The most common job interview questions

Examples of competency mapping interview questions

• Tell about a challenge or goal you set for yourself during your studies or in a previous workplace. What was this goal? How big a role did you play in setting it? In what way was this an exceptionally challenging goal? How did you work to achieve it? What followed from achieving it?
• Tell about a situation where you encountered unexpected changes in circumstances in the middle of a project or work task? What changed in the circumstances? How did you react to this unexpected change? What followed from this and what was the final result?
• Tell about a project or task for whose planning or organizing you were responsible. How did you create the plan? How did you ensure the plan was followed? How did you, for your part, take care of following the plan? What was the final result?
• Give an example of a well-gone cooperation between you and a work or study colleague. What do you think was the key factor in the success of the cooperation? How do you feel you contributed to the success? What was the final result?

Tell about yourself

Think in advance about which things are important for the job interview and focus on things that are relevant to the role you are applying for. You can practice this well before the interview, for example, in front of a mirror to get a confident and good start for the interview. Remember to respect the interview schedule and answer concisely enough – you don't need to tell your whole life story. Did you know that a handy way to introduce yourself concisely and interestingly is to use a rhetorical device, for example, by summarizing into three main points or by storytelling.

Why are you applying for this position?

You have already answered this in your job application! What specifically caught your attention in the job advertisement? Had you been looking at jobs from this employer for a long time, or was this specific job advertisement particularly interesting? Did you see an opportunity to develop and learn new things, did you become interested in the industry, or do you already see an interesting career path for yourself with this employer? The question measures your motivation and what you have paid attention to when researching the employer.

Why should we hire specifically you?

A suitable candidate can justify why they are the right choice and how the company benefits from hiring them. You should prepare for this question carefully in advance so that you can concisely express the most important reasons in a selling and convincing way!

Think about what makes you the strongest candidate, what special things do you have to offer? You can also say what inspires you in the job to do your work well.

What are your good sides? What are your strengths?

Try to bring out qualities that make you the right choice, but also emphasize your other good qualities. Bring out both your substance expertise and strengths related to your personality. Before a job interview, it is worth reviewing the areas of responsibility and desired skills/qualities listed in the job advertisement and thinking about your own strengths through them.

Tell, for example, about feedback you have received from a colleague, your supervisor, and/or a customer. The more concrete examples you can give of your qualities and expertise, the better. A mere list of adjectives without concrete examples of how they have been visible in your work makes the answer sound mostly like empty words.

What qualities should you develop?

We all have them, namely areas for development. It is important that you also tell honestly about them, as no one is perfect and reflection skills are a very valuable quality for any of us!

Tell how you have developed yourself and about the goals you have set for yourself. Here too, you can bring up things related to substance expertise as well as areas for development related to personality and ways of working. Remember to avoid clichés!

Where do you see yourself in the future?

The purpose of the question is to map your desire to develop now and in the future: are you aiming for fast vertical career development or do you want to deepen your learning to become a top expert in a certain area of responsibility? Do you dream of becoming a supervisor, do you dream of a large customer portfolio, or certain types of projects?

Remember to be realistic, concrete, and open! The interviewer can be your potential new supervisor, and this question can be an excellent place to start building a common supervisor-team member relationship.

What do you think is your greatest achievement so far?

The purpose of the question is to find out your strengths, commitment ability, ambition, and perseverance. It also tells about your ability to reflect and act purposefully.

The achievement can relate to working life but also to studies or private life. The most important thing is to justify why you chose to highlight this specific thing.

Which of your work experiences do you think is most useful in this job?

Tell about your experiences and describe what benefit they can be in this specific job. Justify why specifically you are the best choice to fill the company's labor need.

What kind of a team player are you? Do you prefer working alone or in a team?

Avoid answering with a cliché, such as "I like working both alone and in a group" (even if it were true). Tell rather through concrete examples about your cooperation skills. What kind of role do you usually take in groups? How does it help the group? Do you know how to ask for help? And how do you support others? How do you lead your own work?

How do you handle stress?

Give the interviewer as realistic a picture as possible. Tell about situations where you have noticed yourself getting stressed. What happened and how did you handle the situation? Try to describe your feelings clearly: how do you experience stress? How do you act when stressed? How do you handle stress afterwards?

What kind of responsibility taker are you?

Tell about situations where you have taken responsibility at work or in studies. Also tell how you feel about responsibility. Do you like a lot of responsibility or do you prefer to share responsibility with others? Do you want responsible work immediately or gradually as your role develops?

Give an example of a mistake you made

Gaffes and mistakes happen to everyone, and you shouldn't be afraid of them! The interviewer wants to understand how you handle mistakes both in the situation itself and afterwards: how you feel about them and how you take responsibility.

Describe what happened? What did you learn from the mistake and how has it affected you as a person? Or give an example of a conflict situation in which you were involved. Describe the events that led to the situation. What followed from the situation? Did you find a solution? Tell about your role in solving the situation and also tell what you learned from the event.