Typical Face-to Face Interview Questions

As you prepare for your interview, go through the following list and think of how you
might answer some of these questions. However, don’t recite “rehearsed” answers at
the interview!
Tell me about yourself.

What are your strengths? Weaknesses?

What do you think you can offer this company/position?

How do you think your previous employment relates to this position?

What did you like most about your last job? Least?

Why did you leave your last job?

What kind of supervision do you prefer?

Why do you want to work for this company?

Why do you think you would be successful in this job?

How would you describe yourself?

Can you explain the gaps in your work history?

Are you willing to travel?

What are your long term goals?

How do you keep current in your career area?

What accomplishments are you most proud of?

What will your references say about you?

Would your last employer rehire you? Why or why not?

Why do you want this job?

Give an example of a problem in your life and how you handled/resolved it.

Let’s say your supervisor harshly criticizes your work. Describe how you handle that
criticism.

What are your salary expectations?

Explain how you handle stress.

What two or three things are the most important things you need in a job?

Your resume suggests you may be over-qualified for this position. What are your
thoughts?

What is your management style?

What important trends do you see in this industry and how have you kept up with them?

What do you want to be doing in 5 years?

When are you available to start working?

What questions do you have for me?

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Behavioral Interviews
There are several interviewing techniques used to learn about a candidate’s background
and experience. Most interviewers tend to use the traditional methods of asking for
factual information. For example, “Tell me about your customer service experience” is a
traditional question designed to obtain factual information.

Behavioral interviewing is another method which is becoming more common. “The

(behavioral) interview is based on a line of questioning that elicits information about your
actual behavior in a variety of real-life or hypothetical circumstances. More emphasis
rests on your accomplishments and abilities than on the basics of your job duties or
opinions.” “…Behavior based questions require you to give evidence of your skills,
experience and personal qualities, not just talk in generalities.”*

The behavioral interview approach to the question above might be, “A good customer of
your company is threatening to take her business elsewhere because she was treated
rudely by someone in the shipping department. What would you do to keep her
business?" Here, you have to describe more than general customer services skills. You
need to relate how you would use those skills in this situation. It’s best to relate a similar
actual experience you’ve had and how you handled it. There’s no way to “rehearse”
your answers, so focus on the positive outcomes.

* From The Unofficial Guide to Acing the Interview, by Michelle Tullier.

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Sample Questions to Ask

What characteristics do you think someone needs to succeed in this position?

What is your timeline for making a hiring decision?

How many candidates are you interviewing for this position?

May I call you back if I have further questions?

In your opinion, what areas would I need to work on in order to succeed in this job?

What future growth/promotion opportunities are there in this position?

How often and in what manner are performance appraisals conducted?

I was excited to learn about (new company initiative.) Can you tell me about some other
current goals of this organization within the next year?
What is the reason this position is open?

What does the company do to support professional development of the employees?

Who are your major competitors?

Is there any further information I can provide you before the interview is over?

10 Tips for Crafting S.M.A.R.T.

Interviewing Stories
By Susan Britton Whitcomb

With small businesses following Fortune 500 companies in the hot trend toward
behavioral interviewing, it’s critical that job seekers be prepared to deliver fact-filled
stories when responding to the query, "Tell me about a time when you…” Many
interviewers prefer that job seekers deliver interview responses, or stories, using the
CAR or STAR method (acronyms for Challenge, Action, Result or Situation/Task, Action,
and Result).

For our purposes, we’ll use the SMART format, which stands for Situation with Metrics,
Actions, Results, and Tie-in. The last item, Tie-in, is key. It neatly links the response
back to the employer’s competency question, allows the individual to inquire further into
the employer’s needs, and helps focus the conversation on how the candidate can DO
the job instead of simply AUDITION for the job.

These 10 tips can serve as a guide for writing SMART stories.

1. Use the "it’s about them, not me" perspective when describing your stories. This
means that, ultimately, your SMART stories must be related to “them”—the employer
and their needs. Think in terms of what will motivate the employer to buy, the return-on-
investment you offer, and your benefits vs. features.

2. Write SMART stories about your work at each of your past employers. The heaviest
concentration of stories should be about your current or most recent experiences. Pen a
SMART story for each recent accomplishment on your resume.

3. Assign themes to your SMART stories that underscore competencies for the target
position. For instance, competencies for a customer service rep might include customer-
focused orientation, interpersonal judgment, communication skills, teamwork, problem
solving, listening skills/empathy, and initiative.

4. Write SMART stories for non-work experiences if you are just entering the work force.
It is fair game to draw on volunteer work, school experiences, and general life incidents.
(If you sense you need additional experience, identify and quickly act on how you can
best prepare yourself through reading, attending a course, job-shadowing, volunteering,
or taking a relevant part-time job.)

5. Regardless of what point your career life is at, everyone should recollect influential or
life-altering events throughout youth and adulthood. Write SMART stories about these
times.
6. Numbers speak louder than words! Load the stories with numbers, dollar amounts,
productivity measurements, comparisons, and the like. (Be cautious about conveying
proprietary or confidential company information.) Be specific and offer proof. Instead of
saying, "I learned the program quickly," make it crystal clear with language like, "I
studied the manual at night and, in three days, I knew all the basic functions; in two
weeks I had mastered several of the advanced features; and by the end of the month, I
had experienced operators coming to me to ask how to embed tables into another
program."

7. Include emotions and feelings. Yes, feelings. When describing the situation, don’t be
afraid to include details such as these: "the tension among the team was so serious that
people were resigning"; "the morale was at an all-time low"; or "the customer was irate
about receiving a mis-shipment that occurred because of our transportation vendor."
When writing about emotions or feelings, be mindful NOT to whine or disparage anyone,
even if through a veiled reference.

8. Avoid personal opinions. You can, however, include the opinion of a supervisor or
another objective party. Instead of saying, "I believe my positive outlook really helped
keep the customer happy," rely on someone else’s opinion: "My supervisor commented
in a memo how my outlook helped us save a key account that was in jeopardy of being
lost. I have a copy of that memo if you’d like to see it."

9. Pace the stories so that each is approximately 2-3 minutes in length. Set up the story
briefly with facts, place the greatest weight on the action portion of the story, wrap it up
with numbers-driven results, and tie it back to the interviewer’s needs. Occasionally, vary
the delivery by dropping in a result at the front end of the story.

10. Make the stories relevant. You have a myriad of experiences in your background.
Sift through them and select the stories that best substantiate your competencies,
knowledge, skills, and motivation to excel in the target job.

Excerpts from Interview Magic and Job Search Magic (JIST) by Susan Britton
Whitcomb.

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Powerful Phone Interviews

By Dale R. Kurow, M.S.

With increasing frequency, companies are relying on phone interviews to narrow the
pool of likely candidates. Phone interviewing has proven so cost effective that it has
become the norm. Recruiters now pack an entire arsenal of tools, honed over years of
experience, designed to quickly eliminate marginal candidates.

Consider this: a phone interviewer’s primary goal is to eliminate the candidate before
wasting additional company resources. Sound unfair? Welcome to the world of phone
interviewing. So how do you help clients make it past the HR gatekeepers and to the
next round—the face-to-face interview?
Research the Company
Second only to lacking the requisite skills, the main reason candidates don’t get to the
next step—the face-to-face interview—is failure to properly research the company.
Undertaking in-depth research is just as vital for a phone interview as for an in-person
interview! It is a key ingredient in getting a ticket to the next round. Your clients should
have answers to the following questions at their fingertips:
What are the company’s products and/or services?
What is the size of the company, number of employees, rank within the industry?
Who are the company’s primary customers and competitors?
Where are the company’s offices, plants and facilities located?
What are the company’s goals, philosophy and mission statement?
Who are the key players (Chairman, CEO, President, etc.)?
What is the financial health of the company?
How was the company’s performance in the last year?
What media exposure and/or major articles have appeared about the company within
the last 3-6 months?

Research Resources
Research the company’s web site first. Get the company’s annual report if it’s a publicly
owned firm. If time is limited, visit these web sites to view annual reports for free:
Annual Report Gallery - http://www.reportgallery.com
The Public Register’s Annual Report Service - http://www.prars.com

Next visit these two web sites. They provide company profiles and an insider’s view of
what it’s like to work at the company:
Vault.com - http://www.vault.com
Wetfeet.com - http://www.wetfeet.com

Additional sites to do on-line research:

Brint - http://www.brint.com
Hoovers Online - http://www.hoovers.com
Some information is fee based, but plenty is available for free.

Use Hands-Free Headset

One of the few advantages that a phone interview offers over the in-person interview is
the ability to consult notes during the interview. In fact, advise jobseekers to use a
hands-free headset so that they can look up notes on their computers if necessary. They
should be sure to take copious notes that demonstrate their familiarity with the company
and their enthusiasm for landing the job.

Telephone Speaking Voice

Candidates will be judged by their telephone speaking voice BEFORE the actual phone
interview. How? By the message(s) they leave to set up the appointment. We live in a
world of answering machines and voice mail. Candidates will probably have to make two
or three calls before getting a live person on the phone. In fact, chances are, they won’t
get past the automated voice mail system. Beware!

People will form opinions based on these brief phone messages alone!

Here are tips to help your candidates improve telephone speaking manners:
Do not speak quickly. Don’t make employers replay a message two or three times just
to understand what was said! Slow down, especially for those who have an accent.

Repeat your name and spell it, if necessary. Pronounce your name slowly. You don’t
want the recipient to have to struggle to figure out who’s calling and why.

Repeat your name and phone number at the beginning AND end of the message. This
way, the recipient won’t have to replay the entire message from the beginning.

Give your phone number slowly. This is one of my pet peeves. I can’t tell you how
many times I’ve had to replay messages because the caller sped up when leaving a
garbled telephone number. Recall the times when you have tried—and failed—to
decipher a phone number and message left on your own answering machine. In a job
search, your endeavors will end right there.

Tell the recruiter when he/she can reach you. Leave a preferred date and time to
return your call. Also leave the preferred telephone number. This gives the recruiter a
better chance of connecting with you.

Do not leave long messages. Give the recruiter the information he/she needs and
leave the rest for a live conversation.

Have a smile in your voice. Being professional means sounding calm, collected and
positive even if you’ve just had the worst “bad hair day.” Your voice needs to be warm,
polite and upbeat.

What Questions Do You Have?

When jobseekers are asked this question, don’t let them wing it! The subject and focus
of their questions are key indicators of their professionalism and preparedness—and
their enthusiasm for the job. Further, the way they respond to this question will be the
final impression they leave with the interviewer. Need I say more?

Here are examples of key questions jobseekers can ask the interviewer:
What is the company doing to stay competitive?
Where do you see the most opportunity for growth this year?
How are you staffing the growth?
What is the most important contribution I could make within the first 30-90 days of my
employment?
Who does this position report to? Who will I report to?
How does this position fit into the organizational structure?

A Final Note
When candidates are speaking to a recruiter, bear in mind that the recruiter’s primary
objective in a phone interview is to determine their viability for a position, and the
potential ease or difficulty of marketing them to the client/company. Don’t let your
candidates make the recruiter work hard! Coach them to make it easy for the recruiter to
sell them to the client/company by doing an outstanding job of preparing themselves!

Dale Kurow, M.S., (dale@dalekurow.com) is an author and a career and executive

coach in NYC. Dale works with clients across the U.S. and internationally, helping
them to survive office politics, become better managers, and figure out their next
career move. Visit Dale’s web site at http://www.dalekurow.com/phone_ebook for
information about her latest E-book, Phone Interview Skills Sharpened Right Here!
Job Interview Question Database:
Questions with Excellent Sample Responses

The Job Interview Question Database includes 150 of the most typical interview
questions that you may face in your job interviews. Questions are in no particular order,
so take your time and go through the entire list!
Displaying Interview Questions 105-109

105. Tell me about a time when you came up with an innovative solution to a
challenge your company/class/organization was facing. What was the challenge?
What role did others play?

Sample excellent response:

The trucks at Wal-Mart come loaded by personnel at by a distribution center, box-by-
box. After receiving a few trucks, I noticed that my employees were unloading broken
merchandise that took a lot of time to clean up before the rest of the truck could be
finished. The broken glass, paint, or whatever material it was prevented the employees
from preceding farther into the truck, causing more person-hours than normal. I noticed
that the merchandise was broken because heavier boxes were on top of lighter boxes.
After a couple of days of this situation, productivity decreasing, I learned that the rest of
the stores in my district faced the same problem. As a result, I asked each store to take
pictures of the mess so the distribution centers could see exactly what was happening. I
also asked each one to write down how many additional person-hours it took to clean up
the mess. After we gathered this information for a four-week period, we had a pretty a
good estimate of how much the company was losing, approximately $9.50 per person-
hour...an average of $125 per store times 15 stores times 30 nights a month amounted
to a substantial sum. We took the information as a group to our district manager. Once
he realized how much money his district was losing each month because of broken
merchandise in the trucks, he contacted his regional manager, and the trucks after that
were loaded more carefully. The district made our Profit and Loss the next month by a 9
percent increase.

Also, remember the S-A-R (situation-action-result) technique and see a sample S-A-R
story.

106. Describe a specific problem you solved for your employer or professor. How
did you approach the problem? What role did others play? What was the
outcome?
Sample excellent response:
When I was working as a receptionist at an apartment complex, a tenant argued that he
had turned in his rent payment the day it was due. He stated that he had slipped it under
the door because our office was closed for the day. I decided to consult my manager
because I realized that maybe the office needed a sign that stated that we did not accept
rent money that is slipped under the door. My boss agreed, and we posted the sign. We
never again had a problem with tenants who claimed they'd paid their rent that way.

107. Describe a time when you got co-workers or classmates who dislike each
other to work together. How did you accomplish this? What was the outcome?

Sample excellent response:

When I worked for a law firm, my co-workers and I had a huge mailing to complete. We
had the choice of working more efficiently as a team -- or individually in a much more
time-consuming manner. My two co-workers did not care for each other and they wanted
to complete the mail-out on an individual level. When I presented them with the evidence
that we would finish at least an hour earlier by working together, they decided that
working together was the right path to take. As a result, we finished the mail-out in a
short period of time and could work on other tasks that day.

Also, remember the S-A-R (situation-action-result) technique and see a sample S-A-R
story.

108. Tell me about a time when you failed to meet a deadline. What things did you
fail to do? What were the repercussions? What did you learn?

Sample excellent response:

I recently failed to meet a deadline in my communications course with a project I had to
do on the Internet. I did not meet the deadline because I underestimated the amount of
time the assignment would take me to complete. Therefore, the assignment was
incomplete when I turned it in. As a result I lost points on my final grade.I learned the
importance of examining tasks more carefully so I can better estimate the amount of
time required to complete them. I also learned to build some flex time into projects so
that if my estimates are wrong, I'll still have time to complete the tasks.

Also, remember the S-A-R (situation-action-result) technique and see a sample S-A-R
story.

109. Describe a time when you put your needs aside to help a co-worker or
classmate understand a task. How did you assist him or her? What was the
result?

Sample excellent response:

I was studying right before a major finance test. As the class came into the classroom a
couple of students indicated that did not understand a concept that I did. Although there
was a small section of material that I had not completely mastered, I realized that I knew
enough about that section that I could perform well enough to earn a good grade. I knew
that the section that the other students did not understand was a major portion of the
exam since the professor had an interest in this particular subject. I stopped what I was
doing to explain to the small group about the Multiplier Effect of Bank Reserves on the
overall supply of money. Those students learned enough from what I taught them that
they did well on the exam. I missed a few points on the section of material that I had not
mastered, but I did well enough to get an A, and the satisfaction I got from teaching
others the concept made me feel proud.

Also, remember the S-A-R (situation-action-result) technique and see a sample S-A-R
story.

110. Give two examples of things you've done in previous jobs or school that
demonstrate your willingness to work hard.

Sample excellent response:

The day we had inventory at Best Buy, I worked a 13-hour day. I did this because I knew
we were understaffed and that a lot of the lower-level employees who would be working
with the inventory team were very nervous about being in charge of the inventory when
many of them had never done it before. Conveniently, I used to work for the inventory
company that was handling our store, so I still had a fairly deep understanding of their
processes and methods. I typically work 8-9 hour shifts, but I stayed longer after my shift
to ensure that our lower-level employees felt comfortable and that the inventory got
started on time and that it took off in the right direction. I met with a few of the the lower-
level employees, and I told them a few tips on how to solve problems they may
encounter, and it worked; they all seemed to feel a little more comfortable. Then I walked
the store and made sure that it was presentable for our guests and in case we got a
surprise visit from headquarters. I couldn't stay for the inventory myself because I had
class in the morning, and it would've put me over my 40 hours for the week, but I was
glad I could stay long enough to make everyone feel a little more comfortable, and that I
had time to make them all feel appreciated.

Another example of something that merited a lot of effort on my behalf was my

marketing research paper. I enjoy group projects because I enjoy learning about the
perspectives of others; however, sometimes the burdens appear to outweigh the
benefits. Having a group project such as this one with 5-6 team members was a difficult
task when most of us had school and jobs to juggle. We created an online survey and
sent it to everyone on our contact list. We were doing research for a museum, and they
had a contact list of award-winning artists whose perspectives they wanted us to use in
our project. Anyone whose email didn't work or who didn't fill out the survey we tried to
contact over the phone. Then we ran all of that data through SPSS and started to create
our paper -- in completion our paper was 120 pages. The project was an amazing
experience and I am so proud to say I've done it, I love having the opportunity to talk
about what I have accomplished, but it merited a great deal of effort and a lot of learning
along the way. My group was good; they were a solid group of people who were smart
and willing to put in the time, and we got the highest grade in the class.
[contributed by Cynthia Buenger]

Also, remember the S-A-R (situation-action-result) technique and see a sample S-A-R
story.

111. Describe the last time that you undertook a project that demanded a lot of
initiative.
Sample excellent response:
During my internship with World Market, we were asked to pick an area or a problem
and create a way to improve World Market process. I noticed that our food vendors were
not really pulling their weight -- with the economic downturn and the price of gas
especially, our sales are down right now, which often means decreased payroll -- so at
this juncture it was critical that our vendors perform up to par so we don't have to waste
our payroll hours doing their work. Initially I just wanted to change our vendor survey.
The survey had 4 questions for each vendor, who got rated green (good) or red (bad) on
each question -- that was it. So I turned it into 10 questions that each fell under the
categories of one of the initial 4 questions. I also changed the rating scale to a 1-5 scale,
1-2 were red, 3-4 were yellow, and 5 was green. I did a Likert scale rather than a simple
red, yellow, green concept because I wanted to be better able to track improvement.
This didn't seem like enough to me; I decided there were so many other ways I could
tweak the process. So then I created a new vendor scorecard (their feedback -- this
shows them their weekly ratings in each area) and a new Vendor notes card (this is
where any comments go and shows them any specific dates we had problems with their
products, like spoiled milk, for example). I also created a new vendor expectations guide
that was a little more professional and attuned to be consistent with the changed I made
to the survey. Finally I created an idea for development, putting the survey on a hand-
held scanning device so the Team Leader in charge of that area of the store could take
the scanner around with her as she did the survey, increasing its accuracy. The survey
would also show the vendors' scorecard history (last month, quarterly average, biannual
average, and annual average) so we could determine whether or not the vendor was
improving.
[contributed by Cynthia Buenger]

Also, remember the S-A-R (situation-action-result) technique and see a sample S-A-R
story.

112.What is the most competitive work or school situation you have experienced?
How did you handle it? What was the result?

Sample excellent response:

I worked at a retail store, where we had a competition to win an extra discount at the
store. Our task was to get more credit-card applications than any other employee. I
handled this task by presenting the customer with the benefits of signing up for the credit
card and taking the time to explain to them what exactly they were getting into. This
seemed to be a great way to deal with this task because people appreciated the honesty
and were happy to get the card because of the benefits. I did very well with this task and
ended up wining the contest.
[contributed by Keri]

Also, remember the S-A-R (situation-action-result) technique and see a sample S-A-R
story.