Top 10 Answers to Interview Questions

Summary

• When asked "Tell me about yourself" in an interview, focus on how your experiences and strengths make you a perfect fit for the job, not on your personal life story.
• Talk about your past roles, the results you achieved there, and the strengths that helped you succeed, then relate it back to the role you're applying for.
• During the first 15 minutes of the interview, make sure to present your qualifications effectively as hiring managers often make quick decisions.
• For "Walk me through your resume," skip irrelevant job experience and translate relevant past work directly to how it fits the role you're interviewing for.
• When explaining why you want to work at a company, focus on the company's mission, values, and how the role aligns with your career path. Avoid discussing personal benefits like pay or perks.
• To address the question of your weaknesses, acknowledge a real weakness and describe how you manage it without it affecting the potential job role.
• When discussing what makes you unique, identify a unique pair of contrasting skills that make you rare and valuable in the role.
• If asked why you're leaving your current role, avoid speaking negatively about your previous employer and focus on what you're looking for that your current role does not provide.
• In terms of career aspirations, be honest about your goals, how long you plan to stay, and assure the interviewer that you will ensure a proper transition if you ever leave.
• When asked what you are looking for in a new position, describe the environment and conditions where you'll thrive, making sure it aligns with the company's role and needs.
• Always have insightful questions prepared to show that you're thoughtful about the position you're applying for, such as asking about exceeding expectations or what the onboarding process looks like.
• You are not required to disclose your current pay during an interview, and if asked about your desired salary, come prepared with market research and present a reasonable range based on your qualifications.

Video

How To Take Action

I would suggest focusing first on how you present your qualifications. Practice how you'll talk about your past roles and successes. You want to mention your job titles, your achievements, and your strengths that make you fit for the new job. It's important to connect your experiences to the role you want.

If you're asked to "Walk me through your resume," only talk about the jobs that relate to the one you're interviewing for. Show them how your experience is perfect for the job and skip the rest.

When they ask why you want to work at the company, don't just say it's for the money or perks. Do your homework on the company's mission and values. Talk about how the job fits your career path and how you're excited to help with the company's goals.

If you need to talk about your weaknesses, be honest but smart. Pick a real weakness that won't get in the way of the job. Talk about how you're dealing with it.

Next, for what makes you unique, think of a mix of skills you have that aren't common together, and explain how that mix is perfect for the job.

When they ask why you're leaving your current job, don't complain about your old job. Just focus on what you want that you aren't getting now and how this new job gives you that.

For your career goals, be clear on what you want. Tell them how long you plan on staying and that you're ready to train someone else if you leave.

When talking about what you want in a new job, describe the type of place where you do your best work. Make sure it sounds like their company.

Always have good questions ready for the end. Ask about how to do well in the role or what the first months will look like. This shows you're serious about the job.

Finally, about pay, come prepared with research on typical salaries for the role. Give them a range based on your findings and explain why you think you're worth it.

Remember, it's all about showing how you'll bring value to them, not the other way around. Good luck!

Quotes by Leila Hormozi

"Next time someone asks you to tell me about yourself, don't tell them about yourself, tell them why you're qualified for this role"

– Leila Hormozi

"A hiring manager usually makes the decision as to whether or not they're going to hire a person in the first 15 minutes of the interview"

– Leila Hormozi

"What they want to hear is Mission, values, Vision, career path"

– Leila Hormozi

"Tell me now, that's what this question is asking"

– Leila Hormozi

"Here's how I would answer that question"

– Leila Hormozi

Full Transcript

to the top 10 questions so that you can land your ideal job as a hiring manager and a CEO I've done thousands of interviews and I've interviewed thousands of people and so I can tell you exactly what an employer is looking for but on the other side I was an employee for years before I had my own business so I know what it's like to be on the other side of the table and so I feel like I have a unique perspective that I can bring together to present to you these answers as a bonus at the end of this video I'm also going to give you the answer to one of the most important questions that can dictate whether you get more money or less money in your new role the number one question that people ask in interview is not really a question it's tell me about yourself an open-ended question that most people misinterpret why do they misinterpret I can tell you that nine times out of ten when I say tell me about yourself to somebody on interview what they come back with is they want to tell me their whole life story well I grew up in Connecticut and I went to listen nobody gets a they don't care about your life story they don't care we grow up you're wasting their time they need to get to the next interview what they actually want to know is give me your sales pitch as to why you're fit for this role they want to hear your sales pitch why are you uniquely qualified what experiences do you have that relate to the role that then make you the right candidate what they're really asking when they say tell me about yourself is they're saying what value do you bring to this company enroll so I want you to not even think when someone says tell me about yourself switch it's what value do you bring to this company enroll how do you go about answering this question the first piece is what you want to say is where you've been so say you're applying for a customer success representative or a customer success manager I've been a customer success manager at three of The Fortune 500 companies and over the last eight years and what I was able to do at those three companies is Drive X Y and Z results so the first thing you want to do is say what you have been the exact title and role and what results you have driven so title results the second piece once you've explained to the title and results is what are your biggest strengths I've been a customer success manager at these three Fortune 500 companies I drove these results where I've increased retention from 10 retention to 80 retention and my biggest strengths are blank my biggest strengths are that I'm fantastic at decreasing time to value for customers in fact at my last company I was able to decrease time to value by 20 in just a quarter and then you want to bring it home by saying so the reason that I applied to work here is relate it back to why that pertains to the role and I saw that you were looking for a customer success manager to get clients ramped up and onboarded more quickly and I figured that would be a good fit because I've done that in all these last three roles and I was able to actually increase our Revenue per account by four thousand dollars you're gonna all tie it back to how it relates to you applying for this job so where have you been what results has it driven what's your biggest strength and how does that correlate to this role here next time someone asks me you tell me about yourself don't tell them about yourself tell them why you're qualified for this role a hiring manager usually makes the decision as to whether or not they're going to hire a person in the first 15 minutes of the interview and this is actually where most people drop the ball they go through all the effort they go and fill out the application they research the company they submit the application they write a cover letter they do all this pre-work to get to the interview and then they're not thinking about how they're going to answer the questions this isn't to give you some strips in terms of I want you to regurgitate this on your interview this is to give you the framework to understand what is the employer actually asking when they ask you these top 10 questions the second most asked question on interview is walk me through your resume what I see a lot is that people go line by line it's like first I worked at Subways and I worked at this and I had an internship and it's like nobody again gives a they want to hear about the relevant experience so the first thing you want to do is you want to skip through anything that's not related to this job if it doesn't pertain to this job in any way and it adds no value to them then don't talk about it so only pick the experiences that relate to this specific role take those experiences and translate them to them they've already read your resume that's why you're here for the interview they don't want you to read it off and say the exact same things from the resume what they want you to do is talk about how each of those experiences translates to this role because you've done the research on the company you've done the research on the role and you can translate it for them the third most common question asked an interview is why do you want to work at this company I have done thousands of interviews and most the time surprisingly this answer is not answered correctly what they want to hear is how much research you've done on the company and how excited you are about the role they want to hear someone that relates to the mission they really live by the values they really feel like this role is exactly what's meant for them and this is part of their career path and then get them to their ultimate goal what they don't want is for you to talk about the selfish reasons as to why you plan we all know that most of the reasons people apply for jobs are they see really good pay good benefits there's a lot of benefits to them when you're looking for a job you're looking for the pieces that pertain to you they're like this is how this would make my life better that doesn't mean that that's what you want to express in an interview because they already by default assume that if you apply for that job those are things that are non-negotiables for you pay your benefits work remote or not remote those kind of things what they're looking for in that question is they want to hear how selfless you are they want to hear how company-centric versus self-centric you are and if you say anything about pay benefits working remote that's all going in self-centered bucket which they don't want to hire those people what they want to hear is Mission values Vision career path that goes in company-centric bucket and so you want to make sure that you have a company-centric answer to that research the company look at their missions look at their values study their glass door look at their LinkedIn and look at all the things that you like about that company and have an answer prepared that is company-centric not self-centered so the way you want to frame this answer is really three R's research recognition and right fit so research tie your answer into well when I was looking up the company what I found on your LinkedIn was your mission talks about recognition I love the fact that your values talk about X Y and Z because I actually relate to that because I live my life in X Y and Z way and then write fit and because of that I felt like I was the right fit for this role because those things resonated with me so much research recognition right fits the fifth most common question asked is what would you consider to be your weakness most people get this one wrong because what most people say is something like I just work too hard or I'm just such a perfectionist you know I just tend to do too much I don't even know if I've had someone answer this one well what I would like to explain is that one everyone knows that's perfectionists haven't heard that one the last seven interviews I did today worked too hard so did Sally Gary and this guy who eventually got fired because they were lazy as nobody believes when you say that about yourself so don't pick something that's actually a strength disguised as a weakness actually tell them what your weaknesses are and then explain how you are resilient despite those weaknesses so this is a chance for you to admit a flaw and then talk about how you handle those flaws here's an example say that you're a customer success manager maybe talk about the fact that you're bad at math and that was something you struggled with your whole life and here's how you've overcome being bad at math I took tutoring I tried this I did all these things it's still gotten me down because I'm still pretty bad at math but I've been working on it by taking these lessons and doing this online course so I can get better at math because I do think it'll help me in different areas of my life like the fact that I rent airbnbs on the side and I don't know how to do the math basically what you want to do is pick a weakness that doesn't pertain to the role so it's not something that will detract from you getting this job but it is something that's a weakness for you the sixth question that people ask on interviews that is the most common is what makes you unique when someone's asking what makes you unique they don't really want to know anything about you know what you did in high school or college or I got this or I was the scholar of some they don't care about any of those things what they want to know is why should they hire you and not somebody else that is what that question means why are you unique for this role why should I hire you and not the other five people I've interviewed today tell me now that's what this question is asking when you are presenting why should they hire you and not somebody else what I want you to think about is unique pairings so what is it that makes you different than others and what you do so if you look at some of the most talented people they typically have unique pairings in terms of skill sets it's the best person in a creative role might also be very organized that's a unique parent because typically people in Creative roles are actually not organized and the fact that somebody is organized or extremely meticulous would be a unique parent say that your applying for a financial role and then you say actually I have really high you know people skills and I actually have done lots of presentations on leadership and management all these other things wow that's a unique pairing because not only am I getting that person that's going to fill a financial role but they can also contribute to all these other things in the company because of this skills that they have when that person asks you what makes you unique then you want to think about what is your unique pairing what's a skill set that you have that is contrary to a different skill set and together are rare to be seen the seventh most commonly asked question is why are you leaving your current role so if you currently are in a job they're going to ask you why are you leaving that role here's what myself as an employer really wants to know what are the red flags that are the reason that you're leaving and do they exist here in this company so that I can just stop this now because maybe it's not a fit and that's what they really want to know is are there the same things there that there are here and so if there's any crossover then that's not something that they would want because they don't want you to just leave this job too what they don't want is they don't want you to sit there and complain about your last job to talk about your last employer even even if you're like oh listen if you say I'm not trying to talk you're talking because you're just literally what's going to follow that is talking but the fact that you said I'm not trying to talk you're hiding it they can sense that don't do it just say here's the reasons I left and I don't think that pertains to this role here even better is to say here's the reasons I left and the reason I'm so interested in this job is because you've expressed these things which are the things that I want that I didn't have here the eighth most commonly asked question is what are your career aspirations what does an employer actually want to know they want to know how long you're going to be here that is what it means when they say what are your career aspirations don't it's explain what you want to get from this job explain how long you see yourself being here and explain if you're flexible or rigid in your weights some people want to be a certain place from maybe 100 employees to 300 employees and then they're out some people want to complete what I call a mission while they're there to build a certain something and then after they've built that thing they're gone so explain what your objective is in applying and working at this company and then also explain that if you were ever to transition out you can always talk about I can see myself being here for four years building X Department y Department beyond that I don't know if there's room for me but I can see myself being here from committing a solid four years and obviously you know when the time comes that I was no longer needed there's no more growth I would always make sure to backfill myself because that's what people are really scared of they're scared of you leaving and not backfilling yourself be honest but also talk about the things that you would do if the time came when you were no longer a fit the ninth most commonly asked question is what are you looking for in a new position so when someone asks this what they want is not a list of all your demands and desires that are again selfish and not company-centric what they want is to understand what are the parameters that would make this a great job for you what is your potential that's untapped and what environment would you thrive and mostly what they want to know is do your career goals align with the position your strengths fit with the role and do your desires fit with the role someone might have strengths that fits the role but their desires for their career don't necessarily early so they want to make sure that the desire also fits the Roll Along with the strength so what you want to do is explain what kind of environment you would be best utilized in so an example of that would be what I'm looking for is a place where I can really fully utilize myself I can build a department from scratch which I know I can do because I've done it three other times and I have the autonomy to do so but I also have the support and Clarity from leadership where they're telling me hey we'd rather have you do it this way or that way or hey that's not exactly how the company needs it that's what I'm really looking for is a place where I can have autonomy but also support and Clarity and the last most frequently Asked question in a job interview is do you have any questions for me this is always what people are going to ask towards the end of the interview sometimes even in the beginning of the interview and here's what they want you want to know that you have thought about this decision what they don't want is somebody who is thoughtless who says no I really don't have any other questions you don't have any other questions about the place you want to be for the next two to four years that's bananas most people have questions most people just haven't sat and taken the time to think about what their questions are so here's how I would answer that question question one be specific pull out a line from the job description that was on the posted site and say I have a question about this piece that you wrote in the job description one that shows that you read the job description which a lot of people don't do thoroughly and then two it shows that you were thoughtful enough to ask the question about it the second thing you can do is you can ask how would I exceed your expectations in this role the best interviews I've had have been where candidates have asked me how could I not meet your expectations but exceed your expectations and that's a great question for an employer because then they're thinking how would this person impress me and you can start off on an even better flip because you can get in there and right off the bat you know what you can do to impress that person and then the third thing that you can ask is what would my onboarding look like what would my 30 60 90 look like the reason I ask you about onboarding or 30 60 90 is important because it shows that you can see yourself being in the company you have enough foresight to think what's it going to look like when I get in there and how can I prepare now which shows again that you're thoughtful and you're diligent and as a bonus question a lot of people ask me Layla how do I answer the question what do you want to get paid here's the thing that's actually not something you can ask during a job interview nobody is actually allowed to answer that question or ask that question so if somebody asks you what are you being paid now you actually don't need to answer it so that is something a lot of people don't know now what a lot of people do ask the way to get around it is to say what is your goal salary so a lot of employers will ask tell me what your goal salary or goal compensation is and here's how I would suggest to answer that to make the most amount of money one you have to understand that overshooting this is going to stab you no employer is going to hire somebody who say the job is market value at a hundred thousand dollars and you say two hundred thousand dollars they're just not going to do that and trust me I have had that happen and if not appreciated because it's unrealistic so here's what you want to do to prepare for that question one you want to research the role so go on salary.com payscale.com see how much that title and with your years of experience is work in the market now the second thing you want to do is just like when you buy a house you look at comps in the neighborhood go look at companies that are similar what are they paying for that role because the two pieces that go into determining compensation are the hard facts of researching and finding market value and then also just taking from word on the street like what are people actually paying in similar companies because it might be a little different then you want to use that to come up with the range that you want to present to that person so given that come up with a range make it fairly flexible and then when they ask what's your goal compensation you can say the higher range however you can say the range you know my goal would be to be between 110 to 130 preferably on the higher end based on my research you know I've seen that companies like x y and z are paying about blank and then companies at x y z are playing blank and if you look on payscale and salary.com they're showing these so when you're presenting that to them you come off like a logical rational thinking adult ultimately the way that you present it and showing and telling that you've done the research will probably get you paid more than if you don't