A guide to frequently asked interview questions

Interview Questions Bank

The ‘Interview Question Bank’ will help you to prepare for a range of interview questions you may encounter whilst applying for a placement, internship or graduate position. For further information and advice about performing well at interviews go to www.aston.ac.uk/careers

w Why do you want to work for us?w What has attracted you to this role?w What is your understanding of the job?w What has drawn you to this particular industry?w What do you know about us?w How did you prepare for this interview?w What do you think are the biggest challenges facing the…XYZ…profession / industry at the moment?w Tell us a bit about yourself.w Can you give me a brief overview of your education background? What are the reasons behind the choices you have made?w Why did you choose to study...X... subject?w Why did you choose your university, what factors influenced your choice?w Did you enjoy university?

Traditional Questions

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w Please give details of any work experience you have had.w What are your key strengths?w What is your greatest weakness?w If you got this job, what would we find quickly out about your strengths and weaknesses at work?w What can you bring/offer to our department/organisation?w What would you consider to be one of your personal development needs?w What is your proudest achievement?w Would you describe yourself as competitive?w How do you motivate yourself? What gets you out of bed in the morning?w What do you do when you are late for work?w If we approached one of your previous employers for a reference, what would they say about you?w What are your interests or hobbies?w Were you involved in any teams or societies at university?w What do you get out of your spare time activities?w Where would you like to be in 5 years time?w How could you see yourself progressing in our organisation? 3

Competency Based Questions

Achievement Orientationw Recall an important goal that you were set in the past. What strategies did you use to achieve it? What was successful?w What personal achievement are you most proud of over the past year and why?

Commercial Awarenessw Tell me about an occasion when you made a cost saving in the past. How did you choose where to make the savings? How much money do you think you saved?w What do you know about the competitors in this business? What differentiates us from our competitors?

Creativity and Innovationw Think about a problem that you have solved in a unique or unusual way. How did you generate the solution? What was the outcome? w What is the most entrepreneurial or innovative activity or idea that you have driven? How did you approach it? What was the result?

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Customer Focusw Give an example of a time when you “went the extra mile” to help a customer. What was the situation? What did you do? What was the end result?w Give an example of a time when you dealt with an angry customer. Why was the customer angry? What did you do? What was the outcome?w Have you ever provided outstanding customer service? Tell us about a particular time when you did this. What did you do? What was the customer’s reaction?w Can you give us a situation where a customer was very dissatisfied? How did you deal with it? How did you manage to turn the situation around?

Decision Makingw Give an example of a time when you made a difficult decision. What was your decision? What was the possible impact of a poor decision? What was the outcome?w Describe a situation when you did something that needed to be done but there was no one there to give you guidance? What was the situation? How did you approach it? What was the outcome?

Flexibilityw Give an example of a time when you adjusted to a colleague’s working style in order to complete a piece of work or project. What did you do? What was the result? w Describe a time when you changed your plans unexpectedly. What were the main changes? What was your initial reaction? How well did you adapt? 5

Influence and Persuasiveness w Describe a situation when you were able to positively influence the actions of others in a desired direction. How did you approach it? What happened? w Tell me about the last time you won someone over to your point of view. What were the key things you did which persuaded them? What kind of agreement did you reach?

Leadershipw Tell me about a time when you were able to gain commitment from others to really work as a team. What did you do to motivate the team? Why did this work?w Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team that did not get along. What happened? What did you do? What was the result?

Motivation and Initiativew Tell me about a time when you identified a problem at work and took steps to improve it.What did you do? What was the outcome?w Describe a time when you worked especially hard. What motivated you to work hard? How well did you do?

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Oral Communication w Tell me about a talk or presentation which you have given recently. How did you tailor it to suit your audience? What steps did you take to capture/hold the attention of the audience? w Describe a time when you had to explain something to someone you had never met before? How conscious were you of regional/national differences in speech/communication? How did you adapt your style? How did you gauge the effectiveness of your communication?

Personal Developmentw Give an example of a time when you learnt a new skill. What was the skill? What did you do to learn it? How did you apply your learning?w What have you done outside of formal study to develop your skills? What did you do? What was the result?

Planning and Organisingw Give me an example of when you had to organise a piece of work, project or event. How did you prepare and plan for it? What timescales did you set? How well did it go?w Give me an example of a time when you had to work to an important deadline. How manageable were your timescales? What did you do to ensure that the deadline was met? What did you learn?

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Problem Solving and Analysisw Give me a recent example of a time when you were faced with a complex problem. What made it complex? What key steps did you take to resolve the problem? w Describe the last time you analysed a lot of information or data. How did you pick out the essential information from the less rele-vant? What did you learn from the analysis?

Resiliencew Describe a situation when you worked under pressure. What was the cause of the pressure? How did you feel under this pres-sure? What impact did this have on your work?w Give an example of a time when you experienced a setback. Describe what happened. How did you react to the problem? To what extent did others see how you were feeling?

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Teamwork and Interpersonal Skillsw Think of your best example of working cooperatively as a team member to accomplish an important goal. What was the goal or objective? How did you interact with others on this project?w From time to time we come across people who we find it difficult to deal with. Describe a particular occasion when this happened to you. How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome?w When have you built relationships with people you are unfamiliar with? How did you manage this? Could you improve on this?w If someone in a team is dominating the rest of the team, how would you handle this?w Give an example of a time which shows how you’ve developed a good working relationship with a colleague.

Written Communicationw Consider a time in which you used your written skills in order to get an important point across. How did you approach this? What was the result?w Think about a significant written document/report/presentation which you completed. What was difficult? What was easy? How did you feel about the result? What would you have done differently?

For more information about competency-based questions and to view the behaviours associated with the competencies above, go to ‘Competencies Explained’ at www.aston.ac.uk/careers.

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w How many trees are there in Canada?w How many tennis balls could a Mini car carry?w How many toasters were sold in the UK last year?w How many mid-wives are there in the UK?

Brain Teaser Questions

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w Why do you want to teach?w Why are you applying to this particular teaching course?w What were the qualities of a teacher you admired?w What would you find difficult about teaching?w What experience do you have in schools?w Describe a difficult scenario you faced in your work experience.w How would you make your subject interesting to a class of uninterested, low ability pupils?w What have you got to offer as a teacher?w What is the relevance of your degree to the National Curriculum?w Testing in schools - is this good or bad?w What is it about you that will enable you to cope with the stress and demands of this profession which has a high turnover?w What did you learn from your experience?w What are the most important issues facing schools at the moment?

Teacher Training Questions

Strength-Based Questions

Strength-based interviews are about finding someone who can not only do the job, but will enjoy the role, organisation, therefore will perform better and be more likely to stay in the job. The recruiter is looking to find out what kind of activities engage and energise you.

Questions tend to be wide-ranging and bespoke to the company but here are some examples to give you a flavour:

w What makes a good day for you? w In your life, what have you done that you are most proud of? What made it significant to you and what did you learn from the experience? w Do you think life is fascinating? w What gets done on your ‘to do’ list? What never gets done? w Do you prefer to start a task or finish a task? w What do you do when you find a task boring? w How do you stay motivated? w Do you prefer detail or the bigger picture?

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w Do you keep your promises? How do you feel if you cannot keep a promise? w When would your friends and family say you are happiest? w Are you a good listener? w What makes you more likely to succeed in this role than other applicants? w What makes you less likely to succeed? (Be careful to end this one by putting a positive spin on the factor that you say makes you less likely to succeed). w Tell me about a company you admire? What would you like to ask them?

Interviewers will take note of your body language and tone of voice, which provide cues to what you have enjoyed. Questions are likely to be asked relatively quickly in order to get a genuine response.

More information:http://blog.cappeu.com/2013/01/31/how-to-prepare-for-a-strengths-based-interview/ http://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/interview-techniques/275395-strengths-based-interviews-for-jobs-and-grad-schemes

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Structuring your interview answers

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You can structure a competency-based application or interview answer using the CAR approach (Context, Action and Result). When using this approach, be concise with your ‘Context’ and ‘Results’ section so that you can emphasise the ‘Action’ you took, i.e. what you did in order to be successful. This is what employers are usually most interested in. To demonstrate ‘Action’, you should give some positive behaviours relating to the relevant competency.

A number of employers also recommend the STAR structure (‘Situation’, ‘Task’, ‘Action’ and ‘Result’). This is very similar to the CAR approach with the only difference being the ‘Context’ is split into ‘Situation’ and ‘Task’. If you are using this approach, be mindful to ensure that your ‘Situation’ and ‘Task’ sections are concise so that you emphasise the ‘Action’ section.

Make your notes here...

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