Bridge Insights

Tell Me About It: 7 Open-Ended Interview Questions and Their Responses

Jan 8, 2020

We’ve all been there. We’ve all taken that walk into the interview room, rehearsing our elevator pitches in our heads; going over the lines of our resume in the hopes that we don’t forget to mention any of the experiences that make us right for this role. You sit down in the interview room and pull out several copies of your resume, look to the employer and signal you are ready to begin. The first question they ask is, “Tell me about yourself”; a question so open-ended you don’t even know where to begin.

Open-ended questions are loathed by interviewees because of how difficult they can be to answer, but that’s exactly why employers love them so much. Despite sometimes being referred to as trick questions, your interviewer isn’t trying to trip you up; they are simply looking to learn more about you through your response.

Here are some of 7 tough questions interviewers like to ask, what your interviewer is looking for from these questions, and tips on how to build your response.

 

What Are Some of Your Strengths/Weaknesses?

What interviewers are looking for:

Interviewers are looking to see how self-aware you are and if/where you will fit into their corporate work environment. We’re all human and we all have places we can grow; interviewers want to know how well you know yourself and your professional persona.

DO:

  • Remember to be humble when reviewing your strengths. Try to stick to your top 3-4 if you can.
  • Give your interviewer a story to reinforce WHY they are your strengths.
  • Be prepared to elaborate on any strength you give. If, for example, you say you are goal-oriented but can’t provide an example as to when you successfully hit a goal, that’s probably not the best example to give.
  • For your weaknesses, try to list areas that you’ve been working on making into a strength.
  • An example might be, “When I am passionate about a topic, I tend to talk very quickly. And this sometimes makes the things I say hard to understand; I know I need to slow down when I speak. I have found that when I focus on who my audience is and the importance of what I am trying to communicate, this helps slow down my cadence, and frame my message in a way that is most engaging to the person/people I am speaking with.”

DON’T:

  • List a weakness that you do not have a resolution for or plan to improve.
  • Say you don’t have any weaknesses or strengths because you are so good at everything.

What Are You Looking for in Your Next Job?

What interviewers are looking for:

Interviewers are looking to see if you are a long-term fit with their company. Long-term fit doesn’t mean your interviewer is looking for you to work for them for the next 40 years, but they also don’t want to hire someone who will leave in the next several months or weeks. (In the employment world, this is known as a flight risk.)

DO:

  • Remember the job you are interviewing for! Talk about some of the ways you hope to grow professionally in the next year, and the skills you hope to gain.
  • If you are able to tie those skills back to the responsibilities of the role, brownie points for you!

DON’T:

  • If you are interviewing for an entry-level office role, you don’t want to start talking about your dream job or a job you want in the next 3-5 years.
  • Even though it is great to have a plan in mind, this can come off as opportunistic and can give your interviewer the impression you are not as committed to the role as other candidates.

Tell Me About Yourself

What interviewers are looking for:

Ah, the dreaded million-dollar question. Your interviewer isn’t curious what you had for dinner last night or what your pet’s name is, they are looking for how well you are able to articulate just how awesome you are, how much you know about their position’s responsibilities, and how well you think you fit into said position.

DO:

  • Stay on topic. This question gives you the opportunity to tell (and demonstrate through the confidence of your answer) why you are the best candidate for this position, and what you bring to the table that other applicants don’t. The more concisely you can do this, the more powerful your answer will be.
  • Be sure to include your relevant experience and education into your response.

DON’T:

  • Mention personal details; your goal is to sell your interviewer on the skills and experience you have.
  • Get rattled! Sometimes interviewers will be slow to ask their next question after you’ve given a response because they are trying to see how well you handle pressure. For some of us, that (awkward) silence may seem like our interviewer is looking for us to add more. But the word-vomit our anxieties can bring about can actually work against the strength of our initial response.

Tell Me About a Time When You Received Feedback From a Manager That You Didn’t Agree With

What interviewers are looking for:

Interviewers want to see how you handle constructive feedback. They are also looking to see if you will fit in with their company culture. How well do you receive constructive criticism? Do you get defensive and become combative, or do you take feedback to heart and try to better yourself professionally?

DO:

  • Stick to the facts and try to keep your emotions and personal feelings out of your response. What happened? What was the outcome? And leave it at that.
  • Mention how you learned and grew from this situation. Without demonstrating that you have grown professionally, you run the risk of your interviewer thinking the blind spot you brought up is still a blind spot and/or that you aren’t able to learn from moments of workplace adversity.

DON’T:

  • Recall a time where the feedback given (or your response to it) would paint you as someone who is uncooperative. Try to avoid examples that may portray you are difficult to manage and/or has trouble working with a team.
  • Speak negatively about your previous employer. Even if the situation you’re thinking of was unfair to you, speaking negatively of people or companies is not a good look. Remember your interview is one of the first impressions you are making on someone. Speaking negatively of an employer or person can come across as defensive and unprofessional. Even worse it can leave the impression that you complain a lot and would impact their company culture for the worse.

Tell Me About a Time Where You Made a Mistake at Work and How You Fixed It

What interviewers are looking for:

Employers want to know if you are able to grow professionally. In other words, do you learn from mistakes you’ve made, and what steps do you take to ensure similar mistakes don’t happen in the future.

DO:

  • Be humble and take ownership. This is a time where it is okay to show remorse/emotion in your response –as long as it is in the context of humility.
  • Try to think of something small and indirectly related to the job you are interviewing for.
  • If you can, include in your example a time where the tools gained from your mistake were enacted and allowed for you to be successful and/or not make that mistake again.

DON’T:

  • UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES tell an interviewer that you’ve never made a mistake. This is a giant red flag that you are lying, or you can’t grow professionally. Remember the point of this question is to determine if you have the ability to grow professionally. How can you do that if you think there is no room for improvement?

[blockquotes color=”accent” quote=”yes”]taking a step back from the question itself and examining the “Why” behind it is a sure-fire way to ace any interview question an employer throws your way.
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Why Do You Think You Would Be a Good Fit for This Position?

What interviewers are looking for:

No secret on this question. Interviewers are looking for you to tell them why they should pick you. Your response to this should be similar to your response for, “Tell me about yourself”, but where that is more a general elevator pitch about you as a whole, this response should be catered to the role itself.

DO:

  • Think about your strengths and what you know about the position.
  • Think about what makes you unique and what only you can bring to the role.
  • Sell yourself!
  • Give examples if you can. If you are interviewing for a customer service position, talk about your passion for going above and beyond for customers – give a specific example!

DON’T:

  • Come across as arrogant. This line can be a little hard to tread if you have never answered the question before. Try not to talk down other applicants or infer that their business will fail if you’re not picked for the role.

What Do You Know About Our Company?

What interviewers are looking for:

Interviewers are looking to see how much research you have done in preparation for this interview. The idea is that people who really want the job will have done their homework.

DO:

  • Do your research! Look up the company online and read more than just the home page and about sections of their site.

DON’T:

  • Don’t be afraid to investigate social media, look at company reviews, and connect with a few current employees to pick their brain about the company and this position.
  • Don’t wait until this question is asked to drop knowledge bombs in your interview. Try to work facts you’ve learned from your research into other parts of this interview. It will show that you’ve given thought to what working at their company would mean for you, your professional experiences and that you are thinking about this opportunity as a step in your career rather than just another job.

Closing It Out

How you answer a question in your interview can say more about you than the experience on your resume. These answers can qualify you without the required skills, and conversely, they can disqualify you even if you have all the required skills and experience.

Answering interview questions does not have to be difficult; by taking a step back from the question itself, and examining the “Why” behind it, you’ll be sure you to ace any interview question an employer throws your way.