How to answer these 3 common interview questions according to an HR expert from Kenya

david nganga

March 1, 2018 1:51 PM

How to answer these common interview questions

Job interviews are tough especially if you show up unprepared.

Many candidates often stumble through interviews, giving canned answers to common interview questions.

This not only puts off the interview panel, but also sucks life out of the candidates because they only recite what they think the interviewer wants to hear.

We spoke to Peru Collins, an HR professional from Kenya with over 10 years in the industry, who explained how to go about these three common interview questions:

"Tell me a little bit about yourself"

One of the goals of this question is to get to know you a little bit beyond your career and on-the-job attitude and experience.

After sharing a few interesting personal aspects of your background, you can pivot to mentioning some key professional skills that would help you to add value if you were hired for your target job.

Consider using phrases like "In addition to those interests and passions, my professional life is a huge part of who I am, so I'd like to talk a bit about some of the strengths which I would bring to this job."

What is your greatest weakness?

Peru, a HR manager at Karen Country Club, states that a candidate oughts to think about something that isn’t his/her strong suit, whether it’s delegating to others or attention to detail.

"Show how you’ve taken steps to overcome it, or worked hard on getting better, and mention that you’re still working and working at becoming even better at this skill set," says Peru.

A case in point: "Well, I used to be pretty horrible at public speaking. When I started working, it was a massive problem, and I was just terrified of doing it, and I didn’t do a very good job. So first I took the small step of promising myself that I would speak up in front of really small groups, for example in my church. Then, I worked up to taking a public speaking class, which made a big difference."

"Where do you see yourself in 4/5/6 years?"

Peru argues that a candidate should state how the position in question fits in with his/her professional goals.

"The trick here is to think about where this position could realistically take you, and think about how that aligns with some of your broader professional goals."

david nganga