<p>How do you answer these:
1) How do you rate yourself from 1-10?
2) What are your strengths and weaknesses?
3) How would you react IF we told you your interview was going badly?
4) Tell me about yourself. </p>
<p>How do you enter the room? When do you speak? When do you shake hands? At the end of the interview, how do you close it or say thank you and goodbye? </p>
<p>What are some mistakes that people usually make?</p>
<p>just an FYI, this is what i would say in an interview situation and aren't necessarily the most "honest" answers.</p>
<p>1) How do you rate yourself from 1-10?
depends on what your talking about... overall i would say an 8 in an interview situation, 9 and 10 might sound too arrogant but anything below than 8 might sound like you doubt yourself.</p>
<p>2) What are your strengths and weaknesses?
strengths: good leader, work well in a team, responsible, diligent, honest
weaknesses: too much of a perfectionist and spend too much time on a certain assignment. </p>
<p>3) How would you react IF we told you your interview was going badly?
I would disagree and I would be disapointed that the interviewer felt that way.</p>
<p>4) Tell me about yourself.
this one really shouldn't be that hard..... just talk about yourself in a positive light... what you enjoy doing in your free time, EC's that you do, sports, etc</p>
<p>how you enter the room? you've put a lot of thought into this, haha. just be relaxed and be yourself. don't over think an interview. as for closing, the interviewer will do that. shake their hand when they offer it and say thank you for your time, blah blah blah.</p>
<p>No. It's just that I just had an interview and I performed poorly. When I said that I was an 8 the interviewer asked if I thought I was better than everyone because the "average person says 5 or 6." I was caught off-guard. </p>
<p>The way you enter an interview is very important. The moment you step out of your car and interact with anyone within the vicinity is extremely important. You DO NOT want to do anything unconventional or out of line.</p>
<p>What are the BEST answers to these questions?</p>
<p>1.) I actually probably would have said 9. I do A-work, but there's always room for improvement ;).</p>
<p>"No, I don't think I'm better than everybody else - I must just have more confidence in my abilities than everybody else."</p>
<p>2.) Oy, depends on the job! But "perfectionist" is always a great weakness.</p>
<p>3.) I would be very disapointed you felt that way (hooray for stock answers); I would probably ask how I could do better.</p>
<p>4.) Just what it says. What you enjoy doing, etc.</p>
<p>You shake hands before and after the interview. "Thank you very much for your time" is a good closer; end with a handshake.</p>
<p>I'm wondering if the interviewer is just testing your confidence (or arrogance). Be confident, yet humble.</p>
<p>3) How would you react IF we told you your interview was going badly? </p>
<p>^ Key word is IF.</p>
<p>It depends what you're interviewing for.
Here are my thoughts from my experience on both sides of the table...</p>
<p>1) How do you rate yourself from 1-10?
This is too vague -- in what sense? The answer should show confidence <em>and</em> teachability</p>
<p>2) What are your strengths and weaknesses?
strengths: things that apply to the job (i.e., leadership, communication skills, relevant skills, etc.)
weaknesses: it gets <em>really</em> muddy here, because you need to read your interviewer and know the job <em>really</em> well. For example, if you're applying for a technical type of job, you probably want to demonstrate that you tend to put work ahead of everything else or are an "over-achiever" BUT if the job you want is more people-oriented (i.e., on campus leadership -- RA, orientation leader, admissions intern, ASB, etc.; or social work, therapy, etc. internships), then trying to "hide" your weaknesses will likely backfire. For example, when I interviewed people for a student mentoring position, one of my mentors told me to ask people "their greatest weakness" and said that if anyone tries to make up a weakness that's really a strength, I shouldn't even look any further at them (because I wanted an approachable staff) -- just some thoughts on the "conventional wisdom"</p>
<p>3) How would you react IF we told you your interview was going badly?
Show confidence. This is a trick question to see how people do under pressure. I almost used this question in my interviews for staff, but one of old staff struck it down as too harsh (even with the if -- it tends to intimidate candidates...).</p>
<p>4) Tell me about yourself.
DO NOT talk about demographics (i.e., NOT "My name is Mike and I am a senior at APU, studying commercial music and counseling psychology... bla bla bla...")
Instead, you SHOULD have a sort of 1-2 minute presentation prepared to talk about yourself as far as why you are NEEDED in this organization. This is when you get to shine and is usually the first question of an interview. It will usually come as either "tell me about yourself" or sometimes more directly as "why do you want this position" or "what makes you qualified for this position" (the 2nd and 3rd are what "tell me about yourself" is REALLY asking)</p>
<p>As far as the other stuff, it's kind of led by the interviewer. More of a feel thing, but generally you should get there no more than 10 minutes before the interview and do your best to collect any pertinent information about the organization while there (it may help you answer the interviewer's questions in a way that shows you are passionate about their organization). The interviewer will do the hand-shaking, etc.--just follow their cues. Being a good interviewee (as well as being a good interviewer) is all about having good social sensitivity. If you're not socially sensitive, learn to be that way, because it will help you throughout life!</p>
<p>Probably the most common mistake people make in general is not being prepared for an interview. While you don't want to over-analyze the interview, you DO want to be prepared! There are dozens of books and websites out there to help you prepare for interviews.
Another common mistake is closely related -- not knowing the job and its requirements! If you don't really understand the requirements of a job, you may very well misrepresent yourself and make yourself look like a bad fit unnecessarily because you presented the wrong characteristics! While interviewers don't necessarily have one specific set of things in mind they want in a new employee, they probably have a good idea of what will or will not work and are likely forming an image of what that employee might look like based on various interviewees -- this is especially true if you are interviewing for job that is either new or has been failed in the past (i.e., you are replacing someone who was transferred, demoted, fired, etc. because they could not fulfill the needs of the position)</p>