rats1Your response to the Part I of Tricky Question & Answers during job interviews, published last week, is overwhelming. We are publishing the another set of the Tricky Question & Answers during job interviews and hope they will be of help and guidance for you.
In this series we have tried to cover other possible questions asked during interviews that were not included last week, and incorporated their respected replies. ROZEE is always there to help if there are some more queries on your mind. You can always post your questions and comments and we will try to provide all the help required.
Once again, the usual disclaimer that by no means, these questions replace your knowledge and hence your confidence in your own field. They are in addition to queries specific about your skill sets and your background.
Q1. Your resume suggests you are over-qualified/more experienced for this position. What’s your opinion?
A question like this is categorized as a behavioral question. Such a question is generally asked to get an idea about your knowledge about the position you have applied for. That is, if you know for sure what the position is and do you know about its market value. It is also sometimes asked to throw you off-balance and to see how you react. Shrewd interviewers employ such techniques to better understand a candidate’s personality, to judge your general reaction and attitude as a qualified professional.
To answer such a question you must focus and talk about your skill set and professional background to-date and balance it with the job requirements without going into the murky details of formulating a personal opinion about being over-qualified; simply state the facts. Emphasize your interest in establishing a long-term association with the organization and make a point that powerful companies always have tough teams & experienced executives who always keep them on the top. Since you are a qualified professional so you have every faith that the company will get a fast return on its investment by hiring you. You can say that, “A growing, dynamic company can never have too much talent.” Exude confidence but do not let the interviewer feel that you are over confident.
Q2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Although this question may seem as though you should answer with a positive answer for your strengths and a negative for your weaknesses, try to give two positive answers. When discussing your strengths highlight strengths that specifically apply to the available post. When indicating your weaknesses never detail a character defect rather try to explain where you identified a problem area where you were able to remedy it and explain how you did so.
Q3. Why are you leaving (did you leave) your present (last) job?
Again the employer, by asking such a question, wants to know if you are a dedicated, goal oriented person who is serious about a career with his company. Do not give a long-winded answer. Try to keep it very brief and to the point and as honest as you can without hurting yourself. For example if you were laid off in an across-the-board cutback, say so; otherwise, indicate that the move was your decision and the result of your action. Avoid mentioning personality conflicts. Under no circumstances talk ill about your previous employer as the person interviewing you will take an impression that you might talk about your new boss in the same context if you two ever go on wrong ends. The interviewer may spend some time probing you on this issue, particularly if it is clear that you were terminated. The “We agreed to disagree” approach may be useful. Remember that your references are likely to be checked, so don’t fabricate a story for an interview.
Q4. In your current (last) position, what features do (did) you like the most/least?
Similarly, as mentioned before, you should be very careful and positive while answering this question. You will not want your future boss to jump to a wrong conclusion that you are a difficult employee who likes picking out flaws in the company. A negative image at any stage of the interview can prove fatal so be very focused and positive about every word that comes out of your mouth. If you make your last job sound terrible, an interviewer may wonder why you remained there until now. Pick not more than one thing that would be considered a bad practice professionally everywhere. In this regards, the interviewer will not be able to argue with you. If you can back up with anything you did to improve the practice, it will be considered a plus.
Q5. How successful do you think you’ve been so far?
Confidence is the key to answer this question while over confidence can create a problem here. This question is actually asked to see if you exude over confidence while answering or you give a humble answer while knowing perfectly well about your success rate during your professional career. Although the type of job being interviewed for may dictate the amount of chutzpah you want to display here but a general rule of thumb is to stay safe with a more low-key, just-the-facts type of an answer. You can say that, all-in-all you are happy with the way your career has progressed so far. List your key achievements and what was their impact to your employer(s).
Q6. Where do you see yourself five years from now?
This question is asked to see if you are a career oriented person & how seriously you have thought about your career. More importantly, it is used to gauge if the company can offer you a growth path that is in line with your aspirations. The employer also wants to see if you have that vigor and energy that the company requires for a team leader or simply a team member. Remember that a focused and target oriented employee is always an attraction for the employer. So here it is for you to establish that you are very particular about your goals in future. You can tell the interviewer that you would like to grow with the company and you will make sure that your every effort is directed towards becoming a successful and reliable part of the company.
Following are some questions asked from individuals being interviewed for managerial positions:
A. What do you look for when you hire people?
This question is asked to see that if you are given the task to hire people for your team in future, will you be clear as to who you want on your team for the specific job completions. In short what kind of a team maker are you? This is again a question to gauge your decision making power. A safe answer is that you will prefer people with good skills, initiative and adaptability to be able to work comfortably and effectively with others and those who appear capable of moving up in the organization. Start with a more generic answer and end with a comment to the interviewer that hiring criteria varies from one job to another and you will change what you look for in an employee based on the job description.
B. Have you ever fired any staff? How did you handle the situation?
Firing of staff is not an easy situation to deal with and it needs a proper procedure to follow. For those of you who have been on managerial positions know that such tasks are pretty nasty. Generally such a situation is not much discussed. But if you are asked this question admit that the situation was not easy, but it worked out fine for the company and, you think, for the individual as well. You can say that you don’t enjoy unpleasant tasks but you can resolve them efficiently and -in the case of firing someone- humanely.
C. What do you think is the most difficult thing about being a manager/ executive?
Being a manager is a position of responsibility. Companies rely on these people for their facing challenges, smooth working and successful target achievements. So the interviewer wants to see how a committed manager they can find in you. You can start by saying that nothing particularly is too difficult but each task brings with itself a set of its own challenges and a good manager learns from each task. Some of the more challenging tasks have been working with difficult employees (be ready for a follow-up question as to how you dealt with them), motivating employees to work under tight deadlines, and working with difficult clients.
June 20th, 2009 by admin in Uncategorized | No Comments
