In the interview process, the candidate's answers to the interviewer's questions are often the key basis for deciding whether the candidate stays or goes. If you "honestly" respond to the interviewer's questions while ignoring the rules of interviews and the way of thinking in answering questions, it may directly affect the impression you leave on the interviewer. Therefore, learning to analyze the true purpose behind the interviewer's questions and providing reasonable and comprehensive answers can indeed be an important asset in passing the interview.

Question 1: Please introduce yourself. This is the most common "icebreaker" in interviews. Many people habitually "recite their resume" when introducing themselves. While this is not wrong, if you are in a group interview, a bland self-introduction will make you blend into the crowd. Reorganize the content of your personal introduction or add highlights to your narrative to leave a "distinct" impression on the interviewer.

Key points for answering:

  1. If the introduction involves resume content, it must be consistent with your resume.
  2. Use conversational language as much as possible.
  3. Be concise and avoid irrelevant or useless content.
  4. Be clear and well-structured.
  5. It's best to write it out and memorize it in advance.

Question 2: Why did you choose our company? Some candidates answer from a personal perspective, such as "I hope for better development space," "I hope to get training opportunities," or "I hope for better compensation." However, the interviewer actually wants to know if your motivation aligns with the company's purpose for the position. In other words, they care more about what you can bring to the company than what the company can bring to you.

Key points for answering:

  1. The interviewer is trying to understand your motivation, desire, and attitude toward the job.
  2. It is recommended to answer from three angles: industry, company, and position.

Question 3: What can you do for us? This question is similar to the previous one, but more direct. As a candidate, it's essential to do your homework beforehand, such as understanding the company's profile, products, services, and the requirements of the position you're applying for. Then, tailor your answer to the company's needs.

Key points for answering:

  1. The basic principle is to "cater to their preferences."
  2. Employers generally hire candidates who basically meet the requirements, are interested in the job, and have sufficient confidence.
  3. Before answering, it's best to "strike first" by understanding what the employer expects from this position.
  4. You can answer based on your understanding and your professional strengths.

Question 4: You are a fresh graduate with no experience. How can you handle this job? This is one of the most headache-inducing questions for fresh graduates. Without work experience, competing with experienced candidates can feel daunting. But do all companies refuse to hire fresh graduates? Not at all. First, understand that if you've been invited to the interview, the company is open to hiring fresh graduates. As candidates, there is no hierarchy; everyone is on the same starting line. If you perform well enough, you can win the interviewer's trust and expectations.

Key points for answering:

  1. If the employer asks this, it means they don't really care about "experience" but how you answer.
  2. Your answer should reflect sincerity, wit, decisiveness, and dedication.

Question 5: Why did you leave your previous company? For experienced candidates, this is a "sensitive" topic. If the reason for leaving is not due to the previous company, candidates may easily expose personal issues, alerting the interviewer and potentially losing the chance to advance. Remember: there is no single answer to an interview question, and the same answer may not work in all situations. The key is to understand the patterns, grasp the specific interview context, and deliberately discern the interviewer's psychology and purpose before answering.

Key points for answering:

  1. Most importantly, convince the employer that the "reason for leaving" from your previous company will not occur here.
  2. Avoid being too detailed or specific about the "reason for leaving."
  3. Do not include subjective negative feelings, such as "too tiring," "complex interpersonal relationships," "chaotic management," "company doesn't value talent," or "company excludes employees like us."
  4. Do not evade or avoid, such as "want a change of environment" or "personal reasons."
  5. Do not mention negative personality traits, such as dishonesty, laziness, lack of responsibility, or being difficult to get along with.

Question 6: What foreseeable difficulties do you anticipate in this job? The interviewer's true intention is not to have you list specific difficulties but to see your attitude when facing difficulties.

Key points for answering:

  1. Avoid directly stating specific difficulties, as it may make them doubt your abilities.
  2. Use a roundabout approach, stating your attitude: "Difficulties at work are normal and inevitable, but with perseverance, good cooperation, and thorough preparation, any difficulty can be overcome."

Question 7: Talk about your weaknesses. This is a relatively "dangerous" question, but if answered well, it can turn the tables. If you say you have no weaknesses, it seems dishonest. If you list too many or too detailed weaknesses, it may shock the interviewer and cost you the job. A middle ground exists:

Key points for answering:

  1. Do not say you have no weaknesses.
  2. Do not present obvious strengths as weaknesses.
  3. Do not mention weaknesses that seriously affect the job you're applying for.
  4. Do not mention weaknesses that make people uneasy or uncomfortable.
  5. You can mention "irrelevant" weaknesses for the job, or even weaknesses that appear as weaknesses but are actually strengths from a work perspective.

Question 8: Tell me about a failure experience. Everyone has experienced failure. The interviewer's purpose is not to hear your failure story but to see how you handled it and your attitude. When choosing a failure example, avoid anything related to the job you're applying for, or you'll ruin your chances.

Key points for answering:

  1. Do not say you have no failure experiences.
  2. Do not present obvious successes as failures.
  3. Do not mention failures that seriously affect the job you're applying for.
  4. Explain that before the failure, you were confident and did your best.
  5. Explain that the failure was due to external objective reasons.
  6. After the failure, you quickly recovered and faced future work with renewed enthusiasm.

Question 9: If we hire you, how will you carry out your work? Do not immediately "show your grand plans" without thinking, as you don't know enough about your duties and content. Otherwise, not only will your plans seem unrealistic, but the interviewer may see you as reckless and unplanned. Instead, talk about your approach to work, which is safer.

Key points for answering:

  1. If you lack sufficient understanding of the position, avoid directly stating specific methods.
  2. Use a roundabout approach: "First, I will listen to the leader's instructions and requirements, then understand the relevant situation, next formulate a short-term work plan and submit it for approval, and finally carry out the work according to the plan."

Note 1: First, attract the interviewer's attention. In a boring recruitment scene with a stream of candidates and monotonous processes, the examiner's mind may become numb, so they won't give you much time to ramble, nor have a good memory to remember every candidate. In fact, within the first 3 minutes of you entering the door, the examiner decides whether to hire you; the remaining minutes are just polite filler. Therefore, seize the first 3 minutes. Some unique yet polite techniques can effectively attract the interviewer's attention.

I remember in one interview I attended, due to the large number of candidates, the interviewer kept looking down at resumes without looking up. Many candidates walked in, spoke, and left. Then a girl came in; the interviewer also looked down at the resume. The girl politely said, "Hello, interviewers, please turn your eyes to me, thank you!" This is undoubtedly a great way to catch the interviewer's eye or make them remember you. During the interview, try to make the interviewer remember you; that's the first step to success.

Second, self-introduction. In many cases, I don't require candidates to introduce themselves. I remember a shy fresh graduate interviewing for a logistics position. After a few simple questions, he asked me, "Don't you need a self-introduction? I've prepared for a long time." So I let him introduce himself, and he began: "My name is so-and-so, graduated from such-and-such university, majoring in so-and-so. I am outgoing, sincere, a team player, good at communication..." A very fluent 3-minute introduction, but I couldn't see his outgoing nature or communication skills from his expression and behavior.

In fact, not every position requires an outgoing, sociable personality, nor do you need to repeat resume details like a chronicle. When introducing yourself, you should: 1. Express yourself sincerely; 2. Have a clear understanding of the position; 3. Master the pace; 4. Highlight your strengths, preferably those helpful for the job. While selling yourself, cleverly find the connection and relevance between your characteristics and the job you're applying for.

Third, answering questions. In answering interview questions, interviewers care less about whether your answer is good but more about your adaptability and expression. Once, I interviewed a very quiet girl. I casually asked, "Your clothes are beautiful. Did you choose them yourself or were they recommended by a friend?" She was stunned, then silent for a long time. Finally, to ease the atmosphere, I moved on to other topics. Some candidates may think the interviewer's questions are strange and unrelated to the job, so they don't answer or can't answer.

Actually, the examiner may ask questions completely unrelated to the position to further understand your thinking ability and insight. Don't show impatience or surprise, as it may leave an impression of being too calculating. When answering, effective communication is needed. First, understand the position you're applying for and what you should say; second, understand your audience and attract their attention during the conversation, ensuring they understand your meaning and remember you.

Finally, interview mindset. If the interviewer is friendly and their questions are encouraging and enlightening, candidates can handle it more easily. But what if the interviewer is aggressive or shows contempt? The "provocation method" is a common tactic used by picky examiners to eliminate most candidates. In a face-to-face battle of wits, they often use obviously unfriendly questions or suspicious, sharp, direct gazes to strip away your polite exterior and break down your psychological defenses... Of course, they are looking for someone with psychological resilience.

As a candidate, facing the examiner's aggressive attitude and contemptuous demeanor, if there is any trick, it is to never be "provoked." Achieve "not being upset by sudden events, not being angry when unjustly treated," and maintain a resilient and calm mindset. If you are in a subordinate position and get angry because of overly sharp, unfriendly, or bullying questions, then sorry, you've already lost the interview. This is also a common "interview trap."

Jane Rogers, a management consultant and executive coach at the British Institute of Future Management, once said: "An interview is actually a pursuit process; while you pursue the company, the company is also pursuing you." So, an interview is an equal dialogue. Don't be nervous. Face the interviewer's verbal traps with a calm mindset, but also maintain necessary dignity against excessive and unreasonable behavior.

Note 2: Surely every company asked you the same question: "Do you have relevant sales experience?" And your answer must have been... "No!" the girl interrupted. I said, "You clearly have experience in this area. How can you say no? Do you buy cosmetics? Of course! Then you can tell the interviewer that you treat every cosmetics purchase as an opportunity to observe sales, experiencing the sales process and feeling. Although you haven't directly done paid sales work, every time you recommend your favorite cosmetics to classmates and friends, it's a spontaneous sales action..."

This is not sophistry or a cheap brain teaser; it's basic interview common sense: how you view your past and how you connect your various experiences (including internships and personal life) to the employer's job requirements.

It's unrealistic to expect college students to have work experience relevant to every company they interview with. But at least you should do your homework, sort out relevant things from your short youth, whether direct or indirect, sufficient or barely, find the connection point with the company's needs, and give the company a reason to hire you. Even if it's "sophistry" based on politeness and respect, it can impress the interviewer. After all, any company that hires entry-level employees provides training. Your lack of work experience isn't that important, but whether you have the determination to win is the personal asset that companies value most.

Lack of interview skills was the direct cause of this girl's failure. But delving deeper into her frustration, we can see more issues in contemporary college students' career development.

This girl indeed loved cosmetics sales. She applied to five companies, all in the same industry. For a job she was so passionate about, she never made any effort during her four years of college to enter the industry. If she had made a little effort, even for a few days or a week, her interview results would certainly have been different.

She asked me: What is informal trying? Can a few days really make a difference?

I said: "Of course. For example, go to a mall right now, find a friendly saleswoman, buy something from her, get her phone number, then invite her for coffee or a meal, ask her about sales, and learn from her... After a few times, when you go to the next interview and they ask the killer question 'Do you have work experience?' you can answer more truthfully and confidently: 'Although I don't have formal, full-time experience, I love this job so much that I even hired a teacher with my own money. She is Miss Rose, a sales representative from a certain company. Look, this is a photo of me helping her with deliveries.'"

Faced with such a passionate candidate, the company would be foolish not to hire immediately.

This girl's problems are: first, she lacks basic interview skills; second, during her four years of college, she didn't make any specific preparations for her ideal job, which is necessary; third, she didn't establish a career-centered awareness during her education. Between her student life and career, she didn't build a bridge but left a gap.

By the way, this girl's name is Rouge. As a cosmetic, rouge's only value is when applied to the face; as a college student, rouge's only success is to serve society through a job. Therefore, it's necessary to establish clear learning goals and career awareness during college and prepare adequately (e.g., relevant internships, activities, applications).

A male student who sent countless resumes without any response At the same forum, I also met a handsome male student. He was tall, with a kind face, from a prestigious university, and had a good major. His problem: he sent countless resumes to companies but received no replies.

When it was his turn to speak, he surprisingly took the initiative to hand his resume to the four special guest speakers from famous companies sitting opposite him. I was sitting at the adjacent table, but he didn't give me a copy, which made me feel "left out," but I decided to "fix" him—fix his employment engine to quickly start his job search.

Regarding his resume, the four recruiters eagerly shared their views. Their unanimous opinion: this male student doesn't know how to write a resume, or at least, he doesn't know how to send one. Although his resume was beautifully made, even with color photos and color letterhead, it had no targeted content for the four companies, no personalized salutation, just a formulaic resume that could be sent to any company without error but also without use. This is a "mass-send" resume, and this male student is a mass-sender.

The guests conducted an in-depth analysis of the mass-sender's job search method. They suggested: he must personalize his resume for each company's specific situation, so the company sees that you are serious about working there and have done thorough research and made great efforts.

There are many reasons for the mass-sender's failure, possibly including the macro environment. But in his case, the main reason is fundamental and common mistakes in resume creation and submission. Here I propose three points to share:

Treat each submission as a courtship: You wouldn't send a thoughtless love letter to your beloved, nor should you send a generic cover letter to your beloved company. Specifically, state "why" you chose this company and why this company "must" choose you. This is basic job search common sense. That a student from such an "excellent" university didn't even understand this shows that lacking necessary career awareness and job search skills is one of the subjective factors in college students' employment difficulties.

At this forum alone, the "mass-sender" missed two opportunities: First, he knew in advance that the forum would arrange for him to submit resumes to the four guests. If he had spent a few hours creating different cover letters and resumes for each company, perhaps not only double happiness but even fourfold happiness would have come. Second, I was present. If he had given me a resume, I would certainly have given him much useful guidance. Such opportunities exist all the time. This deficiency in the mass-sender is actually indifference or slowness in seizing market opportunities, i.e., life opportunities.

The mass-sender had participated in an internship, but because the company employees spoke a dialect, he felt it was bad. Language has always been a weapon for survival and communication. If you have ability, you make others speak your language; if you don't, you pick up their weapon to fight or cooperate with them.

Deep analysis of his situation reveals more issues: he is conventional, lacking the free will and independent thinking to break rules and be original. For example, he attributes the lack of personalization in his resume to the formatting templates of job websites; forgetting to give me his resume, he attributes to the meeting rules that only four guests (I was also a guest) should receive it; the internship not going well, he attributes to colleagues speaking the local dialect; the lack of internship activities in college, he attributes to the school not arranging them... These are all reasonable excuses. But the problem is: successful people are those who change the status quo and make things happen; failures are those who accept the status quo and let things happen. I'm not saying the mass-sender is a failure; in fact, he is excellent, but at least in the resume submission battle, he was temporarily defeated.

With the severe employment situation for college students, besides government, education, and economic factors, improving the career awareness and job search skills of Chinese college graduates has become an urgent issue again. So, I repeat: job hunting is an art, a science, worthy of everyone's attention.

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