Thread: I'm terrified
View Single Post
Old 03-18-2020, 11:23 AM   #5
Clodfobble
UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 20,012
Undertoad's advice about smiling is good! Also have a small cup of water handy in case your throat goes dry with nervousness. I find it helpful to walk around while I'm on important phone calls, but others may find it better to sit.

Some surprise-style questions I've had in interviews:

1.) "What is your biggest weakness?" (The correct answer is always a negative trait that isn't really, like "I'm too neurotic and want to make sure everything is done perfectly.")

2.) A project manager set up a hypothetical scenario in which a different manager had told me to stop working on what this project manager had me working on (not an uncommon scenario in that industry, unfortunately,) and I was young and fumbled badly around my answer of what I would do in that situation. Nowadays I'd know how to keep it generically positive without promising anything, like "At the end of the day, I have to do what my boss tells me to do, but as an individual I take prior commitments seriously, so I'd like to think I'd find a way to get both tasks done in a timely manner."

3.) "Tell me about a time when you failed, and what you learned." Usually paired with something like "Tell me about a time you accomplished something you were proud of." It's a good idea to come up with a few anecdotes of both flavors beforehand--and they don't necessarily have to be things that happened on the job; your experience organizing swim teams and successful gift card fundraisers very much count as useful skills, too.
Clodfobble is offline   Reply With Quote