So, the answer is simply a “No.”  If they ask “Have you ever been laid-off?”  You may explain:

“Yes, the company I worked was acquired by BeanCorp in west coast.  BeanCorp decided to close al facilities in town.  I among all of other 250 employees were laid-off.”

It is not a matter of whether or not you can handle stressful situations or you like to work under pressure.  Everyone can do it but no one wants it.  To play the interview game, you just need to explain how have you dealt with stressful situations in the past, how have you used time management and problem-solving skills to reduce stress, and tell interviews you get used to work under pressure.

Sample Answer:

“I’m not afraid of stress and pressures.  I can do a good job in difficult situations.  In my previous job I always had to face stress when I was involved in multiple projects and deadlines were near.  But I’ve built time management and problem-solving skills to handle this situation and I’ve learned how to adapt to changing situations and shift priorities.  Personally I have a few ways to reduce stress:  take a break to stretch, have a short walk in fresh air, or get a little exercise, they are all helpful.  If I find that the stressful situation would affect my team’s productivity, I would discuss it with my manager.”

Sample Answers:

“I decided to be a stay-at-home mom for my children until they were both in school. I’ve kept my skills current by doing part-time consulting work and taking online courses in Microsoft Exchange Server Administration.  I’m ready and eager to re-enter the corporate world.”

The key to answer this question is to give positive, at least acceptable reasons for frequent job changes.  Make some acceptable cases such as spouse job relocation, health issues of family members, continuing education, or things beyond your control like company downsizing/reorg.

No matter what reason you give, don’t complain about former companies or bosses.  If you did work on one or more jobs for quite long time, point it out.  Also emphasize that your current goal is to stay with your next company for a long time.

Sample Answers:

“My husband worked as an IBM consultant, the company has transferred him to different regional offices around the country during these years.  Every time IBM moved him to a new region, I’d relocate with him and find a new job. I feel this has actually been beneficial because it provided me with a broad range of experiences and expanded my knowledge and skills. He got a stable job in town this year and we’ve decided to make this area our permanent home, so I won’t be relocating again. I’m looking forward to obtaining a long-term position with a company such as yours.”

Sample Answers:

“I honestly can’t think of anything about my last job that I disliked.  I really enjoy working with people there.  If they had more career advancement opportunities, I would like to stay  with them.”

Or you may say something that is no significant, and not on people:

“I’d say it was their lack of a training program. I enjoyed working there and understand they have severe budget restrictions which limited their training opportunities. That’s one of the reasons I’m so eager to work for your company. I know you have an excellent training program here. I’m always looking to improve my skills and make myself more useful.”

A good answer is to say a lot of good things of your formal bosses, then point out a little thing which is no significant that you wish could be improved.

Sample Answers:

“I’ve honestly never had a boss that I disliked.  In my previous jobs, I worked really well with the management teams, they were very supportive.  I had one boss a few years ago, he was a nice guy, but he didn’t interact with our team often.  I wished that he could give us more feedback about our performance and kept us informed about what was going on in the company. “

“I work too hard.”
“I’m a perfectionist.”
“I am workaholic.”

But that’s not what interviewers want to hear. They want you to tell your real weakness. They are smart enough to see the trick. So, a good answer is to tell your true weakness.

IT is a huge field; most IT pros could be strong on certain areas but weak on others. What you can do is to pick up an area which is a non-key element of the position as a weakness. If it is a DBA job, you may say your weakness is lack of project management experience. If you are applying for a programmer job, your weakness could be less experience on network administration. Just pick a neutral weakness about something that’s not critical to the job, then you should be fine.

After telling your weakness, explain what you’ve done to overcome the weakness, which shows that you are actively seeking ways to improve yourself. Through this approach, you present yourself as a reasonable, honest person who recognizes areas that need to grow.

The following answer is for a Java programmer position:

“Although I have extensive experience in Java programming, I am relatively weak in network administration. Couple of times in my previous job I had to get help from the network team to setup networked QA test environment. I wish I could do it by myself, so I’ve spent spare time to grab some hands-on network skills. I’ll continue building experience in network area as network skills become more important to programmers in today’s enterprise computing environment.”

Don’t say you are so good with people and never have to handle conflicts. They don’t believe you.

Sample Answer:

“In dealing with conflicts or disagreements, I always listen carefully and try to understand my coworker’s perspective. It’s important to remain calm, which prevents arguments from escalating. Keeping an open mind, I present my side of the issue and listen to my coworker’s side. Usually we can come up with a compromise that we both agree on. If this doesn’t work I will suggest we get a third opinion, either from another coworker or the boss, to help resolve the issue. In my last job a coworker and I disagreed on the best way to create a automatic data migration procedure for our interface process. She wanted to acquire an expensive commercial software package; I wanted to develop a customized in-house scripting program which is a much cheaper. There were pros and cons to both, which we wrote down and discussed. In the end, we agreed on implementing a free open source data migration application with a little customized scripting configuration, which save us money and meet our need very well.”

Notice how this question is subtly different to “can you handle stress?” Reply with: “I break my work down into smaller steps and work through those steps rather than get worked up over the bigger picture.”

Or: “I tend to see problems arising before they become too large to handle and I make contingencies to cover them.”

Q. How long have you been looking for work/another position?

If you’ve been unemployed for a while obviously the employer is going to think… “Why didn’t anyone want them in all that time. If they were any good they’d already have found a job by now.”

An important point: businesses are fuelled by innovation and solving customer’s needs and problems. They’re not fuelled by the amount of hours their employees work.

You’re not there to work 40 hours a week. You are there to reach and attain certain goals. So, your best answer to the question is along the lines of… “I don’t want just any old job. I’ve been using my days researching companies I’d most like to work for and where I feel I could grow and develop my skills and be a key member in the company’s success. I’ve also been studying and reading to give myself more skills to add more value to my chosen career.”

You could go on to explain that you knew this would go against you because of the length of time you were out of work, but you realized that your whole future relied on what you did now and you were willing to take that risk.

Q. Have you ever been fired?

Try to answer “NO.”

If you have been and are asked about it, explain why, and what you learned from the experience. If other people were fired with you or resigned because of a change in management, then explain that as well.

Q. In your last position what duties did you perform?

This question is to see whether you are goal or task oriented.

Tell them what you did and what it meant to the company: “Part of my job involved typing letters to customers to nurture them. This involved establishing an intimate knowledge of our customers needs. It also took up a lot of time but I got around this by establishing a clever database for merging that sped up the process significantly.”

This shows you are goal oriented… that you believe in getting the job done and not just in being busy. Task oriented people believe in simply being busy. Employers want goal-oriented people.

Q. Can we check your references?

This question is often asked to put you off guard. This is especially true if you come across as being too perfect, or too smooth.

If you already have a job and are considering changing tell the interviewer they can check your references if you receive a firm job offer as you want to keep matters confidential at the moment.

If they want to check your present employer for a reference, make sure they give you a written job offer first. The last thing you want is to miss out on this job and arrive back at work and have your present employer find ways to dismiss you for lack of loyalty.

Q. Tell me about yourself?

Make sure you answer this question in a way that benefits the employer. They are looking for honesty, integrity, being a team player, punctuality and goal orientated people. If you are going to talk about anything don’t ramble on and on – talk about one of the subjects I’ve just shown you.

You can always ask: “What area of my background are you most interested in?” Their response allows you to tell them what they want to hear.

Q. Why do you feel you are a better ……………… than the other applicants?

This is not the time to put down other people nor is it the time to brag about how great you are.

You have a few options. The first is to say something along the lines like “to many people, being a ………………… is just a job. To me it’s something I’ve always wanted to be. Being a ……………. is more than a job to me – it’s a passion and that passion comes through in my work.”

The other option is to say you never worried about being better than the rest. You’ve only considered being the best you can be. Go on to tell them you think these skills are the most valuable for the position and then show them how you use these skills to be incredibly productive and a great team member.

by Acland Brierty

SHAMELESS PLUG: Job Secrets Revealed comes with a special ‘interview secrets’ report that will give you – more secrets of the experts including sections on “behavioral interviewing”, an expanded section on understanding the mind of the employer and the Top 10 list of the “Things Interviewers Fear,” as well as the complete list of the toughest interview questions you’ll ever get, including advice on how to side-step the ones you won’t want to answer. Plus, we give you powerful techniques to let you take control of the interview.

To answer this question, compose a good example with a problem that faced your company and not just you personally. It’s best the show how you solved a critical problem for your company.  When you describe the case, highlight the skills and technologies you used to resolve this problem.  Emphasize the successful results.  If the problem-solving process is a team effort, be generous in sharing credit, but be sure to highlight your specific role. You must make yourself shine.

Now let’s see a sample answer:

“When I assumed the role of supervisor for Siebel Call Center in Customer Support Department with PPR Systems, team morale was low, sales were lackluster and customers were dissatisfied. I immediately took action to identify the specific problems, analyze alternative solutions and pick the best options, and set a timeline for implementing the corrective actions. I reorganized the team structure and established written goals that focused on teamwork, improved customer service and increased productivity. One specific example is that I implemented a `satisfaction guarantee’ for quality and timeliness with each software support service, and tied in performance-based rewards for employees. These actions greatly improved morale and increased our sales by 48% in the first three months.”