Interview Practice Resources
Although you can’t predict exactly the type of questions that will be asked on the day, you can rehearse and practice answers to standard questions and themes. This will give you valuable thinking time for some of the tougher questions out there and increase your confidence on the day.
Our test yourself and practice section explains the types of questions you might be asked and tips for answering. It also contains with standard questions which apply to different types of roles, as well as questions for different industries, so is a good place to start for interview practice.
Your aim when practicing is to know for each type of question what examples in your work history would help giving evidence of positive skills, so you can bring these up in the answers. It is not necessary to learn answers off by heart - as interviewers may approach questions in a different light, or interrupt you mid way through an answer. You don’t want to sound too rehearsed.
Just know how to link your key strengths and successes to common questions, many of which are listed below with answer guidance.
Interview Practice Centre
Below lie some of the main interview questions that you may be asked at an interview. We have divided these into standard questions and tough teasers with advice on how to answer. These interview questions relate to almost any type of job.
Please note that an interviewer may also ask questions that relate to the specific position that you are applying for, so we have highlighted some more industry specific questions after the standard ones.
Lastly it is vital to prepare your own questions for the interviewer to show that you are really enthusiastic about the role and have a keen interest in working for that company. It can be hard to know where to start with questions so we list a set of strong candidate questions to get those juices flowing.
Standard Interview Question Advice
- What attracted you to apply for this particular job?
A basic but important question. Employers are looking for evidence that the candidate has really thought about the job, the company, and the brand. Put your role research and knowledge of the tasks that will be involved into practice by mentioning three key aspects and tasks of the role and company that are attractive to you, and why your skills and experiences link well to these.
- What can you add to the team? Why should we hire you?
Blow your own trumpet here! This is your chance to prove what you can and have done successfully and why you as a person are right for the job. Bring up 3-4 key achievements in your current position as evidence of each positive statement you make. Elements such as drive, teamwork, delivery of targets etc are all good – the trick is picking the characteristics which will be useful in this particular role.
- Why do you want to work for this company?
Time to use all that company research and put it to good use. Use the facts you have gleaned from the website, press etc to show why you admire the company and its culture and style. Avoid financial aspects such as a pay rise and concentrate on elements such as strong teams, the great role offered with more responsibility, their good reputation, their growth in recent years.
- Do you prefer to work in a small, medium or large company?
This can actually be quite tricky to answer, especially if the majority of your experience is in only one type of company. Focus on the positives of working in the type of organisation that you are applying for, and commonly known drawbacks of other types. Link working in their type of organisation to your skills – e,g small firm = good as you are used to working in autonomy and forming close working relationships, large firm - good at networking in large teams, appreciate the support from management etc.
- What do you like and dislike about this role?
Likes: stress key tasks where you can demonstrate you have skills in already. Mention new challenges, working in a close knit team or the variety of the role keeping you excited and busy. Imply there is nothing to dislike about the job, you are looking forward to all elements you know about.
- Where do you see yourself in 3/5 years?
Honestly explain your ambitions and career hopes. You should always really think about this in advance when preparing, and especially how to link this role into these – to show you have a clear career plan and logical thinking. Keep it to the professional side unless asked for personal goals, or link personal goals such as buying your first home to work successes.
- How would you describe yourself? How would others describe you?
- What have your key achievements been to date? What achievements are you most proud of?
Start with those already on your CV, relevant to the role, and recent, run through key milestones and achievements, with 2-3 sentences on each. And importantly what challenges you faces and why this achievement meant a lot of effort/expertise on your part.
- Tell me about a time where you led a team to success
- Tell me about a time where you had to meet a pressing deadline? How did you cope?
- How does your job fit into your department and company?
- What motivates you?
Not advisable to mention cash here. Instead pick something which will come up in your role – for example achieving targets, delivering a complex project on time, encouraging others to succeed and developing people, or learning and developing your skills. You can also mention variety and challenges in your role, chances to learn new skills and work with new teams and people. It may be advisable to give examples of how these things have been enjoyable in the past referring to key achievements on your CV.
- How do you handle stressful situations?
- Give me an example of where you acted on your own initative/initiated and led a successful project?
Pick one of the best examples from your CV where you led a project and took proactive steps to solve a problem where you were not asked to. Show how you identified there was a problem, persuaded others to take action, volunteered to take on extra work, organised what needed to change/be done and the successful outcome.
Advice - some tough teasers
- How may be overqualified for this position?
Tell them that you feel that your extra experience would enable you to make a bigger contribution with less supervision and company resources needed than someone with less experience. You are looking to, and able to, add value to them quickly.
- Tell me about a time when you didn't succeed.
Try to pick a failure which you were later able to correct, and focus on the effort and positive way in which you corrected or made up for the problem. Otherwise pick something that is not really important or you were able to take steps to make up for after the event or get right second time. It isn’t a crime to fail, its learning from the experience that counts.
- What level of salary are you looking for?
A tricky question. The secret is to do your research beforehand, both in terms of the industry average for that role (your recruitment consultant can advise) and what salary banding the company is offering. Don’t undersell yourself though. Giving a reasonable range may be advisable. There is nothing wrong with asking them what the salary range is so you position yourself within it or saying you would like to know more about the role before coming to a detailed idea of your expected salary.
- What would you like to avoid in your next job?
- How ambitious and competitive are you?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- Tell me about a challenging work situation you have recently faced? How did you deal with it?
This question is designed to find out whether you can keep calm and solve problems rationally. Try to avoid mentioning a situation which was caused by your actions, instead select one which was thrust upon you or your team. Explain briefly how you looked at the options for solving the problem, why you selected the one you did and what the outcome was. Always end on a positive note. Employers look at how quickly you reacted, whether you took risks and whether you are able to think out of the box.
- Why do you wish to leave your current job?
Be careful not to complain. It is better to state that you have outgrown the role, or are looking for a new industry challenge/ to manage a team than to negatively portray the organisation, or team which you previously chose to work in. State that you are seeking a new challenge, increased scope and autonomy. DO NOT mention salary or benefits as a primary factor.
- How do you take criticism?
You are not a saint and no one likes criticism. Try not to bat this off with a generic I appreciate all feedback, which can come across as a learned answer. The best answer here is to say you take it seriously, and try to change based on feedback if it is valid.
- What do you feel we can offer you that your previous employer couldn't?
Remember be positive. Express that this is an opportunity for you to move your career forward with increased responsibility, new tasks and that you admire the company’s brand. Don’t criticise your former employer, position them as good but this company is better.
Sector Specific Questions
Here are some retail management and retail sales specific questions which you can think about in advance of interview to help you answer more industry specific questions.
- How do you motivate people?
- How would you build a team?
- How do you train employees?
- What types of things frustrate you?
- What skills would you like to acquire to make you a more effective supervisor? Leader? Mentor? Coach? Manager?
- Tell me about difficult guest/customer problems you have dealt with?
- Describe what you do when a customer is dissatisfied?
- What is most important - a good product or friendly, fast service?
- Why should customers shop at our stores?
- What experience have you had cross-training employees?
- Are you a better manager or leader?
- Do you have excellent people skills?
- How would you go about negotiating with suppliers?
- What experience have you had in retail that qualifies you for this position?
- What could we do to improve our stores?
- Are you meeting your budget and/or projections? If not why and what are you doing to get back on track?
- Tell me about your most successful quarter/project?
- Describe your management technique and tell me why this is successful?
- Which of our products/services most appeals to you and why?
- What do you realistically believe to be your earning potential?
- Describe a time when you used your skills to persuade someone to accept your recommendations
- How do you go about setting your and your teams' objectives?
- How would you react if you failed to meet your targets?
- How do you feel about travelling a lot at work?
- How would you persuade a customer that our product was better than any other
- What is the worst objection that you’ve ever had to handle? How did you overcome it?
Candidate Interview Questions
Questions you might like to ask to prove your interest in the company and role, and decide whether this job is for you.
You Might Like to Ask:
- How has the position become available?
- What would my typical day involve?
- What training and career development opportunities are available?
- How would the interviewers describe the culture of the organization?
- What do they enjoy about working for this organization?
- How do they expect the organisation to change and grow in the next 6 months/year?
- How is performance assessed?
- What would your key challenges in the first 3 months be?
- What are the key challenges/trends that the organisation is facing?