How to Answer the Top 10 Interview Questions (& Get Hired)

Question 1: “Tell Me About Yourself”

This isn’t really a question – it’s an open-ended prompt that most people misinterpret. Nine times out of ten when I say this to somebody in an interview, they want to tell me their whole life story. “Well, I grew up in Connecticut and I went to…” Listen, nobody cares. They don’t care about your life story. You’re wasting their time.

What they actually want to know is: Give me your sales pitch as to why you’re fit for this role. They want to hear why you’re uniquely qualified, what experiences you have that relate to the role. What they’re really asking is: What value do you bring to this company and role?

Here’s how to answer it: First, say where you’ve been. “I’ve been a customer success manager at three Fortune 500 companies over the last eight years, and what I was able to do at those companies is drive X, Y, and Z results.” Title + Results.

Second, what are your biggest strengths? “My biggest strengths are that I’m fantastic at decreasing time to value for customers. In fact, at my last company, I was able to decrease time to value by 20% in just a quarter.”

Then bring it home: “The reason I applied to work here is I saw that you were looking for a customer success manager to get clients ramped up and onboarded more quickly, and I figured that would be a good fit because I’ve done that in all my last three roles.”

Question 2: “Walk Me Through Your Resume”

What I see a lot is people going line by line. “First I worked at Subway, and I worked at this, and I had an internship…” Nobody cares. They want to hear about the relevant experience.

Skip through anything that’s not related to this job. Only pick the experiences that relate to this specific role. And here’s the key: They’ve already read your resume – that’s why you’re here for the interview. They don’t want you to read it off. What they want you to do is talk about how each of those experiences translates to this role.

Question 3: “Why Do You Want to Work at This Company?”

I have done thousands of interviews, and surprisingly, this answer is not answered correctly most of the time. What they want to hear is how much research you’ve done on the company and how excited you are about the role. They want to hear someone who relates to the mission, really lives by the values, feels like this role is exactly what’s meant for them.

What they don’t want is for you to talk about the selfish reasons. We all know that most people apply for jobs because they see really good pay, good benefits. But that doesn’t mean that’s what you want to express in an interview, because they already assume those are non-negotiables for you.

What they’re looking for is: How selfless are you? How company-centric versus self-centric are you? If you say anything about pay, benefits, or working remote, that’s all going in the self-centered bucket, which they don’t want to hire.

Frame your answer with the three R’s: Research, Recognition, and Right Fit. “When I was looking up the company, what I found on your LinkedIn was your mission talks about X. I love the fact that your values talk about Y and Z because I actually relate to that. Because of that, I felt like I was the right fit for this role because those things resonated with me so much.”

Question 4: “What Would You Consider to Be Your Weakness?”

Most people get this one wrong because they say something like “I just work too hard” or “I’m just such a perfectionist.” Listen, everyone knows that’s BS. I’ve heard “perfectionist” in the last seven interviews I did today.

Don’t pick something that’s actually a strength disguised as a weakness. Actually tell them what your weaknesses are, and then explain how you’re resilient despite those weaknesses. This is a chance for you to admit a flaw and then talk about how you handle those flaws.

Pick a weakness that doesn’t pertain to the role, so it’s not something that will detract from you getting this job, but it is something that’s actually a weakness for you. Then explain how you’ve worked to overcome it.

Question 5: “What Makes You Unique?”

When someone asks what makes you unique, they don’t really want to know about what you did in high school or college. What they want to know is: Why should they hire you and not somebody else?

Think about unique pairings. What is it that makes you different than others in what you do? The best person in a creative role might also be very organized – that’s a unique pairing because typically people in creative roles are not organized. Or you’re applying for a financial role and you say, “Actually, I have really high people skills and I’ve done lots of presentations on leadership.” Wow, that’s a unique pairing.

Question 6: “Why Are You Leaving Your Current Role?”

As an employer, what I really want to know is: What are the red flags that are the reason you’re leaving, and do they exist here? If there’s any crossover, that’s not something I’d want because I don’t want you to just leave this job too.

What they don’t want is for you to sit there and complain about your last job. Don’t talk badly about your last employer. Even if you say “I’m not trying to talk badly,” you’re literally about to talk badly. They can sense that.

Just say, “Here’s the reasons I left, and I don’t think that pertains to this role here.” Even better: “Here’s the reasons I left, and the reason I’m so interested in this job is because you’ve expressed these things which are the things that I want that I didn’t have there.”

Question 7: “What Are Your Career Aspirations?”

What an employer actually wants to know: How long are you going to be here? That’s what it means. Explain what you want to get from this job, explain how long you see yourself being here, and explain if you’re flexible or rigid.

“I can see myself being here for four years building X department. Beyond that, I don’t know if there’s room for me, but I can commit a solid four years. Obviously, when the time comes that I was no longer needed or there’s no more growth, I would always make sure to backfill myself.”

Question 8: “What Are You Looking For in a New Position?”

They don’t want a list of all your demands and desires. What they want is to understand: What are the parameters that would make this a great job for you? What environment would you thrive in? Do your career goals align with the position, do your strengths fit with the role, and do your desires fit with the role?

Explain what kind of environment you would be best utilized in. “What I’m looking for is a place where I can really fully utilize myself. I can build a department from scratch, which I know I can do because I’ve done it three other times, and I have the autonomy to do so. But I also have the support and clarity from leadership. That’s what I’m really looking for – a place where I can have autonomy but also support and clarity.”

Question 9: “Do You Have Any Questions for Me?”

They want to know that you’ve thought about this decision. What they don’t want is somebody thoughtless who says, “No, I really don’t have any other questions.” You don’t have questions about the place you want to be for the next two to four years? That’s bananas.

Here are three great questions to ask: (1) Pull out a line from the job description and ask about it – shows you actually read it. (2) “How would I exceed your expectations in this role?” This is brilliant because then they’re thinking how you could impress them, and you know right away what to do. (3) “What would my onboarding look like? What would my 30-60-90 look like?” This shows you can see yourself in the company and that you’re thoughtful.

Bonus: “What’s Your Goal Salary?”

First, understand that overshooting this is going to hurt you. If the job is market value at $100,000 and you say $200,000, they’re just not going to hire you.

Here’s what to do: Research the role on salary.com and payscale.com. See how much that title with your years of experience is worth. Then look at similar companies – what are they paying for that role? Use that to come up with a range.

When they ask, say: “My goal would be to be between $110K to $130K, preferably on the higher end. Based on my research, I’ve seen that companies like X, Y, and Z are paying about this range, and if you look on payscale and salary.com, they’re showing these numbers.”

When you present it this way, you come off like a logical, rational, thinking adult. And that’s exactly what they want to hire.

Now go ace that interview!