At this moment, there are thousands of freshly graduated college students who are on the lookout for their first jobs. However, not all companies are generous enough to give an opportunity to a fresher. The aspirants have to prove their mettle and succeed in the recruitment process conducted by potential employers. The final and the most important step in the hiring process is the round of personal interviews. To beat stress, you can gear up for it by preparing answers for the following questions.
There are numerous tips that can help an aspirant trying to pursue his first job. But the following question-answers are the best interview tips for freshers that will help them sail through.
1. Introduce Yourself
This is the most popular question that is thrown at a candidate as soon as he sits down. It is asked to put you at ease and start a discussion. You may answer this question by mentioning your educational qualifications, work experience, and your family background. You can also talk about the projects you participated in at the university level. You can grab this opportunity to navigate the rest of the discussion in your favor. It is an art to stop at the right place that will thereafter provoke the next question.
2. Highlight your strengths and weaknesses. How are you dealing with the latter?
Do not take this question at face value! You will have to answer it very smartly. While mentioning your strengths you must think of it as citing reasons as to why the company should hire you. To pinpoint your relevant skills and achievements. However, while answering the weakness part, remember that your answer may just ruin your chances of securing this job. So mention a weakness that does not directly impact your candidature or the position you are seeking to land in the organization.
You can score more while pointing out how you are dealing with your weaknesses. If you have said your weakness is impatience or short temper, you may say you are practicing meditation to keep calm. Make sure the interviewer knows that you can identify problems, analyze them and solve them.
3. Why should you be hired for this role?
Interviewers ask this to test your consistency. Carefully study the job description before the interview and match your own capabilities, skills and former experience with the company’s requirements.
4. Where would you be 5 years from now?
With this question, the interviewer wants to gauge how large you can dream and get a hint of your future plans. Another reason to ask this question is to know whether you focused on your career. You must answer this in a way that reflects your ambitions while displaying stability to the recruiters.
5. What is your biggest achievement?
Look for an achievement that will impress the employer or is at least relevant enough for the job. An answer like ‘I stood first in class X’ will not only cause embarrassment but will prove that you have not achieved anything great ever since. The best way to deal with this question is to look for an answer from the recent past. Start talking about the creative projects you have undertaken and extracurricular activities you were involved with and then bring up an experience that will add value.
6. What do you think of doing repetitive work?
Repetitive work brings monotony and bores everyone. But after a certain point in time, all jobs will have the element of repetition. So do not say, “I don’t like do repetitive work,” instead say things like, “I like doing new things but I understand that each role will have a certain element of repetition. I shall be pleased to offer my services on every front.”
7. How much salary are you expecting?
This question will be of concern to anyone who wants to work and earn. But you must not just blurt out a figure at the drop of a hat! Before you quote an amount, seek the guidance of friends from the industry. You should be aware of the industry standards for freshers in the specified field of interest. You can put the ball in the interviewer’s court by questioning, “What would you offer for this position?”
These questions are common interview questions asked during interviews for job openings for freshers. So those seekers looking for their first jobs can get a fair idea of what a job interview would be like.
A writer by profession, Devika Arora is currently focusing her writing on the extensive domain of career-building and recruitment. The above article is a compilation of the top 7 questions asked while seeking fresher jobs.