Are you a fresher who is all set to take a plunge into the job market?
As a graduate, starting your job search can be a nerve-wracking experience. One crucial aspect is the interview procedure, which is vital in securing a job. Being well-prepared is essential to leave a positive impression on the employers. To help you excel in the interviews, here are a few interview preparation tips for freshers.
Read on to know more!
Top 15 Interview Tips for Freshers
1. Tell me something about yourself or introduce yourself.
It is one of the most common interview questions for freshers. Recruiters often begin the interview by asking candidates to “tell me about yourself” for different reasons.
They ask this question at first because it allows the recruiters to gauge the candidate’s capability to communicate and present themselves effectively in a concise yet connecting way. It offers a glimpse into the applicant’s self-awareness, communication skills, and confidence.
In addition, the question is an icebreaker, letting both the candidate and the interviewer build a rapport and make the candidate comfortable during the interview. By giving a brief introduction, candidates can create a personal connection with the interviewer and leave a lasting impression.
Moreover, it helps the recruiters understand a candidate’s experience, background, and achievements. It allows the candidates to discuss their skills, qualifications, and accomplishments. The introduction gives a scope for further discussion in an interview.
Recruiters can evaluate how well the candidate’s experiences match the position’s needs, helping them determine whether the candidate could fit the role and the company’s culture.
Overall, asking candidates to “tell me about yourself” at the beginning of an interview is a significant tool for recruiters to calculate their communication skills, build rapport, and collect vital information to check their aptness for the job.
How to answer
While answering this question, one of the most essential interview tips for freshers is to offer a relevant and concise overview of your professional and personal background. Here are some of the essential elements to include:
- Personal introduction- Start with a brief introduction about yourself, where you mention your name and all your personal information, like where you belong and maybe your family background.
- Professional background- Offer a summary of your professional experience, showing your most relevant and recent positions. Tell me about your job roles, last company, and role, and the industries you have experience in.
- Skills and expertise- Discuss your skills and expertise related to the context or position in which you introduce yourself. Focus on the skills that match the job, or say something about your strengths.
- Accomplishments- You must mention your notable achievements and accomplishments that showcase your abilities and impact on your career. It could include specific projects you completed successfully, awards, and any measurable results you have achieved.
- Educational Background- Mention your academic qualifications, like degrees and certifications, especially those directly related to the industry or position you are currently involved in.
- Career Goals- Discuss your career aspirations and what motivates you professionally. It can help provide context and show your alignment with the chance you are pursuing.
- Personal Interests- You can share your hobbies or interests relevant to the conversation or help build a well-rounded impression.
Remember that your answer must be concise, lasting between one to three minutes. Modify your response to the context or role you are applying for to make it compelling and relevant.
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
It is another essential interview question for freshers. By asking this question, the interviewer wants to understand your suitability for this role and how you can operate under stressful conditions you might face regularly. Thus, you must be cautious while answering this question.
While mentioning your strengths, focus on the qualities required for the job. While answering this question, you can mention deep knowledge about a subject, being a learner, time management skills, and leadership qualities can be some of the points you can mention.
Just like strengths, everyone has weaknesses, too. So, while discussing your weaknesses in an interview, one of the most significant interview tips for freshers to remember is never to say you don’t have any weaknesses. It might prove you arrogant. Therefore, when asked about your weakness, choose an answer that won’t affect your chances of getting a job.
For instance, if you fear insects or love sweets, it can be some of the safe answers. However, if you want to talk about your weakness related to your attitude/ nature, ensure that you tell the interviewer that you are working towards your weaknesses.
While answering this question, you must focus on your strengths related to the job. For instance, suppose you are applying for a position in customer service. Here, your strengths include outstanding customer service skills, problem-solving skills, and the capability to stay composed under immense pressure.
3. Why do you want to join this company?
It is one of the common HR interview questions for freshers. When hiring managers ask this question, they want to know how much you know about the company. So, doing your homework before going for an interview is very important.
Therefore, make sure that you do proper research about the company. Praise the company, but do what is necessary, making it sound exaggerating.
4. What motivates you?
Interviewers want to know what are the things that keep you going. It is an open-ended question. While answering this interview question, one of the most essential interview tips for freshers is to mention the factors that keep them motivated. Your answer can include professional achievement, job satisfaction, your interest in learning new skills, and curiosity.
It is one of the common interview questions for freshers because, through this, the interviewers want to understand if they are satisfied with the role they offer them. Therefore, while answering this question, you must tell them what you seek in this role or about the company culture.
What motivates one can vary from one person to another, but some common factors you can discuss while answering this include personal fulfillment, a sense of purpose, and the interest in attaining career growth.
Many are driven by the satisfaction of performing well and feeling proud of their work. They are motivated by the right opportunity to leave a meaningful impact, contribute to a larger objective, or make a massive difference in the field.
In addition, external factors like praise, rewards, and recognition can also be considered motivators. The expectation of career growth, learning new skills, and the appeal to continuously enhance also play an essential role in motivating people to excel in their roles.
5. What is your most outstanding professional achievement?
Be bold while answering this question. It is your chance to offer more details about your success and convince the interviewer that you are the right choice. Highlighting the resources you created or explaining how to get the result is equally important.
A well-prepared answer will show your determination to work and shine, leaving a lasting impression on the interviewer. Show that you are the kind of person they must hire an important employee willing to give the best performance to make the organization reach new heights.
6. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?
If you search for “what are the questions asked in an interview for freshers,” you will come across this question. It is one of the common interview questions for freshers. It is asked to gauge your long-term goals and whether they align with the company’s. Your answer will help the interviewer gauge your determination and ambition.
7. Why are you leaving your current job?
It is one of the valid interview questions for freshers that an interviewer wants to understand to ensure they offer you something unique that will let you stay there for a long time.
You will gain nothing by saying negative things about your employer. Instead, utilize this time to frame your reply to showcase your answer in a way that shows what you are missing in your existing job and what you are looking forward to in the following job role.
8. Why was there a gap in your employment?
You can have different reasons, like you might have been busy taking care of your kids or your aging parents, dealing with health problems, or you might be busy traveling. One of the significant interview tips you must follow while answering this question is that, whatever your reason, you must be well-prepared to discuss the gap.
Practice your answer by saying it loudly. The most important thing you must remember is to be honest, though it does not mean you share all the details, even those you are uncomfortable sharing. If you learned any skills while taking a break, then you must talk about those skills while answering this question.
9. Why do you want to work with us?
This question usually confuses job seekers because it is too direct. Interviewers ask this question to validate your enthusiasm about the job opportunities. Therefore, one of the freshers’ most significant interview tips is to show spirit about the job opportunities.
Thus, the best way to respond to this question is by talking about the best thing about the job that made you excited the most. No matter if you are applying for a job for survival, you must mention something interesting about the job that you like.
10. What do you know about our company or organization?
It is one of the most common interview questions for freshers. Interviewers want to check whether you have researched the company by asking this question.
You should never answer this question by saying, “I don’t know,” because the interviewer might feel that you are not serious about the job role. That is the reason you didn’t even do a Google search about the company’s background.
Before attending an interview, you must do proper research about the company. Visit their website, check their social media accounts, and read news articles about them.
11. Are you able to handle work pressure?
Companies look for those who can handle peer pressure like a champion. It is an important quality one must possess. When asked this question, recruiters want to understand how well you can manage work under strict time constraints.
To prove yourself different from others, you must convince the interviewer that you can give your best even in the most challenging situations. It is common to come across demanding situations in every job.
It is common in several jobs to face situations where we must make the right decisions for different reasons. An essential asset is an employee’s ability to remain calm, reason, and act correctly in difficult situations.
While answering this question, keep these 3 points in mind:
- Make use of the STAR method while answering this question. Speak about a problem and tell the interviewer how you tackled the situation.
- Be honest while answering.
- Mention the ways you use to manage stress and how you enhance your productivity. Recruiters also want to gauge your emotional intelligence in managing difficult situations.
12. What’s your salary expectation?
Along with common aptitude interview questions for freshers, this question also plays a vital role. Every company expects new employees to be intelligent, smart, and a great communicator.
When the interviewer asks about salary expectations, never give any numbers because it will prove a few things like:
- If you could ask for something else, it might affect their budget.
- If you demand less, the HR person may think that you are not confident and you are requiring less.
- If you ask for a specific figure, HR may conclude that you are just concerned that money and work are less important.
- If you don’t say anything, HR might believe that you are just here for the interview practice.
Therefore, you must be smart and confident, and your answers must be crisp when answering HR questions. For instance, you can answer as per the company or market standards. Before interviewing, you must research the company’s CEO, products, and reviews.
How should you answer this question?
“I know I am just starting my career; however, my salary expectation is nearly 25-30K per market standards. However, I am ready for negotiation.”
13. Are you okay to work overtime and relocate?
It is one of the tricky interview questions for freshers. Generally, it is a “yes” or “no” question, but the answer is not as straight as it seems. As a fresher, you might be excited to hear about relocating. If you are okay with relocation, you must inform the interviewer.
However, if you want to work but relocation is difficult, you must find the best way to let them know. It is always better to be prepared for this question beforehand.
14. What are you looking for in this new position?
This question is another method for interviewers to determine your interest in this role. An excellent way to answer this question is to focus on the skills and qualities required for this role and then explain how your qualifications match the job.
For instance, if you are applying for the “project manager” role, you must highlight your experience in planning and organizing projects and define how your skills would benefit the company.
15. Do you want to know anything about the company?
An interview is an opportunity to find out whether a job is the right fit for you.
What more do you want to know about this position?
The organization? About the department?
About the team?
If you got answers to these questions throughout the interview, then you must be ready to ask a few less-common questions, like, “What is your favorite thing about working here?”, “What are your growth plans?” It’s important to ask these questions at all stages of an interview.
Make sure to follow up after an interview!
The final interview tip for freshers is to follow up with them after the job interview. It can be anything, like a Thank you or a follow-up mail.
With a Thank you email, you are showing gratitude to the interviewer for allowing you to appear in the interview. Send this email within 24 hours of the discussion so the recruiter remembers you over the other candidates.
On the contrary, a follow-up email is one that you send in case you have not heard anything from the company side.
Don’t get disheartened. Instead, you must ask for feedback from them as it will help you to know about your performance and, accordingly, you can improve it.
These interview tips for freshers will help you prepare for an interview and crack it. Remember, regular practice is the most essential thing required for giving confident answers in a job.
Best Of Luck!
