In class today: You will work on the "Typical Interview Questions" that were posted in yesterday's blog. I will post them here as well. Also, the Business Etiquette quiz and answers are at the bottom of this post.
Look at this list of possible questions you may be asked at an interview. Think about what the question is asking, and how you would respond.
Typical Interview Questions
1. Tell me about yourself. Go over this again and again! Briefly describing your education or work history are appropriate responses to this question. Expand briefly on some of your results. This will likely cause the interviewer to select an accomplishment and ask you to tell more about it. This is exactly what you want; you score points every time you discuss results.
2. What is your greatest strength? The question asks for your number one strength, skill, or asset and requires you to analyze yourself. Going into the interview you should have several strengths in mind. Begin with a brief statement and provide a clear example.
3. What are your three most important career accomplishments? Choose accomplishments that are related to the job you are interviewing for and ones to which the interviewer can relate. Avoid unnecessary detail.
4. Why should I hire you? This question is often asked at the end of an interview and allows you to summarize your strengths. Since this is a summary, you can discuss points that you have already covered and mention new points as well. Sell yourself. This may be one of your best opportunities. Try to focus on everything you learned about the job, your future boss, and the needs of the company.
5. How would your supervisor describe you? This is an opportunity to mention positive qualities that you know or assume would be said about you. Discuss the qualities that you received high ratings on during reviews. Also give quick examples that demonstrate why your boss would see such qualities in you.
6. What is the most difficult situation you have ever faced? Select an example that will demonstrate your positive qualities and one in which you ultimately came out on top. Tell it concisely to reveal as many qualities as possible. This is an opportunity to sell qualities such as maturity, perseverance, emotional stability, effectiveness under stress, and sound judgment.
7. What would you like to improve about yourself? This is one of the most-‐asked questions. When asked this question, it is best to state a weakness that you are improving. You do not need to demonstrate that you have totally dealt with it, but you should indicate that you have made major progress with it. The goal is to provide a short answer which satisfies the interviewer.
8. What are your career goals? This question tests whether you have established career goals, and whether your goals match what the organization has to offer. Mention goals that you feel the organization can help you attain. Express them in terms of experience you hope to receive and the expertise you hope to develop. You want to leave the impression that you are a growth-‐oriented person with realistic expectations regarding promotion opportunities.
9. What have you learned from your past mistakes? What were some of them? Everybody makes mistakes. Often there are lessons to be learned from these mistakes. The best mistakes to share are those from which you were able to recover. In any event, use your mistakes to show how you have matured and grown from these experiences.
10. Can you work well under stress? You do not have to say that you like stress, but you need to demonstrate that you can work effectively under stress. Give examples where you have coped well with stress. Most stress comes from deadlines and long hours. You should know in advance if this organization or company typically requires long hours or faces a lot of deadlines.
11. Are you a team player? This question indicates that the organization is looking for a team-‐oriented person. Describe how you are committed to working in a team. You need to show that you are flexible and cooperative and when the group makes a decision, you willingly go along with it. Provide examples demonstrating that people enjoy having you on their team and that teamwork was essential to the success of a project on which you worked.
12. What are the things that motivate you? Challenge, creativity, success, opportunity, and personal growth are most frequently mentioned. You can also mention specific skills that you are motivated to use. These might include problem solving, decision making, listening, writing, speaking, planning, or counseling people.
13. What is the most important thing to you in a job? What do you value in a job: challenge, good working conditions, friendly coworkers, traveling? Mention one or two items and explain why they are important.
14. Tell me about your duties at your present job. This question provides an opportunity to really sell yourself. As you describe your major duties, describe an associated accomplishment as well. Be concise. People know their own duties so well that many go on and on adding unnecessary details that bore the interviewer.
15. What is the most important aspect of your job? This question tests your judgment. Although you may have numerous responsibilities, the interviewer wants to have your view on what you can do to contribute the most to the organization. For each responsibility you need to show that you have been very effective in that area.
16. What duties have you enjoyed most? Least? Why? Select your favorite and least favorite duties based on what you have learned about the job for which you are interviewing. In general, you should mention major duties to like and minor duties to dislike.
17. What frustrates you about your job?
If you feel strongly about a particular frustration, give concrete examples when answering this question. Describe the situation causing the frustration, and how you deal with it.
18. Why would you like to work for us? This is your opportunity to describe what you know about the organization. You should mention positive points that you have discovered on your own, as well as some mentioned by the interviewer. You might mention that the job is a factor in your wanting to work for the company.
19. What are some of the characteristics you like or dislike about a supervisor? List all the qualities you truly like and dislike in a supervisor and then select those that are the most appropriate. Concentrate on strengths rather than weaknesses. You might answer by saying you prefer a supervisor who is fair, open-‐minded and has high integrity.
20. Tell me about your experience in school. Be prepared to talk about the courses you liked most (and least), how your schooling prepared you for this job, what kind of grades you had, and your major. It is important to describe how your overall high school/college experience has prepared you for work. You can also describe the skills and experience that you have gained in extracurricular activities and internships.
Typical Interview Questions - Answers
Using the above descriptions as a guide, write a short response to each question. This is due by the end of class today--Copy and paste into a Word document to print or email to amclean4@mail.naz.edu.
1. Tell me about yourself.
3. What are your three most important career accomplishments?
4. Why should I hire you?
5. How would your supervisor describe you?
6. What is the most difficult situation you have ever faced?
7. What would you like to improve about yourself?
8. What are your career goals?
9. What have you learned from your past mistakes? What were some of them
10. Can you work well under stress?
11. Are you a team player?
12. What are the things that motivate you?
13. What is the most important thing to you in a job?
14. Tell me about your duties at your present job.
15. What is the most important aspect of your job? This question tests your judgment.
16. What duties have you enjoyed most? Least? Why?
17. What frustrates you about your job?
18. Why would you like to work for us?
19. What are some of the characteristics you like or dislike about a supervisor
20. Tell me about your experience in school.
Test Your Business Etiquette Questions (answers below)
Social and business etiquette can be tricky, and making the right moves can make a big difference. Take this quiz and see how you fare in the following business situations.
For each question, indicate your answer (yes/no) and one reason WHY you gave that answer.
- Your boss, Ms. Alpha, enters the room when you're meeting with an important client, Mr. Beta. You rise and say "Ms. Alpha, I'd like you to meet Mr. Beta, our client from San Diego." Is this introduction correct?
- At a social function, you meet the CEO of an important Japanese corporation. After a brief chat, you give him your business card. Is this correct?
- You're entering a cab with an important client. You position yourself so the client is seated curbside. Is this correct?
- You're hosting a dinner at a restaurant. You've pre-ordered for everyone and indicated where they should sit. Are you correct?
- A toast has been proposed in your honor. You say "thank you" and take a sip of your drink. Are you correct?
- You're in a restaurant and a thin soup is served in a cup with no handles. To eat it you should:
- pick it up and drink it
- use the spoon provided
- eat half of it with a spoon and drink the remainder
- You're at a dinner and champagne is served with the dessert. You simply can't drink champagne yet know the host will be offering a toast. Do you:
- tell the waiter "no champagne"
- turn over your glass
- ask the waiter to pour water into your champagne glass instead
- say nothing and allow the champagne to be poured
- You're at a table in a restaurant for a business dinner. Midway through the meal, you're called to the telephone. What do you do with your napkin?
- Take it with you
- Fold and place it to the left of your plate
- Loosely fold it and place it on the right side
- Leave it on your chair
- You're hosting a dinner party at a restaurant. Included are two other couples, and your most valuable client and his wife. You instruct the waiter to:
- serve your spouse first
- serve your client's spouse first
- serve you and your spouse last
- You're invited to a reception and the invitation states "7:00 to 9:00 PM." You should arrive:
- at 7:00 PM
- anytime between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM
- between 7:00 PM and 7:30 PM
- go early and leave early
- You're greeting or saying good-bye to someone. When's the proper time to shake their hand?
- When you're introduced
- At their home
- At their office
- On the street
- When you say good-bye
- You're talking with a group of four people. Do you make eye contact with:
- just the person to whom you're speaking at the moment?
- each of the four, moving your eye contact from one to another?
- no one particular person (not looking directly into anyone's eyes)?
- The waiter's coming toward you to serve wine. You don't want any. You turn your glass upside down. Are you correct?
- When you greet a visitor in your office, do you:
- say nothing and let her sit where she wishes?
- tell her where to sit?
- say "Just sit anywhere"
- You're invited to dinner in a private home. When do you take your napkin from the table and place it on your lap?
- Open it immediately
- Wait for the host to take his napkin before taking yours?
- Wait for the oldest person at the table to take his?
- Wait for the acknowledged head of the table to take hers before taking yours?
- You're scheduled to meet a business associate for working lunch and you arrive a few minutes early to find a suitable table. 30 minutes later your associate still hasn't arrived. Do you:
- order your lunch and eat?
- continue waiting and fuming that your associate isn't there?
- tell the head waiter you're not staying and give him our card with instructions to present it to your associate to prove you were there?
- after 15 minutes call your associate?
- You've forgotten a lunch with a business associate. You feel terrible and know he's furious. Do you:
- write a letter of apology?
- send flowers?
- keep quiet and hope he forgets about it?
- call and set up another appointment?
Answers to Business Etiquette Quiz
Now lets see how you did...
- No. Introduce the more important person first. You should address your client and say "Mr. Beta, I'd like you to meet our Vice President of Development, Ms. Alpha." (Alternative answer? Introduce the client as the more important person!)
- No. In Japan (unlike in the United States or the UK), business cards are taken as a serious reflection of their owner and are exchanged with great ceremony. Researching the importance of business cards in various cultures can help in avoiding embarrassing faux pas.
- Yes. When your client steps out of the car, (s)he will be on the curbside and therefore won't have to deal with getting out in traffic or sliding across the seat.
- Yes
- No. If you do, then you're toasting yourself.
- B. It's not a cup of coffee, for heaven's sake. And don't slurp, either.
- D. It's more polite not to call attention to the fact that you can't drink champagne.
- D. Leave it on your chair. Definitely don't put it on the table--what if you have crumbs on it?
- B and C. Sort of a trick question, but this is important.
- A, B, or C. It's terribly impolite to arrive early.
- A, B, C, D, and E. In other words, it's rarely improper to shake someone's hand. Make sure you have a firm (but not painful) handshake for both men and women.
- B. Make eye contact with all of the individuals you're talking with.
- No. Again, don't call attention to your dislike of your host's chosen beverage.
- B. Indicating where your guest should sit will make her feel more comfortable.
- B, C, or D. Just don't grab it first unless you're playing one of these roles.
- A. You've waited 30 minutes. Expect an apology later, though.
- D. Call and set up another appointment. And don't forget to apologize for your error. Imagine how you'd feel if it was you!
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