Tricky Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
Questions, questions, questions
“If we were to call, what would your previous employer tell us about you?” “What is your biggest challenge at work?” “How do you deal with stress?” Are you ready to answer all of these tricky questions and even more? Job interview questions can be very disorienting! How does one deal with them?
Tricky Job Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
At first, you might be tempted to give spontaneous straight-forward answers, but you’d better think it through! Don’t overthink it either though; you do want to sound spontaneous and genuine! In a few words: getting ready for job interviews is not an easy job. You should prepare, yes you should, but not too much! Better to train yourself to be a good improviser and try to take into account the mindset of the employer whilst formulating your answers!
Also, when applying for teaching positions in Australia, you might want to do some research on the profile of the school or the area where the position is offered. What would be the desirable skills for that particular school? Try to make those skills the thread on which you can build your answers!
Show me your weaknesses
My favourite job interview is “What are your weaknesses?”
It is obvious that HR is not looking to hearing all your flaws or, worse, your complaint about how hard life is! Neither do they want to hear what a perfect human being you are! That would only show arrogance - which does not really fit in the profile of an empathic self-aware teacher or leader.
The most common response quotes something similar to: “I’m a perfectionist. I just won’t stop working until I get everything right”, which might just sound like a very “programmed” response.
While it might still be a good attempt to turn a weakness into a strength, another way of going around this question could be to show how willing you are to improve and how well you know how to work on your weaknesses! You could even mention some practical ways in which you are planning to do it!
Last but not least: do not underestimate innocuous-looking questions!
Don’t take “easy” questions too lightly! The first question is just “a quick introduction of yourself”? Don’t lose time repeating exactly what is already on your résumé! Try to add a bit of a frame to your experience and career so that you can give the interviewer an idea of how great you are! Take the opportunity to stress all the great things you’ve done which could show what a good teacher you will be! Real-life experiences are the best to actually catch the attention of the interviewer and also a good way of being “recalled” as a person of interest instead of just another candidate giving very “clichéd” answers!