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Interview Questions

Commercial

• Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself?

• Tell me about your educational background.

• Tell me about your experience.

• Tell me about yourself. Walk me through your resume.

• Tell me something about yourself that I wouldn’t know from

reading your resume?

• Tell me how this role fits with your career path.

Reason for Leaving

• I heard you left ABC Company, what happened?

Information & Referral Meeting

• Introduce yourself and ask for an Information and Referral

Meeting.

Communication

• Describe a time when you had to convince a person or group to

re-evaluate their decision.

• Describe an example of your ability to listen and be responsive.

• Describe your presentation skills and experience.

• Give an example from your past work experience that

demonstrates your ability to network and, as a result, generated
new business for a product or service.

• Give me an example of a time you had to sell an idea.

• Give me an example where you failed to persuade someone to

do something you felt would be good for business results. And,
why did your efforts fail?
Communication (continued)

• How do you effectively communicate with others?

• How would your co-workers describe your communications style?

• Tell me about your media relations skills. And, a faux pas you’ve learned from in dealing with the
press?

• Describe the toughest issue you have had to handle with the press.

• Describe the toughest issue you have had to engage legal counsel to help resolve.

• Provide an example of an unpleasant client situation. How did you handle it? What would you have
done differently?

• Describe how you have managed dissent with your Board of Directors.

• Tell me about a situation when you persuaded someone to accept your ideas or point of view.

• Tell me about a time when your opinion was challenged. How did you handle it?

• What is the most significant presentation you've given to clients?

• Provide examples of how you share negative messages with vendors, clients, colleagues, Sr.
managers?

• Do you think that it is ever appropriate to lie in the workplace?

• Describe an instance when you had to think on your feet to get yourself out of a difficult situation.

Critical Thinking

• Describe a situation where you had to work with ambiguity. How did you deal with the situation, and
what was the result?

• How do you set targets? How do you quantify and measure the outcomes?

• Could you share how you engaged your executive team to meet competitive threats in the
marketplace?

• Describe how you have restructured a business for increased profitability?

• How would your manager rate your analytical ability?

• How would you rate your analytical ability? And why?

• Have you ever acted in conflict with an agreement you reached with your boss? Explain the
circumstances.

• Let’s assume you are managing a company just coming out of bankruptcy, what 3 things would you do
first?

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Decision Making

• Describe a situation in which you faced an ethical challenge in the workplace and how you resolved it.

• Describe a situation in which you had to take immediate action in a high-pressure situation.

• Describe a time when you found it necessary to make an unpopular decision.

• Give me an example of your ability to make decisions under pressure. What is your approach when
time is short?

• Name the greatest risk you've taken which resulted in failure. What did you learn?

• Tell me about a situation where you had to make a decision without much information.

• Tell me about an experience in which you had to make a difficult decision.

• Tell me about a bad business decision that you’ve made.

• What was the most challenging or riskiest decision you have made?

• When do you have difficulty making decisions?

General

• Aren't you overqualified for this position?

• Describe an ideal work environment.

• Describe an instance in which you were able to persuade an important person over to a new way of
thinking.

• Did you set professional goals for yourself last year? If so, what were the major ones and did you meet
them?

• Do you have any location preferences?

• Give an example of a time when you had to deal with frequent organizational changes or unexpected
events on the job.

• Give an example of a time when you had to deal with unreasonable expectations of you.

• Give an example of how you saw a project through, despite obstacles.

• Give me an example of a challenging, or failed situation. How did you approach the situation, were you
successful, and what did you learn?

• How do you deal with stressful situations at work?

• How do you feel about what happened to you?

• How do you manage your day so that you accomplish the important, or the have-to items?

• How do you measure the success of your work?

• In a past job, what was most likely to create stress for you?

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General (continued)

• In what ways did you and your boss disagree? If I asked him or her about that, would he/she know
how you really felt?

• What was on the cover of the most recent periodical that you read?

• Please describe any experience you have with negotiation of financial transactions or with negotiation
in general.

• Since you have been in a large company environment for so many years, will you find it difficult to work
at a small company such as ours?

• Tell me about a learning experience that affected your management style.

• Tell me about a situation where you made a mistake. How did you handle that mistake and what was
the resolution?

• Tell me about some of your recent goals and what you did to achieve them.

• Tell me about something you planned to do that did not work out.

• Tell me about your previous manager and company.

• Think of someone you enjoyed working for. Describe that person’s management style?

• We all have had to work with someone who is very difficult to get along with. Give an example of when
this happened. Why was the person difficult and how did you handle this person?

• What achievements have eluded you?

• What can you contribute to our organization?

• What characteristics do you desire in your boss? How did your last one measure up?

• Describe your proudest accomplishment and why it was a standout.

• What did you do the last time you were asked to submit a report that due to time and resource
constraints, compromised quality?

• What do you know about our company?

• What do you think will be the toughest part of this job?

• What else should I know about you?

• What is your most important accomplishment to date?

• What kind of people do you find it difficult to work with?

• What management style do you enjoy working for? And why?

• What new challenges do you enjoy most?

• What sets you apart from the others?

• What is on the best article

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General (continued)

• What was the most frustrating experience in your current (or last) job? The most satisfying?

• When you're asked to make changes at the last minute, how do handle that task?

• Who has been instrumental in helping you develop your performance over the last few years? In what
way?

• Why should a company hire you over other qualified applicants?

• Why should we hire you?

• What is your biggest strength relating to technology? And the flip side, what is a challenge for you?

• What blogs do you read (or follow)? Do you “tweet”?

Leadership

• Describe a time when you had to alter your leadership style?

• Tell me about a brand promise that you have needed to re-engineer.

• Describe a time when you reprimanded an employee for poor performance. What was the outcome?

• How do you balance client needs with company goals?

• How do you motivate subordinates?

• How would you describe your leadership style?

• Leadership is about bringing change. What is your philosophy on change in an organization? Do you
need management buy-in?

• Tell me about a good process that you have made even better.

• What have you done to maximize margins and ROI? And, what changes in your approach during an
economic downturn?

• Tell me about a situation at work in which you led a team well.

• Tell me about a time when you have persuaded others to adopt your ideas.

• Tell me about a time when you mentored someone.

• What have you done to develop your leadership skills?

• What is your strongest leadership skill and how will it assist you for this job?

• What was your most significant leadership experience?

• What is the toughest strategic challenge you’ve encountered and how did you resolve it?

• How would you describe the best leader(s) you have worked with in terms of traits and behaviors?
What about the best manager(s)?

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Management

• Describe your management style in dealing with staff or co-workers.

• Have you had direct supervisory experience? If so, how would you describe your performance as a
manager?

• How do you coach an employee who is underperforming?

• Tell me about a time when you delegated a project effectively.

• Have you ever inherited an underperforming management team? What did you do? Is there anything
you would do differently today?

• Describe your success in managing a virtual team? What processes have you used to engage them?
How would they rank your effectiveness in building relationships?

• What is the toughest aspect of managing people?

• Describe a time when you’ve reported to a younger manager, what was that like?

• Who was the strongest person on your staff? And, why.

• What kind of work environment do you strive to create?

• Can you provide examples of how you’ve mentored staff to prepare for C-Level assignments?

• How have you measured success in building bench strength?

• Have you ever needed to restructure your sales force? Describe the impact your changes made.

• Describe the most effective incentive plan you’ve created for your sales team.

Project Management

• Describe a failed project you have been involved with at work, and explain why it was not successful.

• Have you ever had more than one project with the same deadline? How did you handle it?

• How do you organize and plan for major projects?

• Tell us about a project in which you were responsible for the budget. How did you stay within budget?

• Describe a project that was particularly frustrating and why.

• Tell me about a project that was very rewarding and why.

• Describe a project in which you were responsible for a budget. How did you stay within budget?

• How do you help ensure that your employees meet project deadlines?

Motivation

• Describe a situation that de-motivated you.

• Give me an example of a time you took initiative.

• How do you motivate yourself to complete unpleasant assignments?

• How have your career motivations changed over the last couple years?

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Motivation (continued)

• How long have you been looking for another position? Why has it taken so long?

• Tell me about a time you did not succeed and how you overcame it?

• What are some of your values?

• What are you looking for in this job?

• What is your ideal job?

• What do you know about our company’s culture?

• Why did you stay in your last role so long?

• What did you like least about your last position?

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

• What does success mean to you?

• What motivates you?

• Why are you interested in making a career change?

• Why do you want to work here?

• Why do you want to work in our industry?

• Why do you want work for us?

• Why have you changed jobs so frequently?

Problem Solving

• Describe a situation where you came up with a creative solution to a problem.

• Describe a time when you've creatively overcome an obstacle.

• How do you deal with conflict?

• How do you deal with difficult clients?

• Tell me about a problem that you analyzed and your recommendation.

• Tell me about a situation where you did not get along with your supervisor.

• Tell me about a situation in which you were required to analyze and solve a complex problem.

• Tell me about a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem. What did you do once you
discovered this?

• Walk me through your process of solving an issue or problem.

• What's the last thing you and your boss disagreed about? How did you settle it.

• Provide an example of how you’ve used creativity and analytical skills to solve a problem.

• Tell me about a situation at work in which you experienced conflict and how you resolved it.

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Problem Solving (continued)

• Tell me about a time when you solved an important problem in the workplace. What was the impact?

• What types of problems did you resolve in your most recent job?

Self Assessment

• Describe a situation in which your work was criticized? How did you respond?

• Describe your reputation within your last organization.

• How have you benefited from your disappointments/failures?

• How would your co-workers describe you?

• How would your supervisor describe you?

• If given the ability to change one thing about yourself, what would you change?

• If I were to ask your team members to give me feedback about your deliverables what would they say?

• In your last performance reviews, what were identified as areas needing improvement?

• What about yourself would you want to improve?

• What are some of the things you find difficult to do?

• What are your strong points and how have they helped you to succeed?

• What aspect of your management style would you like to change?

• What personal characteristics add to your effectiveness?

• What three words would your peers use to describe you?

• What would your boss say about you - both positive and negative?

• What has been your greatest work/life achievement?

• Why have you succeeded in the past?

Teamwork

• Describe a team experience that did not work well. How did you handle it?

• Have you ever been in a situation where a team member was not holding up his/her end of the project?
What happened?

• Tell me about a team project that didn't go well. What happened? And, tell me why it didn't go well.

• Tell me about a high-performing team you were on. Why do you think the team worked so well
together?

• Tell me about your last experience working in a team and what role you played.

• What qualities do you have that make you an effective team player?

• Have you ever worked on a team comprised of mostly younger team members? Describe the
dynamics.

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Top 10 Questions

• Describe your management style?

• Tell me about your departure from your last company.

• Tell me about your relationship with your last three bosses?

• Tell me about yourself.

• What are your strengths?

• What could you have improved about your performance in your last job?

• What level salary are you seeking?

• What would your co-workers say about you - both positive and negative?

• Where do you see yourself in five years?

• Why are you interested in our company?

C-Suite Executive

• Tell me about your most recent role. What is your motivation in this industry sector and why did you
accept that specific opportunity?

• What was your proudest moment in your most recent role?

• How have you engaged your executive team to meet competitive threats in the marketplace?

• What is the toughest strategic challenge you’ve encountered and how did you resolve it?

• Have you ever inherited an underperforming management team? What did you do? Is there anything
you would do differently today?

• What were the biggest challenges in your last position?

• How would you describe the best leader(s) you have worked with, in terms of traits and behaviors?

• Tell me about a brand promise that you have needed to re-engineer.

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