Job Interviews: 5 Questions Types You Expect To Be Asked

By Dorcas Karuana,
Every interview is an opportunity for the candidate to convince the employer that s/he is the right hire for the job. Hiring managers want candidates that are fully prepared and are giving the best interview possible. It is not the most qualified candidate who is hired for a job but one who portrays him/herself as the best.

Even for the most experienced people, a job interview may be off-putting occurrence for them, but one has to face it. For some people, an interview can be very difficult since they have to explain their thoughts clearly only within one or two minutes.

Good interview preparation can help overcome these difficulties. This is by learning frequently asked interview questions ranging from the common questions to the tough ones as well as familiarizing yourself the responses to those questions correctly.

Here are the  common interview questions that cut across all professions.

1. Behavioral Interview Question
E.g Tell me about a time when something unplanned happened during your day. How did you deal with it?
Regardless of the position being interviewed, the interviewer is cunningly looking to see if you are an organized person. If you are organized, then most unplanned events should be easy to manage. Since emergencies come up, they want to see how you can multi-task when your work schedule of the day is interrupted. You can also explain the outcome of the unplanned event and how, because of your diligence, everything turned out successful.

2. General Interview Question
E.g How do you handle pressure, conflict and/or stress?
The best way to respond to this is by telling a story rather than a one word or sentence answer. The interviewer is looking beyond how you handle stress, to see how you work under pressure and still produce successful results. For example; talk of a day you were under pressure to complete a project that had a tight deadline. It was due in a day’s time and the team had only done half of the project. “Here is what I did…” If you have limited work experience then you can speak about a college project or a time when you were volunteering.
What do you think about sex before marriage?

3. Testing Interview Question
E.g What challenges do you think you might expect in this job if you were hired?
This question, unfortunately, catches so many people off-guard. Someone may say, “I believe the challenges I will face are… nothing, meeting a sales goal, or learning all software interfaces, etc.  This ruins your chances of landing the job, though they are logical answers that make sense. You are telling the interviewer everything you would NOT be able to do, thus how you are the wrong person to hire.

Instead, you can give examples such as, “getting to know the whole team, learning all policies and procedures. Follow up all of your answers, with how you would overcome those challenges.

Or how many bottles of beer do you take on a weekend?

4. Stressful Interview Question
E.g Are you under/over qualified for this job?
It would seem the obvious answer to this question is, “No”. Either way, this question is designed to see whether or not you can sell yourself along with convincing the interviewer that they should hire you. Therefore, take this opportunity to restate why you are the best person for the job, talking about the specific value you would bring to the organization.

Or you studied in Subukia Primary School, went to Subukia Secondary and would probably go to Subukia University if there was one. Does it mean you are not exposed?

5. Tricky Interview Question
E.g If I am your supervisor, would you lie for me?
It is a question that tests your creative thinking abilities as well as your ability to think out of the box. On the surface it really does seem like a dumb question and most candidates will answer, “um, yes?” Then the question and interview is over.
The right way to answer this question is to ask questions back. You must be inquisitive and challenge what seems to be the status quo. For example, The interviewer wants to see will you just accept a project and start working on it with no questions asked or will you question them and fully understand the project you will be working on.