1. List some strategies to answer negative interview questions?

Listed below are several strategies to help you effectively answer negative interview questions:
☛ Keep a positive attitude and respond to the question constructively
☛ Explain your answer in a way that portrays a positive result
☛ Focus on behaviors rather than personality traits when responding to weaknesses
☛ Refrain from repeating the negative word, such as weakness, back to the recruiter
☛ Speak with respect while talking about past employers
☛ Avoid sounding angry, defensive or hostile in your response
☛ Take a moment to think; do not lie or make up a fake situation
☛ Demonstrate awareness of the negative situation and show you are working to improve or minimize the issue
☛ Take responsibility for a mistake, as employers are looking for accountability
☛ Use the STAR method (situation, task, action, and result) to be efficient and accurate with your responses

2. How to answer questions about negative information?

Follow these steps to answer interview questions about negative information:
☛ Search for lists of interview questions online and look for questions like these, especially any that seem to invite you to advertise negative aspects of yourself.
☛ Prepare several ideas ahead of time.
☛ Choose subjects, skills, or events to discuss that are not central to the job.
☛ Use a sandwich technique to present the negative information.
☛ State a positive
☛ State the negative simply and factually.
☛ State another positive.
☛ State yet another positive, if you can.

3. Why to use a sandwich technique?

Use a sandwich technique to present the negative information. Start with something positive (and related), state the negative information succinctly without dwelling on it, and then end with another positive.

4. What would you most like not to do in this role?

In an ideal world. I would like to avoid any bureaucracy or red tape which can delay decisions. Like anyone, I am always keen for good progress to be made at all times and everything to run smoothly.

5. What is your typical working week in hours?

I like to think I am an effective and efficient worker who gets through a full workload each week. However, there are times when I need to work late and weekends and this is fine. This is often due to uneven demands on my time. I will put whatever effort it takes to complete my role.

6. What did you not like about your last employer?

Start with, Actually there are a lot of good things to say about my ex-employer, however, if I need to highlight one area.
I used to get a bit annoyed when I noticed inefficiencies in the processing workflows and controls. A number of times I made suggestions as to improvements that could be made which would have saved money, but the ideas were effectively ignored.

7. Why to state a positive effect after stating a negative?

State another positive. The best positive you could possibly state is how you dealt with the problem or difficulty, what you learned from the experience, or how you worked to improve matters.

8. Why should you keep on stating positive things?

State yet another positive, if you can. Describe how your efforts resulted in money saved, better communication, or some other solution to the problem, end on that note. This is similar to the "SAR" (situation, action, result) or "PSR" (problem, solution, result) technique used in behavioral interviewing.

9. How to state the negative?

State the negative simply and factually. Don't dwell on it, blame anybody, or overstate the problem.

10. Why should you state a positive?

State a positive. This could be a skill that you're good at or something you liked about a company, person, or job.

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