Interview question brainstorm help?
When it comes to interview questions, it's smart to think ahead. FGB'ers, can you share some of your most common, difficult and/or memorable interview questions here? Let's help each other knock our next interviews out of the park.
My most common questions: Why should we hire you? & What are your salary requirements?
My most thought-provoking question: Tell me about a time you took unexpected initiative. Follow-up: Can you tell me about another?
My most memorable question: What book are you reading right now?
Please share where you can and thank you!
One I’ve started adding is ‘tell me about a time when your personal interests (hobbies, social interests) helped you to connect with a client/guest in a personal way. Helps me to get to know the person on a deeper level as well as make sure they are able to connect with people, which is key in my industry (hospitality)
Great idea!
Most common: tell me about yourself and walk me through your resume. Pitfall is that most people answer with a lot of information that does not relate to the results that the employer would like the person to deliver. Another pitfall is not to end the answer with a question to probe fit such as "how important are these types of outcomes for the challenges your team is facing?"
I was once asked, “what do you like least about working in marketing?” I was thrown for a loop since I was applying to a marketing coordinator position and didn’t want to fumble it.
I told the interviewer that that was a great question and paused to think about it (which I always recommend — but not too long) and thought about the fact they hadn’t mentioned sales in the job description (but I had to deal with sales in marketing in my last position that was very similar to this job) so I went with that and explained that I did get a good handle on sales but it just wasn’t my favorite task to deal with.
She responded, “well, good news because this position won’t be required to handle sales.” I don’t know if that was well played or not on my end, but I got the job!
"Tell me about a time you've helped solve a problem at work! "
The most common questions get me: Why should we hire you?; List 3 good traits and 3 bad ones about yourself.
Honestly, I have a serious difficult time with these questions because with the 'feedback' I've received at previous jobs or elsewhere, it doesn't really help me in naming traits and describing how awesome I am...! haha - These are my downfall I think because sometimes I tell them, "I can't really think of anything," which is true since at that moment NOTHING comes to mind... Ugh! haha HELP
It's easy to freeze when asked on the spot!