Top questions and answers on how to ace an interview.
If you’re looking at cracking your next interview and wondering if soft skills are important. Then, the answer is a big “Yes”! Soft skills do carry a significant amount of weight in an interview, and modern employers or hiring managers rate soft skills as a high priority requirement. So, while they might not be calibrated more than technical abilities, employers will look at scoring your soft skills during the hiring process.
Fret not! While a soft-skill questionnaire can differ depending on the job profile, company, hiring manager, etc., there are common questions that job-seekers can tackle whilst forming a powerful answer.
Here are some of the questions that you can tackle
1. How did you cope with the work pressure on your plate?
The key soft skill is: - team-management
Let’s understand one thing – there are days in your workplace that don’t pan out the way you wanted them to.
Work pressure can creep up any moment, and hiring managers or employers want to know your skills on how confidently professionals can organize, manage, and prioritize work and time during high-pressure situations.
How do you answer this question?
Be crisp and comprehensive in answering how you took control of the situation and turned it into a positive outcome
You can try something like this: - My previous job role required me to handle numerous projects, and it was stressful at times. But it taught me a bundle on how priorities need to be evaluated, using my skills to perform deep focused work, making a note of important tasks, and focus our energy as a team on impactful tasks or projects.
2. How did you lead a team through desperate situations?
The key soft skill is: - Leadership qualities
Even if you’re not interviewing for leadership profiles, hiring managers or employers want to know more about what you think about leadership skills.
Your hiring manager is keen on understanding how you can inspire & go through challenging situations.
How do you answer this question?
For this question, a good response can be picking a real-life scenario that was challenging & inspiring for you and your team. Furthermore, provide a couple of impactful solutions or tactics that you used to navigate through the situation.
You can try something like this: - We did receive some negative feedback about our work from a client. Instead of getting disheartened, I used my leadership qualities to go back to the board with the whole team and remold our current status and create a granular breakdown of client requirements.
3. Was there a time when you had to work with an incompatible co-worker?
The key soft-skill are: - Communication or Collaboration
A company isn’t made up of a single individual, it is a gamut of various individuals who work as a team to get things done. Moreso, each individual has a unique personality, and it may not sync with your energy for some reason. And, there are times when you need to work with incompatible people to get things done. A question like this gives the hiring manager an idea of what kind of a team player you are.
How do you answer this question?
Make sure you don’t spend your time focusing on conflicts with the said person(s). Keep your response positive, this is what an interviewer is looking for.
You can try something like: - I have no problems working with a diverse crowd. But there are times when ideas or personalities are incompatible. This is where I use my skills in the best possible way to understand the other side of the story and begin to create expectations and goals with ground rules that a majority of the people concur on.
4. Can you tell me a time when you had to educate a colleague or employee on unfamiliar topics?
The key soft-skill are: - Communication & Support
As a leader or a responsible employee, you must communicate and support individuals who are trying to push doors in the wrong direction. While there is a stack of questions hiring managers could ask on communication skills, this one stands out more than the others.
How do you answer this question?
The best way to answer this question would be by taking a practical example from your previous experience, and the skills you demonstrated to communicate effectively for others to set their ground on unfamiliar topics.
You can try something like this: - There were certain teams we relied on for timely data, and there were times that data wouldn’t land up when we wanted it. This would be a frustrating time for any other individual or manager.
But, using clear and transparent communication, I did make the said team realize the importance of time-based data or information transference for the greater good of the company.
Conclusion
This isn’t the end of the road – there could be a thousand more questions a hiring manager is capable of asking. The core idea of this article isn’t focusing on just 4 questions based on skill-sets, but the techniques used to answer them. If you’re stuck at a point and need help with career and interview-based queries, it would be wise to leverage career consultancies as they have the people and technology to guide you better through the whole process.
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