misconceptions about you interview question

Interviewers frequently ask candidates behavioral questions to gain insight into their experiences and how they’ve performed in previous roles. There are a few open-ended questions that can be challenging to answer, and it’s important that candidates prepare their responses ahead of time to ensure they’re as effective as possible. If you’re facing an upcoming interview, it may be helpful for you to consider the question “What misconceptions do others have about you?” and how you can respond. In this article, we explain why employers ask this question and how to answer it, including example responses.

• Think about your positive and negative traits as a professional. …
• Choose a misconception that can you can reframe. …
• Align your traits with the needs of the employer interviewing you. …
• Be authentic, yet professional.

a misconception about you

Why do employers ask ” What misconceptions do others have about you?”

Employers commonly ask this question to make a behavioral assessment regarding candidates previous professional experiences. In your answer, you can demonstrate that you have the emotional intelligence and self-awareness to understand how others view you in the workplace and how your actions impact them. Further, this question can serve as an opportunity for you to reflect upon your weaknesses, discuss your desire for self-improvement and ultimately align your strengths with the needs of an organization. From here, employers can better evaluate what type of employee you are and whether your personality is a good fit for an organizations workplace culture.

Example answers to “What misconceptions do others have about you?”

It may be helpful for you to review various example answers to this question to gain a better understanding of how to form your own. Here are three sample responses to use as a reference as you prepare for your interview:

Example 1

“I think others have had the misconception that Im a workaholic. A few colleagues of mine have actually joked that I must have an identical twin who works simultaneously with me because otherwise theres no way I could accomplish all my goals on my own. While Im a dedicated employee and I work diligently to ensure I exceed expectations, I think this misconception about my workaholic nature stems from my ability to succeed without much support. I have so many tools that I use to keep myself focused, organized and on task that others dont see when examining my work superficially.

So, Im not a workaholic, but Ive worked toward developing excellent organizational and time management skills so I can be a productive, high-performing employee. At the beginning of my career, I struggled to maintain a healthy work-life balance because of my desire to excel, but Ive overcome these challenges through purposeful effort. I take my work seriously and I aim to improve continuously as a professional while taking care of myself so I can offer the best of my abilities on a day-to-day basis.”

Be authentic, yet professional

Throughout your response, make sure that you maintain a certain level of honesty. Its important that youre truthful about your experiences and forgo giving incomplete answers. For instance, it may be best to overcome the impulse to tell an interviewer that nobody has misconceptions about you because this may not come across as authentic. Rather, try to strike a balance between transparency and professionalism to ensure the interviewer can recognize your commitment to accountability.

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This is not to say that all candidates have poor misconceptions about themselves – in fact most do not, but it is a great question to validate your own perceptions of an applicant you are just not sure about. A good response to this question would be along the lines of “I don’t believe there are any misconceptions about me. I wear my heart on my sleeve, I am very direct, respectful and honest. What you see is what you get”.

This question pierces right to the core of who they are and the insight gained is remarkable. However, the real secret ingredient is not the question itself. The magic lies within the brutally honest responses that follow. This question is designed for the applicant to paint you a picture of what they are not. It summons thoughts and false perceptions that they think others may have of them simply because they don’t know them well enough.

Twenty years after I posed this question for the first time, I remain in awe as executive after executive pours out all the terrible “misconceptions” current and past coworkers have of them. One of the most recent responses included the following comments, “people that really don’t know me may think that I am arrogant and confrontational, I spend too much time managing upwards, and I am only out for myself – but of course I’m not really like that – but I could see that being a misconception”.

The best predictor of how someone will behave in the future is how they have behaved in the past. And the best way to get a glimpse into an individual’s past behavioral patterns is to ask competency based interview questions such as “Tell me about a time when you…” “Give me an example of…” After posing some of these questions, I then inject them with what I call the “truth serum” question:

An individual’s naturally preferred behavioral style is displayed regularly and effortlessly across situations and time throughout their career. It is the DNA strand of how they act and react. Predicting which applicants will possess the desired soft skills and personal characteristics in the interview process is no easy task. Candidates in job-seeking mode are boldly selling their skills and past accomplishments while displaying only their best behavior. They are all so nice! Seeing as most interviewers are not mind readers, and using a polygraph machine has become a somewhat frowned upon practice since the movie “Meet-the-Parents”, it can be difficult to decipher their true personality. However, there are techniques interviewers can use to get an honest glimpse into a candidate’s naturally preferred behavioral style that tell you a lot about the person beyond the “pitch”.

Tuckerton says the temptation for some is to avoid this difficult question by bringing up a misconception people have about them that has nothing to do with work, such as, “Some people think I am too obsessed with how my kids are doing at school.”

This allows you to avoid telling the interviewer something that isnt true, while also making clear that you are willing to work on yourself to improve your performance.

If you tell the interviewer that people think of you as lazy or argumentative, its unlikely they will want to hire you.

You can show off your flexibility by recalling a minor misconception someone had about you, and then neutralizing any damage to your candidacy by explaining how you corrected your behavior to fit the situation.

Tuckerton recommends providing a misconception about you that is neither good nor bad, such as, “People sometimes assume I am an introvert because I like to keep to myself when Im working at my desk, but in actuality I love being around people and have a healthy social life outside of work.”

FAQ

How do you answer what is a misconception about you?

What is biggest mistake answer in an interview?

What are 6 mistakes that can be made during an interview?

• Bragging.
• Answering but not asking.
• Not knowing the company.
• Not paying attention.
• Making a bad first impression.
• Trying to fake it.

Why should we not hire you interview question?