Interviewing Questions

So many questions, so few answers...

There are hundreds of job search books containing thousands of interview questions with suggested answers to help you prepare for your interview. Yet every interview you have seems to add at least one question you never heard before.

Here is a list of ten questions that a helpful job seeker emailed to me just today. The company provided him with these questions to help him prepare for his interview for a logistics/warehouse position.

1. How does our position fit in with your career goals and objectives?

2. What separates you from the rest of the candidates? In other words, why should we hire YOU?

3. How would your previous Supervisors and Co-workers describe your ability to be dependable?

4. Please give us examples in one of your previous positions that addresses your productivity level while still maintaining a high level of accuracy and quality?

5. Tell me about one of your previous positions that you enjoyed? Why did you enjoy working for that company? What are some things you would have liked to see change?

6. Please describe how you would handle the following situation: At 9:00 am the Warehouse Supervisor gives you several shipments that need to go out by 10:00 am. By (9:45 am you realize you will not be able to accomplish this and your Supervisor is nowhere in sight).. How do you think you might handle this?

7. There are times when we work without close supervision or support to get the job done. Tell us about a time when you found yourself in such a situation and how did things turn out.

8. When we talk about customer service, we often think about external customers or the people who are not part of our organization. Tell me about a time you were confronted by a frustrated ‘customer’? What did you do to resolve the situation?

9. Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead on a project at work?

10. Listening is an important part of providing good customer service. Describe good listening skills. Please give us an example of a time when you’ve demonstrated good listening skills?

Question #2 is one of the two basic questions that are asked, in a great variety of ways, ultimately by all interviewers.

Those two essential questions are:
Why should we hire you?
Why do you want to work for us?

The number one reason that applicants lose interviews is lack of preparation.

And having, and practicing, good answers to basic interview questions is essential interview preparation.

What answers do you have?

What messages do you need to deliver at your interview to be a winner?

Be prepared to be a winner.

If you have any tough interview questions you would like to have some help with creating good answers, please contact me.

Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
www.linkedin.com/in/walttarrow
www.jvsdet.org

Follow me and JVS on Facebook and Twitter.