Ace your job interviews with these answers for common questions

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Ace your job interviews with these answers for
common questions.

• If youre 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.

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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 Lets understand one thing
there are days in your workplace that dont pan
out the way you wanted them to. Work pressure
can creep up at 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 about how priorities
need to be evaluated, using my skills to perform
deep focused work, make a note of important
tasks, and focus our energy as a team on
impactful tasks or projects.
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2. How did you lead a team through desperate
situations? The key soft skill is-Leadership
qualities Even if youre 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.
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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
isnt 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 dont 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.
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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.
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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
wouldnt 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.
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Conclusion This isnt 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 isnt focusing on just 4 questions
based on skill-sets, but on the techniques used
to answer them. If youre 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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