What’s your worst interview question?

Here are ten tough questions, and suggested ways to respond to each:

1. Why are you leaving your current role?

   1. Keep your answer positive even if you feel less than positive about where you are now. For example, talk about what you’ve learnt and added in your current role, and then move on to outline how you want to take that forward into the role you are applying for, to create impact and continue to develop.

2. Can you give an example of how you’ve dealt with a difficult situation?

   1. Think of a good example that will allow you to talk about what you did, what the outcome was, and what you learnt

3. What are your top three weaknesses?

   1. Mention that you regularly ask for feedback as that’s the only way to improve and be the best that you can be.

   2. List three personal development areas that are linked and therefore can be answered in one.

   3. Respond for example by saying, ‘Three areas for development for me have been X1, X2 and X3, and what I’ve been doing to address these is Y, and the successful outcomes I’ve seen so far are Z’

4. What do you know about our organisation?

   1. Prepare for this – look on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, the organisation’s website - talk about what is highlighted on their website and what might be important to them.

5. How have you managed a difficult stakeholder?

   1. Find an example of someone you had a difficult relationship with, and with whom you managed to turn that into a good relationship. What did you do to achieve this?

6. What’s the biggest risk our organisation faces?

   1. Prepare by googling the organisation, reading their Annual Report and searching for mentions of them in the news, to find out their big developments or issues

7. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

   1. Visualise how this role could go really well for you, and what that would look like and feel like - Talk about having impact, adding value, developing people, etc.

8. What is your biggest priority for this role?

   1. From reading the job profile or advert, what priorities are mentioned most prominently? Whatever answer you provide, give initial actions you might take, and emphasise that you would take a little time to talk to people, confirm you have identified the right priorities, and make sure you work out how best to address those.

9. What impact will you have in the first 6 months?

   1. Consider the job description to answer this. For this role, would you expect to be fully up and running within 6 months? In more complex cases and large organisations, it may take 6 months to get to grips with the role, understand how things work, get to know people, find out the priorities, and plan how to address the top areas.

10. What sort of animal/biscuit/car describes you?

    1. This is a tough one. With a random question like this, you might want to go for humour, eg “an ant because I work hard”. The key thing is to remain calm, see what comes into your head, check it is appropriate and then say it with confidence and a twinkle in your eye.

As well as preparing, allow 5 minutes before the interview to take deep slow breaths and positively visualise how you want to come across. Then trust in yourself to be confident, and if you struggle to answer some questions, that’s OK - you can get the job!

What’s the worst interview question you’ve been asked? How did you respond? On reflection, what was most important about the interview?