30 Common Interview Questions Explanation (Part 2)

After the release of the last interview strategy, we combined experience and prepared materials, and summarised 12-20 common interview questions. We hope to help everyone make adequate preparations and reserves before the interview, reduce the error rate and tension in the interview, and greatly improve the interview passing rate.

12. Do you Know Any Other Languages? Could You Do A Self-Introduction in that Language

In addition to foreign-funded enterprises, there are more and more domestic overseas companies. They will have certain requirements for candidates' foreign language skills during recruitment, which is a good opportunity for international students to give full play to their competitive advantages.

When looking for a job, our colleague once met a company. After submitting his resume, he first received a phone call from the interviewer, which asked for a one-minute English self-introduction, and then he got the offline interview later.

The reason why the interviewer asks for English self-introduction is nothing more than to test the job seeker's English level, pronunciation, grammar, etc.; and then to see whether the job seeker is flexible and nervous. Even if some positions do not have too many requirements for foreign languages, testing foreign languages is also a good way to test the learning ability of international students. After all, people who can't even master foreign languages well need to be studied for their learning ability.

Regardless of whether the requirements for foreign language ability are mentioned in the recruitment JD, it is recommended to prepare for English self-introduction before the interview. You can refer to the formula of self-introduction to prepare: self-introduction = opening greeting + basic information + related experience + application reasons + express gratitude.

13. What Are Your Plans if You Didn’t Get Accepted

Encountering this problem does not necessarily mean that the interview is cold. This is a pressure interview question of "pressure surface", which puts a certain amount of pressure on you to observe your reaction. Your answer also reflects your career plan and job-seeking attitude from the side.

It can be said calmly: I love the xxx industry/xxx position very much, and I don't want to miss every opportunity. If I am not hired, I hope you can tell me the reason, so that I can seriously reflect on and summarise the interview process. This failure is regarded as an accumulation, and I will not make repeated mistakes next time. In addition, I need to be more refined in my business ability, keep my learning state, and grasp it better when other opportunities comes. 

14. What Are Your Hobbies?

This is a very common interview question. In most cases, the question that the interviewer wants to ask/prepare has almost been asked. Start to talk about some easy topics with job seekers and learn about job seekers from the side. If you have common interests with the interviewer, it may make the interview more relaxed and enjoyable and eliminate your nervousness.

Although it is a relaxing content, don't forget that you are still in the interview. It's okay to show your personality properly. Please don't let yourself go. The interests and hobbies you answer can reflect your positive spirit. If your hobbies are only like playing games, don't talk about your superb skills, but sublimate to teamwork, tactical thinking, team command and other directions.

15. When Can You Start Work?

Students who have been in the job-hunting stage for a long time are overjoyed to hear the interviewer ask this interview question. But don't be happy too early. The wrong answer is tantamount to laying mines for yourself.

Many people will answer "I can start work any time" to express their sincerity and enthusiasm, but it will also bring disadvantages. This kind of answer will make the recruiter feel that you are unsteady. Is it a long time to wait for employment in such a hurry? Will the ability not be good enough that other companies don't want it? Even if you are hired, you may be "undervalued" in the salary and benefits you get, which is not worth the loss for job seekers.

The correct answer is not to expose the current situation of "desperation". It can be said that I will give a clear answer within 2 days after receiving the company's offer, and the onboarding time is about within 1 week. Communicate to the recruiter that there is a possibility that there are other offers in hand, leaving room, but there is a clear time point.

The time point should be accurate, and don't delay the answer too long or vaguely, "I need a month to get on the job." "I'm not sure now. I need to look at the current company's arrangement/interviews of other companies", giving the interviewer a feeling of riding a donkey and looking for a horse. If you are not particularly good, the interview will be basically cold.

16. Why Did You Leave Your Previous Company?

Regarding this interview question, the interviewer may get a lot of information from your answer:

• Do you love your industry?

• How was your last job?

• Frequent job-hopping is unstable?

• Can't handle interpersonal relationships well?

The interviewer didn't ask this interview question to gossip about you, but that they were responsible for the company and the recruitment. If you don't understand the motive for leaving your last job, job seekers may leave quickly for the new company for the same reason, which is a great waste of time and manpower costs.

It is not difficult to answer this question:

1. Don't deliberately make up reasons. Except for the resignation difficulties caused by personal ability and quality defects, the other reasons for resignation are not important to the interviewer. Many companies will be in a back-to-back before and after entry. If they are found to be lying, they may leave directly.

2. Don't complain crazily/prank about your company and colleagues. It is a lack of responsibility to blame others for all the problems. In addition, the interviewer will feel that you may also complain about your current company and colleagues for some reason.

3.  Give a reasonable explanation based on the situation: you can list your previous performance, indicating that the company/industry reasons have reached the ceiling; you can list the optimism of new companies/products; you can honestly pursue a higher salary and a more reasonable promotion system

For common pressuring interview questions, the interviewer deliberately puts pressure on you to see your reaction and elasticity under pressure.

17. Your Academic Grades Isn’t Good, How Do You Exaplain Yourself? 

Don't be timid when answering this interview question. First of all, you need to adjust your mentality and tell the interviewer that the school results are no longer equal to personal ability in 2023. Secondly, you can list your strengths and strengths. Students with excellent grades may not have, and it is best to be linked to the position you are applying for. If you have social practice experience and student work experience in school, you can also prove your efforts here.

18. Can You Share With Me Your Greatest Setback/ Share With Me Your Greatest Achievement 

These two interview questions are usually caught off guard when asked without preparation. The senior interviewed students after a surprise inspection of the "frustration" problem. First, it is to verify his on-the-spot reaction ability and expression ability, and the second is to observe his attitude towards setbacks. The most important thing is to see what he has made when overcoming setbacks. What are the measures?

True and vivid story is important, which can attract the interviewers on the opposite side. Many job seekers are very confused when encountering these two problems. Thinking back quickly about their ordinary school days and career, they can't find the most successful or frustrating case, and they panicked for a moment.

The senior suggests that if there is no special representative case, there is no need to worry. You can talk about certain influential events such as the success or failure of a game, the passing or failing of high scores in important exams, achievements or troughs at work. However, it should be noted that please reflect the following when telling a story:

• Attitude towards setbacks - what was my mentality at that time, and how to convince myself to persist or not to give up?

• What efforts have been made - what have I done to overcome this difficult moment?

• What I learned/lesson this setback - what did I get from this "biggest setback"? Have you ever seriously reflected on it? What will it do to help me in my future work.

20. Please Share With Me Your Thoughts on The Industry We Are In

This interview question seems to be very subjective, but you must not just take it for granted. The answer without enough support will definitely lower the interviewer's impression of you. The interviewer asked this question for the following three potential purposes:

• Whether the job seeker attaches importance to the interview and is fully prepared for this interview.

• Whether job seekers are optimistic about this industry and whether the motivation to join the company is enough.

• Whether the job seeker knows about this industry is convenient to quickly carry out work in the future.

Following the above points, here’s the summary when answering such a interview question: 

First of all, if you have not entered this industry and lack information, don't rely on subjective assumptions. Before the interview, you must do your homework and collect and read some industry reports, news policies, competitive analysis reports, etc.

Secondly, don't be "overly honest". If you really want to go to this company, don't complain about the negative situation, risks, etc. of the industry, which will make the interviewer feel that you are not optimistic about the industry and lack the motivation to join.

Finally, if you are confident, talk about the future direction of the position according to the current situation of the industry. If your opinion is agreed by your business leader, you may be the like-minded colleague he is looking for.

If you would like to read on our common interview questions series, click here for Part 3! If you haven’t already, do check out our first part here too!