Common questions asked in an interview and how to answer them

Fortunately, you can prepare for interviews. There are plenty of common interview questions which employers rely on to find out what they want about you. We’ll take a look at these common interview questions you might be asked, and how best to answer them, as well as provide some top tips for answering questions you might not have prepared for.

Top 10 common questions asked in an interview

While there’s no guarantee of what you will (and won’t) be asked in an interview, focusing on common interview questions can help you prepare answers which reflect the best of you. We’ve identified the top 10 common questions asked in interviews:

1. Tell us about yourself
2. Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years?
3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
4. Tell us about a time you’ve been challenged
5. Why do you want to work here?
6. What do you enjoy most about your current/last job?
7. What is the professional achievement you’re most proud of?
8. What kind of working environment do you work best in?
9. Why should we hire you?
10. Do you have any questions for us?

Interviewers need to find out numerous things about candidates in a relatively short amount of time. You’ll be asked about previous experiences, future plans, and, of course, yourself – your skills and abilities.

It’s impossible to predict how an interview will go. People attend interviews at all stages of their careers – from their very first job to going for a huge promotion. All you can do is your best. None of our examples are perfect, but we hope to give you a flavour of what an appropriate interview answer might look like.

1. Tell us about yourself

Open-ended questions can be some of the toughest to answer. Where do you start? How do you know what the employer is looking for? If you’re asked this at the start of your interview, you just need to give some background information about yourself and what’s brought you to this point in your career.

You won’t want to speak for too long as a lot of the details may be relevant for future questions but do provide a summary with specific details. This will all depend on what stage of your career you’re at and the type of job you’re applying for. For example, a recent graduate looking for their first role may want to discuss their university course a little, but as you progress through your career, a course you studied 10 years ago will become far less relevant than your work experience.

Example answer:

I’ve been working in hospitality for nearly seven years now. I started straight from school washing dishes in the kitchen and quickly learned I wanted to be front of house, engaging with customers and providing a great dining experience. For the last two years, I’ve been the manager at an award-winning restaurant and hotel. It’s been my first experience within a hotel and I have loved the experience of providing excellent customer experience from morning until evening. 

2. Where do you see yourself in 5/10 years?

This is a classic question. When answering, the key thing to remember is the context in which you’re being asked – a job interview. The interviewer doesn’t need to know all of your plans and dreams for life. They want to know where you see your career going and how that might benefit them.

There will be a fine line between showing you’re naturally ambitious and it sounding like you’re going to outgrow the role you’re applying to and move on quickly. Companies won’t expect you to respond saying you hope to be in that exact position with the business in five or 10 years’ time, but you do want your response to demonstrate that you picture yourself developing in the role you’re applying for.

Where possible, refer back to the job description and any requirements. You can use these as starting points to begin to suggest how you might make the role your own. For example, if it is a management position and one of the responsibilities is to grow the team, you might respond with how you see yourself testing out new recruitment techniques, such as graduate training schemes.

Example answer:

Having benefited from mentoring throughout my career, in the next five years I would like to spend more of my time focusing on supporting junior members of staff and whoever would like to benefit from mentoring. I would like to establish myself as a go-to member of the team for coaching, specifically advice for growing your career in the digital industry. I would also like to push myself to do more talks and conferences.

3. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Self-awareness is a key skill recruiters and interviewers are looking for. Any question about your strengths and weaknesses is your chance to not only showcase what you’re good at but also acknowledge things you’d like to work on.

Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of saying your only weakness is being a perfectionist or you work too hard – we’re all human and it’s acceptable to recognise you have weaknesses in an interview. It’s also good practice to mention how you’re working towards overcoming this weakness.

That said, you shouldn’t be openly admitting that you’re bad at things outlined as requirements of the job. For example, if they’ve asked for strong Microsoft Suite skills, don’t say you feel like you need further training. If the requirements of the job are weaknesses of yours, you may want to reconsider which roles you do and don’t apply for.

In terms of strengths, you need to pick a couple of your most relevant skills. Try to keep them related to the role, and only add a personal one if it feels right at the time. Relevant strengths will vary depending on the position – for example, persuasion will be important for communication or sales roles, whereas curiosity may be key for creative jobs.

Example answer:

My biggest strength has to be my curiosity. I’m always looking for inspiration around me and often find ideas that come to me at the strangest times. I’ve learnt to keep a record of these on my phone so none go to waste. 

As a recent graduate, I’d say my biggest weakness is the lack of real-life work experience. While we did a lot of project work in teams at university, I’m excited to learn from those with industry experience. New people do bring fresh ideas, but I feel like I can gain a lot from the experience of an award-winning team.

More on Strengths and Weaknesses Interview questions.

4. Tell us about a time you’ve been challenged

The opening of this question is a tell-tale sign that it’s assessing your competency. ‘Tell us about a time’ and similar openings such as ‘Describe a time’ or ‘Have you ever’ are used by interviewers to gather examples of how you’ve responded to particular situations in the past. In your response, you need to identify which skill they’re looking for and provide a relevant example that demonstrates your ability. Your past experience is a good indication of your ability to do the job you’re applying for.

The STAR method is often used to form responses to competency-based questions. It stands for:

1. Situation
2. Task
3. Action
4. Result

By providing detail around each of these points, it’s likely you’ll build out a story that showcases your experience well.

Example answer:

While working as a project manager, I was tasked with shortening the amount of time it took for us to deliver completed work to clients. Numerous different departments were involved in each project, so it was a real challenge to juggle delivery time without applying additional pressure on the team. 

I set up an initial call to discover what the current blockers were and discovered that we were regularly waiting some time for compliance sign-off from the client. Our team was then often expected to make up this time and fit in additional work at short notice. I implemented timelines that had to be signed off by the client before any work could be completed, which outlined both our responsibilities for delivery but also theirs. It gave us an additional week if they didn’t meet their feedback deadlines. Although initially challenging, clients responded really well and started to prioritise getting back to us sooner, as they knew it meant their project would be on track.

5. Why do you want to work here?

Interviewers know that happy or satisfied employees are more productive. It’s in their best interest to work out which candidates are really passionate about the position. Although you can showcase this throughout the interview with your attitude and energy, interviewers will often ask you specifically why you have chosen to apply.

In your response, try to cover two things:

● Your motivation for applying for this position

● Your reasons for wanting to work for the company

You can explain if you’ve heard about the company before – whether that’s for its workplace culture or work on specific clients or campaigns. But you should avoid saying things about the pay – while compensation is important, it’s not the most endearing trait of a candidate if they seem more interested in the wage compared to the role.

Example answer:

I’ve been keeping my eye on your company for a while now, especially after you won an X award for your X project. The creative team is constantly innovating and pushing what’s possible with video advertising. I feel like this position would be a great fit for me, allowing me to hone my skills on a number of different clients as opposed to working in-house. 

6. What do you enjoy most about your current/last job?

People leave jobs for all kinds of reasons. One thing your potential new employer doesn’t need to know is if you’re feeling quite bitter about where you’re working right now. This is not your chance to air out any grievances you have with a current or previous employer. It’ll only leave the lasting impression that you’re a disgruntled employee.

Even if you are unhappy with your current position, try to reflect on the opportunities it’s provided you – for example, any notable clients or projects, or the team spirit.

You may be asked why you’re leaving or have left, so be prepared with an appropriate response. Common reasons you can mention in a job interview include:

• Outgrowing the role
• Lack of opportunity to progress
• New challenge  
• A switch in focus (for example, if you worked in-house and are applying for an agency position)

Example answer:

As a PR executive at an agency, I enjoyed the project-based nature of my work. We dedicated our focus to a couple of campaigns at a time and pulled together as a team to deliver results. However, I am now looking to get involved in a wider marketing strategy and have a chance to impact across different avenues. That’s why I’ve applied to this role because it’s an in-house opportunity to use my experience across all digital marketing channels.

7. What is the professional achievement you’re most proud of?

In any career, we have an impact – on the results generated, on our colleagues, on the clients we’re servicing, and so on. But what achievement are you most proud of? This is a great question because even if you don’t get asked it directly, the same story could be used in another answer.

Try to think of professional achievements where it’s clear the impact you had – for example, quantifiable results. Using numbers or figures can be particularly persuasive in an interview. It’s hard to question the impact of a 10% increase in sales, an uptake of 400 new email subscribers, and so on.

But the emotive element shouldn’t be underestimated either. Interviewers do react well to stories about humans – it really depends on what examples you have and what role you’re applying to. Just remember that your response to this tough interview question not only demonstrates your skills, but it shows what is important to you. You’re being asked to handpick the achievement which matters most to you – not a company.

Example answer:

I started as a manager over five years ago now, but I still remember when my first hire was promoted. We had aggressive targets to hit so were tasked with hiring a junior sales executive. I knew they needed to be ambitious and somewhat have an unflappable character. With the right mentoring and training, the recent graduate I hired became the best salesperson in our department within a year. Being able to recognise her hard work and promote her felt like an achievement to me too. I then used the training programme I developed for her across the whole department. 

8. What kind of working environment do you work best in?

All too often, we just crack on with our jobs without truly understanding what kind of setup gets the best out of us. What time of the day do you feel most productive? Do meetings energise you, or do you need some downtime after to refocus?

How much do you know about yourself? Well, this question is a chance to showcase that. You may need to spend some time considering the environments you’ve worked in previously and how they impacted what you achieved.

Again, of course, you have to consider how your response fits within the context of the job. It’s no good explaining you work best with meetings in the morning and the afternoon to focus on projects if you’re in the UK applying for a remote position at a US-based company, whose employees won’t be working until our afternoon.

Example answer:

As a creative individual, I work best in an environment that allows me to collaborate with others. For example, in my current role, we use Google’s Jamboard as a way to brainstorm virtually. This works really well. But I also value time to focus on the task at hand, so I tend to block out regular slots in my calendar so the team knows I might be unavailable for an hour or two. For me, it’s all about communicating. 

9. Why should we hire you?

Typically asked towards the end of the interview, you might feel like you’ve used up all your best stories and experiences. But what interviewers are really looking for here is what’s unique about you. It’s your opportunity to provide a reason why they should hire you over someone else.

On one hand, this is a great question to answer because you can prepare an answer for this ahead of time. The response can be used across different interviews because it’s focused on you, rather than the role.

On the other hand, it’s tricky to think about what makes you stand out from the crowd. When preparing for interviews, it’s worth spending some time reflecting on this. Think about occasions when you’ve overcome an obstacle, surpassed different goals, or any feedback you’ve had. These may give you an idea of your standout strengths or experience.

Just remember that the goal of this question isn’t the same as ‘What are your strengths?’. While many interviewees for the same job may say similar strengths, this question is about what makes you the top choice.

Example answer:

You should hire me because this role is a real opportunity for me to turn my passion into a career. I’ve been volunteering on sustainability projects and leading agendas within my current workplace, but this will be my first dedicated role. I believe that I have the passion, energy, and experience to really drive interest and engagement in the project. I’m genuinely excited about the chance to focus my career on sustainability.

10. Do you have any questions for us?

Interviewers often save a bit of time by allowing the interviewee to ask their own questions. It’s definitely a good idea to have some questions in mind. It shows that you’re invested in the interview and the company. It’s especially good if you can showcase what research you’ve done – for example, if you find something interesting on the company’s blog or in a news article, is there a follow-up question you could ask?

You don’t have to have a script for all of these common interview questions, but by thinking about them and following answer techniques such as the STAR method, you can answer coherently and authentically as possible.

Posted on August 8, 2024