Practice These 15 Mock Interview Questions

Congratulations!

You’ve cut through the resume algorithms through strategic networking and made it to the next round of what’s hopefully your dream career.

Now, there’s just one thing standing in the way of you and your next role - the interview process!

Here at WorkWell, we work with thousands of clients to ensure they are prepared and comfortable for the, oftentimes, challenging multiple rounds of interviews. 

You can learn more about what we do here. 

In this blog, we’re going to walk you through how to prepare for your next interview by practicing mock interviews, including the 15 most commonly asked questions you should practice.

Let’s dive in!

What Are Mock Interviews?

One of the best ways to prepare yourself for any interview round is by practicing the questions in advance with your friends, peers, or family members. 

This is what we call “mock interviews”. 

Simply grab somebody close to you and reenact exactly how you think the interview round will go. 

By practicing in advance, you can work on the best way to answer each question, and get out all of your misspeaks, nerves, and jitters before the live event. 

And if you don’t have someone to mock interview with but want to get some practice in, recording yourself on video is a super helpful tool, too!

How-to Prepare for Mock Interviews

Before beginning your mock interview, make sure you have researched the company and team that you are applying for. You’ll want to stay away from generic answers, and instead, personalize your pitch for the exact role you are after. 

Additionally, it’s equally important to focus on your posture, body language, and tone of voice throughout the mock interview process. 

Make strong eye contact with the interviewer or camera, sit up straight, and practice breathing deeply. Pro tip: if eye contact isn’t accessible to you for any reason, you can look at someone between the eyes on their forehead, they won’t notice a difference! 

We will dive deeper into this topic with another blog post in the coming weeks, so make sure you’re subscribed to our blog here. 

Once you’ve completed your research and practiced your breathing and body language, it’s time to dive into the questions.

15 Mock Interview Questions To Practice 

While you can never be sure exactly what the interviewer is going to ask, the more you prepare and practice in advance, the better off you will be. We like to remind clients that interviewers are evaluating your skills based on the questions they ask! So as you prepare your responses, consider which skills are relevant to the role and make sure those come through in the stories you share. The more practice you have highlighting your skills through relevant stories, the more confident you will feel answering any question that comes your way!

Here are the 15 most commonly asked questions in interviews to help you prepare in advance.

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Walk me through your resume.
3. If you are unemployed:
   a. Why did you leave your last job?
   b. What have you been doing since? 
4. What have you been working on recently?
5. What project are you most proud of?
6. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
7. What are your greatest weaknesses?
8. What are your greatest strengths?
9. Why do you want to work for us?
10. Can you tell me about a time when you were met with a roadblock and how you got past it?
11. Can you tell me about a time when you had to meet multiple deadlines at once? How did you prioritize and deliver?
12. How have you demonstrated your values in your past work experiences?
13. Tell me about a time you made a mistake and learned from it.
14. Tell me about a time when you worked as a leader.
15. Do you have any questions for me?

It may help to write out your stories or use bullet points and then verbally practice. Ideally, once you start practicing out loud and getting helpful feedback, you will be comfortable and present in your interviews, which is more powerful than a perfectly recited story. The more prepared you feel, the less nervous you will be in the actual interview itself. 

Now go out there and share your beautiful stories because that is what the interviewer is looking for! You’ve got this!

If you’d like more help in your job searching process and want to join thousands of people finding and landing their dream career in Tech with WorkWell, you can join one of our free events or join our next info session here.

Until next time!