Friday, March 22, 2024

What Do Job Interviewers Ask

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Questions To Learn About The Job

17 GREAT QUESTIONS to ask in a JOB INTERVIEW!

Ask questions that will help you determine if you would actually like the job, and be able to do it well.

  • Why is this position open? Is it a new position? Or is it a replacement for someone?
  • How long does someone typically stay in this job?
  • How many hours a week does someone in this job typically work? Is overtime accepted or expected?
  • Do most employees check email over the weekends and stay in touch while on vacation? Is that required for this job?
  • Do employees sometimes work from home or telecommute in this job? How many people telecommute? How many hours a week?
  • Who does the person in this job report to? What is the bosss job title, and where are they located?
  • What is the salary grade for this job? Where does this job salary grade rank in your salary grades?
  • What can you tell me about this job that isnt in the description?
  • What are your future plans for this job?
  • What are the prospects for growth for the person in this job?
  • How long do people stay in this job?
  • How often is this job open?
  • Who does the person in this job report to?
  • How often are performance reviews provided? Do employees receive feedback from their managers?
  • Is travel to meet with clients or suppliers or to represent this organization required for this job? If so, where, how long, how far, and how often?
  • Where is this job located?

Ask about anything else in your preparation that raised questions for you. Read for leveraging Google before the interview.

How Many People Directly Report To The Person In This Position

If youâre applying for a management position, itâs important to know how many people youâd be managing if you were to take the position otherwise, itâs tough to accurately assess whether the job is the right match for your skills, experience, and background. For example, if your interviewer tells you the new hire will be managing a team of 20 â and you currently manage a team of two â that might feel like too big of a jump for you. On the other hand, if youâre currently managing a large team â and find out the position only has three direct reports â the job could feel like a step backwards.

Questions About Your Work History

The meat of any job interview is your track record at work: what you accomplished, how you succeeded or failed , and how you behaved in real time in actual work environments. If you prep a few versatile stories to tell about your work history and practice answering behavioral interview questions, youll be ready to go.

Also Check: How To Ace Your Job Interview

There Are Some Things You Can Do To Make The Transition Easier:

  • Group the questions according to topic. For example, if you want to ask about writing skills, list all these questions together. Then, if a candidate answering one question touches on another question in your list, you can easily say Actually, I was planning to ask you about that. Tell me more about. This applies to similar skills as well for example, list organizational interview questions and leadership interview questions one after the other.
  • Ask prompting questions. Candidates will use their experiences, knowledge and thoughts to back up their answers. Most of the time, youll have something to ask about those thats relevant to the role. For instance, you can say something like You mentioned that you did this project with a team of designers. We actually have a great team here that youll be working closely with should you be hired. How would you feel about this?
  • React like you would in a social situation. If somebody told you at a party that theyre currently working on a cutting-edge face recognition program, how would you react? You might say something like That sounds fascinating. Tell me more or Whats the program like? Its OK to respond this way during an interview, as long as you make sure the conversation doesnt stray from the job youre hiring for.

An Interview Is A Two

" Do You Plan To Have Children Soon?"  The Illegal ...

Now that you have a better idea about the questions to ask in an interview, you can steer the interview toward becoming more of a two-way conversation, rather than the usual nerve-filled interrogation associated with the interview process.

Armed with these questions to ask your interviewer, get the answers you need and walk away well-informed of the opportunity presented to you.

Want to learn how to pull off the perfect interview? Get hired with these interview tips.

Need to spruce up your resume? Dont forget to check out our free resume templates or our easy-to-use resume builder.

Read Also: How To Prepare For An Administrative Assistant Interview

Can You Explain Why You Changed Career Paths

Dont be thrown off by this questionjust take a deep breath and explain to the hiring manager why youve made the career decisions you have. More importantly, give a few examples of how your past experience is transferable to the new role. This doesnt have to be a direct connection in fact, its often more impressive when a candidate can show how seemingly irrelevant experience is very relevant to the role.

Prepare For The Interview

You don’t need to memorize an answer, but do take the time to consider how you’ll respond. The more you prepare, the more confident you’ll feel during a job interview.

When you’re not sure what to expect during an interview, also take time to review this refresher on how job interviews work, and these tips on how to prepare to ace your job interview.

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If You Were To Hire Me What Might I Expect In A Typical Day

This shows your eagerness about the position, Harrison says, and it gives you a better idea of what the job would be like on a daily basis so you can decide whether you want to pursue it.

“A frank conversation about position expectations and responsibilities will ensure not only that this is a job you want, but also one that you have the skills to be successful in,” he says.

Do You Prefer Hard Work Or Smart Work

Questions to ask at the End of an Interview | Career Interview Tips

Smart work on the other hand, means doing the work efficiently. If you manage to get the job done in 2 hours instead of 5, with the same end-result, youre doing smart work.

Keep in mind, though, that by asking this question, the interviewer is looking to understand what your work ethic is like. Meaning, theyre looking for a healthy combination of both, not just one.

That is, they want you to be the candidate who not only thinks smartly but works hard as well.

So, your answer here shouldnt be one-sided…

Oh, I looove smart work. Thats when you come up with what to do, and make other people do it, right?

Instead, explain how you excel at both:

Sample answer:

I dont particularly have a preference – I believe that both hard and smart work is important to get the best results.

Smart work, on one hand, lets you figure out the best and most efficient way to get things done.

Hard work, on the other hand, means that youll do the job right. Even if theres no way to do it smart or efficiently, youll be willing to put in long hours of work to get it done.

Im the type that does both.

For an example of smart for, during my time at , I was in charge of the sales department. As a process improvement initiative, I migrated from an outdated, in-house CRM, to Pipedrive. This improved the departments productivity by around 20%.

Read Also: How To Prepare For A Job Interview Over The Phone

How Do You Prioritize Your Work

Your interviewers want to know that you can manage your time, exercise judgement, communicate, and shift gears when needed. Start by talking about whatever system youve found works for you to plan your day or week, whether its a to-do list app you swear by or a color-coded spreadsheet. This is one where youll definitely want to lean on a real-life example. So go on to describe how youve reacted to a last-minute request or another unexpected shift in priorities in the past, incorporating how you evaluated and decided what to do and how you communicated with your manager and/or teammates about it.

What Interests You About This Role

Hiring managers often ask this question to ensure you understand the role and give you an opportunity to highlight your relevant skills. Study the job description carefully and compare its requirements to your skills and experience. Choose a few responsibilities you particularly enjoy or excel at and focus on those in your answer.

Example answer:While I highly valued my time at my previous company, there are no longer opportunities for growth that align with my career goals. This position fits perfectly with my skill set and how Im looking to grow in my career. Im also looking for a position at a company like yours that supports underserved communities, which is a personal passion of mine.

Read more: Interview Question: Why Are You Interested in This Position?

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How Do You Handle Stress

How you handle stressful situations is an indicator of your ability to solve problems. Employers want to hire candidates who react to stress constructively, so its important that your answer to this question demonstrates personal growth.

Spend some time thinking about your response to stressful situations and provide an example that communicates your abilities around perseverance, resilience and stress management.

Example answer:Im able to stay calm when I focus on the bigger picture and break down my projects into smaller tasks. I always start by asking myself, What is the ultimate goal Im trying to achieve? From there, I make a list of immediate and long-term action items with achievable but ambitious deadlines. Even if the big project is due tomorrow, I ask myself, Whats something I can tackle in the next 30 minutes? Before I know it, Ive made significant progress and that impossible project doesnt seem so impossible.

Read more: Interview Question: How Do You Handle Stress?

What Are You Looking For In An Ideal Candidate For This Position

10 of the most common interview questions

Itâs important to understand what the interviewer and company considers to be an ideal candidate for the role theyâre hiring for that way, you can compare their idea of an ideal candidate with your skills and qualifications to see if theyâre a match. For example, if the interviewer tells you ââ¦the ideal candidate would have at least five years of experience managing a teamâ â and youâve never managed any direct reports â you know that, in their eyes, youâre not quite the right fit for the position.

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Tell Me About A Challenge Or Conflict Youve Faced At Work And How You Dealt With It

Youre probably not eager to talk about conflicts youve had at work during a job interview. But if youre asked directly, dont pretend youve never had one. Be honest about a difficult situation youve faced . Most people who ask are only looking for evidence that youre willing to face these kinds of issues head-on and make a sincere attempt at coming to a resolution, former recruiter Richard Moy says. Stay calm and professional as you tell the story , spend more time talking about the resolution than the conflict, and mention what youd do differently next time to show youre open to learning from tough experiences.

What Are The Day

Before you can decide whether a role is the right fit for you, itâs important to understand what, exactly, you would be doing in the role. Asking your interviewer to talk through the daily responsibilities of the role can give you an idea of a typical day in the position â which can help you decide whether thatâs the kind of âtypical dayâ you want for your next career move. For example, if youâre the kind of person that loves to interact with your co-workers â and you find out that 90 percent of the roleâs day-to-day responsibilities require you to be alone in a cubicle â that job might not be the best fit.

Read Also: What Type Of Leader Are You Interview Question

First Know What Youre Looking For

We cant start talking about how to conduct an interview or interview questions if we dont know the specific skills we want to assess. Interview questions will determine whether youll get enough useful insight to judge candidates suitability for the job. This means that your questions must be directly related to the job requirements. Otherwise, it will be challenging to compare one candidate to another on the criteria that really matter.

To do this, first determine what qualities you want to see in your new hire. Start with the job description . Ask yourself:

  • Which requirements do I want to assess during the interview? Make a comprehensive list and select those qualities you can assess through interview questions. Some of your requirements can be evaluated more effectively at previous stages .
  • What requirements carry the most weight? For example, you definitely want your salespeople to have great communication skills, but they might not need to have extroverted personalities. So, your interview questions should focus on communication skills, instead of extroversion.

For example, lets look at the complete list of requirements for the role of Content Writer. These exclude experience and education, which can vary considerably depending on the role and are elements you can evaluate directly from the job application phase.

Questions About The Position

12 Best Interview Questions to Ask in a Job Interview

1. How will you measure the success of the person in this position?

This gets right to the crux of what you need to know about the job: What does it mean to do well, and what will you need to achieve in order for the manager to be happy with your performance?

You might figure that the job description already laid this out, but its not uncommon for a job description to be the same one an employer has been using for the last ten years, even if the job changed significantly during that time. Companies often post job descriptions that primarily use boilerplate language from HR, while the actual manager has very different ideas about whats most important in the role. Also, frankly, most employers just suck at writing job descriptions , so its useful to have a conversation about what the role is really about. You might find out that while the job posting listed 12 different responsibilities, your success in fact just hinges on 2 of them, or that the posting dramatically understated the importance of 1 of them, or that the hiring manager is battling with her own boss about expectations for the role, or even that the manager has no idea what success would look like in the job .

2. What are some of the challenges you expect the person in this position to face?

3. Can you describe a typical day or week in the job?

4. How long did the previous person in the role hold the position? What has turnover in the role generally been like?

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Whats Your Companys Stance On Work

Building off the company culture question, itâs important to specifically ask about the organizationâs stance on work-life balance. Ideally, you want to find an organization thatâs aligned with your own idea of a healthy work-life balance otherwise, it could cause issues. For example, if youâre the kind of person that likes to clock out every day at 5 p.m. to pursue your personal passions, you donât want to work for a company that expects their employees to regularly work after hours.

Do You Have Any Interests Outside Of Work

If the interviewer asks you this question, take it as a good sign!

It means that they liked your professional background, and now theyre just trying to get to know you and see if youre a good fit for the company culture.

Its pretty hard to go wrong here, unless youre going to answer something like:

I have literally no hobbies.

or…

Recommended Reading: What Is A Behavioral Interview

How One Can Make The Best Impression Together With Your Interview Questions Throughout The Interview

1. Be proactive

  • Do not depend on the interviewer to ask you the proper interview questions, take management of the dialogue by asking the job interview query that youve researched and ready.
  • Ask interview questions that present how arduous youve thought concerning theplace and the corporate and the way critical you might be concerning the jobalternative.

We provide help to to plan interview questions that transcend simply exploring the routine particulars. These questions deal with points equivalent to position expectations, job priorities, departmental and organizational technique and desires, administration model and expectations.

What Do You Like Least About Your Job

20 Common Job Interview Questions You Should Know How to ...

Tread carefully here! The last thing you want to do is let your answer devolve into a rant about how terrible your current company is or how much you hate your boss or that one coworker. The easiest way to handle this question with poise is to focus on an opportunity the role youre interviewing for offers that your current job doesnt. You can keep the conversation positive and emphasize why youre so excited about the job.

Read More:What Interviewers Really Want When They Ask, What Do You Like Least About Your Job?

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