40 common job interview questions and answers in Nigeria

It is unwise for any applicant to appear in an interview room without practicing some common Job interview questions and answers in Nigeria. Allowing interviewers to catch you unaware will be at your detriment.

With the vast majority of job applicants in Nigeria, getting your preferred job in the country doesn’t seem to come with ease.

After the rigorous steps of getting the vacancy information, writing your resume, perfecting your CV, you also need to go for the interviews.

In most cases, rarely 10% out of the 100 that applied for the same job make it to the interview stage which makes the task a challenging one.

Therefore, you need to get familiar with how interview questions are answered so as not to lose that precious opportunity.

As a result, we have provided 40 common interview questions in Nigeria and answers in this blog post to which you can study before going for the interview.

Suggested answers to the questions are provided below the questions. Study them but refrain from cramming it. It is not professional to cram your answers.

Common Job interview questions and answers in Nigeria

Below are the job interview questions and answers you might want to study against your next interview date.

1. Kindly tell us about yourself.

“I am Sunday john, a marketing manager. I have over six years’ experience at Atlantic Ride group of companies. I am a person that survives in a fast-paced environment.

Presently, I am seeking opportunities to apply my expertise and marketing strategies at a top company as yours which prompted my application for the position in this company.”

NB: Refrain from narrating information on your Resume, don’t start narrating personal information and don’t answer by asking questions like “what do you want to know”, this is rude.

Answer the question professionally by highlighting your competency and why you are there.

2. What do you consider your strength?

“I’m a highly motivated person who strive to get things done. I value the efficiency of teamwork and the good image of the organization.”

3. What do you consider your weakness?

“I liked to work on a single project till it completion before starting another. This is what I see as my weakness.

But, in the long run, I have learned to work on multiple projects simultaneously and this really improves my ability and effectiveness.”

4. Why are you leaving your current job?

“I have gained incredible involvement with my present job, but due the size of the company, development is restricted.

So for me to keep on developing, I need to move to some other place. So, working in this organization will profit me in building my career.”

5. What is a good working environment to you?

“A good working environment is one that revolves around cooperation, one that urges colleagues to cooperate to make progress exploiting their various capacities and abilities and one that would simultaneously grow everybody’s ability.

This is my perception because i figured out that I work better in an uplifting and strong environment.”

6. What is your motivation?

“I’m motivated by fulfilling set focuses within given deadlines, as it provides me with a feeling of achievement and it’s something that I can think back and say that’s what I accomplished. I turned this into habit which keeps me going.”

7. How do you determine success?

“I assess success in light of my work as well as my team. For me to determine my success, the group needs to accomplish both our individual and group objectives.”

8. What is failure to you?

“I see failure as a situation where somebody have not been contributing to the general outcome of the organization over the long run.

It is the point at which you are not enhancing the position and development of the organization as a whole. This I consider as failure.”

9. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

“My goal is to find myself at a position in an organization where I can develop and take on new difficulties and obligations over the long haul.

Pushing ahead, I couldn’t imagine anything better than to take on administrative roles and engage in pushing the brand.

At last, I couldn’t want anything more than to be part of an organization where I can build up my career.”

10. How did you come across this position?

“I found out about the opening on the company’s website and since I love your work and have been following you for some time now, I concluded it would be an incredible job for me to apply for”.

11. Why should we hire you?

“I believed that my experience in (your line of work) makes me the best individual for this position. In my past work as web designer, I was in charge of updating the organization’s site.

This allowed me to constantly ensure everything continues well on the site page, update worker profile and guarantee appropriate substance transfer on the site.

I love the job, which pulled me into this organization, I couldn’t imagine anything better than to get my abilities and apply it to this position.”

12. What will be your reaction if you are not appointed for the job?

“Yours is a company i can conveniently see myself working for. In the event that my application for this job was not successful, I would plainly keep on seeking after different open doors.

However, this specific job remains my favored decision, and I really want to believe that I have exhibited that I would be an optimal candidate for the job.”

13. Can you work under pressure?

“I most certainly can. In my current position, I can be confronted with distressing circumstances that expect me to work under pressure consistently and I have since then figured out how to oversee pressure. Presently it’s simply a thing that I get along with nicely.”

14. What idea can you bring to the company that we don’t already have?

“I have worked with the most seasoned player in the business so I can contribute by assisting you with staying away from a portion of the mix-ups we made in their laid out business sectors.”

15. Tell me about a past mistake in your career?

“In the early days of my career, I missed a deadline that really cost the company a big loss. There was a great deal of variables that added to this, but in any case, I was the person who failed.

From that experience, I noticed that I wasn’t as organized as I thought I was. Therefore, I worked brilliantly and eventually, I was able to recover the loss even greater for the company. In short, it was a mistake I learnt from.”

16. What are you passionate about?

“Most times, I love being able to create something beautiful from nothing. I am very passionate about this. Though, it requires patience and perseverance but I have cultivated both of those qualities.”

17. How do you plan your goals?

“I plan my goals by cautiously looking at my tasks both short and long term tasks, examining what result is generally anticipated from those tasks, and how I plan to complete the tasks.

Before I start carrying out the task, I consider their levels of importance. This will guide me in dealing with the projects. Basically, I set the goals putting the expected result in mind.”

18. How do you deal with projects with deadline?

“Basically, I would keep a positive attitude towards the project not considering how gigantic the project might be. I will then device a plan that would assist me in completing the project before the set deadline.

I obviously recognized the significance of meeting deadlines. But, if it happens that I can’t meet up with the deadline, I will seek for an extension.”

19. How do you deal with multiple projects?

“Whenever I have multiple projects to finish, I first of all keep a positive attitude towards the projects and try not to get frustrated. I then, at that point, think of an arrangement to complete the assignment within the given deadline.

What’s more, in the event that I can’t complete the projects before the deadline, I would humbly request for an expansion.”

20. What are your precautions against errors in your work?

“In the early years of my career (as an accountant), I used to check through my records just twice to ensure all data are rightly entered but, as time goes on, I realized that twice is not enough to confirm the accuracy of the data therefore, I start checking all the data before and after entering them several times. This had helped me to keep a flawless record throughout the engagement.”

21. What did you like most in your last employment?

“Before my last employment, I have generally anticipated working in a company environment that upheld teamwork. In my last employment, I worked as a member of the project planning and executing department and we dealt with both internal and external projects.

What interest me most is the fact that we deal with the project individual in bit and at the end, we converge and marge the project together to become a whole.

The combination of individuals to accomplish such great deal of tasks is what appeals to me most in my previous employment, and to that end I’m likewise excited about this work as well.”

22. What did you learn in your last job?

“In my last job, I learned to communicate well. Initially, I was used to working on my own with little or no communication with co-workers. When I got to my previous job, I had to communicate with people to understand their ideas.

Since communication is key to every business, I have learned to communicate better and now, I do it better.”

23. How far have you prepared for this position?

“Preparing for this position is one of the basic things that I have prepared for my entire life. From a young age, I have known that I would be doing things that involve people even if I had not clearly discovered it.

As I grew older, I was able to discover that I am better off with employment and personnel management.”

24. How far can your experience help with this position?

“As a content developer, I have acquired skills like excellent writing skills, graphics design skills, video editing, and animation. Aside that, I also learned how to work efficiently with teammates. I managed and supervise other team members.”

25. How do you relate with your teammates?

“I build an interpersonal relationship with my teammates by building interest around what they do. In my current employment, I generally observe what somebody has done and give a type of assessment or review on how it may be better, or give word of encouragement to boost the moral. I was very active with my team.”

26. How is your performance when working as a team?

“Indeed, I really enjoy it. Being part of the team implies you get to contribute to ultimately benefit all, and there are individuals too who can render support and share knowledge and experience with you. It is my most active field; Team.”

27. What would you do if communication is disrupted at work?

“I believed that when there is a communication breakdown, the principal thing to do is to find what brought about the break and then attempt to fix it as quickly as time permits. I believe that is visible enough.”

28. How do you do if you are irritated by a co-worker?

“It takes a great deal to truly annoy me since I’m really versatile and will more often than not coexist with basically everybody.”

29. What kind of supervisor would you prefer to work with?

“My ideal supervisor would be somebody that would appreciate great correspondence between the team and himself.

I accept that communication is truly a key element with regards to cooperating as an effective team and, surprisingly, one that can push the whole business forward.”

30. What picture do you think your boss and co-workers will paint about you?

“All things considered, in my latest performance audit, my immediate boss portrayed me as somebody who steps up and doesn’t avoid difficult issues.

My job includes a great deal of project implementation, and when things turn out badly, it’s typically dependent upon me to fix it. I usually attempt to do what I can first before taking it to the team. So, I know they love that about me.”

31. Why do you think you are the best candidate for this job?

“For this specific job, I have the ideal mix of abilities and experience that is required. I additionally bring rich experience of critical thinking and problem-solving abilities that I have acquired while working with different organizations.

My devotion to incredible work standards will enhance the value of the team and the organization.”

32. Can you make sacrifices for the company?

“I might want to do that as well as could be expected. I can oversee individual matters all alone without causing clashes when the executives need me most. But I cannot compromise my value.”

33. Do you mind to relocate?

“I love where am living presently and would prefer to stay here. However, for the right opportunity I’d be willing to consider relocating if necessary.”

34. In the event that you are employed, how long is your estimation of working here?

“I’ll jump at the chance to work and remain in this organization as long as my career objectives remain commonly viable with this organization and obviously if my service is still of relevance to the company.”

35. Have you spearheaded a project?

“I have done this more than twice in my last employment while working as a designer and developer. All the companies design was handled by me and I have a good record of adequate delivery.”

36. What is your salary expectation?

“Right now, I will like to learn more about the position and available compensation before discussing the pay. But on the face value, I’m looking for somewhere between N2.500,000,000 annually for this role.”

37. What do you think can make you to be underpaid?

“I don’t imagine anything would make me came up short on for the position. Thinking about my abilities, capacities, and practical experience in this position, I think that I would be properly paid for what I do.”

38. Why is there a break in your CV?

“I needed to leave my last job to stay with a debilitated relative. I did this for one year. Although while I was doing that, I developed my writing skills. Following half a month now, I was relieved from the duty and now, I’m free to work.”

39. Describe yourself in 3 words.

“I am passionate, determined and committed.”

40. What would you like to ask us?

On a final note, most interview questionnaire end the interview by asking the candidate if he has any question for them. At this stage, you are not expected to start asking how many holidays are there in a week or how many times you are free to go on a leave.

You can ask questions like, What drive the company? Or you ask questions about the company’s departments or projects.
Conclusion
The above are the popular job interview questions and answers in Nigeria. Master them and you’ll definitely secure that your dream job.