General Interview Questions

EDUCATION

1. What special aspects of your education or training have prepared you for this job?
2. What courses in school have been of most help in doing your job?

CAREER- GOALS

1. What is your long-term employment or career objective?
2. What kind of job do you see yourself holding five years from now?
3. What do you feel you need to develop in terms of skill & knowledge in order to be ready for that opportunity?
4. Why might you be successful in such a job?
5. How does this job fit in with your overall career goals?
6. Who or what in your life would you say influenced you most with your career objectives?
7. Can you pinpoint any specific things in your past experience that affected your present career objectives?
8. What would you most like to accomplish if you had this job?
9. What might make you leave this job?

SELF-ASSESSMENT

1. What kind of things do you feel most confident in doing?
2. Can you describe for me a difficult obstacle you have had to overcome? How did you handle it? How do you feel this experience affected your personality or ability?
3. How would you describe yourself as a person?
4. What do you think are the most important characteristics & abilities a person must possess to become a successful ( )? How do you rate yourself in these areas?
5. Do you consider yourself a self-starter? If so, explain why ( and give examples)
6. What do you consider to be your greatest achievements to date? Why?
7. What things give you the greatest satisfaction at work?
8. What things frustrate you the most? How do you usually cope with them?

CREATIVITY

1. In your work experience, what have you done that you consider truly creative?
2. Can you think of a problem you have encountered when the old solutions didn't work & when you came up with new solutions?
3. Of your creative accomplishments big or small , at work or home, what gave you the most satisfaction?
4. What kind of problems have people recently called on you to solve? Tell me what you have devised.

DECISIVENESS

1. Do you consider yourself to be thoughtful, analytical or do you usually make up your mind fast? Give an example. (Watch time taken to respond)
2. What was your most difficult decision in the last six months? What made it difficult?
3. The last time you did not know what decision to make, what did you do?
4. How do you go about making an important decision affecting your career?
5. What was the last major problem that you were confronted with? What action did you take on it?

RANGE OF INTERESTS

1. What organizations do you belong to?
2. 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.)
3. How do you keep up with what's going on in your company / your industry/ your profession?

MOTIVATION

1. What is your professional goal?
2. Can you give me examples of experience on the job that you felt were satisfying?
3. Do you have a long & short-term plan for your department? Is it realistic?
4. Did you achieve it last year?
5. Describe how you determine what constitutes top priorities in the performance of your job.

WORK STANDARDS

1. What are your standards of success in your job?
2. In your position, how would you define doing a good job? On what basis was your definition determined?
3. When judging the performance of your subordinate, what factors or characteristics are most important to you?

LEADERSHIP

1. In your present job what approach do you take to get your people together to establish a common approach to a problem?
2. What approach do you take in getting your people to accept your ideas or department goals?
3. What specifically do you do to set an example for your employees?
4. How frequently do you meet with your immediate subordinates as a group?
5. What sort of leader do your people feel you are? Are you satisfied?
6. How do you get people who do not want to work together to establish a common approach to a problem?
7. If you do not have much time & they hold seriously differing views, what would be your approach?
8. How would you describe your basic leadership style? Give specific examples of how you practice this?
9. Do you feel you work more effectively on a one to one basis or in a group situation?
10. Have you ever led a task force or committee or any group who doesn't report to you, but from whom you have to get work? How did you do it? What were the satisfactions & disappointments? How would you handle the job differently?

ORAL PRESENTATION SKILLS

1. Have you ever done any public or group speaking? Recently? Why? How did it go?
2. Have you made any individual presentations recently? How did you prepare?

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION SKILLS

1. Would you rather write a report or give a verbal report? Why?
2. What kind of writing have you done? For a group? For an individual?
3. What is the extent of your participation in major reports that have to be written?

FLEXIBILITY

1. What was the most important idea or suggestion you received recently from your employees? What happened as a result?
2. What do you think about the continuous changes in company operating policies & procedures?
3. How effective has your company been in adapting its policies to fit a changing environment?
4. What was the most significant change made in your company in the last six months which directly affected you, & how successfully do you think you implemented this change?

STRESS TOLERANCE

1. Do you feel pressure in your job? Tell me about it.
2. What has been the highest pressure situation you have been under in recent years? How did you cope with it?

STABILITY & MATURITY

1. Describe your most significant success & failure in the last two years.
2. What do you like to do best?
3. What do you like to do least?
4. What in your last review did your supervisor suggest needed improvement?
5. What have you done about it?

INTEREST IN SELF DEVELOPMENT

1. What has been the most important person or event in your own self development?
2. How much of your education did you earn?
3. What kind of books & other publications do you read?
4. Have you taken a management development course?
5. How are you helping your subordinates develop themselves?