The biggest mistake most people make is they don't prepare. These are pretty generic questions and all you really need to do is come up with two or three ideas you can expand on and a story or two to illustrate those ideas. There really is no right answer but there are a lot of wrong ones.

Take leadership for example. You can talk about leading by example, you can talk about being a good listener and about keeping the team on focus. You probably want to avoid talking about making sure everyone likes you or making sure everyone respect your authority. Probably a good idea to avoid things likes "first among equals". Have a story ready them demonstrates when you showed leadership and example of what you thought was good leadership. If you have to be a little creative don't worry about it. Don’t tell a lie you can get caught in but what they really should be looking for is your ability to demonstrate that you get the concept more then anything else.

Unless you know for sure what the questions are be ready to answer these.

Why you want the job and what is your next step. (also the always stupid “where do you see yourself in ten years”)

Why you are qualified for the job.

What have you done to prepare yourself the job (I always ask that question with internal hires and I have found it very effective).

What do you consider team work. Be ready to give examples of when someone on the team didn't do their job and how you handled it. (picking up the slack without complaining and going straight to the supervisor are both wrong answers by the way).

Your strengths need to be strengths that matter to the job you are applying for and your weaknesses need to not matter so much. So if the job requires a lot of organization and you are good at that say so. If it requires a lot of focus on detail and you can do that say so. Integrity is never a bad choice.

Don't try the copout "I work to hard" for a weakness. Go for something benign or fixable. I typically go with messy desk or that I tend to hyper focus on what I am doing and have to use reminders to keep from forgetting things. Organization isn’t critical with my job but focus is.

Write down your questions and have a couple of people give you practice interviews. If you can get someone who has actually done hiring it is better. You will get better with practice.

Talk to people who he has interviewed before and see what they can tell you. If you can find out what his question are that is good, if you can find out what answers he wants to hear then it gets to be a slam dunk.


Lastly don't forget to ask questions yourself. When I did interviews I was always most impressed with people who were prepared and who could demonstrate that they knew why they wanted and why they were there. Unless you are sales wanting more money is typically not a good reason.

I have gotten every job I applied for and I have never hired anyone I regretted. The secret is to be prepared and think about why they are asking what seems to be silly questions.


Good luck