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5.3: Interview Questions

  • Page ID
    133021
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    Most interviews consist of many types of questions, but they usually lean toward situational interviews or behavior description interviews. A situational interview is one in which the candidate is given a sample situation and is asked how he or she might deal with the situation. In a behavior description interview, the candidate is asked questions about what he or she actually did in a variety of given situations.

    The assumption in this type of interview is that someone’s past experience or actions are an indicator of future behavior. These types of questions, as opposed to the old “tell me about yourself” questions, tend to assist the interviewer in knowing how a person would handle or has handled situations. These interview styles also use a structured method and provide a better basis for decision making. Examples of situational interview questions might include the following:

    1. If you saw someone stealing from the company, what would you do?
    2. One of your employees is performing poorly, but you know he has some personal home issues he is dealing with. How would you handle complaints from his colleagues about lack of performance?
    3. A coworker has told you she called in sick three days last week because she actually decided to take a vacation. What would you do?
    4. You are rolling out a new sales plan on Tuesday, which is really important to ensure success in your organization. When you present it, the team is lukewarm on the plan. What would you do?
    5. You disagree with your supervisor on her handling of a situation. What would you do?

    Examples of behavior description interview questions might include the following:

    1. Tell me about a time you had to make a hard decision. How did you handle this process?
    2. Give an example of how you handled an angry customer.
    3. Do you show leadership in your current or past job? What would be an example of a situation in which you did this?
    4. What accomplishments have given you the most pride and why?
    5. What plans have you made to achieve your career goals?

    5.3: Interview Questions is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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