Any tips on answering questions when you're in a job interview?

When you’re in a job interview, you will be being asked questions. You will have to give responses spontaneously, so be planned to give positive examples for your work ethic and your strengths and weaknesses in the work place.

Remember that some interviewers have preconceived ideas about the kind of answers they expect.

Since you will never know what’s coming, some more general advice: No Teen-Speak (watch the “like, you-know” stuff.) Good handshake. SMILE. Eye contact. Enthusiasm, especially about the company. Don’t diss another candidate. Don’t ramble. Don’t talk over the interviewer, or interrupt. Good luck!

Be positive. Never diss your coworkers or former companies.

Be direct. Don’t beat around the bush or give overly long-winded answers.

Be honest. Put a good spin on it- but never lie about your skills or experience.

Relax. If you are too tense it can come across as being less than honest.

Be prepared. Know what they are looking for in an employee. Read their website and try to keep your answers in the same tone as their corporate environment.

Wear an outfit you feel confident in. It will show during the interview and the last thing you want to be doing is worrying about a scratchy bit of clothing or some such.

Good luck!

My daughter got this DVD when she was looking for a job. She found it extremely helpful. She landed the first ob she interviews and she even had her husband watch it before his last promotion interview.

The best tip I can give you is to prepare. There are a lot of websites that will do two things:

1. List possible interview questions
2. List the top 10 interview questions as well as how to answer them and how not to answer them

Go through as many interview questions as possible and really think about your answers. This helps substantially so you aren’t saying “ummmmm” or having long pauses when answering a question. Also be prepared with clear examples that demonstrate each skill you would like to emphasize.

Your answers should not be overly long as this can become tedious and they should not be repetitive. Make them short and to the point but long enough to answer the question.

Also do not overlook the section when they ask you to ask them questions. This can make or break an interview. You need to prepare some well thought out questions to ask them and they should not involve pay etc… at this point. A good one is: “what is your ideal employee like”.

I ditto what other’s have said but especially what @pdworkin said about not saying anything negative about previous employers or co-workers. And about making eye contact. Also no jokes please unless they are rated appropriate for a 5 year old.

As someone said—you will be asked to talk about situations you’ve been in where you demonstrated various skills, abilities, or aspects of your personality. Start thinking about what those can be and practice telling them. Think about it from the STAR perspective: Situation, Task, Action, Result. You should be including all four in any story.

Don’t be afraid to take a moment and think before answering a question. A well thought out answer is always preferable to a jumble of words.

Do a mock interview. Get your mom or a friend to ask you questions they find online. Tape yourself. Watch the tape at least twice: once with sound and once without. Without sound you’ll really focus on things you do that are distracting or generally bad (nervous habits tend to come through here). If possible, do something that will actually make you nervous during this part (like get your family to watch or invite a guy you like over—whatever).

Answers should be long enough to answer the question, but answer it fairly succinctly.

Don’t forget to tell them you want the job. Ask when you should expect to hear from them again. Send a note afterwards thanking them for the interview. If you get out of the interview and think, “Oh, man, I really should have said XXXX”, include that in the note.

Get a good night’s sleep before. Eat breakfast unless that makes you queasy. Brush your teeth. Lay out your outfit the night before or in advance just so you don’t have to worry about it.

Be comfortable with information about the company. Make and maintain eye contact. Don’t say anything negative if you can avoid it.

Think of a few questions to ask the interviewer ahead of time that show you’ve researched the company. Write them down. Bring them with you. This way you can reference them if you like. Remember—you are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.