Interviewer Questions
Collection of possible interview questions
Answer these questions briefly and clearly, without getting bogged down in details or straying from the topic.
About the Company
- What do you know about our company? (their homepage, news, social media, information from your network, etc.)
- How did you find out about our company? (for unsolicited applications)
- What do you know about our products/services?
- Are you familiar with our business philosophy?
- How well informed are you about our organization?
- What would you like to learn about our company?
Leaving and Termination
The interviewers are primarily interested in two things:
- They want to avoid the risk of hiring the wrong person and discuss reasons that speak against hiring you.
- They are interested in your attitude after being laid off: How do you deal with it? Do you also see positive aspects, or do you remain frustrated?
- Why are you looking for a new job?
- Why do you want/need to leave your current job?
- Are you leaving your current job voluntarily?
- Have you been dismissed or encouraged to resign?
- Why are you leaving such a renowned company at your age, after more than 20 years of service?
- Have you been dismissed? (Notice period? Possible reduction of the notice period?)
- Who dismissed you and why?
Resume
- Can you walk me through your resume?
- Tell me what you did after graduating.
- Why did you decide to go into X after studying Y?
- Why did you change jobs so often?
- Why did you stay with the same company for 25 years?
- Why did you switch to X after 5 years in Y?
- Wasn’t 1 year in that position too short a time?
- Which job have you enjoyed the most so far and why?
- Which job did you enjoy the least and why?
- Why did you leave that company after only 1 year?
- Did you leave company X voluntarily?
- Where do you see the common thread in your career?
- The reference from company X is rather blunt; were there problems with your supervisor?
- Why aren’t you already the marketing manager at your company?
- Why weren’t you offered the position of head of controlling?
- If you could start your career over again, what would you do differently?
Education and Training
- Why did you not complete your studies?
- Why did you study X?
- Why did you study X first and then Y?
- What did you gain from this seminar?
- What have you been able to put into practice from this course?
- What did this course bring to the company?
- You have attended a lot of courses. Was it worth the effort?
- Why did you only ever attend individual courses instead of considering comprehensive further training, e.g., at a University of Applied Sciences?
- Why did you decide on this particular continuing education program?
- Why have you only ever taken general continuing education courses and never any subject-specific ones?
- Do you plan to continue your education in the foreseeable future?
- And which continuing education program is your priority?
- You have not listed any courses. Do you not believe in continuing education?
Personality and Work Habits
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- How would you describe yourself?
- How would you describe your work habits?
- What makes you angry?
- How do you plan/organize your work?
- How would you rate your analytical skills?
- How would you rate your conceptual skills?
- How do you cope with this high level of pressure/workload?
Successes/Failures
- What are the greatest successes of your career?
- What have you achieved for your current company?
- What improvements have you introduced in your area of responsibility?
- What successes in your area of responsibility have you significantly influenced?
- What failures have you experienced?
- What did you learn from this failure, and what would you do differently today?
- What problems did you encounter in this position?
- Why did you not complete this project?
Leadership (for Managers)
- What principles do you use to lead?
- How do you develop goals for your area of responsibility?
- Are you able to delegate?
- What is your opinion of the X method?
- What was your biggest leadership problem, and how did you solve it?
- What did you value most when hiring new employees?
- Why did you not continue in the military?
- What would your direct subordinates say about you?
- How do you deal with criticism?
Decisions
- How do you make decisions?
- What was the most difficult decision you ever had to make in your professional life?
- What was your best decision?
- Have you ever made any wrong decisions?
- Did you have sufficient skills?
Teamwork
- Are you good at working in a team?
- Are there people you cannot work with?
- How do you deal with conflicts?
- Do you think we could work well together?
- How was it working with your last boss?
- Can you work for an authoritarian supervisor?
- Can you accept a female boss?
- How would you describe your ideal boss?
- How would you describe your ideal colleague?
- How would you describe your ideal employee? (for Managers)
- Can you describe the best/worst supervisor you have ever had?
Motivation
- What kind of work do you enjoy?
- What kind of work do you not enjoy?
- What motivates you most at work?
- What demotivates you?
- Can you motivate yourself?
- What is your secret recipe?
- What do you like most/least about your current job?
- Why do you work?
- Why did our job advertisement appeal to you?
- What appeals to you about this world of numbers, if you describe yourself as a creative person?
Assertiveness (for Managers)
Describe a situation, your behaviour, and the result of your action:
- Have you and your team ever disagreed on a course of action?
- Has your supervisor ever chosen a strategy that you did not agree with?
- Have you ever had to dismiss someone you didn’t want to lose?
- Have you ever been given an assignment that you considered unwise, or chosen a different course of action than was expected of you?
- Have you ever had to communicate decisions that you couldn’t support?
- Were you asked to participate in a reorganization that you did not agree with or would have approached differently?
- Have you ever encountered a problem in your company that you did not want to or could not ignore?
- Have there been disagreements among your employees that required your assessment or even a decision?
- Has there ever been a team conflict that you wanted to resolve—or had to resolve—in order to get back to working productively?
- Have you ever had to confront an employee for sexual or discriminatory statements or actions?
- Have there ever been complaints of any kind about an employee on your team that several other team members complained about?
- Describe a situation in which you had to take disciplinary action against someone.
- Have you ever had a good but unusual idea that you had to present to your supervisor or the board of directors?
- Describe a situation in which you had to deliver bad news to your team or your supervisor.
Last/Current Company
- What do you think of your current employer?
- What do you think of the management?
- How do you feel about your supervisor?
- What do you like least/most about this company?
- In your opinion, what are the strengths and weaknesses of this company?
Personal Goals
- What is your dream job and why?
- What is your career goal and why?
- Where do you want to be in five years?
- How would you describe your current career goal?
- Have you achieved the goals you set for yourself ten years ago?
- What are you looking for in your next position?
Interest in the Position
- Why are you applying for this position in particular?
- What interests you most about this role?
- What appeals to you about this position?
- Do you think it would be a step-down compared to your current role?
- Do you see yourself in this role long term?
Contribution to Success
- What can you bring to us?
- Why should we choose you?
- What would your priorities be in this role with us?
- How would you approach this role with us?
- How would you tackle the problem of declining margins in this role with us?
Availability/Urgency
- When could you start with us?
- Would it be possible to shorten your notice period?
- Are you in talks with other companies?
- Do you already have a concrete offer from another company that you have to decide on in the next few days?
Leisure/Family
- What do you do in your free time?
- Why do you participate in endurance sports rather than team sports?
- With so many voluntary positions in clubs, do you still have enough time and flexibility for your work?
- What fascinates you about soccer/rowing/painting/playing the piano, etc.?
- Doesn’t it take an enormous amount of time to be able to play so well?
- Have you ever been injured while playing sports, either once or several times?
- Why did you decide to join the guild and the Rotary Club?
- What do these organizations mean to you?
- Doesn’t your job as battalion commander sometimes interfere with your work?
- If you don’t have any hobbies, what do you do when you’re not working?
- What does your family/partner mean to you?
- Do you have any plans to get married?
- Would you like to have children later on?
References
- Who could I contact for references about you?
- Is this person aware that you have listed them as a reference?
- Why did you not list your last boss as a reference?
- Why can’t I contact this supervisor to inquire about you?
- If I could ask your current boss for references about you, what would he or she say about you and your work?
Salary
The question about your salary expectations is not a test of strength, but primarily serves to compare the expectations of applicants and the company.
- How much do you want to earn? (Give a salary range, not a single number)
- How much do you earn today? (Don’t game this, market salaries are known and sometimes even previous wage statement are asked for)
- What additional benefits (e.g., bonus, lump-sum expenses, car, insurance) are you currently receiving?
- Why do you think you should earn so much?
- How do you justify these salary demands?
- How important is a high salary to you?
- How do you feel about performance-related pay?
- Would you be willing to accept a pay cut if you changed jobs?
- And where is your “pain threshold” in this regard?
- Why are you willing to work for less than you earn today?
Relevant Note(s): Interviewee Questions