Typical interview questions

There are many publications claiming to provide the ‘correct’ answers to popular interview questions. However, there often isn’t just one ‘correct’ answer.

In most interview situations, you are being asked to talk about things that YOU, not the author of the book, are best placed to answer. For example, only you can truly answer questions about the experiences you’ve had and what you got out of them, or express your opinions on things that matter to you and the recruiter.

Over-scripted or rehearsed answers will come across as insincere and lacking in spontaneity. Even worse, if you try to use a pre-scripted answer you might not actually answer the exact question you’ve been asked on the day.

That said, you should certainly spend time before the interview thinking about the type of question you may be asked and what key elements you would include in your response, without fully scripting your exact answer. Noting just the key points of your answer, not the full script, will help you recall what you need to include whilst ensuring you use spontaneous and ‘natural’ language to get your message across.

Answering motivational questions

Motivational questions are designed to check how serious you are about applying for a particular job or course. These questions could include:

• Why do you want to do this job / course?
• What do you know about our organisation / institution? Why would you find us interesting to work for / study with?
• Which aspects of the job / course interest you most?
• What do you think will be the main challenges of this job / course? Why does that appeal to you?
• What steps have you taken to find out more about the job role / course?
• Which aspects of your previous work experience / course have you enjoyed and why?
• Tell us about a current news story that has caught your attention and why it interests you. How might it relate to our organisation / institution?

Questions like this highlight how important it is to do plenty of preparation so that you understand what sort of job or course you are applying for and know as much as possible about the organisation or institution.

Applying for a job

If you are applying for a job, think about:

• why you are interested in the main duties of the job
• the organisation’s values and culture and how these fit in with your own
• why the core business activities of the organisation appeal
• training and development opportunities
• the aspects of the job that may be challenging

Applying for a course

If you are applying for a course, think about the:

• department’s strengths
• structure and type of course
• teaching quality
• innovative research currently being undertaken
• challenges that you are likely to face