How To Answer Passion-Related Questions In An Interview


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As mentioned before, being passionate about what you do is important to show potential employers that you are dedicated to your career and this will speak highly of you as a person. Being passionate about something also gives you motivation to keep learning and developing yourself professionally.
But how would you know if someone was not really into their job? One of the most common questions interviewers ask candidates is “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”
In fact, many companies even have an internal policy asking every candidate this question. While it may sound like a straightforward question, there are some sneaky ways to use this question as a springboard for more difficult questions.
A weaker version of this strength-weakness question can be asked with no context at all. But here we’ll go through some examples and strategies on how to answer this strength weakness question in interviews using two popular scenarios.
The first scenario is when the interviewer asks whether they consider themselves to be good at things or not. They might say something along the lines of “I don’t think I am very good at keeping time schedules” or “I never seem to make decisions quickly”. If this happens, you should respond by pointing out instances where they succeeded in those areas.
Alternatively, they could ask whether they feel stressed during work hours. To reply to this, you can talk about situations where this happened and why it made them unhappy.
Maintain a healthy work-life balance
Finding passion at work is possible, but it takes planning and understanding what you want out of your career. You have to know yourself first – how much time you need to feel fulfilled from within, and then make changes to achieve that inside feeling.
Running your own show and developing your skills can be tiring, which is why having a good amount of balance is important. This could be leaving some hours every week for hobbies or sports teams you are involved with, or scheduling workouts early in the morning or late night.
If you find that you’re not getting enough sleep, try to schedule extra rest during the day or organize bed times so you don’t stay up too late. Also, consider giving up unnecessary non-essential commitments like the movie theatre once you have found something you love doing.
What are your work habits?
Work-life balance is a popular term these days, but what does it really mean? People seem to have different ideas of what it means for each individual. Some feel that if they don’t put in a certain number of hours at the office every day, then they haven’t worked hard enough. Others believe that being able to prioritize both work and life makes them fail at either one.
The truth is that unless you're an astronaut or a doctor with no off time, there's No Right Way To Balance Your Time. It can be tricky figuring out how much time you should allocate to each domain!
That said, here are some tips to help you achieve a healthier work-life balance. These tips will apply whether you are a beginner employee or a senior executive. We'll talk about why developing relationships at work is important later on in this article as well.
Give yourself permission to spend quality time away from work
This may sound crazy, but it takes a lot of effort to give yourself permission to not come into the workplace everyday. After all, we've got a job and we want to show our bosses we belong there.
But once you realize that spending time at work is like working, you start thinking more about which ones are worth it and which aren't. You begin giving yourself permission to take breaks and do things outside of work during nonwork times.
How do you like working with your boss?
As mentioned before, asking about pay raises and promotions is a good way to get some insight into whether or not someone enjoys their job. But there’s more to it than just that!
Ask how they enjoy working with his/her team and if anyone does anything special for them. You may be surprised at what great things people take time out of their day to do for their colleagues.
It can be making sure everyone has lunch, offering advice or even telling them something related to their field.
Alternatively, ask if anyone ever gives them strong messages or calls them out when needed. The truth is, most bosses learn from those experiences and use that information to motivate others.
Whether it's talking to a colleague or walking up to their supervisor, having knowledge of this will help ensure you stay neutral and don't influence the conversation.
Talk about any projects that you have worked on
It is not enough to talk about your career as a lawyer, or how passionate you are about work and leadership. If you cannot speak with depth about something that you invested time in, what else could you be hired for?
It’s a passion question, so don’t worry too much about being totally authentic and true when answering it. But at least mention one thing per round of questions!
Talk about an internship or part-time job you had where you demonstrated your skills and potential. Or tell me about a project you completed at work that moved the needle and made an impact.
I will ask this question during my interviews, so try to prepare a answer.
What are your strengths?
Your strength as an individual is what makes you special. It’s what people admire about you, and it’s what brings you success. For example, I know many people who are very hard working and diligent, but no one ever says, “You know what would make me work really hard right now? If she were just a little more energetic.”
Or, “I wouldn’t mind having her in my team because she doesn’t seem like she has fun at work.” Or, “She doesn’t appear to care much about her job so probably wouldn’t stick around long anyway.”
Your strengths can be anything from being good with money to creating calm environments to knowing how to put others before yourself. They can be situational or general qualities that you have.
What are your weaknesses?
A strong weakness of most people is that they underestimate how much time it takes them to do things. They think that doing something takes just a few minutes, but actually taking the time to do it properly can take hours.
When you’re working on projects, what seems like a short amount of time will really add up as time spent on research, preparation, and then revising and re-doing parts of the project due to mistakes or lost motivation.
This doesn’t mean that you should be overly conscious about wasting time, but instead try to understand the costs of every action so that you don’t spend too much money on anything.
And when you do run into problems, remember our advice from tip #3: Keep learning! You can never know everything, but by practicing hard and incorporating lessons into your life, you’ll find yourself more comfortable with making changes than ever before.
What are your career goals?
It’s very common for employers to ask their candidates this question. Sometimes it’s called a “career goal” question, but whatever you call it, it’s important to prepare for!
The reason why this is such a difficult question to answer effectively is because there can be many different ways to define what someone means when they say their professional goal.
They may mean moving up within an organization, achieving a specific position like director or vice president, developing special skills that put them ahead of others, receiving recognition and praise for their work, etc. – all good things, but none of those apply if you don’t think about them in terms of the job you currently have.
If you’re not sure what their current job title is, try asking first and then diving into the other parts of their answer. But if you get stuck, just come out and say something like, “So, I understand you mentioned your role here as…”
That will definitely throw them off guard since you didn’t use their term, so they’ll probably give you more detail than usual. Listen closely and figure out how you could implement these into your own life. If possible, add some value to show how you would achieve these in your own career.
What are your values?
Your value system is what makes you who you are. It’s what guides your behavior, how you relate to people, and what matters most to you.
Your value system includes things like beliefs and principles that make up your religion, as well as morals that apply to all faiths. It also includes things such as honesty, integrity, and fairness. These qualities are essential for good health to thrive under a leader.
It goes without saying that someone with no moral standards will not succeed or last very long in business. On the other hand, there are some people whose morals are so strong they are impossible to tell whether they are lying or telling the truth. They can be very successful because nobody has any proof either way!
If you want to know more about another person’s value system, ask them about it. You can even watch for signs of if their actions match their words. But remember that life is full of surprises, so don’t get too attached.
And while being honest is important, excessive honesty can hurt relationships and damage trust.