While most job interview questions are sensible enough and deal with your experience and skills, there are several questions that sometimes pop-up that aren’t so easy to deal with. The trick is to understand what the interviewer is really trying to find out by asking the question.
“What are your greatest weaknesses?” often feels like a trick question designed to trip you up. If you say something bad, you are undermining yourself, but if you try to give a trick answer like “I work too hard”, you look arrogant. One solution here is to pick something that is a weakness but is very common and can’t be held against you. Another is to intentionally misinterpret the question and talk about a weakness you used to have but explain how you overcame it and either resolved it or turned it into an advantage.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” is another puzzler. Most people approach this by trying to find the magic sweet spot between seeming un-ambitious and seeming overly confident. “In your chair” may seem like a smart answer, but most people can’t carry it off with the right tone. The trick is to come up with an answer that shows ambition, desire to learn new skills, and a willingness to be flexible and adaptable. Keep it relevant though: for most jobs, “Birmingham City’s manager” might be a slightly too honest appraisal of your long-term goal.
Some interviewers will ask what seem like trick questions, such as how many ping pong balls fit into a London bus. This isn’t really about whether you know the answer (you’re probably a bit weird if you do), or even if you get it right, but more about how you solve it. Don’t be afraid to say out loud how you are breaking down the question and coming up with an answer: it’s like a maths exam where you get marks for showing your working out.