I’ve recently been interviewing for my next role following completion of my contracts in my high-tech industry. This prompted me to reflect, and research on some of the behavioral questions that I faced, I posed (on the other side of the table as an interviewer/hiring manager for many years), and what other sources have exposed. Here’s a short list regardless of your industry or job…these can pop up at any company especially if you’re a senior/managerial candidate. Do you have others that are completely different from these? If so, please add them in Comments section and I’ll curate them and update the blog with proper attribution. Here we go (there are NO yes/no/right answers to these! That’s the tricky part…your response will reflect your thought process and that’s EXACTLY what they want, and then it’s up to the interviewers to weigh the value or fit of your response)!
- Have you ever changed your position on something at work? What persuaded you (or didn’t)?
- Have you ever convinced your manager to change their position/mind?
- Describe a situation where you found yourself outside your comfort zone.
- What did you enjoy most in your last x (3) jobs?
- Did you ever work where you weren’t happy? Explain.
- Give me an example of a time when you had to explain a complex topic to a client or coworker in simpler terms.
- How have you saved your company money in the past?
- How have you dealt with a difficult boss?
- Describe a situation when you missed a deadline.
- What type of recognition (or feedback) do you expect from your manager? How often?
- How would you respond to a stakeholder/customer who insisted you are wrong?
- How would you cope with being put on a project for which you lacked the skills or knowledge?
- How would you feel to work with someone who you don’t like or who you believe is ineffective/unproductive?
- How would you communicate the fact that what your boss is doing is affecting (negatively) the company?
- How would you persuade others who don’t work for you?
- What would you do if you were expected to conform to a company policy with which you had a strong disagreement?
- If you weren’t completely satisfied with the work you turned in, what would you do about it?
- How would you prioritize your work if you had multiple assignments from different managers (all of them at higher levels than you)?
TIP: RobertHalf Staffing recommends: “One technique for answering interview questions is called the STAR method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action and Results. That helps you break down your answers into the when, where, what and how, and articulate your specific results without rambling.”
Good luck!
