General Interview Questions

Posted on March 13th, 2008

Experience-based:

• What do you expect out of this job?
• Describe the best manager you ever had. What made him or her stand out? How did you interact with this manager? How did you react to feedback, instructions, and criticism he/she gave you?
• What are your three most important responsibilities in your current job? What special skills or knowledge did you need to perform these duties?

Communication:

• In your previous jobs, how important were communication and interaction with others?
• What experiences have you had with a miscommunication with a customer/employee/supervisor? What happened and how do you solve the problem?

Interpersonal skills:

• Give me a description of a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer (internal or external). How did you handle it, and what was the outcome?

Problem-solving:

• Tell me about an assignment that really challenged you. How was your approach different from that of others?
• Tell me about a project that really got you excited. (Can probe what happened to the project, how it turned out, what problems arose, how they were handled, and perhaps most important, whether the candidates’ obvious enthusiasm led to any oversights or miscalculations.)
• Have you ever had to make a difficult decision where no policy existed? Tell me what you did.
• Think of a day when you had many things to do and describe how you scheduled your time.

Leadership and personal development:

• Tell me about an important goal you set in the past and how you went about accomplishing it.
• What efforts have you made in the last year to become a better staff/faculty/administrator?
• Tell me about an occasion when your performance didn’t live up to your expectation. (Tough one to answer. Give the candidate points for poise and honesty; and be sure to see whether anything was learned from the situation).
• Tell me something specific you have done that has been creative in your current job.

Faculty/Research Specific:

• How do your professional interests/research agenda contribute to teaching a multicultural student body?
• What teaching strategies do you use in your classes? What are the intended outcomes of these strategies?
• How do you expect to interact with department faculty who are not in your specialty?
• Describe a positive experience that you had with a mentor, and how do you intend to apply that to your mentoring roles?
• What do you know about the goals of this department, and how do you fit into those goals?
• Describe a learning opportunity you had that increased your understanding and appreciation for workplace or educational diversity.

Reference: colorado.edu

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