Group Manager

1. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? top question

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   What challenges do you like overcoming? Where are you starting from and where might you be going?

   For example, let's say the position you are applying for is junior accountant. It includes a wide range of tasks such as basic bookkeeping, financial analysis, and reporting. If accounting is your chosen field, then you would most likely want to move in the direction of obtaining your CPA so that you might step up to more responsibility as an accounting manager or senior auditor within the next 5 years. Your responses should make sense in how you see yourself growing in your professional career.

   However, at this point, if you are happy just where you are and want to further your current skills, that is also fine as long as there is a growth path for you that can be imagined and described.

2. About The Company

   Research the company to learn what career opportunities may be available in the department you are applying to, and what the trends are in the company in general.

   • Is the business expanding, are they opening new locations, or starting new projects?
   • Or are they heavily automating and cutting staff?

   Let’s say you are applying for a UX designer position for a brand-new product.

   In the future, if the product becomes a success - which is what the company hopes for - the company will hire more designers and you may become a lead designer, or you may become a product manager.

   On a side note: If you train your mind to be open to opportunities you will be amazed at how much this world has to offer to you!

3. About The Fit

   And, of course, try to see where the perfect fit lies between your own potential and aspirations, and the company’s trends and hopes.

   However, beware of the risk of showing too much excitement for future opportunities compared to your attitude towards the current position.

   As we said earlier, you must show interest and enthusiasm for the position you are applying for. If the interviewer senses that you are more enthusiastic about future growth than about the current position, they may conclude that you are not the right person for the job at hand.

Pro Tip

2. Tell me about a time you had a conflict at work. How did you handle it? What have you learned?

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   Think of the times you had to deal with conflict.

   • What were the different ways you were able to address the situation?
   • If you were the cause of the conflict, how did the other person talk you down from the conflict?
   • What were the key lessons you learned through your experience?

2. About The Company

   Research the company and its culture.

   • What do they value?
   • Is there anything that you can find about how they deal with conflict resolution?

   Reading comments to their social media posts often prove helpful to see how they react to customers' complaints.

3. About The Fit

   • What have you found out about the company’s culture and job description?
   • Are they looking for someone who can take charge and resolve conflict?

   Tell a story of how you addressed conflict and how it turned a negative into a positive. Try to conclude with your lessons learned or methodology for approaching conflicts - this will show the interviewer that you would be able to apply your methodology to future situations.

   Use the STAR method to frame your story.

Pro Tip

3. Tell me about yourself

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   What is your current occupation? Define yourself professionally in one statement.

   Pick 3 key skills that make you great at your work (your Key Selling Points). How have you applied these skills?

   Try to give some numbers to support your statement.

2. About The Company

   Your first step is to Research the company to find out as much as you can about what they do and their approach to their business and their employees.

   Based on what you know about the company and the job description, why are you interested in the position you are applying for?

3. About The Fit

   Now is the right time to show the fit between your skills and the company's requirements. Your answer works best if you emphasize your relevance. How do you do this? You will have already researched the company, studied the job description to identify their needs and possible pain points and prepared the relevant Star Stories that show how you addressed similar issues in the past. Your next step is to develop your Present-Past-Present approach.

   Start with the Present. Focus on the skills and experience from your most recent positions. What has enabled you to get the job done successfully and how this relates to what the employer is looking to accomplish.

   Next go back to the Past. Here is where your Star story comes in. Explain how you were able to use your skills and experience to accomplish a task that relates to an area of concern for the employer.

   Finally come back to the Present – summarizing the lessons you learned and how they shaped your response and approach today.

   Remember, the whole conversation is about the present, not the past. Just one sentence can summarize why your approach works, and its applicability and relevance to this position.

Pro Tip

4. What is your ideal work environment?

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   To describe your ideal work environment, you need to make the answer fit both your professional and personal preferences.

   • What inspires and motivates you?
   • What kind of work environment helps you to be at your best?
   • What talents can you reveal when you are comfortable?
   • What aspects of your character can increase your professional opportunities?
   • Are you flexible enough to adjust to different environments without any issues if needed?

2. About The Company

   Your answer should reflect the working environment of the business you’re interviewing with, so it’s important that you research the company thoroughly.

   Head over to their website and read their mission statement and other hints at their culture.

   Look on LinkedIn for any contacts you may have that know about the company (or even better, that actually work or worked there) and reach out to them for insights. Read feedbacks on websites like Glassdoor.

   • What goals does the company have?
   • Does it have formal or informal structures?
   • What does it value in its employees?

3. About The Fit

   Work environment not only means the culture of the company but also refers to the physical place where you will be working.

   In addition to considering the type of company you will be working for, you should also think about things such as the size of the office, the size of your future team, and what you see around you, when you are in for the interview.

   Make sure that your vision aligns with the company’s existing cultural and physical environment.

   Regardless of the size of the company, you should be able to tell the interviewer why that company fits what you are looking for.

   If you are applying to a larger company, you might want to emphasize that job security is important to you.

   If your prospective job is with a smaller company - state that knowing everyone’s name allows you to feel connected.

   To convince them that you’re the ideal candidate you should focus on your aspirations for future and professional growth.

   Also, mention your teamwork skills. Say that it should be the place where you can work with different people to produce the best results possible.

   Ensure the interviewer that you are someone who knows exactly what you want.

Pro Tip

5. What is your greatest weakness?

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   No one is perfect and your interviewer doesn't expect you to be perfect either.

   While it is good to be honest and open, it will not help you to put yourself down.

   What's important is to find a weakness that you have overcome. How you turned what might be considered a negative into a positive.

2. About The Company

   Research the company (website, social media, etc) to learn about the company culture.

   What personal and professional qualities do they value?

3. About The Fit

   This is the time to clearly state a true weakness that you have overcome.

   Be as specific as possible and stay away from vague cliches like “I work too hard.” It would be difficult for anyone to try and explain how they overcame a weakness like that

   Mr. Simon emphasizes the Present-Past-Present method of responding to behavioral questions. When you are asked about your greatest weakness, you should be able to successfully use this approach as well. Here is an example of how someone might answer this question.

   Present - "I have always had a fear of public speaking, and believe this may have held me back in my career, especially when having to make presentations to management."

   Past - "Last year I learned about Toastmasters International and decided to join this group to help me gain confidence in myself and improve my ability to present to others in just about any situation."

   Present - "By overcoming this weakness I believe that it has made me a much stronger candidate for this position, someone you can count on to make presentations to management, conduct training and communicate at a high level."

   It's important to show how well you've overcome a weakness by motivating yourself and learning a new skill to grow professionally.

Pro Tip

6. What experience do you have in this field?

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   Start with defining your Key Selling Points you want to emphasize for this position.

   • What job experiences brought you to those points?
   • What were the job titles and the most relevant responsibilities?

2. About The Company

   Do your research of the company and the requirements for the position.

   • What is the company looking for in terms of experiences and qualifications?
   • What problems are they trying to solve with this position?

   Most importantly, make sure you are able to highlight and speak about at least 3-5 of your key experiences that match up with the requirements listed in the job description.

3. About The Fit

   Using the Present-Past-Present method is a perfect way to answer this question.

   Starting with the Present, speak about your experience as it relates to one of the key requirements in the job description. You might say "I noted that the job description requires experience in employee training and this is an area in which I have a great deal of knowledge and skill."

   Then go back to the Past to describe how you improved overall training of staff from 82% to over 97% within your first year on the job. Senior leadership took note of this accomplishment for which you received a company commendation.

   Finally, come back to the Present to describe how you will help ensure that the company maintains the highest possible compliance with all employee training requirements.

   Nowadays, every hiring manager wants results, so think in terms of specific achievements and try to structure your example accordingly.

Pro Tip

7. What challenges are you looking for in this position?

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   • What qualities do you wish to develop in yourself both professionally and personally?
   • What kind of culture do you want to work in?
   • What motivates you?
   • What will help you to achieve your future goals?

   Choose those things that you’re already pretty good at, but still trying to improve even more.

2. About The Company

   Research the company, its culture and the work environment. Check their website, read up on any media report you can find about them, check out their social media platform.

   Carefully read the job description to get an insight into what the company thinks the challenges are. Make sure to include them in your answers to demonstrate your skill set.

3. About The Fit

   The best way to answer this question is to discuss how you would like to be able to effectively apply your skills and experience to the new job.

   Focus on those skills that you are most passionate about or have the most experience with. You can also mention that you are motivated by challenges, can effectively meet them, and have the flexibility and skills necessary to handle a stimulating job.

   Describe specific examples of challenges you have met and the goals you have achieved in the past. Choose those that reveal your strengths.

   Challenges clearly vary widely based on the position you are applying for.

   For example, in sales you may speak about higher sales quotas, a larger sales territory, or a more prominent range of products or services.

   In IT, they might be learning a new software program or incorporating the cloud in the company’s systems.

   In a management position, it could be leading a larger team than you currently do or stepping into your first leadership role.

Pro Tip

8. What are your strengths? Give an example

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   Reflect on your best professional qualities. What are they? Are you dependable, flexible, friendly, hardworking, a strong leader, formal, punctual, good team player?

   Pick at least three personal strengths that will help you at your new workplace, and make sure you can give specific examples to demonstrate why you say these are your strengths.

   If no key strengths spring to mind, ask your friends or colleagues what they think your greatest strengths are. What examples can demonstrate your success due to these qualities?

2. About The Company

   Make sure to research the company and read the job description thoroughly in order to identify the key strengths required for the role.

3. About The Fit

   Recruiters and hiring managers want to know how your strength relates to the job you’re applying for.

   Match the skills required by the position with your list of strengths. Choose up to 5 top skills. These are your Key Selling Points! Prove your point by providing examples.

   Craft your stories using the STAR method.

Pro Tip

9. What are your salary requirements?

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   The first thing to research is the salary range for your role in the market. What is the industry standard?

   Next, think of your qualifications for the role. Weigh in your traits, skills, education, and experience. Try this exercise, draw a line on a piece of paper where on the left side sits a complete beginner, and on the right side - the best professional in the world the company may try to invite for the role. Where do you position yourself?

   Now, remember that once you start in your new role, your qualifications will be growing fast, due to all the new experience you will be gaining - consequently, your value will rise as well. Your salary, on the other hand, will not increase as quickly. So, try to imagine where your qualifications will bring you, on that scale, in about a year into the new job.

   Map the scale against the industry range. Now you should be able to come up with an objective figure, as opposed to pure speculation.

   This is not real math, however, so your number cannot be very precise, of course. Define a range, which starts with the minimum that will keep you satisfied a few months into the job, and the maximum which, a year into the job, will give you the lifestyle you would ideally like to have at that time.

   Make sure the range stays within 40%-60% between extremes. Remember, the higher the position up the ladder, the wider the range can be. What is the number in the middle? Will you feel comfortable with this number?

2. About The Company

   Research the company and find out what they are paying. The best places to find this information are Glassdoor, LinkedIn, PayScale and other similar websites.

3. About The Fit

   Based on your research, does the company fit your desired salary range?

   Now, whether you should be giving a range, or a single target number is a matter of debate. I personally think that a single number, given in a suggestive manner, is better than the range, because when given a range, they may logically gravitate towards the lower end, especially since you’ve said that the lower number is acceptable.

   One example of how to structure your answer of a single target number is this:

   I have done my research and based on the average for the industry, location, and my level of expertise, something like XXX seems reasonable to me. What do you think?

   Besides giving the factual answer that the interviewer is asking for, such an answer will also show you to be someone who takes the initiative, who goes the extra mile, and someone with data-driven and analytical mindset.

Pro Tip

10. Walk me through your resume

How to answer

1. About Yourself

   Print out your resume. For each of your recent job experiences (at this point do not go back more than 5 years), write down 3-5 key points at which you feel you are strong.

   For example, for your current (or previous) job, you may want to list skills like “Excellent presentation skills,” “Employee Engagement guru,” “Analytical skills,” “Attention to detail” (they don’t have to be all soft skills, but being aware of at least a few of your strong soft skills is important). Make sure you have examples for each of your statements.

   If you have difficulties to think of these points, search online for job descriptions for similar job roles, and figure out which of those keywords appeal to you. Look for people on LinkedIn that have jobs similar to the one you are applying for. Their profiles often contain many keywords that you can use in response to this question.

   Now that you’ve gone through all your recent experiences, are there any points that repeat more often than others, or are especially important to you? These are candidates to be your Key Selling Points -highlight 3-5 of them.

2. About The Company

   Research the company and the role for which you're being interviewed. When researching the company, find out what skills and qualities they value the most. Carefully consider the job requirements. What is it that you will be responsible for?

   Now, write down 3-5 keywords from the job description that you find of utmost importance for this job role.

3. About The Fit

   Try to establish the match between your own highlighted keywords, and those of the job description. These are your Key Selling Points! You should normally limit yourself by 3-5 such keywords or phrases.

   Now, craft a story based on your career history. You don’t have to go in chronological order - you can start with your current or last job experience, and then go back to your previous ones, or focus on just the experiences that are relevant to your story, and only briefly mention the less relevant ones and only if needed.

   Select one point to highlight for each phase of your career. Make sure you ingrain your Key Selling Points in the interviewer’s memory - after the interview is over, you want them to remember you as someone who is strong at XYZ, or experienced in A, B and C.

   It's okay to focus more on stellar achievements and brag a little bit about them.

Pro Tip