- Can you tell me a little about yourself?
- What do you know about our company?
- How did you hear about this job?
- What motivates you?
How To Introduce Yourself In An Interview! (The BEST ANSWER!)
Example interview questions
Here are several common questions to use as practice for your next interview:
10 Where do you see yourself in five years?
Understanding how you imagine your life in the future can help employers understand whether the trajectory of the role and company fits in with your personal development goals. To answer this question you can:
Describe skills you want to develop and accomplishments you’d like to achieve:
“In five years, I’d like to be an industry expert in my field, able to train and mentor students and entry-level designers alike. I would also like to gain specialized expertise in user experience to be a well-rounded contributor working with design and marketing teams on large-scale projects that make a difference both in the company and the global community.”
OR
Provide specific career goals including any dream roles or projects:
“Some of my future goals for the next few years include leading a design team in a formal capacity. I’m also excited about the prospect of working with product and event teams on developing streamlined processes—this is a natural fit with my project management background. I’d also like to further develop my skills in user experience to aid in creating more user-focused designs all around.”
Read more: Interview Question: “Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?”
Behavioral interview questions
Tell Me About Yourself
This completely open-ended opportunity to talk about yourself throws a lot of people off. Worse, it’s usually the first question interviewers ask! The confusing part about “tell me about yourself” is that it actually isn’t an invitation to tell your life story. The interviewer really just wants to know why you’re interested in this position and what makes you qualified.
One way to structure this answer is to start with your present, go into your past, and finish off with your future. This approach covers all your bases by answering the question, giving you an opportunity to talk about your relevant skills, and getting to what the interviewer genuinely wants to know: How are you going to perform in this position? Remember to focus your experiences and accomplishments on what’s most relevant to the position and the employer.
Tell Me About a Time You Failed
Again, this is a time to be real. Talk about real failure, not the B+ you got in Introduction to Psychology. Maybe it was a group project that wasn’t meeting deadlines or a miscommunication with your supervisor during a previous internship—the failure doesn’t need to be huge. It just needs to involve a mistake that you can reflect on thoughtfully. Interviewers are less interested in making you cry and more interested in seeing how you handle setbacks. Do you bounce back? Ask for feedback? Learn from your mistakes? Talk about the failure and, most importantly, discuss the lessons you learned from the experience.
What is Your Greatest Weakness?
Surprisingly, this isn’t actually meant to be a trick question. A more straightforward way an employer could ask this question would be, “Are you knowledgeable about the areas that you can improve upon? I prefer to hire people who are reflective about their skills and actively seek to improve themselves.”
And I’m sure you’ve heard the advice to spin this into a strength, but don’t. Don’t say you’re such a perfectionist that it sometimes affects your work. No one is going to believe that, even if it’s true.
Instead, give a genuine weakness—whether that’s delegating to others or attention to detail—but push it back into your past. Talk about the concrete steps you took to address your weakness and show improvement. Mention you’re still working on it, but you’ve made some great progress.
Not bad, right? Now just make sure you don’t say public speaking, because everyone uses that example. (Need some more guidance? This article has more advice on talking about strengths and weaknesses in an interview.)
FAQ
What is the introductory stage of an interview?
One of the most important steps in the interview process just so happens to be the first. The introduction is where both the candidate and the company will be making their first impression. It may surprise some companies to learn that they too should be concerned about making a great first impression.
How do you introduce yourself in interviews?
- Could you tell me about yourself and describe your background in brief? …
- How did you hear about this position? …
- What type of work environment do you prefer? …
- How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations? …
- Do you prefer working independently or on a team?
What are the top 5 questions to ask an interviewer?
Step forward and introduce yourself with your full name, interview time and job title of the role you’re interviewing for. This can be quick and simple, such as, “Hi, my name is Sam Taylor. I’m here for a 12 p.m. job interview for the program manager role.”
