Tempting as it may be to dismiss more straightforward questions, such as “Tell me about yourself”, you should rehearse your answer to every question. Oftentimes job applicants get so caught up in preparing for the “tough” questions, that they neglect the ones they perceive to be the “easier” ones. As a result, they are ill-prepared to answer basic questions and stumble in their answers.
It would be impossible to think of and practice every question you could be asked, so you will inevitably run across some questions during the interview process that you hadn’t thought of previously. When this happens, the first thing to do is take a deep breath. Repeat the question to yourself, either in your head or aloud to the interviewer, to ensure that you have heard the question correctly. Then use your practice sessions to draw correlations between this question and others you have practiced. Is this new question a variation of one you have answered before? Is it similar to any other question? If you can draw a parallel to questions you are already comfortable with, then the new question will not appear so daunting.
Another good tactic is to break the question into smaller components so that you can take it bit by bit. This is especially useful for multi-part questions. For example, imagine you are asked: “Tell me about a time when you found yourself at odds with a team member. What were the circumstances and how did you handle the confrontation”. The first thing to do is break this into two parts: (1) provide an example of a team member confrontation, and (2) how did the confrontation get resolved. When answering this question, focus entirely on the first part initially. Set the stage for the conflict that arose, giving the interviewer all of the necessary details. Once this is done, you can then move onto the next part, which is detailing how the conflict was resolved. This is truly the “meat” of the question. The interviewer is more interested in hearing about how you handle conflict and stressful situations than the actual specifics of the conflict itself. So don’t skimp on the second part - the resolution. This pattern is true of a majority of multi-part questions: one section of the answer is merely the opportunity to set the stage for the other, more pertinent part(s) of the question.