Warm Up

• Why did you apply for this position?

• How did you hear about the available position?

• Briefly summarize your work history and education?

In answering these questions, the interviewer is seeking out your spirit.  The answers themselves mostly appear on your resume already.  He/she wishes to see how excited you are about the position available.  This will set the tone for the remainder of the interview.  Be sure to show enthusiasm as you confidently answer these questions. 

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Work History

• What aspects of your work experience have prepared you for this job?

• Please describe one or two of your most important accomplishments?

• Please describe the biggest disappointments in your work history?

• How much supervision have you typically received from your previous jobs?

• What is the reason for wanting to leaving your present jobs?

• What is the reason for leaving your previous job?

• What things do you look for in an Employer?

These questions are meant to probe your skill set, ability to work on your own, understanding of what your needs are in a work environment and the decision making process utilized in leaving a company.  In answer these questions, never speak poorly of a past Employer.  This demonstrates bad character and is a window for the interviewer to see how his/her company will be treated by you if offered a position.  Be honest with your responses.  If you attempt to appear more astute about a given topic and are called to cite your proficiency, then you may establish in the mind of the interviewer a level of incompetence the Employer cannot afford.

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Job Performance

• What are your strengths which enable you to perform this job?

• What would you say are areas needing improvement?

• How did your supervisor in your current position evaluate your job performance?

• When you have been told, or discovered for yourself, a problem with your job performance, what have you typically done to rectify that problem?

• What kind of people do you find most difficult to work with and why?

• What would you say is the most important thing you are looking for in a job?

• What are some things you particularly liked about your last job?

• Do you consider your progress on the job representative of your ability and why? 

• If I were to ask your present employer about your abilities in the position you hold, what would he/she say?

These are questions posed to determine past behavior established in the work place.  Remember to be honest.  Everything doesn't always work out as we planned.  Explain that everyone has good and bad traits.  Demonstrate that you are different by explaining what you did to improve upon, make up for or accommodate for so that the task at work could be accomplished.  Do not blame anyone for anything.  These questions are also design to get at the root of your thought processes and how you overcome obstacles.  This also provides an opportunity to demonstrate that you possess tact in dealing with the stress of life changes, the job and yourself.

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Career Goals

• What is your long-term career objective?

• What kind of job do you see yourself holding five years from now?

• What skills will you need to develop in order to be ready for that opportunity?

• Why might you be successful in such a job?

• How does this job fit in with your overall career goals?

• Who in your life has influenced you most with career objectives?

• What would you most like to accomplish if you were awarded this job?

Be clear before you answer whether it is short or long-term goals the interviewer is desiring enlightenment about.  Whatever answer you provide, ensure to incorporate in the response how the Employer's open position you will be hired for will work in conjunction with your plan in achieving these goals.  These questions are about proper alignment of the right Candidate with their company.  To begin with, they will be less likely to make an offer if you have no goals in mind for yourself.  If you have established goals for yourself, then it is equally important that your goals and their goals align with one another.

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Self Assessment

• What kind of things do you feel most confident in doing?

• Can you describe a difficult obstacle you have had to overcome and how you accomplished this?

• How would you describe yourself as a person?

• What do you think are the most important characteristics and abilities a person must possess to become successful? Further, how do you rate yourself in these areas?

• Do you consider yourself to be a self-motivator? If so, explain why.

• What do you consider your greatest achievements to date and why?

• What things give you the greatest satisfaction at work?

• What things frustrate you the most and how do you usually cope with them?

Self assessment questions are not about you.  They more precisely get at the heart of how you cope with, interpret and negotiate life's obstacles.  Keep your answers short so that you don't contradict yourself.  It is important to the interviewer that you be clear.  The many facets and dimensions of the human psyche give way to great philosophical contradictions.  So, it is important that you keep these responses brief.  Use abstract response like: loyalty, hard working, creative, eager, fast-learner.

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Creativity

• What have you completed that you consider truly creative?

• Have you experienced a problem when outdated methods didn't work and you developed new solutions?

• Of your creative achievements at work or home, what has provided you the most satisfaction?

• What problems have you recently solved and what solutions did you create?

In responding to these questions, consider telling one or two stories that tout your creative zeal.  Don't be afraid to be too detailed here.  The details are most important part of the story.  Explain what went through your mind as you developed and delivered your solution.  This will help establish your ability to work independently on your feet.

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Extra Curricular Interests

• What organizations do you belong to?

• Tell me specifically what you do in the civic activities in which you participate. (Leading questions in selected areas. i.e. sports, economics, current events, finance.)

• How do you keep current with what's going on in your company, industry and profession?

This kind of question is of interest to your future employer, but not in the way you would expect.  Your answers should be relatively short unless it is a shared interest of the interviewer.  What is being unearthed here is whether or not you are a work-a-holic or a social recluse.  People with these personality types typically do not work well with others.  If you are to be a member of a team, then getting along with others is paramount.

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Leadership

• In your current job, what approach do you utilize to build team cohesion in order to establish a common approach to a problem?

• What approach do you utilize in convincing your people to accept your ideas or department goals?

• What specifically do you set as an example for your employees?

• What type of leader do your people feel you are?

• How do you get people who do not want to work together to build a common approach to an obstacle?

• Do you feel you work more effectively on a one to one or in a group situation?

• Have you ever led a task force, committee or group who didn't report to you, but from whom you have to get work?  How did you accomplish this?  What was positive and negative about the situation?  Would you handle the job differently and if so how?

These questions are meant to decipher the processes you utilize under stressful situations where your specific leadership is brought to bare on the project or group.  Be sure you tell the truth.  With that said, do not admit anything disparaging.  You are selling your service here.  If you have ten stellar examples to provide, then let them fly.  However, if you have the talent while the circumstances or the team you were saddled with possessed incorrigible attitudes, then put a positive spin on it.  In every situation, something can be gained.

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Decisiveness

• Do you consider yourself to be thoughtful, analytical or do you typically make up your mind quickly?

• What was the most difficult decision made in the last three months?  What made it so difficult?

• The last time you were undecided, what did you do?

• How do you go about making an important career decision?

Respond to these questions quickly.  You do not want to suddenly appear indecisive about whether you are decisive.  This category is related to leadership.  These answers will come quickly if you are honest.  It would serve you well to practice responses in advance.  If you are not certain where you stand, then take the introspective time to delve into who you are.  The answers may even surprise you.

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Motivation

• What are your professional goals?

• Give examples of experiences on the job that you felt were satisfying?

• Do you have a short/long-term plan for your department?  Can it be realized?  Did you achieve it the previous year?

• How do you determine priorities in the performance of your job?

What drives you?  Be enthusiastic when answering these questions.  Don't be afraid to show a little emotion.  Show them how interested you are in personal development and how it will align with the progress of the Client Company's goals.  Be specific but don't go into great detail.  They are wanting to see passion here.

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Flexibility

• Tell us about an important suggestion you received recently from your subordinates?  What was the outcome?

• What are your thoughts about continuous changes in a company's operating policies & procedures?

• How effective has your current employer adapted its policies to adjust to a changing economic environment?

• Tell us about a change made in your company within the last six months which greatly affected you.  How successfully were you at implementing the change?

An important trait of leadership is to maintain flexibility.  You should demonstrate here that whether you are holding a leadership position or not, team members alike must keep their options open.  Fortune favors the prepared mind...and the open spirit.  These questions should be answered with a fair amount of detail.  Try not to over do it.  Make sure your facts are consistent with your job experience and time employed.

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Stress Tolerance

• Do you feel pressure on the job? What kind?

• What was the highest pressure situation you have experienced in recent years?  How did you accommodate the situation or event? 

Again, be honest.  You will want to talk about these situations in a direct but calm voice.  It would be as if you were discussing how at the eruption of Mount Saint Helens you were sitting at a nearby cafe with an old college friend, having coffee while the lava was falling from the sky around you.  It is important to impart to the interviewer that you do not flinch under fire.  As you explain your answer, do not exaggerate the solution provided.  This is a tendency to stretch the facts to make the story more interesting and impressive.  If the interviewer checks out your story and any part of it is misleading, then you could find yourself outside the realm of consideration.

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Self Development