No two interviews are identical, but the underlying questions are remarkably consistent. Whatever the industry or the level, interviewers are trying to establish the same handful of things: can you do the work, will you fit the team, why do you want this, and what happens when something goes wrong.
Prepare the seven questions below and you will have material ready for the large majority of what you are actually asked, because most other questions are variations on these themes.
1. "Tell me about yourself"
What it tests: communication, self awareness, and whether you understand the role.
Answer in three parts across roughly ninety seconds: where you are now professionally, the two or three steps that got you here with one concrete result, and why this specific role is the logical next move. Do not recite your CV in order, and do not start from school. Finish on the connection to their job, because that is the part that makes you a candidate rather than a biography.
2. "Why do you want to work here?"
What it tests: whether you researched them, and whether you will still be here in a year.
The weak answer is about you alone: "I need a new challenge" or "the salary is better." The strong answer connects something real about them to something real about you. Spend twenty minutes before the interview on their website, their recent announcements, and their job advert, and find one specific thing to name.
"You have just opened a second branch, and the advert mentions building the process from scratch. Setting up a workflow in a growing operation is exactly the part of my last job I enjoyed most." Specific, verifiable, and clearly not copied from another application.
3. "What is your greatest weakness?"
What it tests: honesty and self awareness, not the weakness itself.
Two failure modes. The fake weakness, "I am a perfectionist and I work too hard," which every interviewer has heard hundreds of times and reads as evasion. And the disqualifying weakness, "I struggle with deadlines," offered to a role built on deadlines.
Choose something genuine, not central to the job, and describe what you are actively doing about it. "I used to take on too much rather than saying no, which meant I was the bottleneck on a few projects. I now agree priorities with my manager at the start of each week and flag conflicts early instead of absorbing them." That is a real answer with evidence of correction attached.
4. "Tell me about a time you handled a difficult situation"
What it tests: how you behave under pressure, and whether you take responsibility.
This is a behavioural question, and it wants a story rather than a philosophy. Use a four part structure:
- Situation: the context in one or two sentences.
- Task: what you specifically were responsible for.
- Action: what you did, step by step. This is the longest part and it must be in the first person. "We" hides your contribution.
- Result: what happened, ideally with a number, and what you learned.
Prepare three stories in advance that you can adapt: one conflict with a colleague or customer, one mistake you made and fixed, and one project delivered under pressure. Those three cover most behavioural questions you will meet.
When the question is about a mistake, do not choose a trivial one, and do not blame anyone else. Owning a real error and describing the correction is one of the strongest signals you can send.
5. "Why are you leaving your current job?"
What it tests: professionalism and judgement, especially about how you will speak about them later.
Whatever the truth, criticism of your current employer damages you rather than them. An interviewer listening to you describe a terrible manager is quietly wondering what you will say about this company in two years.
Frame the move around what you are going toward. "I have learned a lot in this role and I have reached the limit of what it can grow into. This position involves the analytical work I want to move into." If you were made redundant, state it plainly and factually; restructures are common and carry no stigma. If you were dismissed, be brief, honest, and focused on what you changed afterwards.
6. "What are your salary expectations?"
What it tests: preparation, market awareness, and confidence.
Do the research before the interview so you can answer without hesitating. Aim to give a range rather than a single number, place your target near the lower end of the range you name, and add the basis for it.
"Based on what I have seen for similar roles in this city and my four years of experience, I am looking at a range between X and Y, though I am open to discussing the full package." If they press for a number before you know the scope of the role, it is reasonable to ask what they have budgeted, then respond. Never answer with "whatever you think is fair," which surrenders the negotiation before it starts.
7. "Do you have any questions for us?"
What it tests: genuine interest and how seriously you are evaluating them.
Saying no is the single most common self inflicted wound in interviews. It reads as indifference, and it wastes the one moment when you get to assess whether you want this job.
Prepare four or five questions and ask two or three, choosing ones your earlier conversation did not already answer. Strong options include:
- What would success in this role look like after six months?
- What is the biggest challenge facing the team right now?
- How is performance reviewed here, and how often?
- Why is this position open, and what happened to the previous person in it?
- What are the next steps in your process and when should I expect to hear from you?
Avoid opening with holiday allowance and working hours. Those questions are entirely legitimate and belong at offer stage, not in your first three questions.
How to prepare without sounding rehearsed
Write bullet points, not scripts. A memorised paragraph sounds recited and collapses under a follow up question, while three remembered facts adapt to whatever is asked. Practise out loud, ideally to another person, because the gap between an answer that reads well and an answer that sounds well is larger than you expect.
Before the interview, prepare a single page with your three stories, your salary range, your questions for them, and the three points about yourself you want to land no matter what. Read it in the ten minutes before you go in. If you take nothing else, take those.
Preparation does not make you sound artificial. It makes you sound like someone who took the opportunity seriously, which is precisely the impression you are trying to create.
