What Kind Of Questions Do They Ask In An Interview

Is There A Policy On Outside Employment

Side hustles are more ubiquitous than ever these days. According to Woodruff-Santos, this is an area where you have to use your best judgment. If your side hustle or business could potentially compete with your day job, you might be required to disclose that, she says.

Even if your side business is completely unrelated to your day job, if theres a certain time of day you need to focus on it, you should be upfront about it to ensure your potential boss is flexible with you using that time.

If you do bring it up, its important to also make it clear that youre determined to provide the same level of great work for the company that you would otherwise. You have to try to do that carefully because you dont want to give the impression that you are not fully committed to the job, Woodruff-Santos says. But I think the pandemic has changed the way Americans work and earn money, and forward-thinking hiring managers shouldnt be intimidated by an employee who has other stuff going on.

If Hired What Would You Do In The First 30

This is a good question to ask to get a sense of how well the candidate understands the responsibilities of a manager.

The successful candidate will explain what they need to get started and what parts of the company they would need to get familiar with. They might even give a specific example of where they would start .

In the end, you, the interviewer, might do things differently and the candidate, if hired, might as well but being prepared to answer this question reveals that the prospective manager knows your business, knows their job, is able to get to work on day one, and is excited to start.

Tell Me About Your Experience In

While similar to the previous question, this question proactively asks about the most important aspects of the role. For example, if a company is hiring for a copywriter, theyll certainly ask about the candidates experience in different types of writing or editing.

Sample answer:

During my time as a marketing specialist in Acme Inc., I got to write a lot of marketing copy. I was solely responsible for writing emails we sent to prospects and customers, including newsletters. I also wrote short copy for social media and, occasionally, articles for our blog.

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Question : What Are Your Academic Strengths

Why they’re asking this: In an effort to get to know you as a student, colleges are interested in getting your perspective on where you excel academically.

What they’re looking for: Don’t make this answer too short. Don’t just say, “I’m good at science.” When discussing your academic strengths, explain how you’ve capitalized on your strengths. If you’re an excellent writer, for example, how have you used your writing skills to excel in school? How do you plan on continuing to use your strengths?

How to prepare: Make sure you know your academic strengths. You should be able to explain how you recognized your strengths, how you’re currently using them, and how you plan to use them in the future.

Questions To Ask: Networking For Opportunities

• What do you like most about working at this organization?

• What kinds of projects do interns and entry level hires get involved in?

• What is the profile of the person most recently hired at my level?

• How long do people tend to stay at the organization?

• What do you/hiring managers look for in candidates?

• What skills and experience are most important?

• Can you tell me about the hiring process you went through? OR Can you tell me about the hiring process — what does it involve?

• Do you anticipate any openings coming up?

• What are the most effective strategies for seeking a position in this field?

• Can you recommend anyone else here or elsewhere to contact for insights or advice for the internship/job search?

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What Is Your Biggest Management Weakness

A candidate who acknowledges a weakness recognizes that theres an opportunity to improve. An answer to this manager interview question should reveal a trait that the candidate feels they can work on and perhaps how it has affected their work in the past.

Part of the answer should also indicate how the management candidate is working to improve.

Tell Me About Yourself

What They Want to Know: Asking about you is a way to break the ice at an interview and make you feel more comfortable. It’s also a way for the interviewer to determine if you’re a good fit for the job.

Before you go on an interview, consider what you want to say when you’re describing yourself to potential employers. Creating an elevator speech, which is a quick synopsis of your background, is a good way to prepare a response.

Im an electrician with ten years of experience in residential construction. After earning my electricians certificate at ABC Tech, I apprenticed with Jones Brothers, and then they hired me as a journeyman electrician. Four years later I earned my certification as a master electrician.

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If You Woke Up And Had 2000 Unread Emails And Could Only Answer 300 Of Them How Would You Choose Which Ones To Answer

We’ve all been faced with the seemingly unconquerable inbox, but even for high flyers 2,000 unread emails is significant. Despite the subject matter though, this question isn’t about email.

The point of this question is to demonstrate how candidates approach work and how they prioritise tasks. You want to understand their process for attacking a project that, on the face of it, seems difficult to deal with.

How would they divide the task up into smaller, more manageable sub-tasks? How would they prioritise which emails to answer? How would they decide which ones to answer? What is important is their reasoning and thought process, not what they say.

How To Conduct A Volunteer Interview

The volunteer interview is your opportunity to engage in conversation with prospective volunteers to understand more about them before placing them within your program. Before you begin to interview volunteer candidates, youll want to prepare some initial processes, like volunteer registration and background checks.

Typically, a volunteer will submit the following prior to the interview:

Volunteer Registration

This is often the first step in recruiting volunteers. During volunteer registration, interested volunteers provide basic metrics like full name, email address, and phone number.

Volunteer Application

Once a volunteer finds an opportunity theyre interested in, they should be asked to fill in an application or interest form. During this time, gather information about the candidates schedule and availability, missing contact details, any relevant qualifications they may have, and the role they wish to apply for. The purpose of the application is to make an initial judgement as to whether the applicant meets the minimum criteria for the position. Some organizations ask their volunteers to complete a quick, simple self-assessment to help inform the interview and placement process.

Background Check

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What’s Your Favourite Non

It’s always important to try and understand what kind of person a candidate is, and finding out what they enjoy outside of work is a great way to dig into this.

While it may not impact their work at all, it can help you understand someone’s character. These kind of interview questions help to relax candidates and encourage them to open up and speak about their life.

It’s also pretty interesting to know that you have a budding kitesurfer or a weekend chess aficionado in your team!

Why Are You Interested In Working At This Organisation

Why employers ask this: Have you done your homework? This question shows how much research you have done, demonstrating motivation for the job and providing recruiters with an insight into your own values to ensure they align with the hiring organisation, McInerney says.

How to respond well: Take some time to identify your values, then be prepared to talk about how these align with the company and what it does. If you can build a connection with the organisation’s people, strategy and values and your own values and aspirations, you will show the potential employer why youre an ideal fit, McInerney says.

Tip: Learn what you can about the companys values and aims. Many businesses include this sort of information via their websites About us page.

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What Is Your Leadership Style

This is a tough question to answer without dipping into platitudes. Try sharing leadership examples instead. Say, “The best way for me to answer that is to give you a few examples of leadership challenges I’ve faced,” and then share situations where you dealt with a problem, motivated a team, worked through a crisis. Explain what you did and that will give the interviewer a great sense of how you lead.

And, of course, it lets you highlight a few of your successes.

Tips For Questioning All Parties

One of the challenges youll face is staying objective. Everyone has personal biases and its an investigators job to recognize those biases and take them into account. This takes a great deal of self-awareness and self-control, but an excellent investigator has both of these qualities.

For more information on what to listen for when assessing credibility, download the free cheat sheet on Detecting Deception in Investigation Interviews.

When assessing the creditability of the subject, complainant and witnesses, youll also need to keep your biases in check and follow best practices. Before beginning the questioning phase above, ask some basic questions that are not connected with the incident being investigated.

They should be non-threatening questions to which you already know the answers. This helps you to establish a baseline against which you can measure the persons subsequent behavior, language and manner.

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What Does Customer Service Mean To You

If youre applying for a public-facing role, an employer may ask this question to determine what aspects of customer service are most important to you. . A good answer will align with the companys values, which you can glean through researching their customer service policy, understanding their products and clientele and reflecting on your own experiences as a customer. Your answer can either come from the perspective of a customer or a customer service provider.

Example answer:In my experience, good customer service involves taking responsibility when something goes wrong and doing what you can to make it right. For example, on a recent flight, I had pre-ordered my meal only to discover they didnt stock enough of my dish. Instead of simply stating the facts, the flight attendant apologized sincerely and offered me a free drink or premium snack. To me, this apology went a long way in smoothing things over. The freebie was a bonus that made me feel valued as a customer and choose the same airline for my next flight.

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Whats One Essential Skill You Learned In Your Most Recent Job

When you hear the candidates answer, ask yourself, Will that skill bring value to my company? If youre unsure about their answer, ask follow-up questions about their other skills to see if they can fill a void in your business.

It should also raise a red flag if the candidate cant think of anything they learned in their most recent job.

We should never stop learning. And even something as seemingly mundane as learning how to stay better organized shows that the candidate is always looking for ways to improve.

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Describe A Difficult Work Situation Or Project And How You Overcame It

What They Want to Know: When you’re responding to questions about what you did on the job, be prepared to share an actual example of a challenging situation at work, what the issue was, and how you helped resolve it.

Our team, already understaffed, was thrown for a loop when a major customer demanded that we complete our deliverables two weeks ahead of schedule. Normally we try to accommodate such requests, but this time it wasnt possible. I explained the situation to the client, and told them we could either charge them more to support the cost of hiring a temp or, if they accepted the original deadline, wed give them a 20% discount on their next order. They opted for the latter.

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Question : What Is Your Favorite Book

Why they’re asking this: This question is designed to help schools learn more about your interests. Colleges also probably want to make sure that you actually read books.

What they’re looking for: Don’t limit your answer to the name of a book think about why you like the book so much. How did it inspire you? Did a particular character resonate with you? Did you learn something from this book that influenced your opinions or behavior? Did this book help shape your perspective or values?

How to prepare: Really think about books you’ve read that you connected with and why. I’ve also seen similar questions asking about a news article you recently read, so try to stay up to date with the news, too!

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How Does The Team Deal With Two Urgent Projects With Conflicting Deadlines

This is especially important for candidates interviewing for leadership roles, because resource and time constraints are common in startups, says Todd Sundsted, CTO of Odeko. The answers, and how the interviewer backs it up with experience, help me understand their tactics for balancing conflicting demands. I want to understand how they weigh these priorities or when they push back. It’s almost always an equal-parts entertaining and valuable conversation.

Company Questions To Ask In An Interview

The company being a good fit is just as important as liking the daily responsibilities of your job. Will you feel supported? Do your values align? Do you agree with their policies and treatment of employees? These are all important things to discover when youre thinking through questions to ask in an interview.

7. Describe the culture of the company.

Are you a good fit for this particular organization? Make sure you are comfortable with the culture and the dynamic of the company.

8. Where do you think the company is headed in the next 5 years?

If you plan to be in this role for several years, make sure the company is growing so you can grow with the company.

9. Who do you consider your top competitor, and why?

You should already have an idea of the companys major competitors, but it can be useful to ask your interviewer for their thoughts. Naturally, they will be able to give you the insight you cant find anywhere else.

10. What are the biggest opportunities facing the company/department right now?

This question shows your drive to seize the opportunity and may help you learn more about where the company will be focusing over the next several months.

11. What are the biggest challenges facing the company/department right now?

On the flip side, you may want to ask about challenges. This question can help you uncover trends and issues in the industry and perhaps identify areas where your skills could save the day.

12. What do you like best about working for this company?

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What Challenges Are You Lacking In Your Current Job

“While I liked my last position, I wanted to work for a company with a bigger client base. I am excited to work at a company that has world-renowned clients in the industry all over the world.”

Underneath the surface, interviewers are asking one thing: Why are you leaving your current job? Remain diplomatic when answering this question. In other words, dont mention terrible coworkers or incompetent bosses. Those types of comments reflect poorly on you rather than your previous team. Instead, focus on your future and opportunities.

What Are Some Of The Key Financial Metrics That The Company Optimizes For

I don’t think enough candidates ask about the business itself, regardless of the product, says David Nunez, Head of Documentation at Stripe. This question gives great insight into the health of the company, what they prioritize, and also reflects well on you as the candidate youre signaling that you really want to do your homework, he says.

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What Was Your Salary In Your Last Job

This is a tough one. You want to be open and honest, but frankly, some companies ask the question as the opening move in salary negotiations.

Try an approach recommended by Liz Ryan. When asked, say, “I’m focusing on jobs in the $50K range. Is this position in that range?”

Maybe the interviewer will answer maybe she won’t. If she presses you for an answer, you’ll have to decide whether you want to share or demur. Ultimately your answer won’t matter too much, because you’ll either accept the salary offered or you won’t, depending on what you think is fair.

Questions About Your Professional Development

Professional development questions demonstrate if this position has a high potential for growth. This is an important factor, especially if you want to spend your career working for this company.

• Can you explain the training process for the employee entering this role?

• Are there training programs available to employees interested in advancing their skills?

• Do you offer professional development programs for employees?

• Are there opportunities to represent the organization at industry conferences?

• Are there formal or informal mentorship programs offered by the organization?

• Do you offer tuition reimbursement for skills learned outside of the workplace?

• Would you say this position has multiple career paths?

• Can you define the opportunities to be promoted in the company?

• If my goal is to learn a new skill, is it possible to learn it from another employee within the company?

• How long do you think it will take to adapt to this new role?

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