Several interview experts, in their unique styles, have repeatedly advised job aspirants to prepare well for the interviews, if they really wish to crack it with aplomb. By preparing, experts emphatically mean, to research well, and understand the job requirements unambiguously so that the organizational and individual goals coincide. This concurrence will generate mutual benefits to the organization as well as candidate. However, candidates usually misinterpret the message and start searching for the questions that are asked during the interviews and their suggested answers. Preparation, then heads towards mugging up the answers provided on the internet.

Candidates never realize that those answers are only the sample answers, just like the ones I have provided in my book ‘Job Winning Answers’. In my book, I have compiled a list of 105 trickiest and most commonly asked interview questions with expert guidance on how to answer them, but that expert guidance is for how to think and prepare for the best answers in your case. The sample answers that are provided in the book may or may not be applicable in your unique case, but if you follow the guidelines, I am sure that you will be able to develop your own unique job winning answer to every interview question asked.

When a question like – “Why are you looking for a job in sales?” was asked from the candidates appearing for a sales job, most of the answers given resembled the answer mentioned below.

“…because I have a friendly nature and I love meeting people. I do not like desk job and love to move around meeting, observing and understanding people….and blah blah blah”

Now, how could a recruiter decide about whom to hire from the bunch of candidates, who think and talk alike and could not offer a unique perspective? This search would end up on a candidate who would answer something like what’s given below.

“I wish to be in sales, because it is the back bone of any company since it generates the revenues for the organization and hence, provides great career prospects with a quick ladder to the senior management. I have keen interest in sales which encouraged me to understand the basic nuances of the business through extensive study during my course. Since, presentation is an important part of sales, hence throughout my course I kept an extreme focus on developing excellent presentation skills”

Bingo! The recruiter has got the desired candidate. The difference can be clearly seen and felt. Recruiter knows that the candidate

   - understands the importance of sales
   - is clear about the rewards of the job
    -carries a goal in mind
    -has worked on developing the required concepts and skills

Interview is a crowded space and to ensure that your face stands recognized amongst crowd, you must work on developing a competitive edge. Competitive edge can be developed by adopting a rational way of creating answers to the interview questions. If a candidate can simply keep in mind the points given below, while creating the answers to the interview questions, he would never be trapped; no matter in whatever forms the question may have been presented.

  -Research the company and the job description extremely well
-Make sure that you have applied to the right job and you really wish to work there.
-You have the right reasons to do this job
- Every answer that you give must be supported by a strong evidence as nothing works better than an evidence when it’s time to prove a certain point
- Remember to assess as well as demonstrate how well you have prepared to make yourself the best candidate for this job

Remember that interviewer has myriad ways of asking the same question; hence it is imperative for the job aspirants to actually understand the true meaning and objective behind a question asked. So, if recruiter asks you that why you became a CA or MBA, tell that you really wanted to be a CA or an MBA backed up by strong logical viewpoints and not because your forefathers were CAs or MBAs too. A person can perform in a job function only when he or she, by all their hearts, wants to be good at that and not because of any external pressure. A recruiter is extensively trained and hired to extract this kind of information because the organization, the management and the recruiter understand its importance and effect on the individual as well as team performance.

Good Luck!

Interview Questions And Answers