Preparing for an interview can feel like stepping into the unknown. What questions will they ask? How can you make sure you stand out? At Beyond the Book, we know how crucial it is to show up feeling confident, prepared, and ready to shine.
In our latest podcast, Anna Smith dives into the art of predicting interview questions, breaking it down into four key strategies to help you get ahead of the game. From researching the company to anticipating role-specific questions, Anna offers practical advice on how to impress your interviewer while staying true to yourself.
You’ll hear about common questions like:
“Tell me about yourself.”
“What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
“Describe a challenging situation and how you handled it.”
Plus, she shares a simple framework to structure your answers and tips for aligning your skills with what employers are really looking for.
Want to hear the full discussion? You can watch the 9 minute video below.
Full Transcript
Hello world, it's Anna Smith here from Beyond the Book, taking a few minutes of your time to see if I can help the job-seeking population predict interview questions. So I've got a few strategies in mind to share with you. Now, the first thing to say is any interview, whether informal or formal, will be looking at exploring a set of competencies.
And competencies essentially are a set of defined behaviours, knowledge, skills, and attitudes, which can help you perform well in the role and fit well within the organisation. The questioning will be centred around those competencies. And like I said, whether informal or formal, the interviewer will have all of those in mind.
So, what can you do to prepare? I've got some ideas for you, broken into four areas. The first one would be, very simply, to go to the company’s website, have a look at their various social platforms, and see how they’re talking about themselves in terms of their values, their culture, and their people. This should start to give you an idea of what they prioritise in their people and what they might be looking for.
Secondly, review that job description. You might have a hard copy of the more formal job description, or it might be the job ad copy where you first saw the ad. In there, at the very least, there are going to be skills and experiences needed for the role. Just because they’ve seen that on your CV doesn’t mean you won’t need to articulate what those skills, qualifications, and experiences have made up your career.
You may also see some competencies or behaviours listed there, but we’ll come on to that in a second.
Number three, have a think about some very common interview questions that often get asked. They might not always be asked, but they may well be. Often, these are fairly generic and designed to warm things up and give the interviewer a sense of you and how you might fit with the company. I’ll come back to that third one in a minute.
And lastly, have a think about some role-specific competency questions. So, going back to number three: how can you predict what the common interview questions are going to be?
They could be:
Tell me about yourself.
This is often a good opener and gets everyone a bit more relaxed. My advice here would be to try and bounce through this and take the interviewer on your journey. It’s good to combine some personal information with some career information, ending with why you’re sat there today.
So, I’m just going to read you an example. I’ve made this up, but let’s go for it:
"My name is Sarah. I live in Warwickshire with my partner and my little boy, Jack. I gained a diploma in Creative Writing back in 2021. Since then, I’ve had two roles, one in an agency and one in-house. I’ve loved both of those roles, but I’m now looking for an opportunity to join a larger organisation—definitely on the in-house side—where I can learn a bit more from a bigger team and collaborate with a wider team. So that’s why I’m sat here today. From a personal perspective, I’m known to be fun to be around, I take any project very seriously, and I’m very detail-oriented, as well as creative, hence why I chose a career in writing."
So, that’s a little example of how you can bounce through your career journey, ending with why you’re sat there, and bring some of your personality and personal information into it.
A second common question is the good old: Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.
Now, my advice here is, with regards to the strengths, just be very honest about what your strengths are and try to align them with what they’re likely to be looking for in the role. So, taking that example of being a writer, you might want to say that two of your strengths are:
"I have really good attention to detail. I have consistently provided error-free copy, which has been praised by both the directors and my line manager.
"I’m also known to be a very open person, which really helps with collaboration on projects."
So, that’s a little example there.
With regard to weaknesses, what I would do is definitely think about a genuine weakness—again, be honest about it—but try not to make it one that’s fundamental to the role.
An example could be:
"One of my weaknesses is that I feel very uncomfortable with public speaking. However, I’ve booked myself onto a three-day workshop in January, and once I’ve completed that, I’m hoping that I’ll just learn with practice."
So, there we go—an example of being honest about your strengths and weaknesses but aligning them to the role as best you can.
Okay, and lastly, another common question is, for example:
"Describe a challenging situation and how you handled it."
Now, this is often aligned with what most businesses really value in any employee. You can kind of break that down into four or five areas. So, when you’re answering this quite meaty question, they’re looking for:
- Problem-solving skills
- Critical thinking
- Your ability to communicate and collaborate
- Your resilience and adaptability
- Your self-awareness and ability to learn and improve
Whatever example you come up with, try to cover those four or five areas. And also, just remember that no one’s perfect. It’s better to highlight as many as you can, but if you’re not strong in one of those areas, it’s best to be honest about it. Sometimes, interviewers really value honesty, and that can sometimes outweigh something you might be lacking.
So those are kind of the main areas around common questions.
Lastly, my little bit of advice would be to have a think before the interview about what the role-specific competencies might be. The best way to do that is to have a little Google of the job you’re going for and what those competencies, behaviours, and knowledge areas might be for that role.
Obviously, further down your career, the more you’ll have a good steer on this. But the more junior or entry-level you are, the more useful a bit of Googling might be. Also, those competencies may well be listed on the job description.
What you’re wanting to do is have a really good think about those competencies and how, in the interview, you would articulate that you’re what they’re looking for. A good method, if you’ve never heard of it, is called STAR:
- Situation: What was the situation?
- Task: What was the task at hand?
- Action: What was the action you took?
- Result: What was the outcome?
Taking a competency or set of competencies that you think will be looked at for a specific role and making a few notes using the STAR methodology can really help you articulate your responses.
So, in a nutshell, that’s it—four areas to explore. And just remember to be honest and be yourself. You want to land the right job at the end of the day. If it’s not right for you, it’s not right for you. And if it is—happy days!
