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During job interviews, you are likely to be asked about a lot of things, from your professional goals to how you would like to be managed. During these interviews, you may also be asked to talk about specific experiences from past jobs as part of a series of behavioral questions.
Interview questions can be scary, but they’re a lot less scary when you’ve practiced your answers and thought of stories that show why you’re a good candidate.
Here are 20 questions that are often asked at job interviews, along with tips on how to answer them best.
Getting a job at a fast-growing fintech company like NerdWallet is an exciting opportunity. With its fun, innovative culture and focus on empowering consumers, it’s no wonder NerdWallet is consistently rated as a top place to work.
But first, you have to nail the interview.
Interviewing at NerdWallet can feel intimidating. However, going in prepared with strong answers to common questions will help your nerves and ensure you make a great impression.
In this article, I’ll walk you through the 15 most frequent interview questions asked at NerdWallet – straight from Glassdoor reviews. I’ll also provide tips on how to craft winning responses.
Let’s dive in!
1. Why Do You Want to Work at NerdWallet?
This is one of the most common questions in any interview, but it’s especially important at mission-driven companies like NerdWallet.
To ace your answer:
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Research NerdWallet’s company values and mission statement. Align your motivations with the company’s goals.
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Share why you’re passionate about NerdWallet’s purpose of providing clarity around finances. Give specific examples of how they empower consumers.
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Talk about the company’s unique culture and values. Show you’ve done your homework on NerdWallet’s fun, collaborative environment.
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Discuss how this role will help you grow professionally. Show you’re excited about the day-to-day work.
2. What Excites You About Working in Fintech?
With this question, interviewers want to gauge your passion for the industry. To impress them:
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Share why you find fintech inherently interesting. Is it the innovation? The meaningful impact?
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Talk about trends you find intriguing. Big data? Crypto? Personalization? Show you’re tuned into the space.
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Discuss how you actively stay up-to-date on fintech news and developments. Reading industry publications? Following thought leaders?
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Convey excitement around the pace of change and opportunity to shape the future of finance.
3. Why Do You Want to Leave Your Current Job?
This one can feel tricky, but an honest, professional response will serve you well.
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Focus on positive reasons like seeking new challenges or alignment with your career goals. Don’t bad-mouth your current employer.
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Be thoughtful. If your current job lacks growth opportunities, explain you’re looking for more learning and development.
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Keep it short. One to two sentences on why you’re looking plus one to two on why NerdWallet excites you.
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Take care not to imply you’re desperate to leave your current role. Convey you’re selectively pursuing positions that are great fits.
4. Tell Me About Yourself
With this common icebreaker question, you want to provide an engaging snapshot of your background.
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Share who you are professionally: your current position, past experience, accomplishments and skills.
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Give insight into who you are personally: an interesting hobby, passion or fun fact about yourself.
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Keep it concise: 60 to 90 seconds max.
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Focus on what’s relevant to the role. Draw a clear connection to why you’re qualified.
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End by reiterating your interest in the position.
5. What Are Your Salary Expectations?
It’s inevitable: at some point, compensation will come up. To tackle this strategically:
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Do your research on NerdWallet salaries. Check Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and other sites.
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Prepare a reasonable salary range based on market data, your experience level, and the role’s responsibilities.
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If asked early on, defer by saying you’d need to learn more about the scope of the position first.
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When providing a range, start on the high end. For example, $80K-$90K.
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If pressed for a number, give the high end of your range or slightly above. You can always negotiate down later.
6. What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses?
This classic question is still asked all the time. To ace it:
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List 3-4 strong skills or qualities relevant to the job. For example, creativity, teamwork, writing skills. Back each with a brief example.
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Choose one minor weakness unrelated to the role. For example, public speaking. Then reassure them you’re working to improve.
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Turn a negative into a positive. Say you tend to get perfectionist on details, but you’ve learned ways to prioritize key tasks.
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Focus most of your answer on your strengths. This shows self-awareness without undermining your fit.
7. Why Should We Hire You?
Summarize your fit for the role in three key points:
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One: Name the most important skill or qualification for the job based on the description. Explain how you have that (e.g. 7+ years in content strategy).
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Two: Show passion and fit for NerdWallet’s mission (e.g. empowering financial decisions aligns with your values).
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Three: Describe a top skill that makes you stand out (e.g. building influencer partnerships to amplify content).
8. What Can You Contribute to NerdWallet?
This is your chance to get creative and speak to what makes you unique.
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Think about what you offer beyond standard qualifications. What value do you bring?
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Share 2-3 concrete examples: Launching a new social strategy that boosted engagement 30%. Creating viral explainers that hit 1M views.
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Discuss skills not highlighted on your resume, like mentorship, event planning, or graphic design chops. Surprise them.
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Talk about less tangible traits like positivity, relentless problem-solving, or ability to rally a team. Use examples.
9. What Are You Most Proud Of?
With this question, interviewers want to learn what motivates you and get a glimpse of your accomplishments.
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Choose an achievement that combines impressive outcomes with intangibles you want to highlight, like creativity, persistence, or leadership.
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Set the context briefly then focus on specifics: the ideas, actions and outcomes. Data and metrics make it memorable.
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Explain why it makes you proud: how it aligned with your values, helped people, or advanced your skills.
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Tie it back to the role you’re interviewing for. How does this achievement show you’re up for the challenge?
10. How Do You Handle a Heavy Workload?
NerdWallet is fast-paced, so interviewers want to know you can juggle competing priorities with poise.
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Share your time management system: to-do lists, Kanban boards, calendar blocking, etc. These show proactivity.
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Discuss strategies you use when things get chaotic: delegating, getting help, working overtime. Show you’re solutions-focused.
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Give an example of a time you managed multiple big deadlines or projects. Quantify the workload and results.
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Emphasize steady communication with both managers and team members helps you balance and deliver.
11. How Do You Handle Conflict?
At NerdWallet, collaboration is key so interviewers want to see you can handle disagreement professionally.
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Express you actively seek to understand others’ perspectives during conflict. Listen first, then communicate thoughtfully.
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Share you aim to resolve conflict directly with the person. Bring in mediation from a neutral party if needed.
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Describe a time you turned conflict into collaboration. How did you find common ground? What was the outcome?
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Convey that you stay professional in conflict. The work comes first. You focus on solutions.
12. Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?
With this common question, interviewers want to understand your ambition and fit with the company’s growth.
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Express your continued interest in and passion for the type of work you’d be doing.
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Share 1-2 goals: growing your expertise in certain skills, managing people, traveling for global projects, etc.
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Align your vision to NerdWallet’s trajectory. For example, taking on more responsibility as the company expands.
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If you hope for leadership roles, discuss how you actively develop management abilities.
13. Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?
When responding, be honest but don’t raise red flags.
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Focus on the positive: seeking new challenges, opportunities to grow your skills, wanting to find the right cultural fit.
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If your company had layoffs, escaped conflicts, lack of resources/support etc., phrase carefully to avoid bad-mouthing them.
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Emphasize you parted on good terms. Share you gave proper notice and transitioned tasks to maintain continuity.
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Be brief then redirect to why NerdWallet excites you. Don’t linger on the negative.
14. Do You Have Any Questions for Us?
Always ask at least one thoughtful question. Smart ones include:
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What are the biggest growth opportunities in this role over the next 1-3 years?
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What metrics or goals would you use to measure success in this position?
Question about the company or position
1. What are your qualifications for this position?
Hiring manager at University of Phoenix Heather Livingston says that if someone asks you this question, you should talk about the hard skills you’ve learned through school or training.
Bring up any specific qualifications you have that were in the job description. For example, you might need to know how to use a certain piece of software or code or have experience working with a certain type of customer.
Be sure to mention any professional certificates or licenses relevant to the position, too, Livingston says. You can also mention any college courses or professional training you’ve completed that relate to the role.
2. Why do you want to work for us?
To effectively answer this question, you’ll need to research the company, Livingston says. Familiarize yourself with its history, mission statement, purpose and leadership.
Make it clear what parts of the company’s mission you agree with and how helping them reach those goals fits in with your overall career goals.
3. What do you know about the company?
Similar to the question above, you’ll need to research the company to answer this question. Spend some time on the company’s website and read the “About Us” page. You can also visit the company’s LinkedIn page and see if it’s recently been in the news.
You don’t have to remember every detail of the company’s history, but you should be aware of any big events, like mergers, acquisitions, or product launches, and be able to talk about the main product or service of the company with confidence.
4. What do you see as the biggest challenge coming into this role?
It can be tough to answer questions that require you to admit your vulnerabilities. But employers know that even the best employees inevitably struggle with one or more aspects of any job.
“The key is to be honest,” Livingston says.
There’s a fine line between being honest and undermining yourself as a candidate, though. Avoid mentioning challenges that relate to critical components of the job.
For instance, if you have trouble managing your time and the job requires you to meet a lot of deadlines, telling the hiring manager about that might make them think twice. Also, if you’re interviewing for a data-focused job, saying that you don’t pay attention to details might not be a good idea.
Also, if several important parts of the job sound like big problems, you might want to think about whether the job is a good fit for your skills.
Also, offer solutions to any potential challenges you foresee, Livingston says. If you tell the interviewer that you think a certain piece of software might be hard to use, for example, explain how you plan to get around that problem.
5. Why should we hire you?
That’s a tough one. You want to sell yourself, but you don’t want to come off as cocky or spoiled. Write and practice an elevator pitch for yourself as a candidate, Jennifer Preston, an HR consultant, told U. S. News and World Report.
Focus on the work experience that is most relevant to the job and your best skills that are related to the job. Talk about the most important goals you want to reach for the job and explain how you plan to do that.
You can also talk about the little things that make you stand out from other applicants, like how much you love building relationships or how your long-term career goals make you a good fit for the company.
Commonly asked interview questions
In preparing for your interview, set aside a few hours to reflect on how you’d answer each question. Write or type out your answers, then practice answering each question out loud.
Focus on talking slowly and clearly, and go over your answers several times. This will help you get rid of unnecessary words and sound natural when you’re interviewing.
Robert Half, a human resources consulting firm, says that you should smile while you talk on the phone during an interview (which is different from a phone screen). Even though the interviewer can’t see you, you’ll sound more enthusiastic and confident.
When you have a phone interview, you can also keep a cheat sheet with important dates, sales numbers, or other information you want to quickly find. But don’t depend on them too much, and be ready to finish the interview without looking at your notes. Even if you’re in a video interview, you can still have a cheat sheet with you. Just be extra careful not to use it too much.
