Job Interview Tips: How to Answer Interview Questions and Interview Questions Meaning

How to answer interview questions? What are the implied meanings ringing at the head of the recruiters when they ask a question during the interview? This article is a continuation of the job-seeking process in Belgium conducted by the speaker Miss Eugenia Khodakovska. I have also introduced Eugenia’s profile in the first part of the article on tips to write CVs for a job application.

Congratulation if you have succeeded in getting a job interview after sending your CV. That’s half the battle won. The other 50% lies in how you answer the interview questions during the job interview process. In this article, Eugenia continues to provide useful interview tips and tricks to handle a job interview. We delve deeper into the underlying meaning of some common interview questions ringing behind the back of the recruiters’ minds.

Be Well-Prepared and Confident

Before we blurt out everything on our mind unprepared, it is always better to prepare the job interview answers mentally. Rehearse the answers well every time we go for a job interview. Adequate preparation will also bring out a confidence streak which all prospective employers like to see. They want to look for a candidate who is well-prepared for the interview questions and think through what to say. Moreover, it speaks about his readiness in handling last-minute interview questions which are not that easy to answer.

Ready to Answer Interview Questions Below?

1. Why do you want to work for us?

• What is your motivation?

2. Why do we need to hire you?

• And not others?
• How do we get the best outcome of this choice?

3. What do you know about us?

• What is your opinion?
• How will your engagement and commitment be?

4. How do you develop yourself?

• Are you self-reflective enough?
• How manageable are you?
• What will be your development and integration speed?
• What will be your ownership of the job?
• Are you able to cope with corporate dynamics and changes?

5. Tell us about your best achievement.

• What is your capability and potential to the business?
• How passionate are you in your field of work?
• What is your endurance and perseverance level to get things done to its maximum performance?

6. Describe some of the failures that you had.

• How self-conscious are you?
• What is your ability to cope with stress?
• How much did you learn from the lesson?
• How optimistic are you when facing an obstacle in life?

7. Do we need to know anything that we did not ask you about?

• This question creates an opportunity to tell the interviewer more about your achievement.
• Be pragmatic. Relate incidents only to what the employer needs for the job position.

8. Do you have any other questions?

• What is your real motivation? Perhaps you will reveal more about your intention after being comfortable during the conversation.
• Beware. The comfort level at this point is where you will ask and say unappropriated things too.
• What are the negotiation points if the interviewer makes a job offer?
• Avoid the standard reply – “I have no questions asked.”
• An ideal approach to ask questions is during the job interview process where appropriate so that it will seem natural for the interviewer to reply.
• Here are some job interview tips to ask a few relevant questions to the company.
  • “What is your development strategy?”
  • “Who are my colleagues and the people that I work with?”
  • “Who are my customers?”

Emails after Job Interview

Thank You Email

It is always polite and good practice to send your prospective employers a thank you email. It gives you the opportunity to add relevant information which you did not highlight during the interview. However, keep the email short and brief. Do not use a standard template like “Thank you… It was a pleasure meeting you.” Write something more personalised.

Reminder Email

It is fine to send a reminder email to check your job application status after the interview if you do not receive a reply after the agreed dateline. If you are going for multiple interviews in the midst of waiting for the update, it is also reasonable to keep potential employers informed about your status. This piece of information may add a little value to yourself when the prospective employers know that you have been asked to attend job interviews from other companies.

Rejection Email

If you receive a rejection email, you may like to ask the relevant person the grounds for the job rejection. One can learn from their job interview experience and to do better for the next job interview.

Handling Job Offer

In Belgium, it is common to go for more than one round of job interviews. If the employer calls you back for the second interview, it is likely that both the company and you will negotiate on the job offer on that day. Certainly, you want the best for yourself. Hopefully, the employer would be willing to accede to your requests. So, what is a reasonable stand for you?

Research the Belgian Labour Market

• What is the salary scale for the position that you are interested?
• What are the skills in demand? Do you have what it takes to negotiate a higher salary?
• What are the fringe benefits provided by the company?

Prepare Your Positioning

• Questions about your current package
• What is the minimum package that you can accept?
• Prioritise your needs. What are the must-have / nice to have / negotiation buffer?

Important Signal to Your Employer

• You are aware of your market value.
• The amount of salary is no doubt important but is not the primary factor for accepting the job.
• Enthusiasm for the job is equally important to enrich your life.

Belgian Employers Like to Test Their Job Applicants

I have been through two job interviews in Belgium so far. The recruiters gave me tests during both interviews. One tested on writing to make sure my English standard is acceptable. The other gave me a logic test with some IQ questions and mathematics. It seems that the Belgian employers enjoy giving tests to their candidates. I had many job interviews in Singapore. However, it is not so common to test the potential candidates over there.

Curriculum Vitae: Tips for a Job CV Resume Format

What constitutes a perfect job CV format? How to write a CV – Curriculum Vitae for a job interview? Applying for a job in Belgium is like warfare. You are likely to have several other job applicants as your strong opponents. Especially so when a job position interests many people and is not one of those in a niche labour market.

You get only one chance to impress when applying for a job. The biggest obstacle is clearing the CV so that you can cross the gate and get that chance to sit face to face with the interviewer. Even if you are certain that you are the perfect candidate for the job, without getting the opportunity to impress the interviews personally, the job search has failed.

The interviewers normally take 50 seconds to screen every job resume. Therefore, it is vital that your relevant experience stands out immediately from the beginning as the eyes scrolled down the CV.

Presentation Credit

During one of my Social Integration Class, the instructor arranged for a few external speakers to give us a talk. The most enlightening speech was by Miss Eugenia Khodakovska, a Ukrainian expatriate who works in Melexis Technologies NV. The company is an MNC with 1,100 employees in 14 countries since 1988 with headquarter in Belgium.

Eugenia works as a Global Talent Acquisition Manager in the Human Resource Department with the company. Needless to say, the responsibility of screening candidates’ resumes and interviewing them are her fortes. Possessing a rich experience of screening countless Curriculum Vitae and conducting over hundred of interviews, she is undoubtedly the best person to advise the dos and don’ts for job application in Belgium.

Besides giving tips on how to write a job CV, she shed some lights on how to read the questions asked by recruiters during the interview process. She also provided valuable insight into what to say and what not to say during a job interview. Behind every question lurks a motive which the interviewer wants to hear the appropriate response.

Indeed, an eye-opener for new expatriates searching for jobs in Belgium and knowing how to manage the expectation of the Belgian employers. Do check out the second part of the article on Common Job Interview Questions later. Read on.

Get Your Job CV Template Right

Make Your CV Template Reader-Friendly

In another word, your job CV format has to look presentable from the first glance.

• Use appropriate font size (not too big and not too small).
• Eliminate fanciful or weird font designs that are difficult to read.
• Avoid the use of colours and clipart too.
• Use paragraph and line spacing so that the texts do not look cluttered.
• Avoid long sentences. Use commas and full stops where appropriate.

Maximum Two Page Job CV Resume

How long should a resume be? Keep the resume to a maximum of two pages. Do not over-stuff information into these two pages even if you have a lot of work experiences to highlight.

• Sort your work experience chronologically.
  • From the current to the past work experience.
  • Most relevant job experience to the less relevant. Highlight your most relevant experience for the position that you want to apply so that the recruiter can identify it immediately.
• State your academic qualification after your work experience unless you are applying for a teaching job position such as a professor or a teacher.
  • Additionally, some job positions in a niche market single out highly educated professionals. In this circumstance, prioritise the education qualification over the work experience.
• Put your contact detail in the footer (or header) of every page like your name, contact number and email address.

Proofread Your Resume

It is a very unpleasant experience to read a job CV full of grammatical and spelling errors particularly when you write the resume in a foreign language. It does not reflect well especially when report writing is one of the requirements in the job scope. Errors tell the recruiters that you make no effort to check your work.

• Ensure no grammatical and spelling errors.
• Get a native to proof-read your job CV if you have to write them in Dutch or French which are not your mother tongue.
• If you do not have anyone to help you, here is a list of grammar and spelling checkers websites that you can help yourself online for free. At least, making use of some online language tools is better than none.
  • English: Grammarly
  • French: Bon Patron
  • Dutch and several other languages: Language Tools

Save File Attachment with Description

Label your saved file attachment with a descriptive title or a file reference number if the recruiter indicates it online. Enter in the description such as your name and position applied. The company might have several advertised positions. Hence, it would help them to identify your interest immediately when they save your file together with others. On a subconscious level, the recruiters evaluate little detail like this to form an impression of the applicant organising ability.

What Not to Do on a Job CV Template?

Here is a recommendation of “Do Not Do” list to pay attention when applying for a job in the Belgian Labour Market. Some points are essential to note as they are instant deal-breakers when you put on your CV template.

Do Not…

Use Photograph

You do not know how the recruiter will judge you and what are they thinking off when they look at your photo. This rule is not applicable unless you are applying for some glamorous jobs where you have to sell your face. Eg. Models.

If you insist on putting a photograph (like me… it is my habit), attach a more professional looking headshot that has a clear image and will stand you in good stead.

Date of Birth

Is it necessary to fill in your Date of Birth on a job resume? This piece of information is not helpful. You do not want your prospective employer to discriminate you based on your age.

Irrelevant Information

Do not give information that is irrelevant to the job. You are taking up more space within the ‘two-page resume rule’. The recruiter also spent more time reading detail that is not helping you. Again, this is an indication of a lack of structuring by not providing a clear and concise description.

Requirements that are Expected by Default

First example: “I am helpful to my colleagues.” Can one even survive in an organisation by not supporting his colleagues? That goes without saying.

Second example: “I am a plumber who fits and repairs pipes.” Well, the job scope of a plumber is of that. Therefore, a default requirement associating with a job position has not much value to the recruiter as well.

Images or Creative Visual Design

Do not use images or creative visual design unless this is your professional portfolio. Graphic Designers will most likely escape from this rule since they have a valid reason to demonstrate their creativity skill by making the job CV more impressive.

For most people, this is not advisable. Some people try to stand out from the rest by putting the logo of their former company. For the recruiters, the image does not serve its purpose. Instead, it clutters the space of the job CV and takes their focus away from your job resume.

Abbreviation and Industry Slang

Always use the full term accompanied by the use of abbreviation. The person looking at your job CV might be a general administration staff of an employment agency who may not understand the term of those alphabets that you use.

Neither to a Human Resource (HR) personnel since their role is to recommend suitable candidates after the first assessment either by your CV or after the job interview. Besides, many working in the HR Department may not understand their industry slang because their roles do not require them to do so. Anyway, it is common to have more than one round of interview in Belgium.

You can demonstrate your industry jargon later when you get a chance to go for the interview with the correct person whom you might be working together in a team.

Cliché, Vague or Sophisticated Language

Use simple phrases and terms that are easily understood by everyone. The use of bombastic words may not deliver the right message across to the interpreter. Eventually, the meaning of the sentences would turn ambiguous. At its worst, misinterpreted by the interviewers and lost your chance for a job interview through the wrong choice of words used.

One of the most common clichés used is (I am a) “team player”. How does that sentence help you? Everybody has to be a team player when it comes to working for a corporate organisation. The sentence will not give you an edge over the rest of the job applicants.

Exaggerated Sentences or Lies

Do not exaggerate about things that you cannot do or have no experience. Needless to say, the outcome is obvious. One does not need to put himself in an embarrassing situation later when the lie is exposed.

Controversial or Bizarre Hobbies

Some weird hobbies and pastimes are better left unsaid if they do not strengthen your work capabilities. In fact, it may do more harm to job applicants when they put strange things on their resume.

Just imagine if someone wrote in the resume, “My hobby is keeping snakes” or “I love to collect exquisite knives from all over the world”. (Personally, I would be afraid to have such a colleague. What will happen to me if I were to offend him? So much left to the imagination.)

References upon Request

It is not necessary to put in any references unless the recruiting company asks for it. One can merely state in the job CV ‘References upon request’. If the prospective company ask for references later, the best referrals are your previous boss, supervisor, colleague and HR. Most importantly, they should be the people whom you had worked with earlier and willing to vouch for you.

Inappropriate Email Address

You can email me at sexyprincess@hotmale.com, sillygirl@xyz.com, game_maniac@bigmail.com, fashion.freak@wth.com. Self-explanatory. Those email addresses do not impress you, isn’t it?

Links to Your Social Media Account

One of the things not to do is to offer your social media account links voluntarily except if you are a social media marketeer. Your social media accounts belong to your private life which your future employers do not need to know.

On the contrary, it may be in your best interest that the lesser they know about your social life, the safer you are. We are not sure what the employers’ reaction would be if they see certain posts or images. If the employers want to know more about you, they will have a way to check on you discreetly.

Broken Links

If you place external links on your job CV for your research or work as references, make sure the links still work or have been updated.

School-Related

How long ago have you graduated from school? Leave out the information relating to the school unless you are applying for your first job. In the corporate world, the interviewers want to find out more about your prior working experience and how you can contribute to the growth of the company with your knowledge.

Avoid providing information that is decades ago. The glory of yesterday may not stay the same way today other than something that you can relate to the current job.

An illustration: You had been elected in school to represent the country to compete in a Physics competition worldwide. Now, you want to apply for a job that is specifically relating to physics. Your intelligence in the subject matter tells a lot about your innate talent when you were younger.

My Job Application Experience in Belgium

I did not follow a few of the CV tips above. I always use a headshot photograph when emailing my CV over to the recruiters not knowing the ‘CV guideline’ in Belgium. Nonetheless, the companies still contacted me up for two interviews after two months of arriving in Belgium. Subsequently, I for my first short-term contract job.

During the job interview process which I got the job eventually, the interviewer told me that my CV was too long. She advised me to shorten my future CV to a maximum 2-page instead of 3-page (excluding the cover letter).

To conclude, the above tips are guidelines. Even with a photograph attached to my CV, the interim agency and the company called me up for interviews. As for the 2-page CV format, it is better to adhere to the guideline. Anyway, most interviewers will not read all the information if they are not relevant.

The next article will provide interview tips on how to handle questions and answers during a job interview process.