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Sample Interview Questions and Tips
| 1. | Q. | What are your short range and long range goals? |
| Tip | Be specific. For short range goals, be assumptive that you'll be hired and express a desire to rapidly learn new skills and quickly master your position. For long range goals, offer that you would like to help the company become more profitable, advance to higher positions of responsibility, and help motivate and train others. |
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| 2. | Q. | How would you describe yourself? |
| Tip | Always refer to your record and how your superiors have described you, despite the exact wording of the question. Stress your dependability, achievement, and desire to get the job done, as opposed to vague or general pronouncements about your virtues. For example, you can begin your sentences like this, "In my current position as a ____, I assisted in a successful project to totally turn around the ____ department…" or "My manager stated on numerous occasions the she was impressed by my ability to…" |
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| 3. | Q. | Why did you choose this career or field? |
| Tip | Emphasize the growth potential and challenges presented by the field. Show a bit of the knowledge you've hopefully gained from researching the subject. As always, it helps to be specific, "I believe that Financial Planning & Investments are fields which will continue to grow into the next century with the advent of growing Baby Boomer retirement…" |
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| 4. | Q. | What are your strengths and weaknesses? |
| Tip | The strengths part should be easy, once again using specifics from your past and stating what your superiors and co-workers have to say about you. When it comes to weaknesses, NEVER volunteer negative information. Your weaknesses might be "I tend to take too much personal responsibility at times for getting the job done when I should perhaps delegate more..." |
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| 5. | Q. | What are your two or three most important accomplishments? |
| Tip | Be prepared. Memorize your most significant accomplishments and be ready to speak concisely and briefly about each one. Incidentally, if they aren't on your résumé, they should be! The more recent (past 1-4 years) the better. To avoid sounding too arrogant, add that while you accomplished those items with a great deal of personal initiative, give credit to those you worked with or for, and that you functioned as an effective member of the team or organization. |
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| 6. | Q. | What motivates you? |
| Tip | Satisfaction in a job well done, desiring to help customers, professional growth, and similar responses are indicative that you will be an excellent employee. |
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| 7. | Q. | Why should we hire you? |
| Tip | The answer is, because you will help the company grow, become more profitable, and increase responsiveness to customers and clients! Or, if it is a non-profit, because you can effectively advance the mission of the organization. |
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| 8. | Q. | How do you work under pressure? |
| Tip | Give some examples from your past, deadlines you have successfully met, projects with limited budgets you've completed, and the like. You could even say that since you prepare well ahead of time, working under pressure is much easier. |
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| 9. | Q. | Describe your performance in school? |
| Tip | If you had a 4.0 GPA and made the Dean's List every semester, by all means, highlight that. If your grades were so-so, or you didn't graduate, stress your positives. Examples include, "I worked full-time to fund 100% of my tuition," or "I was active in the Student Marketing Association" or "I participated in class projects studying current corporate practices." |
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| 10) | Q. | What major problem have you encountered and how did you deal with it? |
| Tip | Make sure your example is job-related and that your approach was successful. "At my last job, we experienced severe staff reductions, so I completely reorganized our sales team (or database, or office procedures, or training manuals, etc), resulting in our best quarterly profits to date." |
Whether it's in your interview or your résumé, you want to be honest and refrain from any misrepresentations. Put your best foot forward, don't volunteer negative information, and above all, highlight what you can do for the company, not what the company can do for you!
Back to Career Guide
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