How to Answer Tough Interview Questions?

I posted this on http://www.lifeheed.com/ (http://www.lifeheed.com/article.php?article=35) earlier and thought it would be valuable for community who are following this blog.

If you are looking for a job change, be prepared for the interview process. Well, preparations may not always help. You may get surprise questions in the interview. You need to apply presence of mind, competence and communication capability to approach towards such questions. Let us first understand what sort of the questions are these and then we will take an approach to ace the interview.

What are the tough questions?

"Where do you see yourself in five years?"

"What are your weaknesses?"

"Why should we hire you?"

"Why do you want to quit your current job?"

And the most fundamental question:

"Tell me about yourself?"

There are many such questions. Which question will be thrown upon you, indeed, depends on the mood of the interviewer and the trajectory the interview takes. These questions are tough because there is no definite answer to these. You need to think hard before you can say anything on any of these issues. Interviewers ask these questions from a very open mind. They want to judge your approach and visibility about your past events, current tasks and future plans.

Another type of tough questions could be in the form of testing your aptitude. For example, you have got nine iron balls -- eight of which have same weight and the rest one is slightly lighter than the rest. You have a pair of balance scale. In how many minimum attempts can you find the lighter ball?

Ideally, you should be able to answer such question. If the question is really tough, try to break it into smaller ones and step-by-step try reaching closest possible to the answer.

How to approach tough questions?

So, if you do not know the answers already, how would you handle them? I suggest, utter clarity of your thought process and presence of mind will help you. Brainstorm a little before the interview on possible such questions -- as many as you can. A little amount of homework would be handy during the interview.

Stir your creative juices and think about how to properly answer the broader range of questions (like ones mentioned above) that you will face.

Impossible Questions

Once an interviewer asked me – “How would you move mount Fuji?”

It is practically impossible to answer such a question. You cannot move mount Fuji physically. But you answer it in following ways:

“We do not need to move mount Fuji, the earth is rotating. Hence, mount Fuji is moving by itself.”

“Make a bomb and blast mount Fuji. Pick the stones, dust and trees and displace them.”

So, the answers are also impossible situations. But, at least, you need to think.

Thinking is the mantra when you are dealing with the tough interview questions. Flex your brain muscles and come up with some intelligent scenarios to answer these questions.