Employment Interview Questions

As you prepare for employment interviews, you should include preparing for the questions you may be asked in an interview. Of course, there is no way to know exactly which questions you will get, but you should think about the kinds of things a potential employer may want to ask you. After you have determined questions you may get, you will also want to prepare your answers to those questions. The idea is not to memorize your answers, but to have an idea of what you plan to include in your responses.

Frequently one question you may be asked is something similar to "Tell me about yourself". This is not an invitation to tell your life story. Your response should be brief and include relevant highlights from your background, such as specific accomplishments and/or recognitions.

Another question that I frequently asked when I conducted employment interviews was, "Why do you want to work here?" This gives you an opportunity to share something you have learned about the company and something else about you that would be beneficial to them.

As an interviewee, I was frequently asked to share what I was most proud of from my experiences. I typically used an example from my working life, but if nothing comes to mind from your background, you could use something from another aspect of your life, such as volunteer experiences or something about your education.

Additionally, these days, more employers are asking behaviorally-based or situational questions. This may take a variety of forms, but basically, they are something like, "Tell us about a time when you __________________". So, depending on how the sentence ends, you would want to respond with an appropriate story about an accomplishment related to that situation. they may ask about something positive such as , "... led a group" or "... learned a new task", etc. But it could also be about a negative experience, such as, "...failed to meet a deadline" or "experienced failure" or "were frustrated at work". To the extent possible, you will want to share something that was not a huge negative. More importantly, I believe, is your ability to demonstrate how you were able to turn a not so pleasant situation into something positive or a learning experience.

I encourage my clients to think about their past and write five or six accomplishment stories, in preparation for their employment interviews. That way they don't have to try to recollect things from years ago, but just from recent memory when they wrote their stories. I will talk more about your accomplishment stories in the next post.


Mary Ann Davis is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in private practice providing coaching and counseling for life's transitions; including career change or job search, as well as loss of job, retirement planning, grief work, coping with an empty nest, and other life planning issues. She is certified as a Master Career Counselor (MCC) by the National Career Development Association, a Life/Work Counselor by the National Employment Counseling Association, and is a Distance Credentialed Counselor (DCC). Please visit her web site at http://www.yourcareerplan.com/ for more information.

To contact Mary Ann, please call (513) 665-4444 x3 and leave a personal and confidential message or send an email to YourCareerPlan@cinci.rr.com.