Having the right qualifications and polishing your resume can only take you so far. When it comes time for your job interview, you’ll need to show the employer you’re the best candidate for the job. Interview questions vary depending on the job and industry. Here, we’ve compiled some of the top interview questions with suggested answers to help you land your dream job.
International Career Institute’s law and justice faculty offers legal courses ranging from private investigation to criminology. Criminology courses could give you a fast-track pathway into the criminal justice field, in roles such as community development, social work, law enforcement, and private investigation. Interviewers will want to know about your motivations, qualifications, and interpersonal skills.
Avoid superficial answers such as referencing your passion for crime shows. Instead, talk about the contribution you want to make to the industry and any personal experiences motivating you. For example, you can speak about having a goal to protect the community and how you value the work of police officers, private investigators, or social workers.
Talk about both professional and personal skills that make you suitable for the role. You can highlight your criminology qualifications here, but make sure you add any examples where you have applied the relevant skill. Also talk about personal qualities that make you a good fit, especially where these qualities support your hard skills. For example, you can talk about having strong attention to detail, as well as training in criminology.
Interviewers often ask you about specific examples where you’ve been successful at something. Prepare for your interview by listing challenging situations your target job is likely to have. For example, if you’re applying for a job as a security guard or police officer, you might be asked to outline a time when you successfully dealt with angry people without using force. Talk about your people skills in a previous role, whether it was in a criminology-related field or not. You can talk about how you allowed the person to express themselves before providing them with reassurances about how their concerns would be addressed.
Working in business can make for a fulfilling career pathway. The International Career Institute offers a marketing certificate that can give you the right marketing skills to succeed in a marketing or related business job.
Employers might ask about your qualification to ascertain your hard skills. Take the opportunity to talk about your qualifications and link them to specific skills. In turn, link your skills and knowledge to your job description. For example, if you’re interviewing for an internet marketing role, talk about how your qualification has prepared you for researching market opportunities and implementing online strategies to reach new leads.
This is a common question for business roles, as employers want to know you can work to the company’s strategic goals while fitting in with the culture. Showing you have thorough knowledge of the business is vital for interview success, and shows you care about the company’s mission, whether it’s growing sales, solving a specific consumer problem, or delivering the best products to the market. Doing research and learning as much as you can about the company will enable you to impress the interviewers.
This is another common question employers ask to find out more about your motivations. Always frame you answer in terms of how you can contribute with your qualifications, skills, and personal attributes. Link the company’s goals with your own. For example, you can talk about how you have a passion for reaching more leads, converting customers, and engaging customers through marketing campaigns.
Make sure your answer is directly relevant to the responsibilities of the role. Where possible, quantify your achievement. If you’re interviewing for a marketing job, you can talk about the time when you increased customer retention by 40% over six months.
A career in IT design could be a wonderful career option, with a strong job market and opportunities to use your technical and creative skills to help businesses.
Talk about your formal qualifications, such as having completed a certificate in IT Web Design from the International Career Institute. Outline the major study areas to show you have the necessary technical skills for the web design role. Give examples of where you’ve applied these skills where possible.
You’ll also want to talk about your general skills and attributes. Always link them back to the position. A great way to ensure you successfully answer this type of question is to find out as much as you can about the role before the interview. Prepare by listing the advertised qualifications, skills, and personal attributes so you cover all bases during the interview.
Web designers typically work on multiple projects at the same time. This is a great chance to show your ability to juggle numerous projects and get things done on time. Talk about your project management skills and any tools you use to track your projects. Give examples of when you’ve managed time well in a professional setting.
Use this as an opportunity to demonstrate your technical and design skills. Talk about how you were able to apply your skills to make sure the customer received the product they wanted. Demonstrate how you worked to the customer’s specifications and achieved the high standards they were looking for.
Web design is a fast-moving field, and employers want to know you’re keeping up with coding and design trends. Make sure you have a list of sites and blogs you visit frequently, and ensure you can explain why you find them useful for up-to-date knowledge about the field.
A career in health and fitness offers you the chance to make a difference in people’s lives. Whether you’re a nutritionist or personal trainer, you work with people to achieve their health goals. A job as a personal trainer means you’ll support clients with better wellbeing and confidence.
Be prepared to talk about your qualifications in depth. Employers will likely want to know you have the necessary technical knowledge for the role. Personal trainers need to have broad-ranging knowledge of the fitness field. For example, the International Career Institute’s Personal Training certificate covers everything from physiology and human biomechanics to fitness program design and human nutrition.
Personal trainers work directly with clients to provide health services, so employers will usually want to know how motivated you are and why you want the job. Make sure you’re ready to explain why you’ve chosen the field, and take the opportunity to list how your skills and attributes can allow you to contribute. If you can provide a real-life example of how you made a difference for a client or successfully cared for someone, you can demonstrate how committed to wellbeing you are.
Employers like to know you have a sense of where the market and the industry are going in the future. You could talk about how tech tools (such as apps) can enhance the personal trainer’s role and the quality of services you provide. If you can talk about growing demand for health services and how technology can enhance the personal training industry, you’ll impress potential employers with your industry knowledge. You’ll also demonstrate you’re passionate and engaged with your career.
If you enjoy guiding others on a path of learning and discovery, a career in language education could be right for you. Ideally you’ll already have excellent grammar, syntax, and punctuation.
In education and languages, a formal qualification in the field shows employers you have the right technical skill set to teach English to others. A TESOL (Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages) certificate from the International Career Institute, for example, shows you have core skills such as classroom management, phonology, and testing. Make sure you link your qualification to the job description and be as concrete as possible. If time allows, give the interviewer examples of how your qualifications have helped you in the past.
Showing passion in a service-based profession like language instruction shows the employer you have the motivation to provide high-quality lessons. Talk about your passion for teaching English and demonstrate it with anecdotes to backup your reasons where possible.
This is an opportunity to talk about your teaching techniques and tools. You can talk about how you plan lessons and teach grammar, and you can talk about the visual and audio aids you use to keep students interested. If you have teaching experience, talk about the difference you were able to make, and quantify it if possible. For example, if you had 90% positive feedback from students in a previous role, mention it.
Landing an awesome job requires good qualifications, as well as thorough interview preparation. Whatever your industry, make sure you prepare by researching your employer and being clear about your own strengths. In selling your skills and attributes successfully, you’ll show the employer you can do the job.
International Career Institute is an accredited education provider with courses to help you progress in your career. Explore our courses on our website, or contact us for more information.
Gladys Mae serves as the General Manager and Head of Student Services at the International Career Institute. Gladys holds a degree in Mass Communication - Broadcast Media from the University of San Jose-Recoletos. She joined ICI in 2010 and has over the past 12 years been instrumental in providing leadership and guidance to staff and students alike. Prior to joining ICI Gladys led a multifaceted career with key roles in the banking and business process outsourcing industries.
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