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What are the ten most

common questions asked at
graduate interviews?
At the University of Kent we asked students what questions they
were asked at graduate selection interviews by a variety of
employers and for a range of jobs. Whereas we doubt if this
survey is very reliable it does give an idea of the key questions to
watch out for, and to prepare answers to, at interview.
You can find an excellent info graphic of this page produced by
Headway Recruitment here
Of course questions were sometimes asked in slightly different
formats. For example, Why do you want this job?" was
sometimes phrased "Why do you want to be an accountant/social
worker/journalist?"

1. Why do you want

this job?
One of the most predictable
questions and very important!
You need todemonstrate that
you have researched the
employer and tie your
knowledge of them into
the skills and interests that led
you to apply. For example, an
interviewee with a small public
relations agency might say:

"I'm always ready to take on responsibility and feel this will

come morequickly with a firm of this size. A small firm also gives
the chance to build closer working relationships with clients and
colleagues and I've found through my past work experience that
this makes an organisation more effective as well as more
satisfying to work in."
Try to find some specific feature on which the employer
prides themselves: their training, their client base, their
individuality, their public image, etc. This may not always be
possible with very small organisations but you may be able to
pick up something of this nature from the interviewer.
See our Commercial Awareness page for more help with this

2. Have you got any questions?

At the end of the interview, it is likely that you will be given the
chance to put your own questions to the interviewer.
Keep them brief: there may be
other interviewees waiting.
Ask about the work itself,
training
and career development:not
about holidays, pensions, and
season ticket loans!
Prepare some questions in
advance: it is OK to write these
down and to refer to your notes to
remind yourself of what you wanted
to ask.
It often happens that, during the interview, all the
points that you had noted down to ask about will be
covered before you get to this stage. In this
situation, you can respond as follows:
Interviewer: Well, that seems to have covered everything: is
there anything you would like to ask me?
Interviewee: Thank you: I'd made a note to ask about your
appraisal system and the study arrangements for professional

exams, but we went over those earlier and I really feel you've
covered everything that I need to know at this moment.
You can also use this opportunity to tell the interviewer
anything about yourself that they have not raised during
the interview but which you feel is important to your application:
Don't feel you have to wait until this point to ask questions - if
the chance to ask a question seems to arise naturally in the
course of the interview, take it! Remember that a traditional
interview is a conversation - with a purpose.

Examples of questions you can ask the interviewer

These are just a few ideas - you should certainly not attempt to
ask them all andindeed it's best to formulate your own questions
tailored to your circumstances and the job you are being
interviewed for! Make sure you have researched the employer
carefully, so that you are not asking for information which you
should be expected to know already.
Is there a fixed period of training
for graduates?

 I see it is possible to switch job

functions - how often does this
happen?
Do you send your managers on
external training courses?
Where would I be based - is this job
function located only in ...?
How easy is it for new graduates
to FIND ACCOMMODATION in this
area?
How often is a graduate's
performance appraised?
What is a typical career path in this
job function?
Can you give me more details of
your training programme?
Will I be working in a team? If so,
what is the make-up of these
teams?
What is the turnover of graduates in
this company?
What are the possibilities of using
my languages?
What are the travel/mobility
requirements of this job?
How would you see this company
developing over the next five years?
How would you describe the
atmosphere in this company?

 What is your personal experience of

working for this organisation?

3. Describe a situation in which you led a

team.
This is an example of a competency-based question. Many
graduate positions involve people management, where you will be
expected to plan, organise and guide the work of others as well
as motivating them to complete tasks. The interviewer needs to
assess how well you relate to other people, what role you take in
a group and whether you are able to focus on goals and targets.
Outline the situation, your role and the task of the group
overall. Describe any problems which arose and how they were
tackled. Say what the result was and what you learned from it.
Examples could include putting on a drama or music production;
a group project at university; a business game or Young
Enterprise scheme or being team leader in a fast-food restaurant.
This, and other skills which the employer considers essential for
effective performance in the job, should have been highlighted in
the job description or graduate brochure - so always be prepared
to give examples of situations where you have demonstrated
these qualities! While your example should indicate the nature of
the team and the task, you need to focus on your own role as
leader and on the personal qualities that led you to take on/be
nominated for this role and which helped you to succeed in it.
Leadership involves many skills: planning, decisionmaking, persuading,
motivating
, listening, co-ordinating - but not dictating!
See our Leadership Styles page for more help with this

4. Describe a situation where you worked

in a team
Another competency-based question. Most jobs will involve a
degree of teamwork. The interviewer needs to assess how well
you relate other people, what role you take in a group and
whether you are able to focus on goals and targets.

Outline the situation, your particular role and the task of the
group overall. Describe any problems which arose and how they
were tackled. Say what the result was and what you learned from
it.
Examples could include putting on a drama or music production;
a group project at university; a business game or "Young
Enterprise" scheme or working in a fast-food restaurant.
See our Teamworking page for more help with this

5. What do you expect to be doing in 5

years time?
Try to avoid vague or general answers such as I would hope to
grow with the responsibility I am offered and to develop
my skills as far as I am able or I would expect to be in a
management role by then.
Be specific, but flexible: recruiters want to know you know what
you want. Hiring, training and developing staff costs a lot
of MONEY , something like 7,000 to recruit a new graduate, so
they want to make sure that you are committed to staying with
the organisation. "I'd like to gradually take more and more
responsibility and perhaps by then be a brand manager for a
major product."
Talk about your interest in the industry in which the company
with operates. Emphasise the value you can bring to the
organisation and what you can do for it.
You need to show that you are ambitious but also your goals
must be realistic - saying you expect to be a senior manager after
two years is unlikely to go down well! Use the employer's website
or LinkedIn profiles to gain an idea of the career paths followed
by past graduates. You may be able to supplement this by
showing your knowledge of professional bodies and the steps you
will need to take to gain their qualifications, e.g. in areas such
as marketing or HR.
This question allows you to demonstrate that you have done your
research on the career routes open to you within the organisation
and so you should try to be more specific - not necessarily tying

yourself down to a particular route, but showing that you have at

least a general idea of where you want to go.
Talk about responsibilities you would like to have and expected
achievements rather than how much you would expect to be
earning in five year time as this will make an employer think
you're more interested in the material benefits than the career
itself. Talk about your career development: skills you'd like to
acquire or you'd like to be using, and professional qualifications
you'd like to get.
See our Commercial Awareness page for more help with this

6. What are your

weaknesses?

One interviewee,
asked about her
weaknesses,
thought briefly and
then replied"Wine,
chocolate and men
- though not
necessarily in that
order."

The classic answer here is to state a

strength which is disguised as a
weakness, such as "I'm too much of a
perfectionist" or "I push myself too hard".
This approach has been used so often that,
even if these answers really are true they
sound clichd. Also, interviewers will
She got the job!
know this trick. If you feel they really apply
to you, give examples: you could say that
your attention to detail and perfectionism make you very singleminded when at work, often blotting out others in your need to
get the task done.
A better strategy, is to choose a weakness that you have
worked on to improve and describe what action you are taking
to remedy the weakness. For example: "I'm not a very selfconfident person and used to find it very difficult to talk to people
I didn't know well, but my Saturday job in the local library meant
that I had to help people with all kinds of queries and that helped
me a lot. Now I'm perfectly happy talking to anybody on a oneto-one basis and I've joined the debating society this year to give
me experience of speaking in front of an audience."
Don't deny that you have any weaknesses - everyone has
weaknesses and if you refuse to admit to them the interviewer

will mark you down as arrogant, untruthful or lacking in selfawareness

This question may be phrased in other ways, such as "How would
your worst enemy describe you?"

7. Who else have you applied to/got

interviews with?
You are being asked to demonstrate the consistency of your
career aims as well as your interest in the job for which you
are being interviewed. So if you have applied to one
large accountancy firm it is reasonable to assume you will be
applying to them all.
What you can certainly say in your favour, however, is that the
present employer is your first choice. You may even answer
the question by explaining you have yet to apply to any other
organisations for this very reason. Perhaps your application to the
other firms is imminent, depending on the stage you are at in the
recruitment cycle.
Give examples that are:
Relevant - related to the business
you are presently being interviewed
for
Prestigious. They will reflect well
on the firm interviewing you
Consistent. Not from lots of
different job areas or employment
groups of less interest to you than
the present opportunity
Successful so far. Do not list
those firms who have rejected you.
See our Commercial Awareness page for more help with this

8. Why did you choose your university and

what factors influenced your choice?
If you had, in fact, no real choice in where you went to University
- e.g. if you had to study close to home forFINANCIAL or family
reasons - you can talk about the more general issues you had to
consider in coming to University and perhaps lead the question
round to your choice of course rather than institution.
Your actual answer is less important than the evidence
of decision-making, planning and logical reasoning
skills that it should demonstrate. This is an opportunity for you
to demonstrate these key skills.

9. What are your strengths?

This allows you to put across your "Unique Selling Points" three or four of your key strengths. Try to back these points
up with examples of where you have had to use them.
Consider the requirements of the job and compare these with all
your own attributes - your personality,skills, abilities or
experience. Where they match you should consider these to be
your major strengths. The employer certainly will.
For example, team work, interpersonal skills, creative problem
solving, dependability, reliability, originality,leadership etc., could
all be cited as strengths. Work out which is most important for
the particular job in question and make sure you illustrate your
answer with examples from as many parts of your experience,
not just university, as you can.
This question may be phrased in other ways, such as "Tell me
about yourself" or "How would A FRIEND describe you?"

10. What has been your

greatest achievement?
To say that your greatest achievement
was getting to University, or getting
your degree, will do nothing
to distinguish you from all the
other candidates. Unless you have
had to contend with exceptional
difficulties to gain your academic
qualifications - such as illness or major
family problems - try to say something
different that will make you stand out.
This doesn't have to be an Olympic
medal or an act of heroism. Ideally, it
should give evidence of skills
relevant to the jobsuch
as communication, initiative, teamwor
k, organising ordetermination:
Duke of

And some less

common questions
which have been
asked in interviews

Why aren't you in a

more interesting
business?

Does your health

insurance cover pets?

Does your company

have a policy
regarding concealed
weapons?

Do you think the

company would be
willing to lower my
pay?

What are the zodiac

signs of the board
members?

What is it that you

people do in this
company?

What is the company

motto?

Edinburgh's GOLD award especially the expedition and

community service parts
Organising a sports or fund-raising
event
"Overcoming my fear of heights and
learning to abseil"
"Learning enough Spanish in three
months to make myself understood
when I traveled around Mexico"

 Training for and completing a

marathon .. or even a 5 Kilometre
race

Other common questions (in rough order

of popularity) were:
Why do you want to join our
organisation?
What would you do if ........
happened? (hypothetical
questions)
Describe a situation in which you
dealt with confrontation (for
example a difficult customer).
Describe a situation in which
you influenced or motivated people.
What other careers have you
considered/applied for?
Why did you choose your degree
subject?
Describe yourself (in one word).
Are you prepared to be mobile?
Describe a situation in which you
used initiative.
Describe a situation in which
you solved a problem.
Describe a situation in which you
took responsibility.
What are your hobbies?

 What was your biggest setback?

(How do you deal with adversity?)
Tell me about your project
Describe a situation where you had
to plan or organise something.
What computing skills do you have?
What is your usual role in a team?
Describe a situation where you had
a difficult decision to make.

If you don't know how to answer any of these questions,

go to our Answers to 150 common interview questions and
to our Practice interviews where you will find detailed tips.
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