How to Nail Your Next Job Interview

I thought I’d write a guide for people who are struggling with the job interview side of things. You’ve finally gotten a response from a hiring manager but now comes the most important part…the interview.

I used to struggle a lot with interviews, and I was lucky enough to get feedback from hiring managers that completely changed the game for me and it will for you as well.

One thing to mention, I didn’t include obvious stuff like, don’t chew gum in the interview, sit straight, dress correctly, as I assume most people already know that.

Meeting the employer for the first time

When you first meet each other and you have the whole “hey how’s it going? Good yourself?” discussion, answer the question as: “I’m doing quite well, I was doing some research on your business and it seems like you’ve got some interesting things going on, I saw in the job description you mentioned <insert something interesting here> and it caught my attention, hence why I applied, so I was quite keen to have a discussion today.” This shows interest and puts you in a good light right off the bat.

Confidence

Your first thought probably is “I’ve heard this a million times” but I’m not going to spew the same generic stuff that you’ve heard, I’m going to go deeper into it.

A while back I had a job interview and this was at a time when I struggled to get into the marketing field, and I suspected the reason why I was struggling with job interviews was because I wasn’t confident enough, and some time later I asked a hiring manager for feedback and he said to me “You need to be more confident and own your answers”.

This was a game changer, and the best part is, it’s super easy to fix.

Confidence comes from one thing. Remembering your answers.

Don’t be one of those people who thinks they can just “wing it” and get the job. They say to prepare for your job interview for a reason! Preparing means remembering the answers to the most common interview questions.

Yes, it’s basically a script that you have to remember. Don’t go off script because you will definitely screw it up! And you won’t give the best answer possible if you don’t prepare.

You will need to practice, it might take quite a few goes especially if you’ve never done it.

I’ll talk more about how to answer certain questions a bit later on.

But remember, preparing for the questions is a MUST.

Tell me about yourself

The answer you give to this question is the MOST important answer that you can give. Get this wrong, and the whole interview is going down the toilet.

The thing with this question is that it sets the tone for the rest of the interview. If you give a good answer, you’ll find that the interview goes for a long time (generally a good sign), or if it goes for a short time (generally a bad sign).

I messed up the answer to this question way too many times and chances are you have as well.

This question is not what you think it is. It’s not a question where the hiring manager wants to know about you, your personal life, and your hobbies.

What they are REALLY asking you is, “tell me why you’re the best fit for this job”. This is your one chance to give a sales pitch and get the hiring manager interested in you.

Now your answer should be tailored based on what they are looking for.

When I applied for marketing roles, the requirements for example might look something like this:

• Must have 2 years of experience
• Must be able to handle budgets of $15,000 per month at least
• Must be competent with Facebook ads
• Experience in working with eCommerce brands

Here is one of my old answers that I dug up that got me job offers:

“I’m a Facebook and Instagram ads specialist with 3.5 years of experience, specialising primarily in working with eCommerce businesses, where I’ve worked with dozens of brands spending between $1,000 – $30,000 per month.

Part of my experience and what I think would make me successful in this position is that I focus on high ROI activities not only inside of the ads manager but outside of it as well to drive the best results for my clients as I would for yours.

One of these activities includes offer testing to increase AOV. As an example, I helped a client in the outdoor lifestyle niche to increase their average order value by 55% which generated an extra $8,000 in revenue per month in the business.

Other activities including, overhauling landing pages to drive better conversion rates, creative strategy to find winning creatives as fast as possible to get the scaling process, and even customer research so I can understand who we’re selling to, so we can deliver a more tailored message which should at least in theory generate better results.

I wanted to finish off by saying if you do hire me, I’m confident that you will quickly see your return on your investment as I have a proven track record, and I’m someone who’s always putting in a lot more effort than required because I genuinely want to drive the best results for your clients.”

The reason the above worked was because I had more than 2 years of experience, I specialised in working with eCom brands on Facebook, and I’ve worked with budgets above 15k per month.

I also gave a small case study with the AOV example. My answer these days would be a bit different.

Keep in mind that your answer might end up being similar to your professional summary on your resume so try to make it different so you’re not just repeating yourself.

From here, when I said all the above, they were interested and would start asking me questions about my experience, goals, whether I could do certain tasks, case studies of mine, etc.

What made you choose our company?

This is a pretty straightforward one, no tricks here. The best way to answer this question is in the following format:

“While I was applying for jobs, I saw your job ad and it aligned with my values and what I was looking for. For example, I noticed it mentioned <insert value or something about the job your liked” and I really resonated with that because it’s what I’ve been trying to do in my career as the next step”

The whole thing could look something like:

“While I was applying for jobs and I saw your job ad I noticed it aligned with my values and what I was looking for. For example, you guys are purely focused on running and scaling Facebook ads for eCommerce brands and that’s exactly what I’m trying to do.

I’ve been specialising in the paid social eCommerce space for a while and I want to continue to keep working with and scaling those brands to hone my skills and reach some goals that I have, which in turn will benefit you and your clients as well.”

Something like that. They might even ask you about what goals you have and you can expand on that. It shows ambition but also interest.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

This is a trick question. What they are really asking you is “where do you see yourself in our company in the next 5 years?” Answer the question in that way.

The format should be something like:

“I’m looking to grow within your organization and I see myself in a <insert job position here, like team leader for example> position where I’m <insert the kind of work you want to do, like management for example>, that is something that would be really attractive to me.

I view this not as a job but as a career, one where I can progress over the next 5 years and really help your organization to achieve <insert the companies goal here> for your clients.

That’s actually one thing I wanted to ask you, about what the career progression in this company is like over the next 3-5 years, could you tell me a bit about what it looks like over that period of time?”

This is a good answer because it shows you’re interested and have longer term goals. The answer above is a bit more generic, but you will need to tailor it based on the job description but also your goals as well.

Why should we hire you?

This is a straightforward question, no tricks here. Here’s how you answer it:

“There are a few reasons why I think I would make a great fit for your organization. The first being that I’ve carefully read the job description and am confident I have what it takes to be successful in this role.

You needed someone that is competent in <insert skill or quality here>, and I have X years of experience in this field.

You also mentioned that you need someone who is good at <insert skill>, I’ve also spend a career deal doing <insert skill> and have <talk about the outcome you achieved> over <insert the number of years of months you’ve been doing it”

Something like that. There will be more detail here but it’s more of a generic example.

What motivates you?

Straight forward question. Insert something in regards to the satisfying part of the job. For example if you work in IT and you fix computers, your answer can look something like this:

“I’ve always gotten a lot of personal satisfaction out of helping people fix IT related issues. It’s always a great feeling when you’re able to solve something that was negatively impacting your client, and you made their lives 10 times easier.

Especially when they are grateful it makes the whole experience even more satisfying. So for me in a nutshell, my motivation is the help and problem solving aspect of the job.”

Something like that.

What didn’t you like about your last job

Don’t be negative here. It’s sort of a trick question. Answer it like this:

“I’ve been very fortunate to have worked in roles that I’ve liked over the years. I believe that attitude is everything and it is my attitude that will make me either like or dislike the role. I always try to look at things from a positive perspective which I find tends to make the day go much better.

However, I did always feel like there were so many ways that we could improve our processes to deliver a better experience for our clients / customers. I’ve always had an improvement mindset, my thing has always been if you can improve it, why not? It just makes perfect sense to me.”

What are your strengths?

The dreaded question that everyone hates but it’s very easy to answer. You just need to pick the most important skill on job description and say that (provided you are good at it. Don’t say you are great at X skill if you aren’t because when you start the job it will be obvious that you don’t know what you’re doing).

For example, if it’s a marketing job and they want someone who is good with Facebook advertising and scaling businesses, you could say:

“My main strength lies in scaling brands with Facebook ads, over the last year alone I’ve scaled 5 different businesses from $X revenue to $x revenue, and I got to a point where brands were running out of stock because how fast I was able to scale their business, they weren’t able to keep up. I actually had to pull back in many cases. I’m also really good at <insert a second strength here that is important to the role and that’s all you need to talk about>”

Or a customer service role where they need someone with 3+ years of customer service experience, “My main strength lies in dealing with customers and explaining concepts in a way that is very easy to understand. I’m also very patient and have dealt with up to 3-5 customers at any one time and have always kept my composure, and made sure that every customer walks out happier than they walked in”.

What are your weaknesses?

The other question that everyone hopes that they don’t get asked but it’s actually a very easy question to answer as well.

When they ask this, they just say something that’s not important to the job. For example, sometimes in job ads they put you need to know Microsoft Excel but it’s not a deal breaker.

Analyze what is the least important part of the job and put that as your weakness (provided that you aren’t good at it. No point in saying you have a weakness with X if it’s actually a strength of yours).

The next part here though is to not just talk about your weakness but then talk about what you’ve done to try and improve it. Here are some examples:

1: I do have the inability sometimes to say no to people when working in a team environment. I’m the type of person who really wants to help other members in the team when they are under pressure to make it easier on them, sometimes I do get overloaded with work as I’m managing multiple sections at once. I’ve learned that communication is key especially with management and letting them know my situation so not only can the business run as smoothly as possible but so I can also be efficient as a worker. 2: I sometimes find I have a number of solutions to a certain problem and sometimes get caught in analyzing which one is the correct one that I could have made but I’ve been working on this problem by making a decision based on the information I have at hand and think what makes the most sense to achieve my outcome, and I try be completely objective about it.

Can you provide an example of difficult situation in job and how you handled it?

Straight forward question. Here is a sample answer:

“Back when I was working in my previous role, I was processing claims and I had a lot of work to do, while I’m a fast worker I underestimated how long it would take to complete, it would end up taking more than a full shift to complete so I ended up completing the project by being positive, re-allocating my desk to a quieter corner so I can focus better and I ended up staying after hours to get the work complete”

Not much else to say here.

Do you have any questions? (End of interview)

Don’t mess this up by not asking any questions! They might think you’re not interested. Here are some good questions you can ask. Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions your genuinely curious to know the answer to:

• If I was successful for this role, what is the best way to grow in this position so 6 months from now you would say that I was a great hire? (this is a great question because it not only shows your keen, but you want to do a good job)

• What training and development is provided? I was curious to know.

• What are the biggest challenges you’re facing in your business right now? I wanted to get an idea so I can see how I’ll be able to help (this shows interest, great question to ask)

• Is there anything you wanted to know about me or my experience that I have discussed and that you were curious about?

(really good and important question to ask because maybe you didn’t talk about something that they wanted to know about, and they might have hesitated to ask you. It’s better you sort this out now otherwise it might never get sorted and there goes your chance at getting the job)

Keep in mind they might answer the questions you have in the interview. In that case I usually would say if I don’t have a lot of questions to ask, “You actually answered most the questions that I had, for example about X and X question”

I wanted to give a shout out to the YT channel called ‘CareerVidz’ by Richard McMunn. His videos that I stumbled across a couple of years ago and he changed the game for me when it came to job interviews. He provides videos to a lot more job interview questions in case you need it. I’m not affiliated with him btw.

If anyone needs help with the resume or job interview side of things, feel free to send me a message I’d be happy to help.