Job-Seeking Skills Resources: Job Interview Skills

Handling General Questions

Different fields may have different expectations of the candidates and thus require different approaches inhandling questions. For many questions, there is no one single model answer. What most employers are looking for are integrity, honesty and confidence. Don’t just state that your skills are excellent. Demonstrate your abilities by giving examples. Check the following sites for advice:

Virtual Interview – contains interview questions with interactive feedback
S.O.A.R. Model – An example on how to demonstrate your expertise

Through Other Eyes

This is a video the HKUST Center for Language Education designed to help you perform more effectively in job interviews. It tells the story of two final-year students, Kelvin Lam and Angela Wong, as they go through a series of job interviews. You are going to watch excerpts of the video, where Angela and Kelvin handle certain questions at their campus interviews and company interviews. In each excerpt, we would encourage you to put yourself in Angela’s and Kelvin’s shoes and think how you would have handled those situations.

Before you watch the video, think about the following questions:

What is the purpose of the interview for most employers?
What do you think interviewers are looking for in candidates in the interview?
List the questions interviewers may ask in a job interview.

Now watch the video:

Q1. Tell Me about Your University Courses.

Task 1
Interviewer’s question: “What have you learned from your University courses?”
Kelvin’s answer: “I’ve learned many things.”
How would you improve his reply?

Task 2
The next question is “But can you use what you’ve learned if you come and work with us?”

• How would you reply?
• Here’s Kelvin’s reply and some other common responses to this type of question:

Do you think some of these responses are better than others? If so, why?

Q2. Tell me about Your Major Subject.

Interviewers are interested in knowing why you chose the subject you’re majoring in.
What qualities do you think interviewers are looking for when they ask this question?
How would you explain why you chose your major?

Task 3
Look at these reasons that have been given by many students. If you were an interviewer, what would you think about them?

Task 4
Angela says that at first she chose Business Studies because that was the way to make money, but later she found she was really interested in what she was studying and came to like Business because it was about people:
“and that’s what I like – meeting people, talking to people, helping people.”

What do you think of the way that Angela handles this part of the interview?

Q3. Tell me about Your Strengths and Weaknesses.

Your strengths

How should you sell yourself? Is it better to be modest or confident about your personal qualities in an interview? How do you like this answer?

“My strongest abilities are organisational, problem-solving and interpersonal communications skills. Let me tell you about a project that required all three. …”

Task 5
What would you say about your strengths? Write down three of your strengths and illustrate them with examples. Do not sell yourself short. Take credit for the things you have worked hard to achieve.

Remember to justify these strengths with evidence.

Your weaknesses

Decide in advance how you want to answer this question, and you should never be caught unprepared.

Let’s look at some strategies adopted by students when asked about their weaknesses:

• Show that it is a strength, not a weakness.
  “If anything, I would say that I’m too enthusiastic. I get inolved – I can’t help it. But I’ve never missed a deadline.”

• Explain why the problems occurred – show that you are not to blame.
  “No, I always get my things done on time, except once, when I was ill, and another time when my computer went down.”

• Admit that you have a weakness, but make it clear that you know about it and have been trying to do something about it.
  “Yes, I could get involved with soemthing and forget to meet the schedule, but I am very aware of it now, and I think I am improving in terms of meeting deadlines.”

• Admit the weakness – be honest.
  “Yes, I could get too involved with soemthing. When I get interested in a project, I find that I simply can’t help going deeper amd deeper. Sometimes this causes problems.”

Task 6
Which of the above strategies would you use? Why?

When choosing a strategy, you should always consider the employer’s viewpoint: what kind of candidate do they want to take on? Most employers want people who can face their own weaknesses honestly and have taken steps to overcome them.

Task 7
Think of a personal weakness that you would readily admit to an interviewer. Then try expressing it as effectively as possible to yourself/ your friends.

Q4. Looking at Career Goals

Another typical question in a job interview is
“How do you see yourself in the next five years?”
How would you handle this question?

Let’s look at Angela’s response.

Q5. Why Should We Hire You?

How would you answer this question?

This is your opportunity to convince the employer that you are the best person for the job. Detail how you have the skills, personality and enthusiasm to excel in the position. This is not the time to be shy or humble. The next person being interviewed won’t be!

Do you remember Kelvin’s reply?

“I think I can be a great asset to your company and become a top manager. I am hard working and honest and I think that people will listen to me.”

Do you think the interviewer was impressed?

How could Kelvin make his answer more persuasive?
An easy way to prepare for this answer is to practise the “I am, I can and I did” formula.
What employers are looking for are examples of your past experience to help them decide whether your ability, your skills and your knowledge are suitable for the position.

Task 9
Close your eyes and think hard: Why Should You Hire Me? Why?

Think of the benefits a company will reap by your presence. What contribution, impact and difference are you going to make to the company? Try to convince a friend.

Q6. What is your expected salary?

It is not advisable to bring up the issue of salary, yet. But be prepared to be asked the question. You may answer by asking their salary range, or give a range of what you understand to be the market value of the job. Also, think about what your bottom line is.

Handling difficult questions

A job seeker can sometimes find some questions difficult to answer. For example, you might find a question too personal or too embarrassing to answer. However, you should not panic. Let us look at some typical questions. Can you identify the purpose of the questions? How would you answer them?

• Mr X, I can see that you have been getting good grades in school, but you do not seem to have taken part in any extra-curricular activities.
• Miss Y, I understand that you graduated from the HKUST six months ago. You must have been to quite a few interviews. What sort of responses have you been receiving?
• As you can see from our advertisement, we require somebody with at least one year’s full-time experience in our field. Since you are only a very recent graduate, what makes you think that you will qualify for the job?
• What made you choose our company?
• How would you respond to the following situation if you were a laboratory supervisor in our company? One of the older laboratory technicians who has worked here for 20 years has suddenly started coming in to work two hours late every morning. His performance is also deteriorating. What would you do?
• What salary would you expect if you were hired?

Purpose of questions

How would you have answered those questions? Again there is no one single best answer or strategy for all fields. The key is to be HONEST and SINCERE. Remember to highlight your strengths and be honest about your past weaknesses or mishaps. What is most important is to consider the intention of the interviewer, and tackle each question carefully. Remember that interviewers want to see the kind of person you really are. If you relax and answer questions comfortably and purposefully, they will gain a good impression of you.

The questions above can be categorised into the following types:

• a question which you might find embarrassing to answer because of your poor academic results or qualifications
• a question which makes you think you have to admit your character weakness
• a question to give you the opportunity to talk about your strengths without sounding arrogant
• a question to let you justify why you applied for the job even though you lack the required experience
• a question for you to express your views freely on the job or the company
• a question for you to express your views freely on current affairs or the political situation
• a situation or a case for you to analyse in order to find out your analytical power and your degree of maturity.

General advice

Task 1

Write down two difficult or challenging questions which may come up in the interview. Prepare appropriate answers, and remember them.

Task 2

Sell your strengths and accomplishments in 60-second in front of your friend(s).
If you have come across or heard any difficult questions asked in a job interview that you’d like to add to our list, please email to us the question and answer.

**Virtual Interview **HKUST Career Center Site **CUHK Job Interview Skills Site **HKU English for Professional Communication Site