Common Interview Questions

When I was working on a software employment team at XYZ Company, we took over one more company and had to turn many clients to a new product in a short period of time. It took a lot of planning, hard work, time and effort, but we were able to finish the project in a timely manner.

One of the interview questions you may be asked is what you are looking for in your next job. The interview wants to know whether your goals are a match for the companies needs.

You can begin your answer with this question: Tell me, Mr./Ms. Interviewer, what is a typical career path at OPL for someone with my skills and experience?

(Based on the answer you can then respond to the original question using the phrases from the answer to frame your response).

What is important to you? Two things are very important to me. One is my professionalism at work; the second is my family life.

Motivation means to arouse your hidden qualities and use them against something to overcome. As only motivation makes you successful in life, Without motivation one is like without any goal in life. Motivation is the only factor that could even make an adrift person to become successful.

Why they ask this and what they are looking for:

This question "What areas would you like to further develop professionally?" will uncover whether you are interested and knowledgeable about your own development and as such will can be a cloaked attempt to discover your weaknesses.

A common target of the question is to discover how motivated you are to extend yourself. If you are motivated to learn, then you are probably more motivated to do the job well.

How to answer this:

First show that you are concerned and active about your own development. You can indicate how development has worked for your in the past.

You're right, continued learning and development is important and I continue to work to improve key skills.

Do answer the question, of course, but do not show gaping holes in your skill set and especially those in key areas required in the job. A good trick is to talk about developing your skills in new areas that will be of future benefit to the company.

For example : I am in programming now and love the work, but one day I would like to develop into a management role.

Hope this helps you..!

In most cases, the best answer to this question is answering yes. Working well under pressure is a good trait to have. However, I think if you answer that you work the same with pressure and without pressure, the interviewer will be more impressed. However, you will need to explain in words why this is better. Here are some of my answers.

1. "I work well under pressure because I use the pressure to help me work more efficiently."

2. "I enjoy working under pressure because I believe it helps me grow. In my previous experience, I always worked well during deadlines, and I always learned how to work more efficiently afterwards."

3. "I work well under pressure because I don't panic. I maintain self control and work as efficiently as possible. In all my experiences, I did well and I always enjoyed the experience."

What are your weaknesses?

This is a very common interview question for many jobs across industries. Most people feel Answering strengths is easy but weaknesses is difficult. If approached the right way this question will give you chance to build trust. You have 3 options/approaches to answer this question. 

1. Deny having any weaknesses. This approach is least common and surely not the way to go.

2. Spin a Weakness into a strength. Like, "I'm a perfectionist" or "I care too much"

Note - This is very common approach and some interviewers think you are not being honest. 

3. Give an honest answer (Recommended). Answer the question honestly without shooting yourself in the foot. 

E.g. My weakness is public speaking, I am working on it. Ofcourse make sure this is not the primary requirement of the job. 

Example:

"I have several awesome  achievements in my career. Probably the most awesome achievements were the delivery of the most recent version replace update to one of our core products for customer bills. This was a 1-year project and I was one of 9 team members. What made it more for me was that my role expanded from being one of the tech team individuals to taking the lead on building the mobile makings of the product. In order to deliver this aspect of the product, I pulled in 3 new project resources with new specific skills in each of the mobile technology floors we targeted and cross-trained all project resources to support each floor. In the last, our team delivered the product on time and have received numerous accolades, both external and internal. The mobile component was particularly  identified to be world class and distributed the product at its release. Our CEO spent time showing the mobile components to the industry and press and it has since met with superb  reviews. Would you like to see the Android version of the product?"

This will take an assessment of your experiences, skills and traits. Summarize concisely: "I have a unique combination of strong technical skills, and the ability to build strong customer relationships. This allows me to use my knowledge and break down information to be more user-friendly."