Reviewing and answering the following list of commonly asked interview questions is a great way to prepare for an interview. Typically, employers have a limited amount of time to gain an understanding of prospective employees. Your answers to these questions help employers make informed decisions and enable them to learn more about you as an individual. They are therefore an integral part of the hiring process.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
• What do you do for fun?
• What do you like to do when you are not at work?
• Why did you leave your last job?
ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE
• Describe the job you have held in the past that was most gratifying.
• How can you help our company be more profitable?
• Tell me how you would handle multiple projects in the job.
• What aspects of your job do you consider most crucial?
ABOUT YOUR SKILLS
• Describe a professional skill you have developed in your most recent job.
• Describe a situation in which you have applied your skills to solve a problem.
• Describe your ability to solve problems in the workplace.
• How well can you multi-task?
• How would you rate your communication skills?
• What new skills or ideas do you bring to the job that other candidates aren't likely to offer?
• What would your colleagues tell me about your attention to detail?
ABOUT YOUR WORK STYLE
• Are you able to meet aggressive deadlines? Do you have experience doing so in the past?
• Do you like working alone or in a team environment?
• Do you prefer continuity in structure or frequent change in your daily work?
• Do you work well under pressure?
• How do you go about making important decisions?
• How do you measure the success of your work?
• Tell me about the way you work.
ABOUT YOUR RESUME
• Are you involved with any professional affiliations?
• Tell me something about yourself that I didn't know from reading your resume.
• Why are you currently unemployed?
• Why have you held so many jobs in recent times?
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
• Have you taken any classes since college to bring your skills up to date?
• Is there anything you would change about your college education?
SOME ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Have you ever managed a project for your previous employer? What was the result?
• Tell me about a contribution you have made to a team.
• Tell me about a project you completed ahead of schedule.
• Tell me about any honors or awards that you have received in the past.
• Tell me about the most significant accomplishment in your career?
ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER
• How do you maintain your composure when you are in the hot seat?
• How do you usually handle criticism?
• Is there anything else about you that I should know?
• What are your top strengths? Weaknesses?
• What is your definition of success? How have you been successful in the past?
• What one word best describes you?
CAREER GOAL QUESTIONS
• Describe your ideal job.
• What are your work-related goals for the next few years?
• What motivated you to change careers at this time?
• What prompted you to choose your current career?
• Where do you see yourself in five years? In ten years?
MANAGEMENT QUESTIONS
• Describe a situation in which you demonstrated independent initiative.
• Describe a time when you had to alter your leadership style to be more effective.
• Describe the situation in which you are most comfortable as a leader.
• Describe your management style.
• Have you ever hired anyone? What qualities do you seek?
• Have you managed people in any of the positions you have held?
• How do you deal with difficult people?
• How would you define "leadership?" How would you rate yourself as a leader?
• How would you describe your philosophy about management?
• Tell me about a time that you made a critical decision without supervision?
• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a challenging project in your job.
Commonly Asked Interview Questions
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Wynn B •The questions posted are very good, and the one being interviewed should have a quick, concise response to answer each question. However, there's no silver bullet and sometime discrimination can be a unknown variable from going on to the next step in the process to get an offer. -
Andrew H •1. Great! 2. On target!3. Excellent Road Map!
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Nora C •Excellent store of questions for job seekers. Thanks!
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teri w •I have an interview tomorrow. I find this article thought provoking and timely. Thank you.
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Gayle A. S •I feel after reading this article, I can use this as a tool for interviews, I seem to be having difficulty in this area. I have been a hairstylist for 22 years, I am in school for a bachelors in Business Management. I don't think I have ever had this hard of a time finding work, it is different because I don't really want to work in a salon, behind the chairThank you.
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Robert C. C •GENERAL QUESTIONS, ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE, ABOUT YOUR SKILLS, ABOUT YOUR WORK STYLE, ABOUT YOUR RESUME, EDUCATION AND TRAINING and ETC.Each category of interviewer questions are unique and YOUR ANSWER should be also. Take your life serious and think about who you are, where you are right now in the world of work, and where you hope to be. After that is understood by you, find out how to get there.YOUR ANSWERS ARE THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS.
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Jenny L •It was a great help as to what to expect on an interview.Thank You
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Ron L •These are great questions to ask as a manager, and I also think that these are great questions for the prospective employee as well. As an prospective employee the questions give you the opportunity to give the employer some very important information about yourself. As a manager it would give you the ability to make a better decision about the prospect you are interviewing, getting a better idea about the person you are considering for hire. thank you.
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sarah D •Hello, It has been quite sometime, since I interviewed for a job, I really think the questions were helpful. When you've been in the work force for over 25 years, you need a refresher course. Thanks
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Very helpful and informative. Gives sitiations and questions that definitly would come up in a job interiew
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I am interested in learning how to answer these question too.
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Cheryl K •In this techno-savvy day and age, instead of phone screening, employers should have an automated pre-screening device set up. Given direction, perspective employees could take the test such as the one suggested by Posted by: D.Gonsalves"These questions were very enlightening and so informative, that I've bookmarked them for future reference for myself. I think a P/F test made up of these questions would be great!,Then have a scoring system to see if you could ace the interview based on your own answers at the end of..."Put your skills to the test! or " The Interview Test". This would be the perfect interviewing test tool ever. Best of luck to everyone out there facing THE INTERVIEW!"Also...comments on being "honest" should be considered by both perspective employers and employees.
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Thakidiyil V •The sample questions alone are good only halfway. We need to know the ideal answers too.
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samwel m •I have been asked most of these quiz in 70% of the interviews I have attended and for sure some of them are difficult to give proper replies to.I would request that you forward me an answer to all the above questions so as to better my skills on the interviewing panelists
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Donna T •I am interested in learning how to answer these questions
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Tami K •As I have lots of experiences in the job interviews, these questions are very familiar to me. I totally believe that these questions will be asked in any job interviews really and seriously. So, all of the current job seekers should prepare and practice enough in answering for these questions before their important job interviews. Sometimes the job interviewers might ask more difficult and complicated questions in order to try the candidates. Overall, amen to this article.
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JITENDRA K •can you please send me a above sample answer to these questions ?Thank you
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Zahra P •Can you please send me a sample answer for those question? I will appreciate it.
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Julie W •The questions were excellent. Great help!For the people asking for answers to these questions, only they can give these answers, their answers will determine whether or not they are suited for the job, no ones elses answers will get them the job. It is up to the you to convince the interviewer you are the best candidate for the position. Best thing to do is be prepared and practice your answers to listed questions. Good Luck on your interviews.
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Noel D •very helpfull ,can you please send me a sample answer to these questions ?Thank you
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Deborah G •This article has been very helpful in preparing me for an interview. It has given me an idea on what question might me asked and a heads up on how to prepare myself.
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Carol F •This is infomative, ut do you have anwers people asking these quesions want to hear?
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Ayalew Y •Thank you for best focussed sample interview questions
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Shellie A •This will be very helpful in my job search. Thank you
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Rogelio O •Excelent article,I was looking for these questionsThanks !
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