Question 4: What Were Your Personal Responsibilities?

This is the real deal now. With the answer to this question you will have the opportunity to go for the touchdown ... or drop the ball altogether. This is where you describe what you did on a day-to-day basis, the projects that you owned, and the work that you put in. How do you shine here? It can be quite simple if you focus your message on achievements, on results, on the things that you changed and improved, while owning your work. Give a lot of examples and be specific. Instead of "Prepared the monthly productivity reports" you could say "Decreased by three days the preparation time for the monthly productivity reports, while in the same time increasing accuracy to 100%". You get the picture?

OK - now here is what the interviewer is really trying to learn about you, when asking this question:

1. When asking you about your prior responsibilities, the recruiter is examining in detail what kind of employee you are going to be. Will you be proud of your work (then, you would probably speak with pride about past accomplishments)? Will you be confident and assertive go-getter? Will you be a problem-solver, or merely a problem register, etc.?

2. In my experience the hiring manager will often have a mental list, or even one on paper, and will check off each of the responsibilities for the position she is looking to fill. Sometimes she would even ask clarifying questions, which could be great clues for the attentive job-hunter. If you cannot decipher anything, or prefer not to change your game plan - your best bet is preparation based on the job-description. This is why it is so important to have as much of a detailed job-description as possible. You can not do too much here and you can go as far as setting up a prior informational interview with someone in the company to help you get more information on the key responsibilities.

3. The recruiter is also interested in the overlap between your skills-set and the one needed for the position you are applying for. This would include any type of skills - from mere understanding of excel, to the finer points of the emotional intelligence required in an increasing number of places. Also - are you over or under-qualified? What is the expected learning curve?