Job interview: how to prepare, common questions and what to say (2026)

The interview is the last door before an offer. Your resume got you this far, but the decision is made in the conversation. And between candidates with similar skills and experience, preparation is almost always what makes the difference.

This guide covers the whole route: how to prepare, the most common questions and how to approach them, the STAR method for behavioral questions, video and in-person interviews, the mistakes to avoid and what to do afterwards.

Before the interview: the preparation that counts

Preparation comes down to four things, and none of them takes more than a few hours.

Study the company and the role. Its website, products, recent news, and a careful second read of the job posting: “why us” and “why you” are won here. Link each requirement in the posting to a concrete experience you can talk about.

Reread your resume. The interviewer has it in front of them: every line can become a question, and inconsistencies get noticed. If it still needs work, start with how to write a resume that gets past applicant tracking systems.

Prepare your own questions. Arriving with nothing to ask is a weak signal; two or three targeted questions are enough (more on this below).

Find out what the role pays. Knowing the market range saves you from answering blind if pay comes up. Our salary pages give official US and UK figures for many common jobs.

On logistics: in person, arrive a little early; for a video interview, test your setup in advance (more on this shortly). The process rarely ends in one meeting: there is often a short phone or video screen first, then the main interview, sometimes a further round with the hiring manager, and the whole thing can take a few weeks.

The most common questions (and how to answer them)

Interview questions are more predictable than they seem. These come up in almost every hiring process: what matters is the approach, not an answer learned by heart.

• “Tell me about yourself.” Not an invitation to tell your life story: it is a request for a short summary aimed at the role. Your path in brief, the relevant experience, and why you’re here.
• “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” Strengths that matter for the role, with an example that proves them. For weaknesses: a real one, not a cliché (“I’m a perfectionist”), with what you are doing about it.
• “Why do you want to work here?” This is where your research pays off: specific reasons — the product, the sector, the projects — not lines that would fit any employer.
• “Where do you see yourself in five years?” They want a realistic direction that fits the path they offer, not a job title. Ambition is fine, anchored to the role you are applying for.
• “Why should we hire you?” The bridge between what they need and what you have already done: two or three concrete points tied to the requirements in the posting.
• “Tell me about a time you handled a conflict” — and in general every question that starts with “tell me about a time when…”. These are behavioral questions: you answer them with a real episode, not with theory. The STAR method, below, is built for them.
• “Tell me about a professional achievement.” One episode with a visible result, measurable if possible: what you did, not the team in the abstract.

Interviews today are more of a conversation than an interrogation: interviewers look closely at soft skills — adaptability, problem-solving, how you work with people — and behavioral questions are how they observe them.

The STAR method for behavioral questions

STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result: a structure for telling a real experience in an orderly way.

• Situation: the context, in one or two sentences. Where you were, what was going on.
• Task: your task or goal — what you were responsible for.
• Action: what you actually did. This is the core: speak in the first person.
• Result: how it ended, with an outcome you can point to whenever possible.

The method works for two reasons: it keeps the story in order (no rambling), and it moves the answer from theory to proof — not “I’m good at handling conflict”, but “here is when I did it”.

To prepare, pick two or three reusable episodes from your experience — a problem solved, a conflict handled, a goal reached — and practise them in the STAR structure: the same episodes, told from different angles, cover most behavioral questions. The typical mistake is spending too long on the situation and forgetting the result: it’s the part the listener remembers.

Questions to ask the interviewer

The “do you have any questions for us?” moment almost always comes, and having nothing to ask is a missed opportunity: asking questions is a sign of interest and sets a prepared candidate apart from a passive one.

A few directions that work:

• About the role: “What does a typical day look like?”, “How will success in this role be measured in the first few months?”
• About the team: “Who would I work with most closely?”, “How is the team organized?”
• About the process: “What are the next steps?” — useful to know how long you might wait afterwards.

Avoid questions answered on the company’s website (they show the opposite of preparation), and don’t open with vacation and perks at a first screening — those come later in the process.

Video or in person

Video interviews are now a normal part of hiring, often for the first rounds. Each format needs its own preparation.

For video, the setup is half the work: test your connection and audio beforehand, light your face from the front (not from behind), pick a quiet, tidy room, and during the conversation look at the camera, not at the screen — to the other person, that is eye contact.

Mistakes to avoid

The most common mistakes have been the same for years, and preparation prevents almost all of them:

• Arriving unprepared about the company and the role: it shows by the second question.
• Criticizing your previous employer: even with good reasons, it shifts attention to your tone, not the facts. Talk about what you’re looking for, not what you’re running from.
• Having no questions to ask: it ends the interview on a note of indifference.
• Lying or inflating your resume: follow-up questions take exaggerations apart in minutes, and a lie that comes out weighs more than a gap you admit.
• Handling the pay question badly — which deserves a section of its own.

After the interview: follow-up and waiting

The interview doesn’t end when you say goodbye. A short thank-you message — to the recruiter or to the people you met, ideally the same day or the next — rounds it off well: it confirms your interest and keeps you in mind without pushing.

Then comes the wait, and it is normal for it to be long: there may be more rounds, and the whole process can take weeks. If you hear nothing by the date they gave you — or about a week after the interview if they gave none — a polite message asking where things stand is legitimate and well received.

If the answer is no, ask for feedback: it doesn’t always come, but when it does it is worth having — and every interview is practice for the next one. If the answer is yes, an offer arrives, and the game changes: it’s called negotiation, and knowing the market range for the role is your starting point.

Frequently asked questions