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Sharpen your interview skills with these practice questions. Most employers are not formally trained interviewers. Be prepared with some well thought out answers and you'll come across as a competent professional. Keep your responses focused on the question and the employer's needs.
Your resume needs to be clear and concise, use only one page if possible but no more than two pages. Be sure to check for spelling or typing errors in your resume.
Interviewing Techniques
For your benefit, these sample questions have been organized into five sections.
- Questions that focus on YOU
- Questions that focus on the JOB
- Questions about the COMPANY
- Questions about your PREVIOUS JOBS
- Questions that focus on your PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS
A suggestion to build your answers
Put yourself in the interviewer's shoes. It is difficult to remember who said what and why because most people sound the same. That is why you want to try to create a response that the interviewer will remember. Try to headline the main action in the first sentence. In the next two to three sentences support the action with some details. Then, close the example with a benefit.
For example, "My last project involved implementing a filing system for the department. I identified all the main topics, indexed them and created color-coded filing drawers for major topics. Then, I spent 45 minutes training the other department members on the new system. Everybody in the department said they saved almost an hour each day in sorting and filing their information because of the new system."
Sample Questions
What about YOU?
- What special skills did you acquire?
- What special accomplishments did you achieve?
- Why did you leave (or want to leave) this job?
- Tell me about yourself.
- What do you consider to be your major strengths?
- What are some of your weaknesses?
- What are or have been some of your failures?
- How much money do you want or what is the minimum salary you'll accept?
- How long have you been out of work?
- What have you been doing during this time?
- Did you ever make any suggestions to your management?
- What were they?
- How do you spend your spare time? Last week?
- Tell me about your greatest disappointment in business?
- Everybody has pet peeves. What are yours>
- Are you now considering other positions?
- How does this position compare with them?
- What does success mean to you?
- How do you judge it?
- What do people find to criticize about you?
- What else do you think I should know about you?
- Why should I hire you?
- How would you describe yourself as an employee? as a manager?
- What do you really want to do in life?
- What two or three things are most important to you in your job?
- What are your long-range career objectives and how do you plan to achieve them?
- What motivates you?
Why this JOB?
- If you could have your choice of any job, what would you do?
- What did you especially like about the job? Dislike?
- Does this job seem below your ability level?
Why this COMPANY?
- Why do you want to work here?
- How did you happen to come to us?
- Why do you want to get into the _________field?
- What do you know about our company?
- What do you know about the job for which you are applying?
- In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to our company?
Your PAST JOBS?
- What was the nature of your job?
- Tell me about a typical day on your job?
- Why did you leave previous employers?
- How did you like working at _________company? Why?
- Would you rather have been in another position in that company?
- What did you like least in your last job?
- Tell me about the hardest job you have ever performed?
Previous Employers?
- To whom did you report?
- How was your supervisor to work for?
- What were his/her strengths? Weaknesses?
- Who is the worst (or best) person you have ever worked for and why?