Frequently asked interview questions

interviewer: What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Candidate: Strengths - Along with strong technical skills, I am a team player and initiative driven. I have proved my mettle as a team player both on the ground of sports and in other extra-curricular activities.

Weakness: Straight forwardness which many a times proves to be detrimental.

Interviewer: Can you work under pressure?

Candidate: I fall in love with my work even before it begins and thus extra pressure doesn't bog me down. With my inclination towards spirituality, I can strengthen my passion towards work at my will. My belief system keeps suggesting me that extra pressure is adding more dimensions to my skills. 

Interviewer: Are you willing to relocate or travel?

Candidate: I am very much open to re-location. In this brisk pace global environment, I would like and am willing to explore more geographic locations.

Interviewer: What are your goals?

Candidate: I believe in short-term goals which eventually transform into long-term benefits.

At the moment my utmost, desirous goal is to get associated with an organization and extend my expertise that I have amassed during my academic life. I want to learn new things to have strong foothold in the market. I want to take up the industrial challenges that are changing and touching new height every day. 

Interviewer: What motivates you to do a good job?

Candidate: Self satisfaction and the urge to acquire new skills motivate me. When my effort bear result, I get the taste of fulfilment and that drives me to keep extending best of my service consistently and effectively.

Interviewer: Are you comfortable working in a team?

Candidate: Dedication, determination, deadline and discipline are the hallmark to be a team player. I have them in abundance but since I'm fresher, I have no precedent to prove my point. I have been associated with teams on many occasions - both at school and college and have earned accolades as a team member.

Interviewer: How do you rate your communication skills?

Candidate: I would rate myself average here. I have been consistently addressing it and improvement is evidently showing up.

Interviewer: You do not have all the skills we need for this position?

Candidate: Yes, I agree but at the same time you would see that I have most of the required skills. Being a quick learner, I won't take much time to learn the other things. 

Interviewer: How would you compensate for the lack of experience you have for this position?

Candidate: I agree that lack of experience is an area of concern, but I am quite abreast with most of the required skills and have worked on similar projects in the college. Although college projects can’t be compared with the live projects; but they has earned me confidence.

Interviewer: Are you speaking to some other companies? Or how is your job search going on?

Candidate: Yes, I am in the final round of discussion with two other companies. My job search is going fine and I hope it ends here.

Interviewer: What is your style of management?

Candidate: I do not conform to a specific management style. I try to adjust my style of management as per the situation and I have observed that it works best with current dynamics.

Differences should be seen as strengths, not weaknesses. They add zest to life.

Interviewer: What would you do if you and your colleague have a different approach to deal with a thing?

Candidate: I believe it is of utmost importance to stay professional, especially in the work environment. We can have difference of opinion, but nothing as adults which we can’t discuss and come to an amicable agreement. 

Interviewer: What irritates you about co-workers?

Candidate: While working in a team we can’t afford to get irritated as it affects everybody’s productivity. I like to do my work with complete focus and punctuality. If someone doesn’t do his work honestly as per the agreed guidelines and on time – I definitely do not like it. 

Interviewer: What motivates you at work?

Candidate: Trust, recognition, empowerment and working together with colleagues with everyone sharing ideas and thus reaching the desired goal.
I am self-motivated but work well with others to get the needs of the job done, done well, and done on-time.

Interviewer: How much salary do you expect?

Candidate: Sir, salary is important; work is much more. As a fresher, my primary concern is to learn from you and enhance my knowledge. I want to build a career with work experience. I will be happy with the package you will offer me as per the company’s norms. 

Interviewer: Has your career developed as you had liked?

Candidate: It’s shaping yet. I’m trying my best to shape it as I want it be. Being satisfied with my job will be the most I can ask for.

Interviewer: Would you take up this job if we offered it to you?

Candidate: Yes. I would definitely take up this offer and which is why I’m here. I’m confident the company will recognize my talent.

Interviewer: What would you do if your team ceased to perform?

Candidate: I would try and find the reason behind it. I will ensure that they are well motivated to perform. Team may always not perform because they are not skilled. Digging into the root cause should be the approach. 

Interviewer: Would you like to work in a team or on your own?

Candidate: I would definitely like to work in a team. It helps to learn new things, understand new people, exchange ideas etc.

Interviewer: How do you feel about doing repetitive work?

Candidate: Repetitive work can get boring at times. However, the more you practice, the better you get. If my work demands me to do repetitive work, I’ll do it. However, I do expect some creativity.

Interviewer: Do you want to ask us something about the company?

Candidate: How did the company handle recession?

Does the company have some provisions for the employees wanting to study further?

Did you think of changing your present job earlier? If yes, what do you think made you stay back?

It is possible that you might have thought about leaving your present job earlier but later decided to continue. Here, you also need to think about what made you think about changing your job in the first place. Now you can talk about the pros and cons of changing the job that went through your mind. You can discuss about the positive aspects of the job, any advancement opportunities you saw or any type of flexibility which kept you attached to your last employment.

Did you ever face a situation when your work was criticized? What did you do?

You can face moments when your work will be criticized but you have to remember that only those who work can make mistakes. The main purpose of this question is to see your attitude when you are criticized and how you deal with it. If you face this question and you have been in a situation where your work was criticized, tell a bit about it and then tell the interviewer the way you dealt with it - if you think that there can be a better approach to what you are doing, evaluate it and accept it. The most important thing is to remember that you do not lose your cool on hearing negative remarks about yourself.

If you have never lead in the past, how would you do it in this role?

If you know how to do the work and you have the right attitude, you can lead. Many times you will find yourself leading unofficially in the current role - it is more important to have the leadership traits. So, you can say that, I know the job well and I have the qualities which need me to lead here. So, I think I am ready to move on to a more challenging and responsible positions like this.

What do you prefer working with figures, or with words?

The basic purpose is to check your analytical and communication skills. So, if you face this question, analyze the job requirement properly and frame your answer. However, in senior positions you would require a combination of both, so you can say that though I love to play with words, I know figures are an inseparable part of any business. So, I am quite comfortable working with them too or vice versa.

Are there any kinds of people you can not work with?

The basic purpose is to check your level of maturity here and how well you get along with people. At work, you find different personality traits and with time you learn to deal with them. So, rather than saying that "I can not work with people with this particular personality trait" focus your answer on some traits which even employers do not like. For e.g. People who are not team players, people who are not committed to their work, people who do not like to take responsibilities. The interviewer will also think that "I don't like to work with these types of people too."

Have you ever fired anyone? How did you handle it?

Being a boss means being ready to even part away with your most favorite people if they are not working in interest of business. So, this is more about your emotional quotient. However, it is important to deal with firing an employee in a proper way so that there's no bad feeling on either of the sides. If you have not fired any one, you can say that " Though I haven't fired any off till now but if I am faced with such a situation, I would get to the root of the problem, try to solve it, apply methods like job rotation where ever possible and if nothing works, I'll tell the person that for these reasons we need to part our ways".

Have you ever worked under pressure? Give example.

Pressure is an inseparable part of business. However, it can take different forms. At times, it will be the pressure of escalating your performance while at others; it could be the pressure of meeting the deadlines. The purpose of this question is to see, how you handled that pressure. So, mainly talk about what did you do to not let your focus dilute like drawing a proper plan to meet the expectations, prioritizing the right activities, starting and finishing them till end and staying dedicated to the final outcome.

If you think a work should be done in a particular way while the other person thinks that it should be done the other way, what would you do to resolve the conflict?

No doubt there can be different approaches to do a work. It is more important that you evaluate each of them and take the right one. So, if you are faced with this question, you can say something like, I understand that there could be more than one approached to do a thing. If I am faced with a situation as quoted by you, I'll evaluate both solutions and take up the one which is right and will get results faster.

The purpose here is to check your level of acceptance and adamancy.

If you are a team leader and one of your team member is not able to meet his targets on a regular basis. You discussed it with him and tried all measures to improve his performance in that role but nothing works. What would you do?

When faced with a situation like this, may be you can try to put that person to another job and if that also doesn't work you might have to fire them off. This is again about emotional intelligence and making practical decisions in favor of business.

If you face a problem with your own performance, what would you do?

The purpose here is to see if you are able to identify the problems with your own performance and take corrective measures. To answer this question, you can say something like, "If I face a problem with my own performance, I will try to estimate how big is the problem, what is causing the problem and then take action on each of the listed things."

Describe a situation where you were required to influence your team members to take a particular course of action.

You can influence a team only if you have analyzed the situation properly and are able to put it across to your team in a right way. So, this question is mainly a test of your analytical and communication skills.

How was your performance measured?

This is quite straight question, discuss about the key performance indices against which your performance was rated. This also shows your suitability for the position.

How many local trains run in Mumbai?

When you are asked an odd question like this, the interviewer is not expecting a right answer. He mainly wants to see your reaction to such an unexpected question and your approach to answer it. Stay calm, think aloud and give an answer.

How would you classify your style of management?

You can just say that you manage according to the situation. One style doesn't work always.

What qualities would you like in your would be boss?

Don't get into too many details. Just point out some qualities which every boss thinks he has like: work loving, fun loving, cheerful, energetic, knowledgeable, understanding and fair to sub-ordinates. No boss would like to admit that they don't have these qualities.

How would you describe your work style?

You can say that your work style is performance oriented and you love to enjoy the work. Most companies would buy this.