Page 271 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Get a Great Job When You Don’t Have a Job

decide to stay until midnight to help the boss out. Again, there is
no universally right answer.
If you have a significant other, spouse, or family member,
you might discuss beforehand what sort of choices will need to be
made in this situation when work and home obligations conflict.
That way, you’ll know if you have the support of your family to
stay at work late, or if it’s absolutely essential to choose your fam-
ily or friend first.

Now that you have mastered the question behind the ques-
tion, you’re over halfway through completing the entire inter-
view with finesse, competence, and know-how.
There are only two more types of interview questions to
consider: stress questions and questions you ask the prospective
employer.

Stress Questions
Don’t let stress questions stop you in your tracks. That’s exactly
what they’re designed to do! The lighter you are on your feet, the
better you’ll do.
The object of a stress question is not to gain information
from the content of your answer. Stress questions are designed to
gain information about how you behave under stress. That’s why
they’re called “stress questions”—the questions themselves are
supposed to create stress.
Let’s take a look at one of the “scariest” stress questions:

QUESTION: What was your greatest failure?
You certainly are not obligated to recall your real greatest failure
in front of a complete stranger. And actually, interviewers don’t
expect you to. Instead, the interviewer is testing to see how you
react under stress.
How do you beat it? First, take a deep breath and entertain
one of these answers:

ANSWER: Perhaps my greatest failure was not going to college
right after graduating from high school. Anyway, I
waited until I got a few years of work under my belt

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