INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Your questions should not offend and should be designed to help you establish the applicant's qualifications and likelihood for success on the job. Questions that determine values help verify if there are any misalignments. 1. What are some of the things that make a job fulfilling for you? 2. What three accomplishments do you take the greatest pride in? 3. What is the toughest job you have ever had? How did you handle it? 4. What kind of boss do you work best with? 5. What would your present or former boss say about you? What would he have liked to see you do differently? 6. How do you deal with a situation when your boss overrides a major decision that you have made? 7. Some people say that the best way to learn is through our mistakes. Can you tell me about a mistake that you made, either work or personal that taught you a significant lesson? 8. What would your present/former fellow coworkers tell a friend about you? 9. We seek people who actively pursue ways to improve. Give me an example where you sought to improve yourself over the last three to four months. 10. Have you ever risked your job to do what you thought was right? If yes, how did it turn out? 11. What values do you admire most in your favorite boss? 12. During a heated discussion between co-workers, if you could be either a peacemaker or a decision maker, which would you choose and why? 13. Do you have any responsibilities that conflict with the job attendance or travel requirements? 14. What motivates you to put forth the greatest effort? 15. How are you with deadlines? Describe times when you ve had to juggle several tasks at once. 16. What work situations irritate you or make you angry? 17. Describe an occasion when you took the initiative to handle something outside your area of responsibility. Why did you decide to handle the situation in that way? 18. What skills and abilities do you have that will make you successful in this position? Give examples. 19. What personal needs do you expect to satisfy by accepting this position? 20. What s the highest leverage use of your time and talent? 21. What do you wish you had more time to do? 1
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Cont d 1. Tell me about yourself in three to five minutes. 2. Why did you leave company X? 3. Which of your jobs did you like best? 4. How did you get your past jobs? 5. Why are you interested in our organization? 6. What are your long and short term goals? 7. If you had complete freedom, what would your dream job be and why? 8. What have you been doing to grow in your profession? 9. What did you like most/least in your last job? 10. Tell us how you ensure that you meet deadlines when under pressure? Give examples. 11. What is your management philosophy/style? 12. What will your strategy be to become productive in this position? 13. If you were hired, what do your first 90 days look like? 14. How do you rate yourself as a professional on a scale of 1 to 10 and why? 15. What new goals have you established recently? Did you meet any of these goals? 16. What does success mean to you? 17. Tell us how you have prepared yourself to move into a leadership role? 18. What is your leadership style? 19. What else should we know about you? 20. How would you describe yourself? Are you more conceptual or are you more analytical? 21. How have you helped increase revenue or decrease costs? 22. What is the most common misperception people have about you? 23. What do you do for fun and relaxation? 24. Who do you admire most and why? 25. What's your least favorable trait or habit? What have you done to improve it? 26. What event or experience had the greatest impact on you? 2
27. Give me an example of how you would persuade me to buy this pen, (or another object) 28. Tell me about your creativity and/or your ideas that have been incorporated in your previous work. 29. Have you been in charge of budgeting or approving expenses and monitoring departmental progress against financial goals? Are you very qualified in this area? 30. Why should I consider you a strong candidate for this position? 31. Give me an example of how you stay organized. 32. How do you go about making important decisions? Take me through the process. 33. Would you describe yourself as a risk taker or someone who plays it safe? 34. If you could start your career allover again, what would you do differently? 35. What is the biggest mistake you've ever made in choosing a job? Why? 36. Do you prefer to work by yourself or with others? 37. What were your most memorable accomplishments in your last job? Or your career? 38. Why are you looking for a new opportunity? 39. What types of people do you find it most difficult to get along with? 40. What does the word failure mean to you? 41. How would your co-workers describe you? 42. How do you generally handle conflict? 43. If you could change one thing about your personality with the snap of your fingers, what would it be? Why? 44. Tell us how you will build relationships within our organization? 45. Your supervisor tells you to do something that you know would be detrimental to the organization, what would you do? 46. What led you to select your major or your minor in college? 47. If you were to start college over tomorrow, what other courses would you take? Why? 48. What's the current or last book you've read? 49. How would you describe yourself with three adjectives? 50. How would your subordinate(s) describe you with three adjectives? 3
51. Tell us how you coach and grow your subordinates? 52. What would you do if you learned that a peer was falsifying expense records? 53. What did you enjoy most about school? 54. What activities in your life give you the greatest sense of accomplishment? 55. Who do you consider to be the most successful person you have ever known? Why? 56. What qualities do you have which you believe would be the most valuable to our organization and why? 57. When you are faced with a problem, are you more interested in the cause or the solution? Why? 58. Do you set goals for yourself? If yes, please share a couple of your present goals with me. 59. How will you keep your supervisor informed about your work? 60. Why are you interested in this position and why do you want to become a member of our team? 61. Is there anything else you would like to share with us so that we can get to know you better? 62. What activities in your life give you the greatest sense of accomplishment? 63. Who do you consider to be the most successful person you have ever known? Why? 64. What do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment in life? What has been your greatest disappointment? 65. What do you do when there is a decision to be made and no procedure exists? 66. What do you do when you have a lot of work to do in a short period of time? 4
Examples of Behavioral Interviewing Questions for Competencies & Performance Management Assertiveness Tell me about the last time you disagreed with someone. What was the situation and outcome? Self-Actualization Tell me about a short term goal you recently set and achieved. How did you achieve this goal? Interpersonal Relationship Tell me about the last time you entered an environment or group where you were new. What did you do to become known? Stress Tolerance Describe a time when you were under a great deal of stress. What caused the stress and what actions did you take to resolve this situation? Impulse Control When was the last time you were very angry. What caused you to be angry and how did you resolve it? Problem Solving Please describe the last time you were faced with a large problem. What did you do to deal with it? Can you give me an example-step by step-of how you handled a difficulty problem at work or at home? Happiness Tell me about the best thing that has happened to you in the past five years. Creativity/Innovation Please describe the two best ideas you came up with at your current or most recent company? What generated these ideas? What were the end results of the ideas? Who did you have to convince the value of these ideas? Where do they stand now? (Ingenuity, problem solving, communication) Teamwork Tell me about the last time you worked in a team. What was the reason for the team and what was your role? Who within the team did you have the most difficulty communicating with and relating to and why? What actions did you take to cause the working relationship to improve? 5
Time Management/Commitment/Dedication Tell me about a time when you needed to invest extra time and energy to get a job completed or project finished. What did you do to finish the job or project? How often did or does this occur? (Ability and willingness to work through busy times, dedication) On what basis did you assign priorities for the work to get done? What actions did you take to succeed? What were your results? (Multi-tasking) Leadership/Delegation Please describe the last time you were in a leadership role either officially or unofficially? What was the greatest challenge you encountered in this role and relationship? What did you do to facilitate your goal and the relationships involved? (Ability to lead, mentor, instruct with a variety of individuals). Decision Making/Problem Solving Please give me some examples of how you typically go about making difficult decisions? Do you need other people more than they need you and why? Can you give me an example step by step of how you handled a difficult problem at work? Project Management Please describe a time where you were responsible for a project from the initial stage through completion? What other staff members worked with you and what were their roles? What were the greatest challenges you encountered through the project? What did you do or develop to overcome these challenges? Who did you report to on this project and what was the style and frequency of your interaction with this person? What was the end result? What did you learn from this experience? What would you do differently if you were to do it over again? 6