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It seems that sometimes, the most commonly asked interview questions are the ones that interviewees stumble on the most. The manner in which you answer questions is the evaluation tool used by the interviewer so it is important to prepare. If you cannot answer the most basic, common interview questions, you will not give a good impression to the person interviewing you and most likely, not get the job. Going into an interview, preparation goes a long way. You will be less likely to stumble, and if you do, you will have a better chance of regaining control over your communication. I’d like to go over a few common interview questions and talk about how to answer them and how to recover if you have given a poor answer.

1. Tell me about yourself. This means many things to different people. People panic and internally are asking themselves, “What do they want to know about me? Should I tell them where I was born? Do I tell them how much I love Zumba class? How old I am? Where do I start?” The best way to answer depends on how far along in your career you are. Here are some things to highlight: Where you are from, where you went to college, why you decided to get into the industry you are in and a few successes along the way. You can add a personal note about family and your interests, but make sure to keep it short. Many interviewees tend to go off on tangents while answering this question.

If you find that you have been rambling on too long, stop and acknowledge it. Make a joke to the interviewer that you are just really passionate about your life and feel many parts of your life have given you the tools to be the success you are.

2. What is motivating you to look for a new opportunity? If you are currently employed and interviewing you need to say the right things here. First you need to prepare for this question and ask yourself why you are interested in the opportunity you are interviewing for and focus on those answers. Talk about the great things you have heard about the company. Also highlight the actual position and how it would be a great challenge for you, not to mention how great your background is for the opportunity. Do not talk about your boss that is over working you, the impossible performance metrics, and being underpaid. If you happen to let something negative slip about your current employer, make sure to fix this mistake. Example: you say “My boss is overly aggressive with expectations that I just can’t meet.” Oops! To fix that slip, follow that with: “Trust me, I love a challenge and I can work with difficult people, but I would find it refreshing to work in an environment with professional communication and goals the team is capable of achieving.”

If you are not employed and asked a question about why you applied for the role make sure you follow this formula as well. You do not want to say something along the lines of applying for any open positions because you need a job to pay your bills. This translates into you will take the first position offered to you then keep interviewing until something better comes along. Many people in the last two years have been affected by lay-offs. It is an acceptable topic to bring up. Again, keep the opinion of your former employer positive and talk about the successes you had.

3. What are your weaknesses? I personally do not ask this question as I do not think you will get accurate answers. Some interviewers have change the way they word it and ask “what were the areas of suggested improvement on your last performance review.” It is important to be honest with where your shortcomings may be. The key is to show how you overcome these weaknesses. Do not follow Michael Scott’s lead from The Office during the episode called “The Job,” from season 3. His answer to this question was that he works too hard, cares too much and can be too invested in his job. He then tells the CFO that his weaknesses are actually his strengths. Ah Touché! Like most things Michael Scott does, do not follow his lead.

It is important to talk about steps taken to improve your skills. For example: if public speaking is difficult for you, talk about the things you do to overcome this weakness. Have you taken a class, do you attend networking events to expand your comfort level with people you don’t know, have you read books about it, do you practice presentations more than the average person to get through your public speaking fear? This shows a weakness, but more importantly things you do to improve. If you slip and say something along the lines of “I have not shown initiative in my job,” quickly follow that up with what you would do differently in your next job. Talk about what you learned when you did not show initiative and how you would change that with a new employer. This is a pretty extreme example as I know none of you professional women would say such a thing, but keep the lesson in mind. Talk about areas you know you can improve in, what steps you have taken, and perhaps what you will do to improve in the future.

4. How would your colleagues describe you? How would your boss describe you? Let’s start with colleagues. You need to reflect the type of person that is pleasant to work with and a team player. No one wants to bring in someone that will rock their boat. You also want to reflect that you were viewed as a hard worker and not just trying to please your colleagues. A good answer to this would be that you had a great working relationship with your colleagues; they would describe you as a person with a good work ethic and easy to get along with. This shows a few things: you get your work done, are dedicated and work well with a team.

You also want to communicate that your boss would describe you in the same way. If you have your colleagues describing you different than your boss would, it reflects that you may not have been as well liked as you would like to believe. If a boss said you were an aggressive employee who did not let anyone/anything get in your way of getting a project done and took initiative when a coworker was lacking performance that would reflect a much more dominant driver type then a fun loving employee that just works hard.

5. What are your compensation requirements? A lot of people are unsure on how to answer this question. Should you say you make just a bit more than you really do, should you include the value of your benefits, should you talk about just base salary or incentive too? Most people think this is somehow a trick question or that their answer will come back to haunt them once an offer is extended. Almost all offers are based off of what you are making now with an average of a 5% increase on your salary. You need to be honest. Employers have the right to ask you for your last two paycheck statements and your W-2 to ensure you are telling them your accurate compensation. The best rule of thumb here is to give your current base salary and typical incentive. You can also include any stock options and out of the ordinary benefits. Save the vacation discussion until the offer is extended unless asked to specify how much vacation you receive.

There is not any coming back from fibbing about how much you make. If you are asked for hard evidence you will make a fool of yourself. If you will be expected to work longer hours, travel more or take on management responsibilities, you will have more room for additional negotiation on top of the typical 5% increase.

Always remember to be considerate of the interviewer’s time. Make sure to be concise and properly articulate your experience. There are many more common interview questions. As I always say, focus on your accomplishments and put a positive spin on everything you say. If you are preparing for an interview and need some help preparing yourself, I am always open to help! You can reach me at The Novo Group in Milwaukee.