. Lastly in terms of general information the current trend is teams rather than “lone wolves”. You invariably may be asked “Are you a team player”.

Next in line you can expect a slew of “behavioral questions”. The basic premise of these questions is that you’re past behavior and actions are the best indicator and guess of your future behavior. Expect questions on how you reacted to past situations you found difficult and moist difficult. What did you learn from these situations? Have you improved as a result? In addition you may well be asked your actions and reactions to hypothetical situations and perhaps even “role playing”.

Lastly you may well be gauged by “character questions”. Some firms even employ tests and exams whose score is judged to be highly accurate in gauging the character and integrity of candidates. It is a well known , but seldom mentioned fact , that the biggest source of loss and theft in most commercial businesses and enterprises are not from outside agencies or customers in say a retail store , but rather the most major source of loss and pilferage in businesses is internal by employees themselves. Thus companies try to weed out and reduce the chances of this occurring from the onset by hiring employees who have great personal honor and integrity. You may well ask hypothetical questions on paper or directly on your views of customer and staff theft. A customer does not pay for a chocolate bar, you catch an employee paying back the firm for a “loan” etc etc.

You may even get hypothetical questions of whether to declare a small item at the border to the nice customs people when you have only been gone a day and it’s a small item.

Along with these character questions you expect of how well you work under “stress”.

All in all it can be said that there are only so many questions in life and in a job interview. Further these questions can only be asked so many different ways. If you want to do well and excel in job employment interviews in the end it all comes down to preparation, anticipation and practice.

By: Shaun Stevens

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