Hiring Managers play a vital role in deciding whom to hire for an open position in a company. They are tasked with conducting interviews to determine whether or not a candidate will be a good fit.
In every interview, while there are many different questions hiring managers can ask to determine the best candidates, some tend to appear more often.
In this article, we’ll reveal the five questions hiring managers often ask before recruiting. They include:
- Tell us about yourself
- Why do you want to work here?
- What is your greatest strength?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Table of Contents
1. Tell Us About Yourself
This might sound easy, but it is the trickiest of the interview questions. When hiring managers ask this question, they aren’t interested in your life story or what you had before coming for the interview. Instead, they want you to give a brief overview of your experience and qualifications. They also want to see how confident you are and how well you can communicate your thoughts.
So, how best can you answer this question? While telling the recruiters your experience and qualifications, tailor your answer to the position you’re applying for. Start with your background (your course of study). Tell them your top achievement – what can make them consider you as the best candidate. To ensure a clear and concise response, try as much as you can to follow the past, present, and future formula: Tell them your career journey and your past relevant experience, your current job before you applied, and why you’re interested in the new position.
2. Why Do You Want To Work Here?
Hiring managers ask this question to gauge your interest in the company. They want to know whether you’ve done any research about the company and also determine how passionate you are about the job.
So, how do you answer this question? According to Harvard Business Review, this question is better answered in three basic approaches:
- Articulate your passion for the job
- Express how glad and ready you’re to take up the responsibilities
- Describe, given your experience and skills, how you look forward to succeeding in the position
3. What Is Your Greatest Strength?
Note that every question the employers ask goes a long way in determining the best candidate for the open position. Hiring managers ask this question to discover how well you are qualified for the job and whether you’re optimistic about yourself.
Hopefully, you don’t like bragging about yourself, but at this point, you have to do that. Because if you don’t tell interviewers what you’re capable of, they might guess wrong. So, you have to think of the strengths perhaps your friends or past colleagues have told you you possess relative to your work. This could be hard skills like how effectively you can use a particular tool, or perhaps you’re skilled at keeping clients or consumers from getting more upset.
4. What Is Your Greatest Weakness?
This remains one of the frequently asked yet most challenging questions by hiring managers. They want you to reflect on your skills and abilities and identify any areas you might need to improve. With this question, they could also gauge your self-awareness and honesty.
According to emeritus.org, to satisfy your recruiters, it is best not to deny having any weaknesses. Even if you don’t have any weaknesses, you can make a strength look like one. It will also be best if you don’t ruin your chances by mentioning essential skills, such as time management, multitasking, or working in a team, as your biggest weakness.
5. Where Do You See Yourself In 5 Years?
Why hiring managers ask this question is to discover whether you’re staying with them long-term or moving on once you see a better opportunity. This is one of the most critical questions recruiters ask these days, especially considering the rate at which Millenials and Gen Zs change jobs quickly. For instance, in 2021, Microsoft studied over 30,000 people in 31 countries to see how long they would stay with their current employer. 40% of them indicated they were considering leaving their employers. This is a nightmare for recruiters, which they try to prevent as early as during the interview phase.
Therefore, an excellent answer to this question should reflect your motivation to reach a level of success in your work. Give your interviewers realistic expectations by focusing on the company to show that your current job aligns with your future goals.
Final Thoughts
While trying to get your hands on various interview questions to stand a chance to find a job, it is advisable to focus on the ones mentioned above, as they are often asked by hiring managers. This will increase your chances of convincing your prospective employer that you’re a good fit, thus, helping you land your dream job.
