9 Great Hiring Questions to Prepare For

Are you prepared for hiring questions?  The interview can be a tricky event.  Is it one on one or a panel interview?  Is this one of many to follow or is this it?  When preparing for hiring questions, you have to be ready for anything.  More and more companies are incorporating behavioral questions, such as “please describe a time where you experienced conflict and how you handled it.”  Do not make the mistake of being unprepared for these questions.  How you handled challenging situations in the past can be an indicator of future performance.

One of the most unusual questions I was asked during a panel interview was “Tell us a joke.” I thought he was kidding and I chuckled out loud.  He had a sense of humor and chuckled back.  Unfortunately, he was not kidding.  I am not one of those people that remember jokes and knew I had to come up with something quick.

I used to play golf regularly with a former military guy and he would always tell three jokes that we dubbed “the holy trinity” during our golf game.  My pause was probably no more than three seconds, but it felt like eternity.  I did not want to share any of these jokes because they were not favorable for a female audience and there were two women on this panel.  With time running out, I had to do it.

Before I began the joke, I emphasized the context in which these jokes are told and checked for approval.  Now their interest was heightened and I had to tell the joke.  Luckily, they all had a sense of humor.  Since then, I always have a clean joke in my hip pocket.  Oh, and I didn’t get the job because I was overqualified.  Although you may not always win, take the risk out of the equation and prepare for hiring questions.

Here are the 8 others that you want to practice:

1.    Tell me about the most difficult decision you ever had to make.
2.    When you have too much work for a given period of time, what do you do?
3.    Tell me about your experiences working on a team.
4.    What have you done when you’ve received assignments with which you’ve disagreed?
5.    How do you resolve personal confrontations?
6.    Tell me what you know about our company and its competitors.
7.    What are your two greatest disappointments on your previous jobs?
8.    What about your last job prepared you for this job?
9.    And remember to prepare to tell a joke

Preparing for hiring questions is an integral key to your success in getting the job.  Practice your responses.  Ask someone you trust to practice with you and to be critical on your responses, your timeliness in responding and how clear your answers are.  This will prepare you to answer hiring questions better than your competition.