How to Answer Tricky Interview Questions

Whenever you are facing the interview you can feel the nervousness which is natural. As soon as the interview start one of the panelists asks you a simple and most favorite question;

“Tell me something about yourself”. Answering to this question decides the direction of your interview and how do you come up with an answer that has it all? Before you begin to answer this question, keep in mind that they don’t care about your grades and academic certificates but they want to hear more about soft skills, how quickly and creatively thinks, whether you will be able to cope with high-pressure environments, and how well you can fit in the organization. Home Work: Home work is necessary for the big day by gathering some information about the organization, their culture and values. Now days it is very easy to source these information’s from the annual reports, LinkedIn profile and looking up reviews on Glassdoor or many other websites are available. Preparing for the tricky interview questions: In every interview few questions are designed to check the candidate in order to test their responses in a stressful situation. These questions are designed as: along with the suggestions for conceptualizing responses that will demonstrate your suitability for the job.

1. “Why should we hire you?” This is the most common question for the fresher’s. Most of the student just get blanks here and couldn’t answer this question. Because they would not be prepared for such questions. Show confidence and present your abilities to match personality traits with organizational culture. Show them that your valued skills can lead their organization and a response such as, “My achievements match with your requirements” is a good start to lead the recruiters in a direction that’s comfortable for you. Surely their next questions would be on your achievements and skills, something like, “What are your achievements?” Now is the time to talk about what you have achieved in your career and academics, extracurricular activities etc. Be careful to describe your answer and matches the requirement. For example, you can show them your leadership in sports, in academics to project management; your extracurricular activities to team work. The objective must be to lead interviewer in a direction in which you are comfortable without over presenting your accomplishments and achievements. 2. “What is more important for you — goals or rules?” This type of question is made to judge the candidate’s honesty and integrity. If you remember the seen from "3idiots" film, when Mr. Rastogi was getting interviewed? He was quite straight forward for the answers but honest which leads him to pass the interview. You must not be definite to this question; it is a kind of test to check your diplomatic skill. For example: You can say, “One can achieve the success/goal by following the rules”; “In football as well, goals can be scored while players follows the rules”; or “Rules are set to achieve the goals ” 3. “What are some of your weaknesses?” This is designed to test your honesty and it is very much interesting question and your answer must be meaningful. Bring out couple of weakness as your strength. You can point out one or two weaknesses as well, as we are humans and humans made mistakes and learned from them. For example, you can say, “I take a little bit of time to learn new things as I learn into deep level and want to understand full functionality of any new skill. This answer very easily showcasing your learning eagerness rather than showing you are a low learner. Be careful while opening up or revealing your flaws, just don’t explain in details. Do not copy seniors or other students be different and original.

4. “Do you have any questions for us?” This is usually the last question of any interview. “Yes”, you must have response to this question, and then you can ask about organization in its growth phase or mature? Structure your responses accordingly. You can ask them about projects in brief, about the roles and responsibilities and if this question is asked by HR or Manager, you can ask about growth as individual in organization and learning and improving paths and facilities by the organization. You can ask about the level hierarchy of organization and opportunities to grow in career. You can also ask about targets they want you to achieve in project or as individual. “The first impression is the last impression”, remember that. Your first impression is usually what helps them sail smoothly through the interview process. Interviewer observes you and not only your said answers but also your unsaid answers – that is, your non-verbal cues. So, be confidant, maintain eye contacts, and begin with a nice, firm handshake, keep slightly smiled face and take the interview questions by storm! If you stuck into any technical question, don’t answer it in wrong way, simply pass it and move towards next question.

It is always better to say no instead of wrong answer. Don’t lose confidence, maintain calm and believe in self. All the very best…