Resume writing & interviews
How to Predict Questions Asked in a Job Interview.
October 31, 2008 - 6:47 AM
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To predict questions asked in a job interview, simply know what the interviewer wants to know. To find out what the interviewer wants to know, simply find out what the job is supposed to do, in the long and short term. When you know what the job is expected to perform on a day to day basis, and the potential career path that the job might take, it's possible to create an ideal candidate profile for that job. Specifically, that job will require the experience and qualifications necessary to perform that job in the near future, plus the characteristics and attributes needed to grow professionally into the next levels of the career path.

Fortunately, as you go about trying to predict the questions asked in the job interview, you don't have to try to figure all these things out yourself. You can go to a number of resources that will help you draw the portrait of the ideal candidate. These sources include published materials in business and commercial press, online sources and personal interviews with people who are familiar with the company or job. In fact personal sources may be your best bet. Often the reality of a job is completely different from the official version of that job that is put forward by the company. Only spending some time talking to people with firsthand knowledge of the position will give you the kind of rounded, accurate knowledge of the position you need to create a complete profile of the ideal candidate.

More About Questions Asked in a Job Interview

Once you know exactly what the interviewer wants, you should be able to easily guess the questions you'll be asked in a job interview. Basically, the interviewer will focus on one of the elements on the ideal candidate profile and ask if you have that attribute. It's likely that he or she might do that in a more in-depth and indirect method, or ask you to give an example of when you displayed that element. So to create a list of probable job interview questions, simply take your list of ideal candidate attributes and think of how someone would ask if you had all of those.

To better answer the questions asked in a job interview, think of how your personal and work experience could be turned into proof that you have all the attributes on that list. Whether you are specifically directed to tell a story which exemplifies how you possess the characteristic or not, these kinds of stories add to the strength of your response. For that reason, try to develop a quick story for each element that contains a situation similar to that existing at the target job, describes job actions similar to those you would take at the target job and achieves results similar to those you would be expected to achieve at the target job. When you give these kind of answers that creates a vision of your successful execution of the target job inside the interviewer's head and gives him or her confidence that you are capable of being successful at the position.

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