Job interviews can be a little tense on the side of an interviewee. This pressure is valid seeing that what you say and how you choose to answer questions during an interview is what mostly determines whether you get the job or not.

It’s therefore important that you prepare ahead and acquaint yourself with the basics such as the standard questions that are asked often.

Here are some of the questions recruiters focus on during job interviews and why;

Tell me about your biggest failure and how you dealt with it

According to Odyssée Ndayisaba,the CEO of Continuity Group, Ltd-Kigali, this question determines whether a job seeker is worthy of scooping the job, however, this depends on their story and the impression it leaves on the recruiter. 

"If you don’t impress the recruiter, then there might be no job for you. In this scenario, the interviewer is interested in knowing whether you can own your weaknesses and take charge of your botches,” he states. 

Ndayisaba carries on that some recruiters try to simplify this question to, what did you learn from it (your failure)? And how did you make a change or changes to correct your mistake? Everyone has failed at some point, with these questions, interviewers are looking for someone that can bounce back from a failure as failures are normal and are a learning experience. 

Tell me about your biggest win and why

He adds that employers can see if your skills and work ethic match up to their needs and fit in with their company culture. Interview questions that require you to brag about yourself aren’t easy, but you need to be ready to sound confident, passionate and proud and show off what you have done anyway. 

Ndayisaba stresses that your achievement will indicate how you get things done. Somehow, your response is intended to even cover both your hard and soft skills. You have to show that your skills are transferable and relevant to the role.

Also this question highlights what drives the interviewee, and what they value in life. But a recruiter waits to hear you show exactly what you achieved and why it was a significant accomplishment. How did it help you? How did it help your team or your employer at the time? he adds.

Tell us about yourself, why should we hire you?

Justin Racheal, a business leadership coach in Kigali is of the view that recruiters are looking for individuals who can add value to their firms, and can lead themselves and others well. But also, those who can grow and help others grow, are passionate and care about the vision and growth of the firm, mostly, are knowledgeable and willing to learn. So the appropriate questions range from; what are your expectations from the firm, where do you see yourself in five years to come, among others. 

She says that such questions are intended to test the candidate on the aspects mentioned above. Firms or organisations that understand leadership, recruit well because they have a clear picture of who they are looking for. They understand that by being productive, they attract quality people.

"Therefore, they invest in production and growth and when the right candidate shows up, they will know from the way he or she will be in alignment with their growth objectives,” the business leadership coach states. 

She also points out that when asked questions like, ‘tell us about yourself?’ the candidate should be in position to actually talk about how much he has achieved for the benefit of others (people and organisations), how much he or she wills to go the extra hours or efforts to ensure production and growth, and give tangible examples of how they persistently achieved hard tasks out of passion for what they do.