Take the job posting and the documents you actually sent as your foundation. Prepare a short introduction of yourself, three to five concrete situations and your own questions. Practice speaking freely – not reciting a text.
Three blocks that help right away.
Mark claims in the resume and cover letter that could prompt questions.
For each situation, note the task, your contribution and the result in keywords.
Pick questions about tasks, collaboration and the next step in the process.
Start with the application you sent
Many applicants research the company but open their own resume only shortly before the appointment. Yet many interview questions refer directly to your path, your motivation, the advertised role and claims from the application documents.
So place four things side by side: the full job posting, the resume you sent, the cover letter you sent and your notes on the company so far. Mark claims that are likely to prompt follow up questions: career changes, unusual time periods, large results, new subject areas or especially relevant projects.
The four perspectives of your preparation
- Your path: Which roles and decisions explain how you arrived here?
- The task: Which problems is the new role likely meant to solve?
- Your evidence: Which situations show a matching working style or experience?
- Your questions: Which information do you need yourself in order to judge the role?
Prepare a short introduction of yourself
The request “Tell me about yourself” is not an invitation to read out the entire resume. A good introduction of yourself creates orientation. It connects your current situation, two relevant experiences and the reason the new role now makes sense.
A length of about 60 to 90 seconds is a useful practice frame, not a rigid rule. Speak freely and in clear sentences. If the role is highly technical or senior, a slightly longer framing can make sense. What matters is that you set priorities.
“After school I studied, then I was at company A and after that at company B …”
“I work today at the intersection of customer service and process improvement. In my last two roles I structured recurring problems and built handovers between support and product. I see that same connection in your advertised position.”
Professional examples with the STAR method
For questions about collaboration, conflict, success, mistakes or difficult decisions, concrete stories help. The STAR method keeps them easy to understand: Situation, Task, Action and Result.
The longest part should usually be your action. That is exactly where it becomes visible how you think and work. Avoid a long company portrait and a single sentence about your contribution. If the result was not ideal, the story can still be strong when you can show responsibility, learning and a next action that is easy to understand.
Build a small collection of examples
Do not prepare a new answer for every possible question. Choose three to five versatile situations: a strong result, a difficult collaboration, an independent decision, a mistake or setback and a period of fast learning. Note keywords, not fully written scripts.
Fictional example · “Tell me about a mistake.”
Show responsibility without shrinking yourself.
“For a client meeting I had prepared a presentation, but I had not obtained approval for a specialist detail in time. Shortly before the meeting it became clear that the figure was not yet confirmed. I named that openly and removed the slide instead of leaving an uncertain claim in place. After that I used an approval list with responsible people and deadlines for further meetings.”
Here the mistake, your own part, the immediate reaction and the changed working style become visible. You do not have to turn a mistake into a success story. What matters is being able to explain how you would handle a similar situation today.
An answer that invites follow up questions
The STAR method is not a template you have to name in the interview. It helps you move quickly from background to your own action. This is how a fictional answer to “Tell me about a process improvement” could sound:
Example: sorting recurring customer requests
“On our service team the same questions about a new feature were answered one by one, over and over. I was asked to make the most common causes visible and to create a reliable basis for answers. I grouped requests from the ticket system, clarified open points with the product team and wrote short help texts for the team. After that we reviewed the texts in the monthly review and added to them when new questions appeared. My most important learning was to plan specialist approval in before publishing.”
The answer names the starting point, the assignment, your own action and a next step that is easy to understand. It does not claim an unproven percentage improvement. Prepare possible follow up questions for your examples: Which decisions did you make yourself? Who was involved? What would you do differently today?
Common questions in the interview
Why do you want to work here?
Connect the task, the company and your next step. Show that you have researched without repeating marketing copy. A concrete connection to the product, audience, working style or challenge is stronger than general praise.
What are your strengths?
Name a strength that is relevant to the role and back it with a short situation. “I am organized” only becomes useful when you explain what you organized and how that showed.
What is a weakness of yours?
Choose a real, professionally relevant area for growth that does not disqualify you for the core task. Describe how you recognized it and what you are doing in concrete terms. Avoid compliments dressed up as weaknesses such as “I am too much of a perfectionist” when they are not explained honestly.
Why do you want to make a change?
Explain the direction, not a settling of accounts with your current employer. You can name in a factual way which task, responsibility or chance to learn you are looking for. Stay with facts you can check and professional language.
Tell me about a mistake.
Choose a situation with real responsibility. Explain early what your part was, how you reacted and which working style you changed afterwards. A perfect story with no risk often sounds less credible than reflected learning.
What salary do you expect?
Inform yourself in advance about a realistic range for the role, region and experience level. Decide whether you name a concrete amount or a reasoned span. Take the full package into account, but do not dodge the question with long explanations.
Your own questions that help you decide
Your own questions should not only signal interest. They help you check whether the role, leadership and working style fit you. The Federal Employment Agency expressly advises using the chance to ask your own questions.
- How would you recognize after six months that the person in this role is succeeding?
- Which task needs the most attention in the first weeks?
- Which teams or people does this role work with most closely?
- Which decision can the person make alone, and where is alignment needed?
- Why is the position open at the moment?
- How do you give feedback in the team, and how are priorities changed?
- Which next steps and which timeline are planned for the process?
Do not ask every question as a list. Depending on the conversation, choose three to five points that have not been answered yet. Listen to the answers and ask further when a detail matters for your decision.
Turn a general answer into a concrete one
If the reply to your question about getting started is only “We support each other”, you can follow up politely: “What did the first week look like for the person hired most recently? Were there named contacts and shared meetings?” That way you learn something about the actual process.
If you hear “You have a lot of autonomy”, this helps: “Which decision did someone in this role last make alone, and what needed approval?” Note the answer as specifically as you can. If a point that matters to you stays open, that is first an open question – not yet proof of good or poor working conditions.
Research the company with intent
Start with official sources: company website, product pages, annual reports or public role descriptions. Check what the company offers, whom it works for, how the role is placed and which current topics could be relevant to the task.
Separate confirmed information from assumptions. A wording such as “Your product page emphasizes X – how does that affect the team’s priorities?” is stronger than supposed certainty about internal processes.
Note before the interview
- Three confirmed facts about the company, product or task
- Two hypotheses you want to phrase as a question
- A clear answer to why the role fits your next step
- One topic where you still need context
On site, by phone or in a video interview
The content preparation stays similar. For a conversation on site you check the route, arrival, contact person and documents you need. Plan a buffer without standing in reception unnecessarily early. For a phone conversation you need a quiet place, a reliable connection and your most important notes within reach.
For a video interview you test camera, microphone, connection, software and the name that is displayed. Place the camera at about eye level and reduce distractions in the background. Open the job posting and your questions, but do not visibly read answers off the screen.
The Federal Employment Agency recommends preparing a video interview just as thoroughly as an in person conversation. If technical problems arise, name them calmly, suggest a concrete next step and keep a phone number ready.
After the interview
Note right afterwards which topics were discussed, which questions stayed open and which commitments or next steps were named. Also record your own impression: What convinced you, what remained unclear, and which conditions matter for your decision?
A short thank you message can be fitting when it sits naturally with the process and the communication. Do not repeat the entire conversation. Say thank you, pick up at most one concrete point and confirm your interest only if it is actually there.
Apply it now · a practice run without a script
Tell an example out loud.
- Choose a concrete situation you can answer in detail.
- Note four keywords: starting point, task, your own action, result.
- Tell the situation freely. If you explain the context for too long, start earlier with your contribution.
- Ask yourself a follow up: “What did you personally decide?” or “What would you do differently?”
The goal is not perfect wording. You should not lose the thread when someone asks further, and you should be able to distinguish clearly between your part and the team’s work.
Checklist for interview preparation
- The job posting and the documents you sent are complete and at hand.
- The most important tasks and mandatory criteria are marked.
- A short introduction of yourself has been practiced out loud.
- Three to five concrete work stories are prepared as keywords.
- Motivation for the role and the company can be explained in a specific way.
- Your own questions also help with the personal decision.
- Salary range, availability and possible follow up questions are prepared.
- Place, time, contact person and technology have been checked.
- A plan for notes and following up after the interview is in place.
Official orientation
Further guidance is available from the Federal Employment Agency on interviews and selection tests. Process and questions differ by company, role and selection procedure.
Your next step
Your documents. Your basis for the conversation.
Go through typical questions with the examples from the application you sent. You can learn more about the app and its current features directly from CVura.