

Woman thinking about typical interview questionsAt the very beginning of your thought process, it is good to realize that we should not talk about typical interview questions. Why is is not correct?

Well, every job interview is different and every role demands different set of skills, abilities and experience. Every question in the interview tests one of these abilities or skills or personal features – or at least is should be like that…

Therefore, in every job interview, interviewers need to find out something different about you and your personality. To do so, they use different set of questions every time – or at least they should.

Unprofessional interviewers – Your advantage, or not?

However, about thirty percent of interviewers are not professional enough to prepare the appropriate list of questions for their interview on their own. This happens mostly in smaller companies or family business, or in companies without HR department.

These people just go and download a list of typical questions to use in a job interview. It is not a correct approach to interviewing people, but it is used. However, before we look at this list of  questions, here are some articles to help you understand what questions you will get in YOUR job interview:

  • Interview questions and answers – discover what kind of questions you can expect in various types and levels of job interview. (first interview, second interview, Skype interview, phone interview, 15 most common questions, etc.)
  • Interview questions for specific jobs – Find out what questions you can get in teacher, customer assistant, or software engineering interview. New articles are added to this section on daily basis. If your job is not there, write us, we will consult the interviewers and add the position to the list shortly. Some articles are not mentioned in this section. Search button on the top of the site can help you to find more articles related to your position.
  • Special interview section – If you wonder what kind of questions you can get in Google interview or green card interview for example, you should definitely check out this section.


But back to the topic of common questions now… If we speak about first level of job interviews, there can be outlined a set of quite typically used interview questions. Although these questions are not the most important part of the interview, recruiters know why they use it. They simply use it to estimate your communication skills, you level of understanding yourself, the motivation and enthusiasm for the job and some other things. We talk about it in detail also.


In fact, interviewers (nearly) never decide who gets the job using just this set of  questions. But they can easily screen you out if you present yourself in a wrong way – typical questions are often used in the pre-screening phases of interviewing. That is the main reason for using the following questions. So, here is the list:

Most typical interview questions


  1. Can you tell me something about yourself, in less than one minute?
  2. Can you tell me something about your working experience?
  3. Tell us something more about your education and courses.
  4. What are your main strengths related to this job?
  5. What are your main weaknesses as an employee?
  6. What was the reason why you left your last job for (and other previous occupations you had)?
  7. What motivates you the most in work?
  8. What are your personal and professional goals in five years horizon?
  9. Why should we hire you?
  10. Why did you decided to apply for this job?
  11. What do you know about our company?
  12. Do you know someone working in our company? If you do, did you consult him before the interview?
  13. What makes you special compared to other applicants?
  14. What caught your eye on our job offer?
  15. What are your salary expectations?
  16. What is the biggest problem you faced in your career so far?
  17. How do you cope with stress?
  18. How does an ideal boss from your point of view look like?
  19. How do you imagine a typical day in work in our company?
  20. Would you mind working overtime?
  21. How do you solve conflicts with your colleagues, boss, or subordinates?
  22. What do you like to do in your free time?
  23. What makes you feel sad in work?
  24. What makes you feel happy in work?
  25. What do you consider as the biggest professional achievement in your life?
  26. What was your relation with your boss in your previous employment?
  27. Did you apply also for other job offers at the same time?
  28. Do you already have an offer from other company?
  29. If we choose you for the job, will you able to start from the beginning of next month?
  30. Are there any benefits you would like to get at this position?
  31. Is there anything you would like to ask us?


The above mentioned questions can be called common. The truth is that some employers even come to this site to download it and use it in the interview.

However, if you want to prepare for your interview as good as you only can, you should for sure check also answers to most common interview questions and questions you can expect in job interview for specific jobs.

Do not underestimate your interview preparation. Work with the presented articles on, take your interviewing skills to the next level and amaze the employers. We wish you good luck in the interviews!
