Motivation Job Interview Questions

The following sample job interview questions enable you to assess what motivates the candidate you are interviewing. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews. Describe the work environment or culture in which you are most productive and happy. Imagine you have received a coveted national award five years from now. Why did you receive the award, what is the award, and what are the circumstances under which you are receiving the award? What goals, including career goals, have you set for your life? How would you define success for your career? At the end of your work life, what must have been present for you to feel as if you had a successful career? Describe a work situation in which you can demonstrate that you motivated another person.

Motivation Job Interview Question Answers

You are attempting to identify what motivates the individual you are interviewing. As an example, you probably don't want to hire a candidate who most enjoys working alone for your customer service position. You are also discovering, with these motivation job interview questions, what your candidate believes motivates others. You are learning what must be present in the work environment for the candidate to experience motivation.

Leadership Job Interview Questions

The following sample job interview questions about leadership enable you to assess your candidates skills in leadership. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews. You decided to reorganize the department or work unit that you lead. Tell me how you proceeded with the reorganization? Have you ever been a member of a successful team? If so, describe the role you played on the team and in its success. Give me an example of a time when you played a leadership role in an event, an activity, a department or work unit, or a project. Describe how you led the efforts. Tell me how people responded to your leadership. If I were to ask your reporting staff or your peers to comment about your leadership style, your leadership strengths, and your leadership weaknesses, how would they respond? What would this discussion tell me about you as a leader?

Tell me about a time when you created agreement and shared purpose from a situation in which all parties originally differed in opinion, approach, and objectives. As a leader within an organization, you must often build support for goals and projects from people who do not report to you and over whom you have no authority Tell me about a situation in which you demonstrated that you can build the needed support. What are the three most important values you demonstrate as a leader? Tell me a story that demonstrates each of these leadership values in practice within your workplace. During your work experiences while attending college, tell me about a time when you demonstrated that you have leadership ability and skill.

Leadership Job Interview Question Answers

You are questioning to determine whether the candidate has leadership skills or potential. You seek to identify the leadership style of your candidate, from his or her perspective and from the perspective of his or her direct reporting staff and peers. You are determining whether the candidates style is congruent with the culture of your organization. It is helpful if you have created beforehand a leadership profile that identifies the skills and traits of successful leaders within your organization. Leadership style is best demonstrated in stories. Self-examination and commentary is self-serving, at best, in an interview setting. Ask your candidates for many specific stories and examples.

Teams and Team Work Job Interview Questions

The following sample job interview questions about teams and team work enable you to assess your candidates skill in working with teams. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews. Give an example of a successful project you were part of. What was your role? Why was the project successful? Describe two situations from your past work experience in which you have determined a team was the best potential solution to a problem, a needed process improvement, or a planned change. How did each work out? What actions and support, in your experience, make a team function successfully? Give me an example of a time when your work group or department worked especially well with another work group or department to accomplish a goal. Have you been a member of a team that struggled or failed to accomplish its goal? If so, what assessment did you make of the reasons for the failure?

Teams and Team Work Job Interview Question Answers Depending on your work culture or environment, working with teams, working on a team, or working in a team atmosphere may be important. You are attempting to identify how well your candidate works as a member of either a cross-functional or departmental team. You are listening to hear that the candidate values team work. You are assessing your candidates skill in analysis as well. You are also discovering, with these team work job interview questions, what your candidate believes about why teams fail and why teams are successful. You are learning what must be present in the work environment for the candidate to experience team work.

Interpersonal Skills Job Interview Questions

The following sample job interview questions about interpersonal skills enable you to assess your candidates skills in interpersonal relationships. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews.

Tell me about a time when you had to work closely with a coworker whom you disliked or with whom you had trouble working. What did you do to make the relationship work so you could succeed for your company? Tell me about a time when you disagreed with the actions or decisions of your manager or supervisor. How did you approach the situation? Was the situation resolved to your satisfaction or did nothing change? Tell me about a time when you worked with a friend or a coworker who became a friend. What did you do to ensure that the friendship bore positive results for your company? Describe a conflict you were involved in at work. How did you resolve the conflict? What happened next with that coworker or team? What are three examples of the kinds of behaviors, actions, or attitudes you are most likely to conflict with at work? Can you give me an example of a situation you addressed in the past? How was it resolved? What are the three most important factors that make you an effective, valued coworker in your current job? What would your supervisor say are the three most important factors? If you have reporting staff, how would these staff members describe your relationship with them? During your work experiences while attending college, tell me about a time when you demonstrated that you have the ability and desire to work effectively with your coworkers.
When you have entered a new workplace in the past, describe how you have gone about meeting and developing relationships with your new coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff.

Interpersonal Skills Job Interview Question Answers You are questioning to determine the interpersonal skills of your candidate. The effective coworker solves problems and conflicts with his or her peers. The candidate can demonstrate that they have built effective relationships with supervisors and reporting staff. The candidate is giving you an idea about the interpersonal behaviors he will have trouble dealing with in the workplace. The candidate is giving you an idea about how well he works with people. He is telling you about how he builds relationships with and solves interpersonal problems with coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff.

Management Skill Job Interview Questions

The following sample job interview questions about management and supervisory skills enable you to assess your candidates skills in management and supervision. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews. If I were to interview the people who have reported to you in the past, how would they describe your management style? If I were to interview your reporting staff members, how would they describe your strengths and weaknesses as a manager and supervisor? Give me an example, from your past work experiences, about a time when you had an underperforming employee reporting to you. How did you address the situation? Did the employees performance improve? If not, what did you do next? Rate your management skills on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 representing excellent management skills. Provide three examples from your past work experiences that demonstrate your selected number is accurate. Describe the work environment or culture and its management style in which you have experienced the most success. Tell me about a time when you had a reporting employee who performed very well. The employee exceeded goals and sought more responsibility. Describe how you handled this situation day-to-day and over time. Describe three components of your philosophy of management that demonstrate what you value and add, as an individual, to an organizations culture and work environment. What factors are crucial within an organization and must be present for you to work most effectively? Tell me about a time when you reorganized a department or significantly changed employee work assignments. How did you approach the task? How did the affected employees respond to your actions? One of the jobs of a manager or supervisor is to manage performance and perform periodic performance reviews. Tell me how you have managed employee performance in the past. Describe the process you have used for performance feedback.

When you have entered a new workplace in the past, as a manager or supervisor, describe how you have gone about meeting and developing relationships with your new coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff. As a manager or supervisor, one of your jobs is to provide direction and leadership for a work unit. Describe how you have accomplished this in the past.

Management and Supervision Skill Job Interview Question Answers Pay attention to how your candidate answers your questions. Does he or she appear comfortable responding about each of the situations you describe and question? If not, the candidate may not be experienced as a manager and may be misrepresenting his or her credentials. Aside from this, you are looking for answers that reflect the values and approaches that are acceptable and promoted within your workplace culture. You are looking for truthful, genuine answers that accurately describe a management style and approach that will fit within your environment. Beware of a candidate who persistently says the right things but fails to back up statements with solid stories that demonstrate the requested value or approach in action. You seek demonstrable experience, congruence with your culture, and a solid grasp of management responsibilities and requirements.

Communication Job Interview Questions

The following sample job interview questions about communication enable you to assess your candidates skills in communication. Feel free to use these job interview questions in your own candidate interviews. You attend a weekly staff meeting with your supervisor. How have you ensured, in the past, that the information you have received is communicated to your reporting staff and coworkers? Information you believe to be untrue or confidential has reached you via the grapevine. What actions have you taken in the past to take care of situations such as this when communication is out of control? Give me an example, from your past work experiences, about a time when you were part of a project or team and you never knew what was happening with the other action items or participants. How did you handle this situation? Rate your communication skills on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 representing excellent communication skills. Give me three examples from your past work experiences that demonstrate the selected number is accurate. Describe the work environment or culture and its communication style in which you experience the most success. Describe five things about the communication within an organization that must be present for you to work most effectively? How often do you believe it is necessary to withhold information from staff members who report to you? Would you say you do this regularly, not often, or

never? Under what circumstances do you limit communication in your experience? When you have had a boss, in the past, who fails to adequately communicate with you, how have you handled this? When you have entered a new workplace in the past, describe how you have gone about meeting and developing relationships with your new coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff.

Communication Job Interview Question Answers Pay attention to how your candidate interacts with people such as the receptionist. This observation, in addition to your own observation of the candidate's level of comfort with communication during the interview, is key. You can observe much about the candidate's communication style during the interview.
Legal Job Interview Questions

These legal sample interview questions will help you ask legal questions during your candidate interviews. Additionally, for each sample question, I provide guidance about what you are listening for in your candidate's response. If you know the: behavioral characteristics employees who are effective in the job display (or you have developed a behavior profile from experience), the specific requirements of the position, and the qualifications of the candidate, working from a prepared list of interview questions, you will ensure that you are selecting the most qualified candidate for the job.

Following are sample job interview questions. While a specific trait or skill is listed as the primary behavior, you will find overlap between the questions and candidate responses in the different categories. In addition to these questions, you will want to prepare questions that explore the actual job skills and experience you have identified as essential for the position. Prioritize these skills and experiences and explore five to ten of them with the candidate. Your reference checking will also reveal the knowledge and skills of your candidates. Feel free to use these sample job interview questions in your candidate job interviews.
Sample Job Interview Questions for the Employer
Motivation Job Interview Questions Teams and Team Work Job Interview Questions Leadership Job Interview Questions Interpersonal Skills Job Interview Questions

Management and Supervisory Skill Job Interview Questions Communication Job Interview Questions Planning Job Interview Questions Decision Making Job Interview Questions Empowerment Job Interview Questions

Illegal Job Interview Questions

Illegal interview questions include any interview questions that are related to a candidates: Age Race, ethnicity, or color Gender or sex Country of national origin or birth place Religion Disability Marital or family status or pregnancy

Especially in the course of a comfortable interview during which participants are relaxed, dont let the interview turn into a chat session. Seemingly innocuous interview questions such as the following are illegal.

Sample Illegal Job Interview Questions

What arrangements are you able to make for child care while you work? How old are your children? When did you graduate from high school? Are you a U.S. citizen? What does your wife do for a living? Where did you live while you were growing up? Will you need personal time for particular religious holidays? Are you comfortable working for a female boss? There is a large disparity between your age and that of the positions coworkers. Is this a problem for you? How long do you plan to work until you retire? Have you experienced any serious illnesses in the past year?

During an interview, you must take care to keep your interview questions focused on the behaviors, skills, and experience needed to perform the job. If you find your discussion straying off course or eliciting information you dont want about potential job

discrimination topics, bring the discussion quickly back on topic by asking another jobrelated interview question. If a candidate offers information, such as, I will need a flexible schedule because I have four children in elementary school, you can answer the question. Do not, however, pursue that topic further. Another candidate informed me recently that his favorite spare time activity is reading the Bible. I asked him to tell me about why he left his most recent job. Another candidate leaned closer across the table and said, The reason I am leaving my current job is that I just had a baby two weeks ago and I need a regular schedule for my child care provider. Another candidate told me he was a native Polish speaker and that he spent his childhood in an area of the city called Pole Town. Running late at the interview, a female candidate informed the plant manager she had to run because she was late for football practice. His response, "Oh, you play football?" makes me chuckle every time I think about it. (It was her son's practice.) Again, do not pursue the discussion and you may not use such information to make your hiring decision. (As an aside, each of these individuals was hired for the position which is why I am comfortable sharing the examples.)