Today’s post is a list of 101 interview questions that are typical of any job interview.  I wanted to get this list out today, and plan on developing answers (or a methodology for developing answers) in the months to come.  For now, you should familiarize yourself with these questions as they WILL be asked on your next interview.

101 Job Interview Questions

1. Why should I hire you?
2. What makes you the best candidate for this job?
3. Tell me about yourself.
4. Why did you leave your last job?
5. Why do you want to leave your current position?
6. How did you get along with your previous boss?
7. How did you get along with your previous co-workers?
8. What bugged you most about your last boss?
9. Why do you want to work for this company?
10. What do you think this position entails?
11. What are your career goals for the future?
12. What is your greatest strength?
13. What is your greatest weakness?
14. How will you compensate for that weakness in this position?
15. Do you have any personal blind spots that effect you at work/
16. If you were hiring for this position, what would you look for in a candidate?
17. What is your experience in this area?
18. What kind of experience do you have in this industry?
19. What makes you qualified to do this job?
20. What is your educational background as it relates to this position?
21. Where did you go to school?
22. What did you study?
23. How does that fit with the requirements of this job?
24. What are you previous job experiences as they relate to this position?
25. What do you expect from us?
26. What kind of salary are you looking for?
27. What kind of benefits do you expect?
28. How do you handle a heavy case load?
29. What do you do when you disagree with your boss?
30. How do you handle stress on the job?
31. Tell me about your organizational skills.
32. How well do you multi-task?
33. What is your goal for what you want to get out of this position?
34. How much do you know about this organization?
35. How do you keep yourself up on the latest activities in your field?
36. What makes you feel successful?
37. Do you consider yourself to be successful?
38. How much did you make at your last job?
39. Are you applying for other jobs?
    1. Which ones?
40. What kind of a team player are you?
41. Do you know anyone else who works here?
42. Have you ever been fired?
43. Have you ever had to fire anyone?
44. If we hire you how long do you expect to work here?
45. What are your short-term goals?
46. What are your long-range goals and objectives?
47. Where do you see yourself in five years?
48. What do you hope to be doing in ten years?
49. Do you have a geographic preference?
50. Are you able to travel abroad if the position requires it?
51. What irritates you most about co-workers
52. What has disappointed you about a job?
53. What is more important to you, the money or the work?
54. What motivates you to do your best work?
55. What is your willingness/ability to work overtime?
    1. Nights?
    2. Weekends?
56. What is your management style?
57. How do you handle rejection?
58. What was the best job you ever had?
    1. Why?
59. What was the worst job you ever had?
    1. Why?
60. What questions do you have for me?
61. What questions do you have about this company?
62. What questions do you have about this position?
63. Are you more energized by working with people or by collecting and interpreting data?
64. How well do you handle monotonous tasks?
65. How well do you handle creative tasks?

Illegal questions. (If these questions are asked in an interview the interviewer is violating federal employment law!)

1. How old are you?
2. What year were you born?
3. In what year did you graduate from college/high school?
4. Are you married or do you have a permanent partner?
5. With whom do you live?
6. How many children do you have?
7. Are you pregnant?
8. Do you expect to become have a family?
9. How many children do you have?
10. What are your childcare arrangements?
11. Where were you/your parents born?
12. What is your native language?
13. What is your country of citizenship?
14. Are you a US citizen?
15. Have you ever been arrested?
16. What clubs or social organizations do you belong to?
Do you go to church?
17. ANY question relating to race, color or religion is illegal.

O.k.  I know there are only 87 questions here.  Why don’t you add your question in the comment section?

Job Interviews / Interviewing Related Posts

• Want to Ace the Behavioral Interview?
• How To Conduct An Informational Interview
• The Art of Interviewing to Land Your Perfect Job
• Interviewing Tips – a Video Montage
• How to Nail The Job Interview

Behavioral interviews (or behavior-based interviews) have been around since the 1980s and have become a rather prominent form for selecting qualified candidates. The effectiveness of this type of interview has been validated in respected research journals repeatedly. In short, behavioral interviews work when they are done right. Unfortunately, they are not always done right because they are conducted by people who have not been trained to conduct them.

In the behavioral interview candidates are asked to give an example of their past behavior in a particular situation. Questions usually take the form of, “Describe a time when you. . . ”or “Tell me about a time when you. . .” The questions are supposed to relate directly to job-related skills, and they should be asked of every candidate for a position in order for this type of interview to be effective.

The underlying premise of this type of interview is that people will handle future situations in the same way they have handled similar past situations.

Since one of the keys to successful interviewing is rehearsal, we encourage you to take time to work out answers to the kinds of questions you will encounter in a behavioral interview. Be sure to use your accomplishment statements or CARS whenever possible. This should give you a solid framework from which to answer. Your answers should not sound memorized, but they should be well rehearsed. Remember, interviewing success is about being prepared for and having a mental outline to follow in responding to the questions. Keep your answers brief and resist the temptation to chase rabbits!

Here is a sample list of behavioral interview questions we’ve seen over the years:

• Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way.
• Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation.
• Tell me about a situation where you had to deal with an upset customer or co-worker.
• Describe the worst project you have ever worked on.
• Give me an example of a time when you were able to motivate others to achieve their objectives.
• Give me a specific example of a time when you used logic to solve a problem.
• Tell me about a time when you used your presentation skills to influence a group of co-workers.
• Tell me about a difficult decision you’ve made in the last year.
• Give me a specific example of a time when you had to follow a policy that you did not agree with.
• Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss, but followed his/her orders anyway.
• Give me an example of a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty in order to get the job done.
• Tell me about a time when you set a goal and were able to meet it.
• Can you think of a time when you utilized time management skills to accomplish a business activity.
• Have you ever witness a person doing something that you felt was against company policy. What did you do and why?
• Give me an example of when you had to prioritize your tasks because you had too many things to do.
• Describe a time when you set your sights too high (or too low).
• When have you had to make a split second decision? Please tell me about it.
• What is your typical way of dealing with conflict? Give me an example.
• Tell me about a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem.
• Tell me about a time you were able to successfully deal with a person who did personally like you.
• Please discuss an instance of when you were required to produce an important written document.
• Give me an example of a time when you failed to accomplish something important.
• Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead.
• Tell me about a time when you effectively delegated a project.
• Give me an example of a time when you used your fact-finding skills to solve a problem.
• Describe a time when you developed preventive measures by anticipating a potential problem.
• Tell me about a time when you were forced to make a decision that was not popular.
• Have you ever had to fire a friend or co-worker? Please tell me about what happened.
• Tell me about a project you worked on where the requirements changed midstream. What did you do?
• Tell me about a time when you took the lead on a project. What did you do?
• Describe a time you were forced to work with someone you didn’t like.
• Give me an example of something innovative you have done that made a difference in your company.

Happy hunting!

Want more tips for your job search?  Sign up for  free account at www.careeradvice4u.com.

Job Interviews / Interviewing Related Posts

• How To Conduct An Informational Interview
• The Art of Interviewing to Land Your Perfect Job
• Interviewing Tips – a Video Montage
• 101 Job Interview Questions
• How to Nail The Job Interview

Welcome December!  This month I am participating in a 30 Day Blogging Challenge with some other bloggers.  As you know, this blog is all about helping people find a new job. Not just any new job, mind you, but rather, the perfect career. That’s why we write about acing the interview, cutting time off your job search, and using Internet job boards (like LinkedIn, Monster.com, and Twitter).

This 30 day blog challenge will allow me to develop some new material to use in the Careers 2.0 website.  That means two things for you: 1) you get the opportunity to add your 2 cents to the conversation, and 2) you get it for free before everyone else! This blog is all about offering free job advice, free job resources, free resume examples, and much more. We deal with topics such as networking, building a personal brand, working with recruiters, unemployment, interviewing and salary negotiation. What would YOU like to see us cover during the 30 day challenge? I hope you will participate by adding your thoughts to the conversation.  Actually, it won’t be much fun without you! Oh, and don’t forget to pass the links along to your fellow job seekers.

While the long term goal of this blog is to help everyone in America find the perfect career for this time in their life, my short term goals are a bit more attainable. Here are my goals for 30 day blog challenge:

1. create 5 posts on Personal Branding as it relates to the job search.
2. create 5 posts on interviewing and interviewing tips for job seekers.
3. add 50 followers to Facebook blog list.
4. add 200 people to newsletter mailing list.
5. get 3 posts to get picked up by a national venue.

Thank you for joining (and encouraging) me on this 30 day blogging journey.  And don’t forget, happy hunting!

30 Day Blogging Challenge – day 1.  Tomorrow’s post: “Do You Have A Professional Photo?”

A good resume is one of the most important tools you will use in your job search. A good resume will get you in the door so you can ace the interview and negotiate for a higher salary. A good resume is important, but its not the ONLY tool you need. . . but we’ll talk more about that next time. Today’s post will give you some resume tips and some resume writing examples to help you create a winning resume.

The place to start your resume is by focusing on accomplishment statements. These are brief, quantified results you have had in your previous job(s). Accomplishment statements (we refer to them as CARS) will help you stand out in a crowd. By focusing on your accomplishments rather than your job description, you will show a potential employer what you could do for them based upon your previous experiences. By focusing on accomplishments, rather than job description, you will PROVE that you are the best candidate. At the very least, by focusing on accomplishment statements you will entice a potential employer to say, “Hmmm. I need to talk to this person!” And isn’t that the real goal of your resume — to get an interview? (Say, “yes.”)

Here are a couple of accomplishment statement resume examples. The first statement is from the opriginal resume. The second is a re-working of that statement utilizing the CARS approach and focusing on quantifiable results.

Original statement: Ordered parts and managed inventory to control costs and increase revenue.

Revised statement: Prevented high risk of shortage and negotiated $98K in cost avoidance through a large purchase of a critical part. Mitigated holding costs by arranging that inventory be held at a distributor without additional price increase.

Original statement: Drove business as the Project Manager for three high-end server products (XX Multi Processor, IPXX Multi Processor, and XX Dual Processor). Improved credibility with customers which lead to an agreement of using a non-renewable expense fee based technical support model to justify beyond-standard support of financial burden for customers.

Revised statement: Negotiated with OEM customer to pay a non-renewable expense agreement (rather than a long term contract), allowing customer to launch products successfully and avoiding a loss of $20M+ to the company while maintaining a relationship that led to repeat business on the next project.

You can see that the second example packs more punch in about the same amount of space.  Giving specific examples, backed by quantified results gives the resume more weight.  Think of it this way, if everyone else applying for the job simply re-iterates the job description except for you, then you win! You win because you are showing results while everyone else is simply re-stating what the employer already knows . . . the job description.

For more on writing CARS statements and other free resume advice,  be sure to check out the video on the Careers 2.0 website – http://careeradvice4u.com/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=113

Resume Advice Related Posts

• How To Write a Professional Summary Statement for Your Resume
• How Effective Is Your Resume?
• 3 Different Types of Resumes You Need To Know About
• Why a GREAT Resume is Not as Important as a DECENT Network