Most interview preparation fails for the same reason. Candidates rehearse answers instead of understanding what the question is testing.
The ten questions below come up in almost every first round in Belgium, whether you are interviewing for a permanent role, a freelance mission or a consulting assignment. None of them is a trick. Each one measures something specific, and once you know what that is, the answer more or less writes itself.
Here is what each question is actually testing, and the trap that catches most people.
1. "Tell me about yourself"
What it tests: whether you can structure information under mild pressure.
This is not an invitation to recite your CV from your first internship. Two to three minutes is enough: where you are now, the two or three steps that got you there, and why this role is the logical next one. Finish on the job you are interviewing for, not on your past.
The trap: starting in 2011 and running out of time before you reach anything relevant.
2. "Why do you want this job?"
What it tests: whether you read anything beyond the salary line.
Name something specific: a product, a market, a technology, a way of working. Then connect it to something you have already done. Generic enthusiasm reads as no preparation at all.
The trap: answering why you want a job, rather than why you want this one.
3. "What are your strengths?"
What it tests: whether you can evidence a claim.
Pick two, not five, and attach a real situation to each. A strength without an example is just an adjective. Two strengths with evidence beat five without.
The strongest version quantifies something: a delay you cut, a process you fixed, a client you kept.
4. "What is your greatest weakness?"
What it tests: self-awareness and coachability, not honesty for its own sake.
Name a real weakness, say when it shows up, and show what you changed. Never pick a weakness that is a core skill of the role you are interviewing for.
This is the question candidates most often over-rehearse. We covered it in depth here: how to answer "What are your weaknesses?" without losing credibility.
5. "Tell me about a time when..."
What it tests: whether your examples have a result attached.
Behavioural questions are the backbone of most structured interviews. Belgian employers are fond of them, and second rounds often push further into scenario-based questions that work like a verbal case study.
Answer with situation, task, action, result, in that order. The full method is here: using the STAR method effectively in behavioural interviews.
6. "Why are you leaving your current job?"
What it tests: whether you are running from something or towards something.
Frame it forward. What you are looking for, not what you are escaping. You can be honest about a reorganisation, a closed team or a role that stopped growing, without turning it into a complaint.
One practical reason to stay measured: Belgium is a small market, and most sectors here are one or two degrees of separation wide.
7. "Where do you see yourself in five years?"
What it tests: whether your direction and the role point the same way.
Nobody expects a five-year plan. What they are checking is that the job is not obviously a detour for you. Talk about the kind of problems you want to be solving and the level of responsibility you want, rather than a job title.
Saying you do not know exactly is fine. Saying you have never thought about it is not.
8. "What are your salary expectations?"
What it tests: whether you did the homework and can talk about money without flinching.
In Belgium, answer in gross monthly, and say what you are counting in the package. The difference between gross and net salary is large enough here that a mismatch wastes everyone's time.
Give a range with a floor you would actually accept. More on the timing and the wording: salary negotiation during interviews.
9. "Tell me about a mistake you made"
What it tests: accountability.
Pick a real one with a real consequence. Own your part without distributing blame across former colleagues, then say what you changed so it did not happen twice.
Candidates who answer this question well tend to be the ones who get through second rounds. Candidates who claim they cannot think of one rarely do.
10. "Do you have any questions for us?"
What it tests: interest, and whether you have been listening for the last hour.
"No questions from my side" is the most expensive sentence in an interview. It is the last thing the panel hears, and it reads as indifference even when you are simply satisfied with the answers.
Bring four or five prepared questions, because two of them will get answered during the conversation. Here is what to ask and why it matters: smart questions to ask your interviewer.
In short
Interviews are won on structure and specifics, not on charisma.
For each of the ten questions, prepare one example rather than one script. An example survives a follow-up question. A script does not.
If you want to practise these questions against real roles, our consultants brief every candidate before the client interview. Start with the open positions.
