How to Handle Difficult Interview Questions

There aren’t many people who look forward to attending an interview, especially if you’ve set your sights on being given the role and you’re feeling the pressure to succeed. The thought of being interrogated or the fear of rejection can send you into a spin, causing sleepless nights and overwhelming feelings of stress and anxiety.

How to prepare for an interview

So how can you calm your nerves and perform better in interviews, ensuring you answer those tricky questions with ease? One of the hardest parts of preparing for an interview is trying to pre-empt the kinds of questions you’ll be asked and coming up with the answers the interviewer wants to hear. For example, you might be asked “what are your weaknesses” and you’re unsure of whether or not it’s a trick question.

1. Have belief in yourself 

While this may seem easier said than done when it comes to interviews, there are ways to boost your self-confidence. Go through the job specification beforehand and make a note of each requirement and how you have gained experience of this in previous roles. This will make you consider your skills in more detail and serve as a reminder of what you’ve already achieved and accomplished. A study published in the International Journal of Human Resource Studies, suggested that "self-confidence, self-esteem and self-efficacy are widely common terms in job search effectiveness according to literature. There is a consensus in a large extent that candidates’ self-confidence during interview process has significant influence and affects recruiters’ decisions and respectively hiring results.”

2. Prepare for the worst

While you want to remain hopeful that you will get the job, it’s always a good idea to prepare for the worst-case scenarios. Being asked difficult questions that are aimed to catch you out or may make you feel uncomfortable are never pleasant so write a list of questions that you might fear the most and prepare a suitable response in advance. Perhaps there’s a gap in your CV that you haven’t accounted for when you were out of work. But you can turn this into a positive by demonstrating how it inspired you to aim higher and develop your skills.

3. Remember that you’ve made it to the interview stage for a reason

In most cases there will have been lots of other people applying for the same role but you have been selected for the interview so the company must have seen something in your application that impressed them. Generally speaking, interviewers aren’t trying to catch you out, they just want to make sure they choose the best person for the job. If they show an interest in a specific part of your application or CV, make sure you can elaborate on this and show enthusiasm and passion as this is obviously important to them.

4. Be honest

Honesty is often considered one of the most important character traits as it means that you are trustworthy. This doesn’t mean that you have to tell the interviewer your life story or admit to some of your less favourable traits. If you really don’t know the answer to something you're asked, rather than lying or making something up on the spot, apologise and say you don’t know. You can also say that this is something you’re willing to learn about or even train in. Also try to keep your answers short and to the point without providing them with unnecessary information.