- Tell me about yourself.
- What major challenges and problems did you face?
- How would someone who dislikes you describe you?
- What was your biggest failure?
- What is your definition of failure?
- What are your regrets?
- What is your greatest weakness?
- When was the last time you were angry? What happened?
- If you could relive the last 10 years of your life, what would you do differently?
- Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
- What are your goals?
- What is your dream job?
- What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
- Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.
- Are you a leader or a follower?
- What are some of your leadership experiences?
- Why aren’t you earning more money at this stage of your career?
- Who has inspired you in your life and why?
- What techniques and tools do you use to keep yourself organized?
- What is your personal mission statement? OR Give a one sentence statement of yourself.
- What is your greatest achievement outside of work?
- Tell me one thing about yourself you wouldn’t want me to know.
- What is your favorite memory from childhood?
- What two or three accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction? Why?
- What are your hobbies?
- What sports do you play?
- What kind of games do you like to play?
- What do you do in leisure/spare time?
- What do you do to deal with stress?
- What do you do to help balance life and work?
- Would you rather be liked or feared?
- How competitive are you?
- Tell me about a time when you used your creativity to overcome a problem.
- Which of your skills, technical or otherwise, has most helped you on the job?
- What new skills have you learned or developed recently?
- What sort of things have you done to become better qualified for your career?
- What were your responsibilities? (e.g. in your last job)
- What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
- Do you have a favorite quote? What is it?
- Who is your role model and why?
- Who do you respect? Why?
- Tell me about someone you admire and why?
- What unique experiences separate you from other candidates?
- What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
- What are your long-range and short-range goals and objectives, when and why did you establish these goals and how are you preparing yourself to achieve them?
- Give me an example of an important goal that you set in the past and tell me about your success in reaching it.
- What do you really want to do in life?
- What are the most important rewards you expect in your career?
- What are your best skills?
- What is the most difficult adjustment you have ever had to make?
- What two or three things are most important to you in a position?
- What are you interested in outside of your career?
- What is the last movie you watched? Did you like it?
- Give an example of a time you misjudged someone.
- What have you learned from your mistakes?
- Give an example of a time when you made a mistake because you did not listen well to what someone had to say.
- Describe times when you were not satisfied or pleased with your performance. What did you do about it?
- Describe a time when you had to make a difficult choice between your personal and professional (or academic) life.
- What do you do if you can’t solve a problem on your own?
- How has your job affected your lifestyle?
- What was the most useful criticism you received? Who was it from?
- Site an example from your personal life when you were dishonest to someone?
- What you have learned ever since you were born?
- Write to us about an incident in your life that shows how you faced a difficulty/challenge and how you handled it.
- Describe how you have persevered with a difficult problem in order to achieve a successful outcome.
- What experience in your life has taught you the most?
- Who do you contact and communicate with on a regular basis and for what purpose?
- What types of people do you get along with and why.
- What was the most traumatic experience to happen in your personal life?
- When you go on holiday, when do you pack your case?
- What do you consider yourself good at doing?
- On what do you spend your disposable income?
- What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in life?
- What is your greatest fear?
- Tell me about a problem you solved in a unique way. What was the outcome?
- Tell me about a time when you made a decision without all the information you needed.
- How frequent do you add contacts to your address book? Do you think it is worth building network of contacts?
- Do you think it is worthwhile to establish new relationships? What are the consequences of building new relationships in your professional and personal life?
- How will you judge yourself successful? How will you achieve success?
- What have you learned from your experiences outside the workplace/classroom?
- Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert dates] and [insert date]?
- What applicable attributes/experience do you have?
- What did you like or dislike about your previous job?
- Have you ever had difficulty working with a manager?
- Who was your best boss and who was the worst?
- Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss.
- If your boss gives you a mountain of tasks at 3:00 and says she needs them by 5:00, but you know you can’t finish them in time, what do you do?
- Tell me about the worst boss you ever had.
- If you know your boss is 100% wrong about something, how would you handle it?
- Describe a situation where you did not agree with something your boss asked you to do and how you resolved the problem.
- Why did you quit your job?
- What experience do you have in this field?
- What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
- Tell me about the most boring job you’ve ever had.
- Have you been absent from work more than a few days in any previous position?
- Do you have the stomach to fire people? Have you had experience firing (many) people?
- Why have you had so many jobs?
- What’s the most difficult part of being a (job title)?
- Can you describe a time when your work was criticized?
- Can you give me an example of your creativity/managerial/organizational skills?
Read the rest of the article here