What to Say if You Dont Know How to Answer an Interview Question

Preparing for interviews is serious concern. Simply even if you practice, and do, and do, you could still become a question you just don't know how to answer. Whether it's a technical question on something you've never heard of before or but something completely unexpected, a question that stumps you can really throw off the pacing of the conversation and leave y'all a bit shaken upwards.

So, what should you do when you get interview questions that you lot take no idea how to answer to? Endeavour one of these pain-free approaches.

1. Take Your Time

First things beginning: Admit that the question was asked and that you're thinking about it. Something as simple as, "Hmm…that's a neat question. Allow me recollect about that," volition suffice as you take some time to work through your first thoughts on how to approach the question.

This is important to remember, especially since it's so natural to make full up any empty airspace with words to avoid awkward silences. Take a chip of time to gather your thoughts and make sure you don't blurt out anything that gives away that yous're—well, completely stumped.

ii. Call back Aloud

Recollect that half the time, hiring managers are asking tricky questions not to hear you lot spurt out the right answer immediately, but to get a meliorate sense of how you think through problems. Then, after you lot've taken a minute to gather your thoughts, try explaining succinctly where your thoughts have been and become forward from there.

For instance, if you go asked something like, "Tell me about your copyediting procedure for long form articles," and you don't actually take a procedure (yet), a good approach would exist to imagine that you're editing that article and share the steps out loud. Add together transitional adverbs like "get-go," "and then," and "lastly" to give your reply some structure. You can also stop off with a qualifying statement that "the process varies depending on the situation," which shows that you're flexible fifty-fifty if your reply isn't what the hiring director would do.

3. Redirect

If yous're asked a question that you actually tin't work through, ain upwards and attempt redirecting to an area you are familiar with. You may not be able to speak to a certain skill directly, but if yous're able to connect it to similar skills, you lot're much better off than just saying you don't have the skill they're looking for.

For example, say you applied for a position that requires social media marketing experience and are asked nearly your experience in this type of marketing. If you only don't take it, try redirecting the answer to something you practice have experience with.

In this case, y'all could move toward your experience in social media community direction or print marketing and say, "That's 1 of the reasons I'm so excited about this position. I have extensive experience in social media customs management from blogging in my previous position, as well as experience with print marketing for my professional organisation. I think I'm very well equipped to combine these two skills into the necessary social media marketing for your product, especially since your company has been focusing its efforts in building up a community."

4. Have a Fail-Safe

Of course, you might go a question that no amount of stalling, thinking aloud, or redirecting can help with. Questions that call for definitions or understanding of concepts that yous don't know tin can't just be worked through on the spot. For these questions, lean on the enquiry you've done well-nigh the company and industry the position is in.

Say you're applying for a mergers and acquisitions position in finance and are asked, "What is working capital?"—and you really just have no idea. Be prepared with a neglect-condom answer that focuses on your enthusiasm for the position and cognition of the manufacture. Something like, "That's non a concept I'm actually familiar with yet, but finance is something I'yard really excited nigh, and I've been actively trying to learn more than. I've been keeping upward with deals and have read about a few that your company has been involved in. I've as well learned a lot about the industries that you advise. I think the consolidation that's going on in the auto industry is going to create a lot of interesting opportunities going forward, and it'll be an opportunity to learn a cracking bargain about the M&A business concern."

Above all, acquire from all your interview experiences. And remember that regardless of what question you become, consider what the hiring manager is really trying to larn from the question. You may not exist able to answer the actual question asked, only if yous're able to figure out what the hiring managing director is really trying to learn with the question and assuage whatever business organisation he or she might take—you've already washed well.

Lily Zhang is a career advisor at the MIT Media Lab, where she works with a range of students from AI experts to interaction designers on crafting their own unique career paths. When she's not indulging in a new volume or video game, she's thinking well-nigh, talking about, or writing nigh careers. You can find her on LinkedIn, Twitter, and her website.

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Source: https://www.themuse.com/advice/4-ways-to-handle-interview-questions-you-dont-know-how-to-answer

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