Hello everyone!! Welcome back to the TAX DESTINATION blog. Thanks for your response to our Series – 1 on Handling Interview & Interview Questions. If you haven’t read that yet, you can read it here.
Since many of our users approached us saying they are facing problems in handling interviews, we have started this series to help you In Handling interviews.
This blog is a continuation of the previous blog where we
shared with you the various questions that could possibly be asked during the
HR round.
In this blog, we will try to shed light on the probable
answers for these questions and give some tips on how to handle difficult
questions and grab the attention of the interviewer with your answers.
We would suggest every student & Job seeker who is facing rejections in interviews back to back to go through this blog. We are very much sure that this will help everyone to crack your interviews.
Happy Reading!!
Introduction
Good academic records and sound technical knowledge alone
are not sufficient to guarantee you a job. An HR round is conducted by a company
to judge a person’s strengths, weaknesses, capability to handle the role, to
check their background and to understand if you’re the right fit for the job.
It is generally the last round of the recruitment process of any company.
Before getting into answering the probable questions, below are some tips that you should keep in mind if you are preparing for an HR
interview -:
Now let us move on to the questions and how best to answer
them.
01. Questions to evaluate your Communication skills & Confidence levels.
- This is one of the most common questions. The interviewer would have already gone through your resume but the reason to ask this question is to evaluate the way of your explanation about yourself. It doesn’t seem
hard, but you should fight the instinct to explain your whole resume point by
point. Try to keep it short and crisp and give a brief but interesting summary
of your resume. Trim your answer to cover the essentials like your
qualifications, accomplishments, strengths and career goals. Try to explain to him more than what is there in the resume.
- This question is for breaking the ice and allows the
candidate time for a brief introduction. It also tests your ability to answer
open-ended questions and checks if you can cover important points without
rambling. Start with a more condensed response to “Walk me through your
resume”, then discuss your current status – it may be professional or
educational or any volunteer work. Try to tie in your personal interests with
the job you’re applying for. Briefly touch on your broader career goals to
showcase your ambitiousness.
- This may sound repetitive, but you are a product and you are
selling yourself to the Company. The ultimate goal here is to show how you can
add value to the company and how your relevant skills and experiences will fill
the need of the company. This is where your research on the company will help
you more. Show how you are passionate about the role and your future in the
company.
- This is also an oft-asked question. Many people are of the
wrong impression that “I would like to have your designation” is the right
answer, however in current times it is offensive. Having clarity in your goals
will showcase the strength of your character and drive to the interviewer. Share
goals that are both personal and professional in nature. Do not focus on
designations and salary.
- This question is asked to test the emotional quotient of the
candidate. Do not panic when asked this question. Be honest about your
situation and try to explain your decisions without going into too many
details. Highlight any activities that you have engaged in that will show you
in a positive light and will also complement your job, any volunteer work or
any courses taken by you to upskill, for example.
- This is asked to check your self-awareness and confidence.
Be modest, but at the same time don’t sell yourself short. Just a number isn’t
enough, try to back your figure with an example. It is not about “what” you
say, but “how” you say it, with confidence and conviction. Make sure you don’t
doubt yourself or give a weak answer to this as it can make or break your
interview.
- This is one of the most challenging interview questions. You
are essentially going to compare yourself to other candidates and try to set
yourself apart from the rest without sounding boastful. Don’t give a generic
answer, be unique and try to stand out. Brag about your skills and experiences,
which you feel are relevant to the profile you are applying for, humbly. Have
an answer to this prepared in advance, but deliver it in such a manner that it
doesn’t sound rehearsed.
02. Questions to evaluate your Leadership skills & Team management
- There is a common misconception that if you’re not a
manager, you’re not a leader. Therefore, people often do not provide a
satisfactory answer to this question. So, give this question some thought and
come up with an answer. There is no wrong answer to this question, just be
honest. Start off by defining what leadership means to you, then share your
story in a structured way.
- In the case of this question, it is better to answer this
question only if you have experienced the same. If you haven’t, be
straightforward and tell the interviewer. If you have, be respectful towards
your co-worker and focus more on how you solved the problem using your skills.
Keep your answer brief and ensure that it is relevant.
- This question is asked to determine whether you are a team
player, your flexibility and your ability to handle conflict at the workplace. Pretty
much everyone has disagreed with a co-worker at one time or another. Craft your
response in a balanced manner – don’t state that you avoid conflicts at all
costs, but at the same time don’t take an overly aggressive stance, these will
portray you in the wrong light. Highlight your leadership skills by letting the
interviewer know how you can influence others around you positively and how to
remain calm and collected and came to a mutual understanding. Also, try to
convey what you learned from the disagreement.
- Try not to give generic answers to this question and back
your answers with examples. Each person plays a different role in a team,
therefore enumerate the role you played in the teams that you were part of, and
how it eventually helped the team achieve its goals.
- Describe the challenge and what was at stake, then briefly
explain the steps you took to overcome the obstacle. Talk about your thought
process and the approach you adopted for solving the problem. Then conclude by
detailing the positive outcome.
- Briefly answer about the goal you had and why you chose it.
This goal can be personal or professional. Elucidate about how you planned to
achieve it and how you followed the necessary steps to reach it.
- This is a very delicate question and seeks to test your
ethical standards. Don’t make anything up. If you have been fortunate enough to
not have an ethical situation, state how lucky you are and be appreciative of
your previous workplace. However, if you have faced such a situation, think
about whether sharing it will cause any issues concerning confidentiality,
and answer in such a way that highlights your own ability to deal with
ethical dilemmas rather than trying to criticize your manager or seniors.
03. Questions to evaluate your Problem-solving approach & Handling pressure during your work
- All of us would’ve experienced at least one situation where
we had to work towards a deadline. Prepare yourself in advance for this
question, by thinking of a situation that would highlight a lot of your
strengths. Be brief, mention the goal, its deadline and its importance, and
also how you planned to meet the deadline. This answer will show the
interviewer your ability to prioritize and work under pressure, so make sure
you give a good reply.
Tell me about a time when you
failed or made a mistake and how you handled it.
- This is a question that is often asked by the interviewer to
check if you’re accountable and upfront and can demonstrate that you learn from
your mistakes and use the experience to get better. Give a concise reply,
detailing the events in chronological order. Show how you took responsibility
for the mistake, instead of blaming others, and also share how you made sure
to not repeat the same mistake again. Sound humble while answering.
- This question tests your creativity and initiative. Describe
the benefit your actions gave to the organization. Be statistical and provide numerical
evidence, if possible, otherwise stick to general information about how the
improvement suggested by you made the process more effective.
- This is a behavioural question and tests you on your ability
to handle difficult situations. Briefly describe a situation where you had to
deal with an angry client, and highlight your ability to remain calm and
collected under pressure, problem-solving skills and quick decision-making
strategies. You have to give a well-crafted and thoughtful response that will
showcase you as a person having strong interpersonal skills.
- This is a situation that we must’ve all faced at least once
in our life. Describe the decision, and what made it difficult for you. Then
enumerate how you managed to overcome those difficulties and what you
learned from that decision. Your takeaway from the decision could be both positive
and negative, so be honest with the interviewer and answer in a way that will
make them empathize with you.
04. Questions to know more about your personal attributes
What is your biggest strength/weakness?
- This is a very common interview question, so be prepared in
advance. Prepare a SWOT analysis of yourself beforehand and choose a few
strengths that you think would be relevant to the job profile to share in case
this question is asked. However, be very cautious about how you answer about
your weaknesses. You don’t want to sound condescending by projecting your
perfectionism as a weakness, but also at the same time you don’t want the
interviewer to know you’re bad at something. Be honest while answering this,
without being too personal or candid at the same time. This tests your
self-awareness. Choose a weakness that won’t affect the duties of your job, and
also highlight the steps you are taking to overcome your weakness.
- The interviewers are looking for well-rounded people with
diverse personalities, so answer this question honestly. Your reply will tell a
lot about your character and level of ambition, so don’t settle for answers
like “watching movies” which will show that you’re not motivated or innovative.
Keep your answer crisp and try to sound passionate about what you do, this will
capture the interest of the interviewer.
- Try to pick something recent and relevant to your
job or career, however, if there is something else that you’ve done and are
especially proud of, there’s no harm in sharing that with the interviewer. But
make sure that the achievement could be seen as transferrable to the work environment.
Be proud and passionate with your answer. Balance it out by being humble, but
at the same time, don’t be too modest and undersell your achievements.
- This is a question that will always make you feel conflicted.
The interviewer wants to scope out the competition and see how sincere you are about
the job and the industry. Without being too specific say you have a few
interviews lined up with other companies in the same industry and that you are
exploring options, but that you are most excited about this position. But at
the same time, if you’re not interviewing anywhere else, do not say that
outright to the interviewer, mention that you’ve just started your job search
and have applied for other opportunities.
- This question is both about how you handle your priorities
and your ability to work under pressure and time management. It is also about how
you ask for help from others when you need it. Try to explain with an example and
detail why you prioritized a responsibility for another and how you
communicated the same with the rest of your team and superiors.
- Even though they may be our friends, it is impossible to say
how someone would describe us, the interviewer is only testing to see what you
think of yourself and how you perceive yourself as a human being and a friend.
An ideal answer would combine both praise and criticism – mix 2 positive
attributes and a negative one, but make sure the negative one is not something
that will highlight you in a bad light to the interviewer.
- This question is to be answered delicately. Start off by
defining what work-life balance means to you. Highlight your willingness to
work long hours and prioritize work during deadlines, but also how you would
like to spend your free time later. Find a balance – do not come off as a
person who finds work exhausting or also as a workaholic.
So Friends, With this,the probable questions for the HR round end, but
I would like to give more tips for the interview day.
Thanks for reading. Hope this will help you in your upcoming
interviews!!!
Blog Written by
Sridhoola Skandraaj
Team TAX DESTINATION
