If I provoke you to fight with me what will be your reaction ?

Most Students find difficult to answer such questions when asked in interviews because they never experience such conditions. Such questions may have hidden intentions. 

Possible Intention:

• To know if you have a spirit to fight.
• To know you stay firm on your stand or give up easily.
• To know if you can distinguish between aggressiveness and assertiveness.
• To know if you can take a stand and have clarity of thinking about it.

Insights:

• It is a very crucial quality not to give up easily.
• If you are sure that your point of view is legitimate, stand for it. You may have to work little extra to convince.

Example Answer:

If the fight is on legitimate issue, i will fight. This means that I will not give up when I am convinced that my approach is correct. I will try to give more information to prove my point and simultaneously be open to positive views.

Anti pattern:

• Never claim that you are correct all the time and others should change their views.
• Never leave your politeness while answering because this is still acting and not real situation.
• Do not loose temper if any such type of hurting question is asked.
• Do not accept things because interviewer is senior. This shows you are gullible.

Interviewer's Interpretation:

• Gullible or confused candidates are not good because they can land into trouble while dealing with aggressive clients.
• Too much aggressive body language and tone indicate defensive nature.
• Polite, calm and firm response is what interviewer looks for.

What would be your reaction if somebody finds your error?

In the list of interview questions and answers this question is one to the favorite question asked by the HRs.

Possible Intention:

• To know if you are honest and open.
• To know if you take responsibility for what you have done.
• To know if you are ready to accept your mistakes or hist shrug it off.

Insights:

• You need to give confidence to the interviewer that you accept the mistake you did and ready to do whatever to correct it.
• To err is human. Nobody would be upset if you make mistakes. But disowning it is bad.

Example Answer:

If I am genuinely unaware that i have erred, i will apologize and will be ready to do whatever required to fix it. If it involves apologizing to the level of client, obviously, I will feel bad; but I will do it. I would use this incident to improve to myself and ensure that nothing of this sort would happen again.

In my project, it happened that some of the bugs which I put in the defect management software were rejected by developers. After discussion I could find that my interpretation if the requirements stated in the Software Requirements Specification (SRS) had some problem. This gave me an opportunity to sit with the developer and understand the business domain better. These helped me gain a sound understanding of the domain.

Anti Pattern:

• ' This has never happened with me and I would take care that it would not happen with me ever' is crafted answer very difficult to believe to be true.
• Do not just say that you would apologize and fix it. Important point is that you will learn from it.

Interviewer's Interpretation;

• Making an error is human nature and you learn from mistakes. Accepting your mistakes shows you are honest and willing to improve.
• Shows politeness and willing to learn.
• it also shows leader attitude of accepting your own mistakes and being responsible for the consequences rather than passing the buck to process, system or others.

What additional knowledge other than academic knowledge have you learned?

This is one of the most anticipate question in the list of questions asked in interviews. This question has following:

Possible Intention:

• To know if you are aware and care about other aspects like soft skills required for a job.
• To know if you take initiative and learn something additional other than what is mandatory or easily available.

Insights:

• People always like somebody who takes initiative and has a positive outlook and is keen to learn.
• While responding, substantiate what you learn with examples.
• This is an opportunity for you to push forward any of your achievements in extracurricular activities, sports. social work etc. Demonstrate your strength.
• Small and simple things like time planning during exam preparation, discipline for project, punctuality etc are good enough.

Example Answer:

Other than academics I acquired and implemented many skills like time management, planning activities for project, and working as team member. I was reserved initially; however i have become more outspoken now and do not hesitate to make new friends. While presenting a technical paper, learned how to put a new concept or knowledge concisely. I have also participated in sports competitions for which regular preparation, practice and discipline is important.

Anti Pattern:

• Never say that you did not learn anything extra excepts academics. This can not be true; you may not be aware of it.
• Do not use big words like management, interpersonal skills, etc. That may sound like a rehearsed answer and not spontaneous or true.
• A list of things you learned without any evidence or example would fail to create the desire impact.

Interviewer's Interpretation:

• You are open to learning only from academics but from the environment.
• You are good observer.

Where do you see yourself in next 5 years.

"Where do you see yourself in next 5 years?" This question is strongly asked to not to know your future goal but to know the steps you takes to achieve the goal.

Possible Intention:

• To know if you have really thought through on what you are going to do in your career.
• To know if you can think of bigger picture.

Insights:

• Think through what you want to do in life and why? write down and have a tentative plan of what you want to achieve.
• Obviously expect a next question like how will you achieve it? Or how this job which you have applied for fits into the gamut of what you aspire to do.

Example Answer:

I was passionate about technology from my childhood. I am very curious to know how things work. Applying technology and doing new creative things is what gives me satisfaction. I want to become a software architect who will be able to use technology in the best way to create solution for real world problems. I know that it is easier said that done. I have discussed this and understood about an architect's role from some relatives who have that kind of experience. I have read many articles and related blogs about architecture. From my study, i came to know that the basic characteristic required to become a good architecture are thinking skills, technology knowledge and hands-on experience. I think this job would give me the required exposure to that i can move a step further towards achievement of my goal.

Anti Pattern:

• Do not give standard answer like CEO or interviewer's position like project manager without thinking.
• Do not suggest any role without knowing what they are or what it takes to became that or what you will get if you become one?

Interviewer's Interpretation:

• Any well thought answer displays seriousness and commitment towards your career and hence the job work.
• Any shoddy answer without substance would ruin any good impression created so far.

Why should we hire you?

The question Why should we hire you? is mostly in the end of Interview. This may have following intentions..

Possible Intention:

• To know if you believe that you are better fit for the job in hand.
• To know how you position your strengths, skills and experience in context of their usefulness for the job.
• To know if you can really defend and handle such type of questions.

Insights:

• This question is asked with the positive intention that you may be a good candidate for the position.
• You need to know what are the skills and competencies needed to perform the job well.
• You also need to demonstrate with the example your other relevant skills which make you stand out.
• When you are fresher for a particular industry, play the card of potential.
• Confidently answer whether an experienced or a fresher.

Example Answer:

I am B.E./ Bsc with specialization in computer science. I am passionate about programming and information technology. I like to keep track of new technologies like cloud computing, mobile application etc. When I realized during my project/ internship that i am better at finding errors in programs, I started studying software testing and quality assurance in more detail. 

            I completed training in software testing and even completed ISTQB certification. In one of my recent projects, I was responsible for creating test cases. Compatibility testing on multiple browsers and hand-held devices was really challenging. I enjoyed doing information research for various hand-held devices along with an approach of testing them. With all my past experience, my passion for technology and quality assurance, i feel i would be able to carry out my responsibilities really well and deliver the best performance.

Anti-Pattern:

• Do not think that this question has something to do with experience and would be asked only to experienced candidates.
• This question is not asked with a belief that you are not a good and now you need to prove this to them.
• Do not take in a negative spirite.

Interviewer's Interpretation:

• Knowledge of job competencies and skills shows that you are serious and have studied the industry in which you want to make career.

Given a chance, which few things would you like to change about you?

Given a chance, which few things would you like to change about you ? This question reveals following intentions..

Possible Intention:

• To know about if you have been introspective and found some things about you that could have been different, e.g. had you studied consistently well throughout you academic life, you would have had better opportunities earlier.
• To know that you have courage to admit your mistakes and take them positively.

Insights:

• Choose weakness in such a way that it is not seen as big hindrance in your job performance.
• Also narrate how you are working on improving it.

Example Answer:

I am little impatient when it comes on my work. While learning some technology or creating some program, if it doesn't work quickly according to my expectations then sometimes i get annoyed. This actually increases the time to reach the correct solution. I have realized this and trying to cope up with it. Sometimes still it take over. I would really want to change it so that i do not lose my focus even for some amount of time.

Anti Pattern:

• Do not say you get angry quite often.
• Do not demonstrate your aggressiveness while answering such questions.

Interviewer's Interpretations:

• If weakness is not going to affect the team spirit and the work to be done on the job, it is acceptable.
• You are aware of weakness and working on improving them. Such candidates are always welcome.

Tell me about any of your three strengths.

The question "Tell me about any of your three strengths" is asked to check your top qualities and preferences in your professional life.

Possible Intention:

• To know how you look at your strengths and are they really strengths considering the context.
• To know more about you personality.

Insights:

• Remember whatever you regard as strength has downside of being weakness when put in another context.
• Substantiate your strength with an example situation where you demonstrate this strength.
• You need to be ready with analysis of your strength.

Example Answer:

I have a lot of patience, perseverance and am hard working. During our final year project, there was one module which was not working at all. Everyone in our group vainly tried to debug. Finally, i took it upon myself to take a lead and solve the problem because we did not want to accept a defeat and do some petty work aground. We together worked for around 8-10 days to fix the issue and finally the module was working. We enjoyed the efforts put in and things which we learnt in various tryouts. We were able to achieve success only because of co-ordinated team effort.

Anti Pattern:

• Do not tell something completely irrelevant like "building muscles" is my strength. it's out of context.
• Do not give just a list with no relevant example.
• Do not state your strength, however attractive, perseverance, hard work, team spirit, passion for learning and for making things work against odd.