In a recent article, we discussed what you can learn by asking a few key questions in an interview. But you can also learn a lot about the position – if not the interviewers’ or organization’s priorities – by questions the interviewers ask you. Here are five questions interviewers frequently ask, why they ask them what you can learn from them.
1. What They Ask: Tell us about your background.
When this question is used to open an interview, it tells me that the foundational qualification for the position is likely effective communication skills. The interviewers already know from your resume that your background is relevant, but they want you to bring life to the lines they’ve read on paper.
Why They Ask: Your delivery reveals much to interviewers. Can you roll up or select from a ton of information and present your thoughts succinctly and articulately? What other subtle value do you see in your experience that isn’t written your resume? It’s an efficient way for interviewers to ensure your communication skills are sufficient to allow you to get right to work learning the new job.
What They Ask: Give an example of when you resolved a conflict.
Realistically, no worthwhile work experience is without at least a few incidents of conflict. And if you’re being asked the question, odds are you can expect to be resolving conflict regularly in the new position.
Why They Ask: The story you tell is a platform to gain insight about your conflict resolution skills and perhaps more importantly, how you view conflict. Do you view it as an opportunity to provoke positive change, a complete inconvenience that puts progress on hold, or somewhere in between? Your ability to leverage conflict for positive gain and negotiate agreements among stakeholders with competing equities is a highly valuable skill – and one that hiring officials consider worth the time to verify in an interview.
What They Ask: What is your greatest weakness?
This question can also be cloaked as, “Tell us about a time you made a mistake (or overcame a challenge) and what you learned from it.” The weakness might never emerge in the new job, but that’s not the most relevant aspect of the answer to the interviewers.
Why They Ask: This is a chance for interviewers to learn about your self-awareness and how you learn from setbacks. Can you objectively review mistakes and apply lessons learned? Do you see failure as a step to progress or innovation, or as an inconvenience you’d like to forget? Questions such as these indicate interviewers value an employee with self-reflective abilities – and possibly a bit of humility.
What They Ask: What do you know about this organization / our mission?
If you’re being quizzed about organizational facts or specific processes, then you can expect the position to be highly technical, and possibly rote in nature.
Why They Ask: The interviewers place more value on what skills you know about the mission than your ability to learn them. Your level of technical expertise might be important because some areas of expertise cannot be learned, and possibly feinted on a resume. While technical expertise is important, if the interviewers can’t glean what they need from your resume and have to quiz you, it’s a potential indicator that technical skills outweigh more nuanced professional competencies. As long as this isn’t a surprise, it might not be an issue.
What They Ask: Why are you the best qualified candidate for this position?
In my opinion, this is a wasted question. You’ve no idea what other candidates are being considered, so how can you know you’re the best qualified? You can only speak to your qualifications, which are either already in your resume or just covered in the interview.
Why They Ask: Interviewers might want to hear you summarize highlights of your qualifications, or possibly afford you an opportunity to mention a few new ones based on what you learned from their questions. But if they want to hear you sell yourself one last time, your caution flag should go up. If you still have to prove your potential value the end of the interview, it could signal a failure to acknowledge everyone’s right to mutual insight on whether the position would be a good fit.
Your experience and professional instinct should be your guide during an interview, but considering what’s behind these and other interview questions might enlighten in ways that could surprise you. Here’s to professional discovery!
