Common questions
These questions can be asked at any company for any position. Examples are included later in the document. Consider different ways the same question can be asked, such as “why should I hire you?” and “what makes you a unique candidate?”
Field/industry specifics
What skills or attributes are important in your career area? For example, social services may emphasize interpersonal skills or ethics, whereas engineering may focus more on project management and problem solving.
Job posting
This is your biggest clue to what employers might ask you, and it may overlap with the field or industry questions you’ve thought about. What skills did the employer list? Can you come up with examples of how you demonstrated those skills?
Once you have a topic or theme identified, brainstorm the different questions interviewers could ask. Here are some examples:
Teamwork
- Tell me about a challenging time when you worked with a group.
- Tell me what role you typically take in a group or team.
- What was the most successful experience you had working with a team?
Conflict
- Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a client or customer.
- Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a supervisor or professor.
- How do you handle conflict?
Practice
Use Big Interview to find sample questions and practice answering.
Tip: Make a list of skills noted in the job posting and identify your most relevant example(s) to prove you have that skill. You can also find ways to integrate some of these within your answers (i.e., to showcase strengths and experiences).
Example
What they want: Group facilitation skills
At X company, initiated, created and facilitated 3 workshops for groups of 5-100 participant
What they want: Commitment to public health
Long term volunteer for health cause in the Hamilton community.
Co-ordinated fundraising effort resulting in raising $200 for x organization
Common Questions
Tell us about your experience and interest in the position. (An alternative to tell me about yourself).
- Briefly describe your experience, skills, accomplishments, goals and personal qualities. Tell a story to help them understand the context.
- Talk about your interest in the company and how you plan on making a positive contribution.
- Discuss your educational qualifications; elaborate on the classes you took that are relevant to the position.
- Relate specific experiences and how they have prepared you for this opportunity.
What would your current manager say is your biggest area(s) of improvement? (An alternative to asking about weaknesses, but is asking for the same information).
- Be specific, and honest.
- Avoid giving an area for improvement that is a primary function of the role.
- Avoid negative language (weakness vs. working to improve).
- Talk about the efforts you have already made to improve in this area.
What are your goals in the next 5 years?
- Be able to articulate a plan for your future.
- May include a career/education path, the environment you anticipate being in, roles you would like to hold and contributions you would like to make.
- Important to include how this opportunity/job aligns in with your plan.
Other commonly asked questions to consider
- Describe your ideal job.
- Take me through your decision making process.
- Why did you choose your major?
- What do you do when you are not working/studying?
- What is your definition of success?
- What do you know about our company?
- Why should we hire you for this role?
Behavioural-based questions
These questions are based on the assumption that your past behaviour is a good predictor of how you will act in the future. Your interviewer will ask questions to determine if you have the skills/traits that are considered vital to the organization’s success. Your knowledge of the organization and job will help you predict what qualities/characteristics are most valuable. Behavioural based questions are likely to begin with “Tell me about a time when…” or “Give an example of …”
How do you answer a behavioural question?
- Decide ahead of time which experiences are the most relevant (refer to your research of organization and job); share your stories within the context of the opportunity.
- Share experiences that involve positive outcomes; or demonstrate lessons learned when sharing challenging circumstances.
- Draw on experiences from school, work, extra-curricular involvement, volunteer, study-abroad, internships and field placements, etc.
Use the STAR formula as a framework for your stories or examples
- Situation (outline the situation)
- Task (briefly outline the problem/obstacle/task that you were faced with)
- Action (describe the specific steps that you took to approach the situation)
- Result (what was the outcome and what did you learn)
Sample answer:
During my summer internship I was assigned the task of conducting a benchmarking study for all of the communication expenditures for a major utility (SITUATION). I had to get the consensus of employees in several different departments. Unfortunately, they were cautious about following the lead of a summer intern (TASK). I had to schedule individual meetings with every employer and persuade each one that what I was doing would be ultimately beneficial to the department and to the company (ACTION). After a challenging month I finally got everyone’s cooperation, the project went smoothly, and I met a very tight deadline. In addition, I was able to prove my communication skills within a professional environment – very different from a classroom (RESULT).
Other STAR-question samples
Tell me about a time when you were put in a situation and had to get up to speed quickly.
- Define the situation and illustrate obstacles or challenges that were overcome.
- Demonstrate your perseverance, initiative and measures taken to exceed expectations.
Describe a time when a project you were working on did not go according to plan?
- Focus on the process of how you handled the negative (or less than desirable) outcome, how you made the best of the circumstances, or resolved the situation.
- Assume responsibility for the situation without making excuses or blaming others.
- Share the lessons learned.
Tell me about an experience where you excelled as an individual contributor.
- Discuss the situation and define the scope of the task.
- Highlight the challenges encountered and the results or impact your actions had.
Give me an example of a successful project you were a part of.
- Highlight the team’s objective and your individual role.
- Demonstrate your initiative; provide evidence of your contributions.
Tell me about your least favourite manager or professor?
- Be cautious when answering this question choose an example that is not too negative.
- Be brief in providing your answer and focus on what you learned; include the parts of the experience and/or relationship that benefited you.
- Use “I” statements rather than making it about the person; remain tactful and respectful.
Other behavioural-based questions to consider:
- Tell me about the most difficult customer service experience that you have ever had to handle.
- Describe the system you use for keeping track of multiple projects. How do you track your progress so that you can meet deadlines? How do you stay focused?
- Give me an example of something you’ve done in previous jobs or school that demonstrates your willingness to work hard.
- Tell me about a recent experience that you would describe as a real learning experience.
- Tell me about a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventative measures.
Situational questions
Interviewers may also ask hypothetical questions (“What would you do…”), and usually pertain to their work environment. You can supplement your answer with concrete examples of how you have handled similar situations in the past, if applicable. Examples include:
- What would you do if your shift was ending and you were not finished a project that your manager was expecting before you leave?
- How would you handle a customer that came in to complain about a product?
- What would you do if you saw your co-worker stealing money?
Stress Questions
Interviewers commonly pose ‘stress’ questions to assess how candidates react when put under pressure. More specifically, they allow the interviewer to gain further clarity about how you think and behave when facing uncertainty. Questions you may face:
- If you were a novel, what would the summary on the back of the book say?
- What would be your instant reaction if you realized you had lost something important and could not get it back?
- If you could be any kitchen appliance, what would you be?
- Why is your GPA not higher?
- Why were you not more involved in extra-curricular activities while at university?
To prepare for these kinds of questions:
- Be aware that these questions may come your way in the middle of a Q&A interview.
- Remain professional, positive and focus on highlighting your skills.
- Do not take the questions personally, make excuses or become defensive.
- Often there may not be a correct answer; therefore, the logic and assumptions you present to support your responses are very important.
- “Stress” may come in the form of the interviewer’s manner rather than a specific question. If an interviewer comes across as unfriendly, maintain a professional and friendly demeanor yourself.