Page 99 - How To Answer Interview Questions (II)

3.

Job Interview Question 48

Is it more important to be lucky or skillful?

This question is an attitude question. How you answer it will tell the interviewer a lot
about how you look at the world. Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you consider yourself
someone with good things going on in their life, or bad things?

It’s important to be positive in your answer.
You never want to sound like, “Well, it must be more important to be lucky, because those are the
people who catch all the breaks!” This shows them that you consider yourself unlucky and are more
than a little resentful of that.
My personal answer is:
“I think that if you’re skillful, then you create your own luck. You get to be skillful by putting
yourself out there, developing those skills, and when you do that, opportunities show up. When you
are prepared for those opportunities with what you need to take advantage of them, that’s what most
people call ‘luck.’”
Or you could say something else that shows you have a positive attitude and you work hard, such
as:
“I think I was very lucky to have been born into a family that valued education and taught me how
to work hard. That background led me to develop the skills I need to do this job, which put me in this
conversation with you today. So in that sense, I’ve been both.”
If you have some kind of an issue in your background, such as a career setback, an illness or an
illness of a family member that’s kept you out of the workforce for a few years, this might be the time
to talk a little more philosophically about luck and skill:
“Well, I’ve dealt with adversity in the form of X, that I felt made me very unlucky at the time. But I
learned A, B, and C from that which is helping me today to be better at Y and Z. So while I wouldn’t
have wished that on anyone, I think that it’s developed more confidence/a better attitude/a more
positive outlook that will help me to be stronger than ever before.”

Whatever you say, keep your answer positive.