Manav Rachna Educational Institutions

Top 20
Interview Questions
With Answers

Top 20 Interview Questions

 HR Interview Questions

1. Tell me something about yourself?

This is the most frequently asked question. Be prepared with 60 second commercial about
yourself. Talk briefly about your family, education, industrial training, co curricular activities,
and work experience all with an objective of highlighting your skills, strengths and values
that match with the skills mentioned in the job description. You HAVE to show that there is
a match between your qualities and the job that you have applied for. Please keep in mind
the following:

- Prepare your script

- Memorize what you have prepared
- Practice, Practice, Practice
- Record your introduction on your Laptop or on Youtube and keep improvising
- Ensure that you display good Non Verbal communication when you are introducing
yourself. For eg. Pause, Tone, Pitch, Rate of Speech, Inflection, Pronunciation,
Articulation, Body Language, Gestures, Face Expressions and Eye contact
- Do not use negative words in your introduction
- Do not talk about your areas of improvement proactively

Following can be components of your introduction not necessarily in the same order:

✓ Name (Do not start with “Myself XYZ”, say “My name is XYZ”)
✓ Place you belong to with one good thing the place is famous for
✓ Family – Parents, siblings
✓ Any learning that you got from your family in terms of Values or skills
✓ Industrial Training – Project Title, Objective of Project, Scope of Project,
Methodology followed or Modus operandi, your accountabilities and achievements
in the project
✓ Your participation in co curricular activities and your learning from them. For
example if you are in any type of sports then you can talk about teamwork, strategy,
winning, focus, competitiveness etc.
✓ Your Assets (Skills, Values and Strengths)

Top 20 Interview Questions

✓ Your Hobbies (only talk about hobbies you are passionate about). Please talk about
learning from your hobbies. For example if your hobby is cooking then you can talk
about creativity, correctness, excellence, accuracy etc.

2. What are your key strengths? Why?

Your strengths are areas where you are better than others. You can have strengths at two
levels – Personal and Professional. It is better to talk about professional strengths that are
relevant to the job that you have applied for. For Example in TCS, if you feel your knowledge
about C, C++, C sharp, Java and Databases is sound, then it is a great strength to talk about
(Be prepared to face incisive questions if you talk about this as your strength). Please refer
to the attached titled “List of Strengths”. Please talk about your Achievements to support
your strengths. For Eg. If you say that you are a team player then you can support it by
saying “In every team assignment in the college everyone wanted me to be in their team
because i was not only liked for my task orientation but also for my ability to go that extra
mile and help others to complete the task”

3. What are your Areas of Improvement/ Weaknesses?

You need to look at this question very logically. Even your strengths are in a way your areas
of improvement because you can be better at them. First you should try and talk about
areas of improvement that are not related to the core work that you have applied for. What
is important here is that do not talk about the area of improvement only. Talk about what
you have done to improve them and what is your progress. Please find attached a document
by the name “List of Areas of improvement”. Following are few more areas where you might
like to improve yourself:

✓ Time Management
✓ Vocabulary
✓ Communication
✓ Email Skills
✓ Telephone Skills
✓ Stress Management
✓ Fitness
✓ Etiquettes – Business, Social etc.
✓ Lifestyle

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4. Why should we select you?

This question is asked to find out if you have the qualities that the institute is looking at.
Following are a few most commonly sought after by the corporate world:

✓ Leaning Agility
✓ Coach ability
✓ Desire to Contribute
✓ Analytical Skills
✓ Problem Solving
✓ Respect for protocol
✓ Interpersonal Skills
✓ Effective communication
✓ Integrity
✓ Ability to Innovate
✓ Good Computer Skills – Spreadsheets, Power point etc.
✓ Teamwork
✓ Task Orientation
✓ Process Orientation

Please use Google if you want to know more about these skills/ values/ strengths

5. What values are dear to you and why?

Your values are principles that you do not compromise with. All of us have values –
Professional or Personal. Similarly all the companies follow some values. These values are
zero tolerance areas in the companies. It helps in the interview if some of your values match
with the company values. Some relevant values that you can talk about are:

✓ Integrity ✓ Continuous Improvement

✓ Hard work ✓ Learning
✓ Innovation ✓ Contribution
✓ Respect ✓ Correctness
✓ Openness ✓ Efficacy
✓ Customer Focus ✓ Excellence
✓ Winning ✓ Merit
✓ Accountability ✓ Teamwork

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Please be prepared to support any value that you claim is dear to you, with facts and
figures from your life

6. Who is your “Hero/ Role model” and why?

This is very similar to the question number 7. Interviewer wants you to list down the
qualities of your role model. It is a common practice to have fascination for people you want
to be like. Therefore it is very much possible that if you admire somebody for some values,
skills or strengths, you would like to be like them and you would like to imbibe theirs skills,
values and strengths. There are two ways you can answer this question:

✓ You can say that you are a keen learner and that you have been mentored by
different people at different times. You can say that many people have been your
role models and they all have of inspired you, helped you learn new things and
mentored you at different times
✓ You can talk about some Freedom Fighter, sportsperson or Business Leader where
you can talk about some skills, values and strengths that match with the companies
values and the skills that match the skills mentioned in the job description

7. What are your top achievements and what helped you achieve them?

This question is asked with an objective of knowing your qualities that lead to the
achievements in your life. You can talk about achievements under the following categories:

✓ Sports
✓ Co-curricular Activities
✓ Position of Responsibility Held
✓ Academic
✓ Social
✓ Creative
✓ Any situation where you chased a target and achieved it
✓ Teamwork related achievements
✓ Problem solving related achievement
✓ Health related achievements
✓ Social Cause

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8. How will your parents, teachers and friends describe you?
This question is asked with an objective of finding your skills, habits and strengths. Your
answer should be on the following lines:

Parents Teachers Friends

✓ Obedient ✓ Punctual ✓ Reliable

✓ Trustworthy ✓ Disciplined ✓ Trustworthy
✓ Respectful ✓ Attentive ✓ Helpful
✓ Caring ✓ Etc. ✓ Caring
✓ Loving ✓ Fun loving
✓ Etc. ✓ Resourceful
✓ Etc.

9. What according to your parents, teachers and friends would be your areas of
improvement?
This is a tough question and be careful in answering this. You have to show that you have
been sensitive to the opinions of your parents, friends and teachers and that you work on
the feedback provided to you. Your answer should be on the following lines:

Parents Teachers Friends

✓ Lazy ✓ Communication ✓ Talkative

✓ Casual ✓ Health ✓ Health
✓ Unorganized ✓ Public Speaking ✓ Emotional
✓ Etc. ✓ Etc. ✓ Carefree
✓ Etc.
10. Do you believe in teamwork? How are you as a team player?

Yes is obviously the answer to this question. Please read some quotes about team work. For
eg. “All of us can think better then any one of us”. Following are characteristics of a good
team and a good team player:

Top 20 Interview Questions

A Good Team

✓ A clear and Compelling Goal

✓ Commitment to the common goal
✓ Every member contributes and benefits
✓ Alignment to the goals
✓ Competence – everyone brings something that the team needs
✓ A supportive Environment for the team to work empowerment

A Good Team Player

✓ Is an Initiator
✓ Works for consensus on decisions
✓ Open and Authentic communication
✓ Involves others in decision making process
✓ Trusts, supports and has genuine concern for other team members
✓ Owns problems rather than blaming them on others
✓ Actively listens and empathizes
✓ Encourages development of other team members
✓ Respects and is tolerant of individual differences
✓ Acknowledges and works through conflicts openly
✓ Considers and uses new ideas and suggestions from others
✓ Encourages feedback on own behavior
✓ Understands and is committed to team objectives
✓ Does not engage in ego trips with other team members
✓ Understands what is going on in the group

11. The environment here is stressful. How do you propose to deal with stress?

You must know the following things about Stress Management

Maintain a Stress Journal

✓ What caused your stress (make a guess if you’re unsure)

✓ How you felt, both physically and emotionally
✓ How you acted in response
✓ What you did to make yourself feel better

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Negative ways of Managing Stress

✓ Smoking
✓ Drinking too much
✓ Overeating or under eating
✓ Zoning out for hours in front of the TV or computer
✓ Withdrawing from friends, family, and activities
✓ Using pills or drugs to relax
✓ Sleeping too much
✓ Procrastinating
✓ Filling up every minute of the day to avoid facing problems
✓ Taking out your stress on others (lashing out, angry outbursts, physical violence)

Positive Ways of Managing Stress

✓ Learn how to say “No” ✓ Connect with others

✓ Avoid people who give your stress ✓ Develop a hobby
✓ Take control of your environment ✓ Keep your sense of humour
✓ Avoid topics that give you stress ✓ Exercise Regularly
✓ Relax on your To Do List ✓ Eat a healthy diet
✓ Express your feelings instead of ✓ Reduce Caffeine and Sugar
bottling them up ✓ Avoid Alcohol, Cigarettes and
✓ Be willing to compromise drugs
✓ Be organised ✓ Get Enough Sleep
✓ Manage your time better ✓ Go for a walk
✓ Do a root cause analysis and ✓ Spend time in nature
resolve problems where they are ✓ Call a good friend
✓ Look at the bigger picture rather ✓ Sweat out tension with a good
then the problem in hand workout
✓ Reframe problems ✓ Take a long bath
✓ Avoid chasing perfectionism if that ✓ Light scented candles
is causing stress ✓ Savour a warm cup of coffee or tea
✓ Focus on the positive ✓ Play with a pet
✓ Do not try to control the ✓ Work in your garden
uncontrollable ✓ Get a massage
✓ Look for the upside ✓ Curl up with a good book.
✓ Learn to forgive ✓ Listen to music
✓ Dedicate to for relaxation ✓ Watch a comedy

Top 20 Interview Questions

12. Are you able to make 100% utilisation of time? If not why?

This question is asked to understand how you manage your time. You should know about
the following

Time Management Techniques

✓ Daily Activity Log – To identify how you are spending your time
✓ Scheduling – To do list, calendar, mobile phone reminders etc.
✓ Setting Effective Goals – Breaking goals into milestone goals with timelines
✓ Effective Delegation – Delegate tasks as per skills and keep load as a consideration

Time Wasters

✓ Overreaching. This also means overloaded

✓ Failure to delegate
✓ Coworkers who take their coffee breaks in your office
✓ Visitors who have no particular purpose
✓ Unwanted Telephone Calls
✓ Unnecessary paperwork
✓ Procrastination. This also means habit of postponing things
✓ Poorly organized or unnecessary meetings
✓ Avoidable Travel
✓ Irrelevant Emails
✓ Internet
✓ Over sleeping

13. Do you rate decision making as your strength? If yes, describe a real life situation

Yes is the obvious answer to this question. While talking about a real life situation you can
support your answer by talking about the following ingredients of good decision making:

✓ Outline your goal and outcome

✓ Gather data
✓ Develop alternatives (i.e., brainstorming)
✓ List pros and cons of each alternative
✓ Make the decision
✓ Immediately take action to implement it
✓ Learn from and reflect on the decision

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14. Do you consider yourself as an effective problem solver? If yes, describe a real life
situation

Yes is the obvious answer to this question. While talking about a real life situation you can
talk about the following techniques of problem solving:

✓ Brainstorming - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainstorming
✓ Root Cause Analysis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_cause_analysis
✓ The 5 Why Technique - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys

15. Is effective communication important? If yes, why?

Yes effective communication is an absolute must for the following reasons:

✓ Effective communication helps you understand others

✓ Effective communication helps others understand you
✓ Effective communication helps you generate the desired response
✓ Effective communication helps you build strong credibility in every environment you
operate
✓ Effective communication fosters teamwork and helps in making strong teams
✓ Effective communication improves efficiency of coaching
✓ Effective communication reduces conflict
✓ Effective communication ensures consensus fast
✓ Effective communication helps you save time
✓ Effective communication helps you refine your communication each time
✓ Effective communication helps in removing ambiguity
✓ Effective communication enhances the speed with which the receiver grasps the
information

16. How will you differentiate between a manager and a leader?

In my experience in working with leaders and managers, I have found that most people are
predisposed from their early childhood, maybe even from birth, to be either a leader or a
manager. That's not to say that a person can't acquire the skills to be one or the other, only
that to most people one is more natural than the other. This is why a person would be
naturally attracted to either being a manager or a leader. Following are some traits and
qualities that make leaders and managers predisposed to be one or the other.

Leadership vs. Management Personality Traits

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 Leadership Personality Traits Management Personality Traits
Big Picture Detail Oriented
Strategic Tactical
"Are We in the Right Jungle?" Cutting Trees Efficiently
Vision, Strategy, Execution Goals, Projects, Tasks
Effectiveness Efficiency
Forge Vision Follow Vision
Right Brain/Lateral Thinking Left Brain/Linear Thinking
Progress Process, Results
People are the Reason People are the Means
People More Important than Task Task More Important than People
Internal Frame of Reference External Frame of Reference
Intuitive: Seek Internal Guidance Sensing: Seek External Data
Visionary, Dreamer, Romantic Level-headed, Realistic, Practical
Goose: Production Capacity Golden Eggs: Productivity, Production
Panoramic Vision Tunnel Vision

17. How do you spend your free time? What are your Hobbies?

This is a question about activities that are your passionate pursuits. You are expected to
know about the hobbies that you write or talk about. For example if you say that music is
your hobby, you can be specific and talk about what type of music do you like (Rock, Heavy
Metal, Pop, Ghazals etc.). It would be a great idea if you can talk about your favourite artist
also. If a sport is your hobby then you should know about the sport you claim is your hobby.
You MUST talk about the skills, values or strengths that you have acquired because of your
association with a particular hobby. You have to remember that is MOST CERTAINLY not an
easy question

18. Describe a typical day of your life

This question is asked to access your planning and organizing skills. Interviewers also want
to see how well do you compartmentalize your mind. You need to ensure that you cover the
following while describing a day of your life:

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✓ Pre day Planning – Prepare To do List, Plan outbound calls, Plan Classes, Plan
Meetings, Plan Co curricular activities
✓ Finish Homework the previous day
✓ Get up not later than 6 am
✓ Spend some time exercising
✓ Take the pet for a walk or do kitchen gardening – Hobbies and Stress Bursters
✓ Leave for college in such a way that you reach 15 minutes before time – Time
Management
✓ Some sports after coming back
✓ Study for at least 1.5 – 2 hours
✓ Spend some time with family – Work Life Balance
✓ Some time on internet before you go to sleep – Networking (Facebook, Linkedin
etc.), Email and Informative search via Google

19. What are you favourite subjects?

Please talk about subjects that are relevant to the job. Do not talk about more than 2
subjects. If expertise are at four levels – Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert then you
are expected to be nothing less than advanced in your second favourite subject and expert
in your favourite subject. If you say that your favourite subject is C then you should be able
to write a program, improvise a program, spot errors etc.

20. Please sell me a Mobile, Laptop, Camera etc.

It is a very technical question. Sales, irrespective of the product, follow a certain

methodology. If you are given a sales exercise then you should know the following four
things:

✓ Customer profile: Age, Occupation, Designation, Organization, Existing product that

the customer is using, competitive products that the customer is looking at
✓ BANT: Budget, Authority (Is he or she the decision maker), Need (how urgently and
badly is the product required) and Timeline (when is the purchase planned)
✓ FAB: Features, Advantages and Benefits – While selling anything you sell the Benefits
and not the features
✓ Sales Cycle: Pre call Preparation (Create customer profile), Opening (open the call by
pitching an interesting benefit of the product), Probing (ask intelligent questions to
uncover customer needs), Product Positioning(suggest product as per customer’s
requirement), Objection Handling (be Prepared with the objections that customer
might have), Closing (Close the call, take payment, finish documentation)

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BANT Criteria

It is a good idea to evaluate, right at the beginning of the call, whether the prospect is a hot
prospect or not. Using BANT (Budget, Authority, Need and Time) criteria, you can better
decide what leads you would like to go after. Using BANT criteria at the beginning of the call
is like switching on the lights before entering a dark room. This concept was developed by
IBM but is used widely by many organisations worldwide. Microsoft is one such example. A
BANT criterion helps you determine if there’s a budget, who holds the authority regarding
the purchase decision, their business needs, and the timeframe for the implementation. A
sales person needs to fill in three of those four criteria in order for a lead to qualify as a
sales opportunity and be part of the pipeline. If sales person can do this, they won’t be
potentially wasting time with a lead that might have a need but no budget, or one that has a
budget but the timing isn’t right

FAB or Benefit Selling

“People buy for their reasons and not ours” is true for all sales situations. Customers will not
buy an offer for what an offer is, but they will buy what they believe the offer will do for
them. Therefore, it is important to sell benefits rather than selling features. It is important
to understand the difference between Features, Advantages and Benefits

Feature

A Product fact or Characteristic

“Because of ….”

Advantage

Tells what the feature means or what the feature will do

“You will be able to….”

Benefit

Spells out the worth that the buyer will derive from the product or the service
“Which means that…?”

Let us take the example of Salesperson who is trying to sell a laptop with a better processor.
FAB in this case would look like this:

Feature

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“Because this Laptop has core i7 processor”

Advantage

“You will be able to work faster”

Benefit

“Which means that core i7 processor will help you SAVE TIME and INCREASE YOUR
PRODUCTIVITY?”

Top 20 Interview Questions