It is always interesting to ask a third person’s opinion about you in contrast with asking to elaborate your opinion about yourself. As contrast as this may look the interviewer is exactly looking for that sort of input from you. This person that you would imagine is obviously a colleague whom you are in good terms with and who would value you professionally as well as personally.
Philosophy behind the Question
The question is based on an untested but reasonable theory that if someone at work is your friend, who knows much about you, you probably might’ve a lot in common to get along. The essence of this question comes in when you start describing why your co-worker would say anything good about you. This is where you inadvertently reveal the real character of how your terms had been with your previous co-workers and that is exactly what the interviewer wants to get.
A good answer to how your friends or coworkers describe you could be;
“A word that my friends or coworkers would use to describe me is reliable. Both my friends and coworkers would say that I’m reliable, because of the fact that I’m the one that everyone calls. I like to build strong relationships with my teammates because I think good performance comes with good team. As far as my previous coworkers go, I am always the one who they called at times when they felt the job has to be done by someone whom they can depend on. My previous employers knew that 95% of the time that they called me to come into work to cover someone’s shifts or just to help in general, I was there.”
- Never express a half baked picture of you this might lead to shortening of the interview.
- Never make it appear as if your faking and engineering the answer to satisfy the interviewer
- What does you previous employer say about you?
- What does your best friend say about you?
- What do your colleagues say about you?
- How would your friends describe you?
- Instead of just imagining what your coworkers or former coworkers would say about you, wouldn’t it be more impressive (and easier) if you already knew? This job interview question provides a great opportunity to pull out a testimonial.
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