Being Prepared for Interviews

Found this via the Lifehack blog.

Bhuvana collected the most common interview questions and listed recommended answers for each. I honestly haven’t heard some of them asked in my own interviews so I’m not sure how common they all are. Be sure to read the comments because there are some really good additions from several HR people and other experienced interviewers there.

I’ve experienced both sides of the fence, being interviewed and interviewing for job positions on my team and, to be honest, I never give the answers much weight since they’re all practically the same anyway. It’s like when you’re trying to get a girl to have sex with you while alone up in her room. You say what you need to say to get the job done. If anything, interviews are setup to allow you to disqualify yourself since you’re not getting one unless your experience and recommendations are relevant enough. But if you botch the answers, you’re cut. When interviewing, I instead look for other things that end up more telling about the person:

• Are they arrogant? Right off the bat, this is a strike in my book. It’s hard to function in a team with someone who will claim to know stuff they don’t, and act like they’re better than everybody else.
• Do they laugh during light moments? Laughter is the easiest rapport builder. People rarely laugh because something’s funny. People laugh to ease tension and build rapport. If they laugh nervously or do not laugh at all, I don’t like them.
• I like bringing up problems they’ve encountered in past jobs. Who do they blame? Do they blame the software platforms? Do they blame the hardware? Do they blame management? Anyone who cannot point to themselves as having a hand in any issue is automatically rejected.

Personally, I wouldn’t use some of the recommended answers. My advice is to take all the questions and come up with your own answers to them. Having personalized, stock answers as opposed to trying to come up with responses on your feet will really help make those interviews much easier for you.

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