Language for Answering the Common Questions

There is information all over the internet about common questions. So in this section, I'm going to give you the common tips I give to people during my coaching sessions.

Most interviews start with that common question.

Tell us about yourself / What can you tell us about you? / Can you tell us about your story?

This is surprisingly a tough question to answer. It's not supposed to be an opportunity to tell them your life story but just a short introduction to how you have come to apply for the job. This is not the opportunity to talk about your hobbies, rather it's how your story has shaped who you are now. You can do this by talking about your experience and if you have international experience, it's an opportunity to explain how this has contributed to your story.

My top 4 tips for this first question 

1. Keep it brief.  Explain the facts of your experience in 2-3 minutes. Let them ask you questions and probe you.

2. Structure: 

Why
Present
Past
Future

Start with your why.

Use expressions such as:

I'm on a mission to

As you can see I have built my career around

As I was always drawn to ..... I decided to ....

I started my career .....which is why I transitioned into ...

My international experience with ... taught me ....

This experience took me to ....

This is why ...

Something I was always interested in ...

I was driven to ...

I was motivated by ...

I pursued this because ...

The rest of the answer:

Structure the rest of your answer like this ...

Present - what you're doing now
Past - what you have done in the past
Future - what you're hoping for in the future

3. Embrace the pause.    Your brain works quicker than you realise and silence even for 3 seconds is really powerful. Focus on just breathing and using chunking to break up your answers. I've written an article about how you might use chunking and shadowing to improve your speaking and you'll find it here.

4. Remind yourself you're there for a reason. What you have to say is really intelligent and powerful, you really know what you’re talking about so those pauses are going to make your powerful words sound even better.

Other questions you might come across: 

What do you know about our firm?

What attracts you to our work?

What experience do you have with...?

What are your strengths?

What do you like about design/architecture/landscape?

Can you describe some of your design inspirations?

Why are you leaving your current position?

Situational questions

Can you explain a time when ...

Can you explain a project where ...

Before the interview some other things to consider:

Obviously, practise the key questions and mix them up but something that works for a lot of my clients is recording yourself and listening to your answers. You could also get someone else to record some of your answers if you're not feeling as confident with pronunciation or expressions.

• Have you asked someone to give you feedback on your answers before you go into the interview?
• Have you prepared at least a few questions you will ask?
• How will you ask the company for feedback?
• How will you deal with rejection? Do you have an action plan to stay motivated?

Task 2: Write a list of 2-3 questions you might ask at an interview and post them for feedback.