Here at Park, we are experts in interview training and we want to help you to become the best at interviewing. There are 20 'curveball' questions asked in real life interviews for your entertainment - You think you've had some tough questions? Imagine getting asked these!
Now that the battle of the Christmas adverts has arrived, as have the awful weather and rough seas, you will be blessed with some extra time indoors, which we think is a blessing! (Not a christmas pun). With this extra time spent inside in the warmth – we feel that now is as good a time as any to really get thinking about your interview style and technique and how you can improve before your next big interview…
Whether you are planning on landing a new job before New Year or not, it is still important to ensure you are fully aware on how to hold yourself in the interview, how to dress, how to prepare and how to handle a "curve ball" question i.e. a question you weren't expecting.
Now, one thing I tend to ask my candidates in our meetings is a direct question that has tended to put them on the back foot slightly (not intentionally – I promise!) as they weren't expecting it.
“How do you think you interview?” Having to assess yourself unexpectedly is great for us as consultants because it gives a strong insight into a few of area’s:
- Your confidence and self-belief.
- Your weaknesses.
- Your ability to react to an unexpected question.
- How honest you are with yourself – and us.
- That last one is particularly important to me because lying to me about how good you are in interviews will be damaging and the real damage is you lying to yourself about it. You may think you're better than you are, or, as in most cases so far in Jersey, you think you are worse than you actually are. You need to list your strengths and weaknesses in the interview situation and you will know soon enough which area's of improvement will needed to be focussed on. BE AWARE! This process of being honest, is not an excuse to beat yourself up and focus on the negatives. Take it in turns to list a strength - then and a weakness - over and over again. They should be even numbers of each as this is supposed to be a positive exercise to help you grow - not shrink.
Now, we can’t go into all the preparation techniques on here because we can only really assess you properly face to face (plus we can't help the other recruiters out too much can we now?!). So if you are interested in hearing about all the ways you can become more confident, and more importantly, more competitive, please do get in touch, referencing some of the jobs on our website you think are suitable and we will get you booked in!
In the meantime, you think you’ve had some tough interview questions? Check out the questions that some candidates have been asked. Talk about a curveball!?
20 tough questions asked in job interviews:
- “If you were to win £1million what would you do with the money?” – Asked at PwC, Associate candidate (Birmingham, England)
- “What do you think is the most useful function in Excel?” – Asked at FirstGroup, Business Analyst candidate (London, England)
- “How do you fit a giraffe in a fridge?” – Asked at UBS, Sales Trading candidate (London, England)
- “What is it about this job you would least look forward to?” – Asked at BP, Category Manager candidate (London, England)
- “If you were the Head of Barclays Corporate, what would your strategy be with the recent European Crisis?” – Asked at Barclays, Risk candidate (London, England)
- “If your friend was seriously injured and you had to get him to a hospital, would you speed and go through a red light?” – Asked at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, Trainee Solicitor candidate (London, England)
- “Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?” – Asked at BHP Billiton, Dry Bulk Marketer candidate (London, England)
- “Tell me about a time when you failed at something.” – Asked at Lloyds Banking Group, Analyst candidate (London, England)
- “What are the three words that your parents would describe you with?” – Asked at YO! Sushi, Team Member candidate (London, England)
- “What have you done in the past to get out of a tricky situation?” – Asked at Virgin Atlantic Airways, CSA candidate (Heathrow, England)
- “Why is 99% not good enough?” – Asked at Parcelforce Worldwide, Delivery & Collection Manager candidate (Milton Keynes, England)
- “How many ways can you get a needle out of a haystack?” – Asked at Macquarie Bank, Senior Java Developer candidate (London, England)
- “How would you explain Facebook to your Grandma?” – Asked at Huddle, Sales Executive candidate (London, England)
- “If you entered a room full of people with different interests, what would you do?” – Asked at Ernst & Young, Actuarial Analyst candidate (London, England)
- “What do you mean by ‘leadership’?” – Asked at Moody’s, Marketing Strategist candidate (London, England)
- “By what criteria do you judge your own performance?” – Asked at Gatwick Airport, Project Manager candidate (Gatwick, England)
- “What is the main thing that gets you out of bed each morning?” – Asked at Everything Everywhere, Customer Advisor candidate (Royal Leamington Spa, England)
- “Describe the hardest decision you have faced in the past 12 months.” – Asked at Accenture, Software Developer candidate (London, England)
- “Give me an example of your extreme levels of tenacity.” – Asked at ALDI, Store Manager candidate (Chelmsford, England)
- “In a fight between a lion and a tiger, who would win & why?” – Asked at Capco, Associate Consultant candidate (London, England)
Email us at jobs@park.je with the link to the job you feel you are suitable for and we can book in some interview training!