Question 4 [15] Read the article 5 Questions youll hear at your next job interview and exactly how to answer them by Kristen Bahler and then answer the questions that follow. Your answers should reflect that you are familiar with the content of the article and should be written in your own words. The article was published in Money, 2018, 47(8):2325.

4.1 Which words describe job hunting as a negative experience? (3)

4.2 What should you tell the interviewer when he/she asks you, Tell me about yourself? 4.3 Why are storytellers effective in a job interview? (3)

4.4 Why does the interviewer want to know what is your greatest weakness? (2) 4.5 How should you respond to the question about your greatest weakness?

LOOK, THERES NO WAY around this: Job hunting is the worst. Its stressful and timeconsuming. Success hinges on a million different variables, each muddied by competing advice from anyone who feels emboldened to dish it out. In the hours before a job interview, all of this comes barreling to a climax. Often, the more you rehearse your work history, the more you Google potential interview questions, the more you labor over how to charm your interviewer, the further from an offer letter you feel. So heres a tipStop doing that. Obviously, you want to be prepared for an interview. But instead of going over every esoteric question a recruiter might ask, why not home in on the few you know they will? Learning how to mold the points you want to make around different types of questions will better prepare you for the task at hand, says Mary Abbajay, president of Careerstone Group and author of Managing Up. There are only about 10 different questions, but 100 different ways of asking, she says. Here are the questions that will inevitably come up in your next interview, and how Abbajay and other career experts say you should answer them. Tell me about yourself This question, usually an interviewers rst, isnt as easy as it seems. Its not enough to just give the employer a rundown of your rsum, says Ashley Hampton, a psychologist and business coach. And they denitely do not want to hear about your personal life. Instead, Hampton recommends using the time to emphasize the experience that landed you an interview, and why youre applying for the job. You can assume the candidates who are interviewing are extremely similar in their accomplishments, what they can offer the company, and what they look like on paper, she says. Research the company, research the position, and determine what in your story makes you the best and most unique match. But try not to sound too rehearsed. Carmine Gallo, author of the communication guidebook Five Stars, says job seekers who can craft compelling stories have the upper handno matter the industry.

Storytellers stand out, he says. They are the ones who condense a lengthy career history and wrap it in an engaging narrative, all the while connecting their experience to the [desired] companys ultimate goal. Why did you leave your last job? This is another inescapable (and easily ubbed) question. Interviewers know that successful, ambitious people sometimes change jobs (and sometimes get laid off). But they also want to make sure that youre not the type of person who bad-mouths your old company as soon as youre back in the applicant pool. In almost every scenario, its best to stick to what excites you about the open roleand why its an even better match than the position youre leaving. Do not throw your old company under the bus, Abbajay says. Youre just really ready to get into what this company is all about. What did you do at your last job? The best job interviews, like the best rsums, focus on specics. Abbajay recommends brainstorming a few stories of success from your last two or three jobs. These narrative hooks lay out a detailed scenario in which you took some sort of action and got measurable results. Whatever it is, make sure youre not memorizing a speech. Just know the general ow of the story you want to tell, and be prepared to fold it into the framework of whatever questions the hiring manager asks. [The question] can be, Tell me about a time you worked on a team, or Have you ever led a project that was failingto success? Youll have those stories in your head, no matter what they ask you, Abbajay says. Whats your greatest weakness? Hiring managers ask this question only to gauge how comfortable you are answering itnot to pick apart your actual response. I used this question as a personality screener to determine if the person was too boastful about strengths or not willing to admit fault in regards to weaknesses, says Hampton. Both could signal potential problems in working with the candidate in the future. So whats the right answer? Say something that can be easily xed, Abbajay recommends. Citing something like getting wrapped up in details or not networking enough works. Make sure you have a weakness, but also make sure its something little, she says. Do you have any questions for me? Experts agree that its critically important for job seekers to ask good questions themselves, beyond the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day tasks. We love when a prospective candidate asks about our culture and values, and how their role will drive our mission forward, says Jim Barnett, CEO of the HR software rm Glint. When someone is as excited as we are about [that], we know weve found the right t.