They Are Here To Stay
I have provided answers to some of the commonly asked questions. Use it as a reference to come up with your own answers that suit your situation and personality. Please don’t blindly start using these answers without modifying them.
1. Tell me about yourself?
This is your opportunity to showcase your communication skills, passion and technical skills. I have already provided samples in the chapter ‘How To Demonstrate Passion And Skills’.
You can also mention briefly your hobbies. If the hobbies help your job position, try to emphasize it. And if you are not a fresher and have work experience, you should mention the number of years of experience and what you did in your previous job.
2. What are your strengths?
Spend some time on making a list of your strengths. And shortlist the ones you that are relevant to the job/field. Eating 10 Dosas in one sitting is a not a strength in this case!
I usually mention my attention to detail, big appetite for research, not giving up easily in finding a solution, hunger for learning new technologies, can work alone or in a team, as strengths. These are actually my strengths and not made up. Please come up with your strengths which are important at work.
Try to mention strengths that help your particular job/field.
3. What are your weaknesses?
This question is usually followed by the previous one.
I usually turn my strengths into bit of a weakness for this question. For example, my attention to detail can turn into a problem when deadlines are looming. I tend to spend too much time making sure everything is in order. My appetite for research can go overboard sometimes. For example, I may need to use a new technology for a benign feature or an unimportant module. I end up spending time finding out everything about the new technology when it is not really necessary. These two traits can be my weaknesses sometimes.
Come up with things that hold you back in your projects/work etc, that can be seen as a weakness. But make sure you don’t say
anything that can be construed as a serious weakness that can be debilitating to your work/productivity. It may turn into a reason NOT to hire you! Balance out your strengths and weaknesses that come off as reasonable and manageable.
4. What are your short term goals?
My short term goal is to start applying what I have studied and start contributing to the team immediately.
I cannot wait to apply my skills and the knowledge I have gained to real world problems. As a fresher it is exciting to work on real problems with experienced engineers/professionals.
5. What are your long term goals?
I would like to become an expert in my field and continue to work at a higher level in the field. I will probably stay on the technical side of things rather than the management side. But then it is too early to tell.
6. Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
In 5 years I want to be an expert in my field and making an impact in the team and the company. I want to become the go-to guy for solutions and discussions on everything technical.
7. If you could change one thing about your personality, what would it be and why?
I would like to be more patient when dealing with others. Because others in my team may not share the same amount of enthusiasm as me. Being a fresher and new to this, I will probably be more enthusiastic than others. I will have to learn to work with that and not get impatient.
8. What does success mean to you?
In day to day work, I would consider finding the right solution and not shortcuts to a problem a success. I always look at the big picture. Shortcuts now can hurt in the long term.
Over all career wise, job satisfaction and happiness to work on problems would be a success to me. Achieving financial security is also a success to me.
9. What does failure mean to you?
Not being satisfied with the work is a failure to me. And of course not completing a goal is also a failure.
10. Tell me how you solved a challenge (or a hard problem) in your previous job (or in college)?
Prepare an answer for this question. It is a frequently asked question and you should be prepared for it.
If you have work experience, make a list of challenges you faced and pick the one that sounds the most challenging or relevant to the job you are interviewing for. Word it in such a way that it sounds challenging.
If you have no work experience, pick something from your graduate studies. You can even use from your personal life as a last resort if you can’t come up with anything. You can say “I would like to talk about a challenge from my personal life since there have not been many challenging situations so far in my professional life.” And then proceed to talk about it.
11. Why Should I/We hire you?
Unlike many freshers you are interviewing, I chose this field because I am genuinely interested in it and I would like to make a career out of it. As you can see in my resume I have been working on personal projects in my free time to hone my skills that will come in handy in my profession.
I am not looking for a job because that is what you are supposed to do. I am because I want to explore the field of Mechanical Engineering and enjoy working in this field.
Once an older friend talked about how job satisfaction is important. I want to have that unlike some of my friends who are unhappy in their chosen careers and jobs. I believe I will have it with this job.
With the traffic nightmare and the daily commute the least we can do is work on things we like and enjoy.
12. Are you interviewing with other companies?
You can tell them the truth, if you are interviewing at other companies. It will show you are doing well and getting interviews is not a problem for you. I always tell I am interviewing at other companies, even if I have just started looking for a job, I because I know I will attend at least few interviews before making a decision.
I am picky, I usually continue interviewing until I find a job I like best. You don’t have to be scared to admit you are interviewing with other companies. If you have done the interview well, they may get worried you will be snagged by the other companies. If you are scared you will lose the current opportunity, you can choose to not tell about other interviews. I will leave it up to you, if you want to play safe.
13. Do you have other job offers?
If you do, you can tell them. It may show you are not desperate and you are desirable by other companies as well, which is a good thing. If you have done the interview well, they may get worried you will accept the other offer. This could work in your favor for a better salary etc.
Caution:
Be prepared for follow up questions to any of the questions above. They may ask you a question on something in your answer. So be prepared to go deeper into your answers or expand on your answers. Don’t be caught off guard and don’t show you are shaken. Act normal like you were expecting it.
The interviewer can ask a follow up question because he liked the answer, or maybe because he didn’t like the answer, or maybe because he got curious. Be prepared to defend your answers or go into detail. No matter what, play it cool!
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