6 Interview Questions You Should Always Be Prepared To Answer

You’ve sent in your résumé and cover letter, and now you’ve arrived at the interview: the equally nerve-wracking and exciting part of the job application. It’s a time when you can really shine and prove why someone should hire you, but it can also be filled with random questions you just never saw coming. We took to Quora to find out which interview questions reveal the most about you as a candidate so you can be prepared with your best answers.

1. What do you know about our company?

Here’s your key moment to not only show that you’ve done your research, but to also ask some questions. Maybe you’ve seen that this particular company has made a switch in strategy or that its sales have increased in the past year. Asking a few insightful questions based on your findings will leave your interviewer impressed and prove you actually know what you’re talking about. Plus, most everyone prefers when interviews are two-way conversations, anyway.

2. Describe your failures. What did you learn from them?

This can be one of those questions that will leave you speechless if you don’t already have an answer prepared. It’s a new twist on the ever-popular “What are your weaknesses?” question and forces you to dive deep into how you’ve worked to overcome your mistakes. Be honest, but be deliberate. Thinking about this one beforehand will allow you to give an answer that you don’t regret later.

3. Share a time you were in a tough situation. How did you handle it?

When it comes to these types of questions, be open to sharing and show your interviewer that you’re comfortable with admitting something difficult. Explaining how you handled the situation gives you an opportunity to describe how you’ve grown as a person and as an employee. It’s also the perfect time to demonstrate your resilience and how you deal with stress.

4. Have you ever had a positive mentor experience or been a mentor to someone else?

Even if you never thought about it coming up in an interview, your experience having a mentor or a mentee illustrates how you connect with people and more importantly, whether you take the time to make those meaningful connections and relationships.

5. If you were to start the job today, what ideas would you bring?

Whenever you go to an interview, you should always come armed with ideas that you could explain to your potential employer on the spot. Having ideas or suggestions from the get-go proves that you’d be an asset to a team right away and that you’re already thinking of ways that you can contribute.

6. The interview is over and you leave the office to find a lottery ticket that wins you $10 million. You are the rightful owner of this money. What will you do with it?

While this may not seem like it pertains to your potential job as a sales associate or a web developer (or really, anything else), this is one of those questions that tells your interviewer about your character. Even though there isn't necessarily a right answer, your initial instinct could reveal something extra about your priorities and your goals.

This post originally appeared on Levo League.

Image courtesy of WOCinTech Chat