Tell Me About Yourself?
What are Your Strengths and
Weaknesses?
Why Should we Hire You?
Why this Company?
Describe Your Greatest Achievement?
Your Goals for the Next 5 Years?
What do you like most and least about your current job?
The interviewer is assessing your match with the job opportunity. When referring to what you like
about your current job highlight an aspect that relates directly to the job you are interviewing for.
When discussing what you dislike about your current job avoid referring to any duties or tasks that
are part of the job you are interviewing for. Avoid personal attacks on your colleagues, managers
and the organization.
Find out more about answering this interview question at What do you like about your current job?
What motivates you in your job?
Consider carefully what does motivate you. It is a personal characteristic and will depend on your
experience and competencies. Understand the job you are interviewing for and emphasize the
motivational fit between you and the job. How do the job itself and the organizational environment
provide the motivation and satisfaction you want?
Find out more about answering top 10 interview questions about motivation at What motivates you
in your job? .
How do you deal with conflict?
Every job, team and organization contains an element of conflict. The interviewer is exploring
your approach to conflict with top ten interview questions like this. What resources do you use to
manage conflict at work? How do you prevent conflict from escalating or happening again?
Find out more about answering this interview question at How do you handle conflict? .
How do you define success in your job?
Success means different things to different people. This question explores your interpretation of
success and if it is compatible with what the organization views as success. What do you consider
to be a challenge? What are your career goals?
Find out more about answering this interview question at How do you define success? .
How would your manager and /or co-workers describe you?
This interview question is all about your self awareness. Do you know how you come cross and
how you are perceived in the workplace? Do you understand your strengths and weaknesses? Do
you ask for and receive feedback? Make sure your answer focuses on work related characteristics.
The interviewer is not really interested in what a great dancer you are!
Find out more about answering this interview question at How would your colleagues describe
you?
What do you consider to be the key skills for this job?
A number of these top 10 job interview questions demand that you have a good understanding of
the job opportunity. Display your knowledge of the position by listing the skills required and
highlighting those that are key to the expected job performance and outcomes. If you have
insufficient information about the job use these free job descriptions to help clarify the core job
requirements.
Find out more about answering this interview question at What skills are critical to this position?
What salary are you looking for?
This is a tricky question. It is easier to answer if you know what salary the job offers and you have
a salary history to refer to. There are a number of ways to handle this difficult question. It is
essential to have done some research on typical salary ranges for this type of job. This will provide
you with the data you need to support your interview answer.
Find out more about answering this interview question at What salary are you seeking?
What is your reason for leaving your current job?
Avoid negative and critical answers, focus on the positive aspects of what you are moving
towards. Never badmouth former employers, this is viewed by interviewers as destructive and
unhelpful behavior.
Find out more about answering top 10 interview questions about reasons for leaving at What is
your reason for leaving?
Describe your ideal job.
Your interview answer should correlate with what motivates you and the key skills required for the
job you are interviewing for. Try not to be too specific. Rather focus on general positive attributes
that any number of jobs can offer an individual such as the opportunity to learn and grow, the
opportunity to make the best use of your skills and to make a meaningful contribution to the
organization.
Find out more about answering this interview question at Describe your ideal job
What has been your greatest achievement to date
Top 10 interview questions are likely to include those that explore what you have accomplished to
date. Focus on an achievement that is relevant to the job you are interviewing for. It should be
something that you had to work hard for and that was a real challenge to accomplish. What goals
do you set yourself? What do you consider important? How do you overcome obstacles?
Tell me about yourself
What are the main duties and tasks in your current position?
What can you bring to this position?
Why are you leaving your current job?
What has been your most important accomplishment?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What do you see yourself doing in five years?
Why have you chosen this company/position?
Think about what you want the interviewers to know about yourself. For example: a. Why you
applied for the scholarship?
b. What you are studying and what your goals are?
c. What have been some of your major accomplishments and successes, both scholarly and in
your personal life?
d. Who has been your inspiration and why?
e. If the scholarship is a research scholarship, rehearse what you will tell the interviewers about
your research. Ensure you explain your research in laypersons’ language. Do not use technical
and scientific jargon that they will not understand.
You can get the full list of college interview questions from Emma Willard's website,
but here are 13 college interview questions that I particularly liked:
1. What is the most important thing you've learned in high school?
2. What do you expect to be doing ten years from now?
3. How do you define "success?"
4. What have you liked or disliked about your school? What would you change?
5. How would you describe yourself to someone who did not know you?
6. What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
7. What has been your proudest achievement so far?
8. If you could talk with any one living (or deceased) person, whom would it be
and why?
9. What events have been crucial in your life?
10. What mark do you feel you've left on your school?
11. What do you want to get out of your college experience?
12. What about you is unique?
13. What could you contribute to our college community?
General questions & plans for the future
How did you become interested in your major?
What influenced your choice of this major?
How did you become interested in your focus area?
Have you traveled abroad before? If so, where? What have you learned in your travels?
What have you learned about yourself as you've been a student at BYU?
What do you hope to accomplish while at graduate school?
What are your educational/academic goals? What are your future career plans? How do you plan to use
your studies to achieve your future career plans?
What would you do if you didn't receive the fellowship?
What do you envision yourself doing in 10 years?
What will you do with your degree in the long run?
Why will this scholarship help you in your career goals?
Questions about your personality or how you spend your time
What do you do for fun when you're not studying, doing research, or performing community service?
I see you've accomplished some amazing things in your short life. In what areas do you think you can
improve?
I see you've done a lot of community service. Which service project are you most proud of and why?
I also assume you've been involved in some leadership experiences. Please describe your most meaningful
leadership experience and explain why it was most meaningful.
What kind of music do you listen to?
What is a novel or book that you've read for pleasure recently and like, and why did you like it?
How would you define life? And what is your position on abortion? What is more important--someone
agreeing with you on these issues or someone figuring out their own stance on these issues?
What is your "Top 5 " list for the following? Favorite novels, favorite non-fiction books, favorite movies,
favorite contemporary political leaders, favorite historical political leaders.
What would you do if you won a billion dollars in the lottery?
You have a strong desire to give back to the world. Where does this desire come from? Your family,
religion or somewhere else?
If someone was writing your obituary, what would you want it to say, and what work of literature would it
quote?
What is your philosophy on service that keeps you dedicated to it?
Questions about a student's choice of university and degree
choice
What graduate schools/programs have you been accepted into?
Why do you want to do postgraduate study now, as opposed to in two or three years?
Is there anyone that you are specifically looking forward to working with?
You say you want to study for a PhD in X, yet your university does not have department of X. How are you
qualified for this?
You say you want to study for a PhD in X, yet the majority of your preparation is in Y. How are you
qualified?
Top 50 Interview Questions
1. Are you the best person for this job? Why? -
2. Are you overqualified for this job? -
3. Describe a difficult experience at work and how you handled it. -
4. Describe yourself. -
5. Describe your best boss and your worst boss. -
6. Describe your career goals. -
7. Describe your work style. -
8. Do you prefer to work alone or on a team? -
9. Do you take work home with you? -
10. Give some examples of teamwork. -
11. Have you ever had difficulty working with a manager? -
12. Have you gotten angry at work? What happened? -
13. How do you handle pressure? -
14. How do you measure success? -
15. How long do you expect to work for this company? -
16. How much do you expect to get paid? -
17. How would you describe the pace at which you work? -
18. How would you describe yourself? -
19. How would you handle it if your boss was wrong? -
20. If the people who know you were asked why you should be hired, what would they
say?
21. Is there a type of work environment you prefer? -
22. Is there anything else I can tell you about the job and the company? -
23. Tell me why you want to work here. -
24. What are you looking for in your next position? -
25. What are you passionate about? -
26. What are your goals for the future? -
27. What are your salary requirements? -
28. What can you do for this company? -
29. What can you contribute to this company? -
30. What challenges are you looking for in your next job? -
31. What did you like or dislike about your previous job? -
32. What do you expect from a supervisor? -
33. What do you find are the most difficult decisions to make? -
34. What have you learned from your mistakes? -
35. What interests you about this job? -
36. What is your greatest strength? -
37. What is your greatest weakness? -
38. What major challenges have you handled? -
39. What problems have you encountered at work? -
40. What was your biggest accomplishment (failure) in this position? -
41. What was most (least) rewarding about your job? -
42. What relevant experience do you have? -
43. What will you do if you don't get a job offer? -
44. Why are you leaving your job? -
45. Why do you want this job? -
46. Why did you resign? -
47. Why did you quit your job? -
48. Why were you fired? -
49. Why should we hire you? -
50. What do you know about this company? -