The Next Interview Question, WHAT NOW?

With all the different careers out there, and the many further styles of hiring at different employers, one thing remains constant! The interviewers will constantly ask different questions.

During the interview, there will be those challenging questions that will make you nervous. They might sweep you off your feet. What was that?!? This is an excellent time to set you ahead of all the other applicants. This is your opportunity for the interviewer to see you can handle everyday stress in the job you are trying to land. Be prepared, expect the unexpected, and deal with it. It will impress them often. Asking a few tactically relevant and challenging questions of your own may help push you even further ahead.

Since it's likely the interviewer will be well prepared to ask questions, it's a great idea to also be prepared to answer them, and ask some to. Where do these stressful questions come from? Are they unique and immediate, or can I find them ahead of time? Not exactly, though many people these days on both sides of the interview research and even discuss what they are doing, in the most visible media known to mankind… The Internet!

When it comes to interviews, there are 2 views actually. First there is your side (interviewee) and how you can get through it effectively well. Second, there is their side (interviewer), finding the right person for the jobs that will work well with the others they already have working.

Have a look at it from the interviewer's side. They have a need in their company, and it fits in with the existing company as it is now. They need to see if you are the one that can effectively do the job they are interviewing you for, with the existing employees. In some cases, that environment may be very stressful. If you can't handle that same stress for a short interview, the interviewer might be busy again interviewing someone else next week with the work in that job further behind yet. They want to be sure you can do the job, and they don't have to do theirs again on this specific job anytime soon. Resources such as Yahoo!® hotjobs® and Monster.Com® have many resources that can help interviewers and interviewees. There are also many other sites more specific to a particular field/career.

Now have a look at it from your side. You want a job, in their company, as it is now. What is it now? What will it be like there? The interviewer should know a lot about that, or they might not be prepared to hire the best person for the job. You can gain access online to most of the same resources that the interviewers may use. Along with those, you will likely find where a lot of the challenging questions come from. You might even find some good challenging ones to throw back to them at the right moment. Have fun…

If you aren't good at dealing with the unexpected, you might want to work on that a little bit. Dealing with stress becomes more and more important every year, as more of it comes into everyday life. There are many resources on this online as well.

And now you have it. The points are look at the big picture, and expect the unexpected. Use the resources you have to turn some of the unexpected into expected along the way and don't let them get you down. Land that job!