Interview Questions (Source: http://job-interview-answers.com/
The Ultimate Guide to Job Interview Answers 7th Edition 2014
Behavioral Interview Questions & Answers, by Bob Firestone.
- So … Tell me about yourself.
- What have you learned from your mistakes?
- Describe a time when you were faced with unreasonable deadlines at work. — What did you do? What was the outcome?
- What would your last school board president say about you?
- How much $$$ money do you expect if we offer this position to you?
- Tell me about a time you had to establish a new partnership, or build new relationships in order to get something done. How did you go about that?
- What are your long-range career objectives & what steps have you taken toward obtaining them?
- Describe a situation when working with a team produced more successful results than if you had completed the project on your own. (see example below.)
- Have you ever had problems with a supervisor or a coworker? … Describe the situation.
- What do you do when people disagree with your ideas? Describe some times when you had to resolve a conflict with an individual, or guide others to compromise.
- What did you like best and least about your last position? (see example below.)
- What is the worst mistake you made in your last leadership position? (see example below)
- Describe a situation where you had to deal with someone who didn’t like you as a person.
- Tell me about an important written document you were required to complete.
- What motivates you to go the extra mile on a project or job?
- Do you consider yourself to be a leader? What are the attributes of a good leader?
- Are you good at delegating tasks? Tell me about your process.
- Give me an example of a time when you tried to accomplish something and failed. Were you discouraged by this? What did you do about it?
- Where do you see yourself five years from now?
- What does it mean to be successful? … Then how successful have you been so far?
- What’s the last book you read?
- What are your expectations regarding an extension of your contract?
- You don’t have the right kind of experience.
- You may be overqualified or too experienced for the position.
- Why did you leave your last job?
- Have you ever been fired or forced to resign?
- Why have you had so many jobs in such a short period of time?
- Can you explain this gap in your employment history?
- Why should we hire YOU? — What can you do for us that someone else cannot?
- What would you hope to accomplish in your first 90 days here?
- Give me an example of a problem you faced on the job, and tell me how you solved it.
- Tell me about a time when you had to use your presentation skills to influence someone’s opinion.
- Walk me through the steps you took to reach an important long-term goal.
- What’s your biggest weakness? Give some examples of areas where you need to improve.
- Share some examples of how you’ve been able to motivate other people.
- Describe a decision you made that was unpopular, and how you handled implementing it.
- What was your role in your school district’s most recent success? (See example below.)
Answer:
What did you like best and least about your previous job?
STRATEGY: This is potentially a trick question. You want to indicate that what you liked best about your last job are things that will appeal to the Hiring Manager. Show that your last job allowed you to demonstrate many of the positive and desirable Behavioral Competencies that are discussed in-depth at the beginning of the Guide. Give specific examples of how your last job allowed you to flex your skills and show your maturity. When answering about what you liked least, keep it short and do not be negative.
“What I liked about my last job was the fact that there was good on the job training. I was able to really develop my “X” skills, which I know will help me succeed here if I am fortunate enough to be able to join your team. What are the qualities and skills of the people who have been most successful in your department?”
“One thing I liked about my last job was that it allowed me to develop my project management skills … FOR EXAMPLE, I was put in charge of a project where I had to earn the “buy-in” of people from multiple different departments — and I had all the responsibility for getting this project completed on time but no real authority over my teammates. I was successful because I involved key stakeholders early-on to get their feedback on my ideas. With those ideas is mind, I negiotiated with the team to an agreement about deadlines. Then day-to-day I made sure that each team member was completing their work on time. I did this by setting up a progress tracking system. Can I tell you about it? … ”
“What I liked least about my last job was that the management style was pretty hands-off, and this was fine for me because I am self-motivated and work hard to achieve. But the lack of structure sometimes allowed some of my teammates to slack off from time to time — and I often ended up having to pick up the extra work. I had to constructively approach my manager and let her know what was going on WITHOUT creating any friction between me and my co-workers. In the end, it worked out well, because I was pro-active. — Have you ever run into that type of situation as a manager?”
What’s the worst mistake you ever made on the job, and what did you learn from it?
STRATEGY: Think about what they want to hear. Show that you are able to learn from your mistakes, but don’t offer up any negative examples concerning your past performance. Show that you have been successful, but that you have the maturity it takes to examine your own behavior so you can learn and grow and be a better employee. Be brief.
“Good question. Well, I have been successful in every job I have had, but I have had the normal ups and downs. I’d say that I do actively try to monitor the quality of my work so that I can constantly be improving myself. FOR EXAMPLE, I have had one or two hiccups with clients (or customers) where their satisfaction was not exactly where I thought it was. I learned that I have to really monitor certain difficult clients closely and “take their temperature” so I can keep their satisfaction level as high as possible. Have YOU had any customers like that here?”
Describe a situation when working with a team produced more successful results than if you had completed the project on your own.
STRATEGY: This is another behavioral interview style of question. The Hiring Manager wants to learn more about your thought process, and how well you can form examples to answer this teamwork-related question. You will want to show your ability to solicit ideas from others, listen carefully, and persuade people to your point of view.
“Working with others allows you to data-mine other people’s skills and experiences. You get perspectives and ideas that you would not have on your own. You can also check the quality of your own work before it goes out the door. FOR EXAMPLE, at Job “X” I worked with many great people. I was able to “pick their brains” — so to speak — about the effectiveness of various techniques, and get estimates on how long it would take to get various things done, etc. — I would not have been able to do my job as effectively without them.”
“Would that type of experience be relevant to this job? … Great! … So when do I start? …” (don’t be afraid so throw some humor in if it’s going well!)
“Well, throughout my career I’ve worked both independently and as a member of many teams. I will have to say, though, that working with others has often produced great results for projects I’ve worked on — specifically when it comes to brainstorming as well as knowledge sharing. When it’s appropriate, I try to get the key stakeholders involved in coming up with new solutions. I did that a lot at Job ‘ABC’. FOR EXAMPLE …and the OUTCOME was a roughly 30% increase in cost-savings for the company, and a significant decrease in the time it took to complete the project.”
✔ Tell me about a time when you were faced with problems or stresses at work that tested your coping skills. What did you do?
STRATEGY: Workplace stress is an issue for everyone. Don’t pretend that you never get stressed out. Show you can deal with stress and cope with difficult situations in a fast-paced environment. Give examples of how you’ve been calm under pressure, and how you avoid stress in the first place through planning and time management.
“Well I think it’s important to remember that stress affects everyone, and it’s inevitable that sometimes people are going to have bad days. But what I do personally plan ahead and try to manage my time as best as possible. If something happens, I try to control my response to the situation. You can’t always control what happens to you, but you CAN control your own response. What I do is consciously lengthen the time between the stressor and my response to it … Would you say it is a stressful environment here? … I see. I’m sure I can handle it — I’ve been tested like that before … FOR EXAMPLE … AND THE POSITIVE OUTCOME WAS …”
✔ What was your role in your school district’s most recent success?
STRATEGY: You’ll want to be very specific here, and frame your answer in terms of how you saved time and money. Use your personal “metrics of success” — these are simple numbers you write down and remember before the interview; like the hours of time you saved by your smart decisions, and the dollar amounts of revenue or cost-savings you generated. Remember, these materials show you how to make these up, giving you fill-in-the-blanks templates for creating your own “metrics of success” numbers based on your past work experience — and it works for ANY type of job history. This is a MUST HAVE for your interview. Please be prepared with this!
“Well, my role was ongoing and it required a lot of communication and teamwork with my team as well as the client. I think my role really was to clarify the scope of the project, and then “manage the client’s expectations.” We were able to deliver on time, and the client was thrilled! … I was able to make sure no time was wasted on adding unnecessary features. And since we were working on a fixed bid price, we saved my company time and money. I estimate I contributed to a cost savings of about $20,000 on that project. My manager and everybody on my team felt great because the project went so smoothly … Is that the kind of experience that would help me be successful here?”
“My role in the success of our last big project was contributing to [cutting costs 30% /saving 20 man-hours of work per week / increasing revenue by 14% / getting the job done about 50% faster / helping customers 20% more of the time]. I was able to achieve this by using [risk management / industry knowledge / innovation / empowering others / persuasive presentations / time management / partnering & negotiating / special skills] …FOR EXAMPLE …”