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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Background

Why did you attend your school?

How did you spend your time as a student?

Why did you select your major?

What about your education has been the best at preparing you for a career?Why are you interested in our company?

What factors motivated you to leave your current job?

Technical/Functional

1. As a ______, how has your performance compared with others in the same position?2. Originally, how did you learn the skills and knowledge required in your current position?

3. Give me a few examples of the most complicated assignments you have undertaken. Why

were they challenging? What role did you play in them? How did the projects turn out?4. Comparatively speaking, what developmental needs has your supervisor identified in your

profile of performance? What have you done to improve in those areas?

Interpersonal

Customer Focus

5. Describe an example in which you had to meet a difficult customer demand.

6. Describe a time when your relationship with a customer was unsatisfactory and share whatyou did about it.

Leadership7. How do you influence your boss? Colleagues? Subordinates?

8. Describe some of the toughest groups you have had to build cooperation among. What was

your authority? How did you handle it?

9. How often do you meet with your subordinates? For what reasons? How do you prepare?What meeting format do you follow?

10. How do you set objectives with your subordinates, both individually and collectively?

11. How often do you meet with your peers? What role do you usually play?

Initiative

12. Give me an example of a time you initiated a project. How did you go about it? What was theresult?

13. What are some ways you have made your position easier and more rewarding?

Communication Skills

14. Give some examples of when you gave someone a directive and they did it wrong. Whatwent wrong?

15. What are some examples of the most complicated information you have ever had to explainto other people?

16. What kinds of writing have you done? What are some examples? How did you go about the

writing task? What type of a response did you receive?17. What reports are you working on in your current job? Which ones are the most challenging?

Why?

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Negotiation Skills

18. Describe one of the most challenging situations you've confronted when you had to sell anidea to other people. What was difficult about it? How would you rate your handling of the

situation?

19. Tell me about a time when you were unable to sell your idea to another person. How would

you approach it differently if you had a second chance? What did you learn from it?

Sense of Urgency

20. Describe the work pace that best suits you. Why?21. Describe some assignments that were successfully executed due to your efforts.

22. How do you operate differently from other people in your position?

23. Describe some projects you have initiated on your own. What prompted you to undertakethem?

Drive and Energy

24. How do you handle work backlog after a vacation, conference, or extended time out of theoffice?

25. Describe your typical day. When does it begin? End?26. When do you do your best work? Worst?27. What do you do for exercise?

Integrity28. Describe a time when you had to bend the rules to accomplish a task.

29. Share the most difficult ethical issues you have dealt with in your job and what you did about

them.

Teamwork

30. Tell me about one of the most effective teams you worked on and what you contributed to its

effectiveness.31. What strategies have you found helpful in managing territorial issues with your team?

People Skills32. Describe a time when you and a peer had a significant disagreement. How did you handle it?

33.What are some strategies you've used to put other people at ease quickly? Which strategies

have been most/least effective?34.When was the last time you lost your temper on the job? What set you off? How did you

handle it?

35. Describe a time when you had to deal with a "difficult" person. What were your strategies?

What were the results?

Adaptability

36. Describe a situation where you were required to make quick adjustments to organizationalchanges. How did you manage it?

37. Describe the boss you worked under where you were most effective. How have you

mitigated differences? How have you handled your various bosses' styles?

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Tenacity, Competitiveness, Aggressiveness, Ability to Withstand Pressure

38. What is the highest-pressure situation you have experienced? How did you cope with it?39.What do you do to relax after a hard day?

40.When did you last lose your temper? Why? What was the outcome?

41. How often do you take work home? What type of work do you take home?

42.What is most frustrating about your current job?

Analytical

Performance43. Give an example of a recent quality product or service you provided. What was your role?

44. Describe your primary objectives over the past year. How did you select and measure them?

How much stretch did you incorporate? How well did you perform against the goal?45. What have been the most significant goals you've accomplished in your current position?

Why? How did you accomplish them? Were there other goals that were not met? If not, why not?

46. How consistent have you been at delivering expected results?

47. Give an example of a time when you felt your results were not up to company standards.What did you do about the situation?

Learning48. How did you do in school? What areas did you have the most difficulty with? What was

easiest?

49. Think of a work challenge you have confronted that you did not know the answer to. Howdid you go about learning how to address it? What was the outcome?

50. What have you found to be the most difficult aspects of your job to learn? Why?

51. What have you done to develop yourself in your current position?

52. Describe a difficult problem you have managed and explain your process to assess thesituation. How did you decide on a root cause?

Persuasiveness53. Describe a time when you recommended a course of action to your boss and you were

successful/unsuccessful.

Time Management and Planning

54. Explain how you schedule your time. How do you determine priorities? How do you handle

unforeseen disruptions to your schedule?55. Give me an example of good decisions you have made in the past year. What was effective

about them? What alternatives did you bypass?

56. Describe your delegation process.

Decision Making & Judgement

57. How do you stay attuned to potential problems and trends?

58. When have you included subordinates in decision-making? To what extent did youincorporate their input?

59. What were the toughest decisions you have had to make in your current position? Why?

What was your decision rationale?60. Describe an example when you have had to bypass the system to get things done. What

warranted it? What were the results?

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Human Resource Development61. Who would be an effective replacement for you in your current position? What have you

done to groom and develop this individual?

62. Describe how you've developed each of your subordinates.

63. Tell me about our most effective subordinates and what you did to develop them.

Decisiveness

64. How do you make decisions? Give me an example and rationale of one that you made rapidlyand one that you spent considerable time on.

65. Describe a time when you acted too hastily/slowly. What happened?

Maturity

66. Explain a situation when you had to sacrifice short-term gains for long-term results. Why?

How did you do it? What was the outcome?

67. Have you ever had to go against general feelings or policies to accomplish a goal based onprinciple? Describe the situation.

68. Describe a time when you had to balance the implications of your decision on more than onedepartment. What was your thought process and resulting action?69. Describe your most innovative ideas over the past year. What was unique about them? What

was your inspiration for them? How did you introduce them to your organization?

70. Tell me about a creative solution you devised in the past.71. Think of a time when old solutions did not work. How did you deal with it?

72. How do you encourage innovation with your subordinates?

73. What do you do differently from your predecessor in your current job?