Common Interview Questions

I did not write these but they are good practice: And give you some things to think about. If you have some good, real world interview questions please post them.

Common Interview Questions

Please begin by summarizing your educational experience and background as it relates to the job.

What do you know about our company and why do you want to work for us?

How long have you been looking for new job opportunities?

What strategy are you using in your search?

What unique qualities or abilities would you bring to this job?

Of what work or professional accomplishments are you most proud?

How have your past job experiences prepared you, directly or indirectly for this job?

What are your major strengths?

What are your major weaknesses?

How long do you plan to stay at our company?

What are your short and long term career goals?

Why did you choose _________________ University?

Why did you choose your course of study?

How much time do you devote to maintaining a current knowledge of your profession, and how do you spend that time?

What have you done in the past 5 years for self-improvement in your profession?

Tell me about a time that you failed at something, and what you did afterwards.

Describe a time when you worked on a team project. What was your relative position on the team? Were you satisfied with your contribution? How could it have been better?

As a professional, how would your peers describe you?

From a technical or professional standpoint, what is the most difficult problem you have solved? How did you solve it? What was the outcome?

Describe an unpleasant, stressful on-the-job situation in the past, and tell me how you handled it.

What methods do you use to make decisions?

What salary are you expecting?

What else should I know about you before making a decision?

Do you have you any questions for us?

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Comments

rbowman

A wierd one you may come across is "If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?" Theres a correct answer to this one and it is....A horse. Why? Because horses work together as teams, their strong, they complete tasks, they're beutiful and professional looking and they get the job done.

Not to hijack the thread but what animal would you have chosen?

Got my interview tomarrow so I will be sure to post a few more if not listed

Badger95

If I was asked this in an interview I would say geese. In the Air Force I learned this little gem.

Geese Symbolize Teamwork

Goose Fact No. 1: "As each bird flaps it wings, it creates an updraft for the bird following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds a greater flying range than if one bird flew alone. The Air Force learned from this and often employs it in military maneuvers."

Teamwork Simulation No. 1: "When people share a common direction and sense of community, they can get where they are going quicker and more easily."

Goose Fact No. 2: "Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it."

Teamwork Simulation No. 2: "If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation and be willing to accept help when we need it as well as lend help to others when they need it."

Goose Fact No. 3: "When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies into the lead."

Teamwork Simulation No. 3: "Geese instinctively share the task of leadership and do not resent the leader."

Goose Fact No. 4: "The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed."

Teamwork Simulation No. 4: "You can do it". Support and encouragement

Goose Fact No. 5: "When a goose gets sick, is wounded or is shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to earth to help and protect it. They stay with their disabled companion until it is able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own or catch up with the flock."

Teamwork Simulation No. 5: "We too need to learn to care for others." The Air Force does a great job in taking care of its own.

Looking forward to see what other interview questions are posted.

Badger95

garv221

Badger95 wrote:

If I was asked this in an interview I would say geese. In the Air Force I learned this little gem.

Goose Fact No. 1: "As each bird flaps it wings, it creates an updraft for the bird following. By flying in a "V" formation.

Badger95

Please note V formations of geese drop just that much more ****.

evanderburg

When I do technical interviews, I start out with the question "Describe your computer background" and then I work to other questions related to the job. I have been known to ask people to subnet for me or to explain how a DNS name is resolved, and I always ask after a few normal tech questions about a specific experience. I will ask something like "Describe a time when a vital system or component malfunctioned and you had to fix it under time pressure." I also, and this is going to annoy some of you, ask a question that I know the interviewee will not be able to answer and I wait for them to tell me that they do not know or that they will look into it. Some folks lie and that is an instant deal breaker for me.

Badger95

There is more to getting a job than just having Certifications and a degree. I notice there is allot of frustration in here when it comes to landing a job. Resume and interview skills are equally important. This would be a good thread to put some real world experience on the table and help some folks out.
So how about it, what kind of interview questions and scenarios are you getting? How are you handling interview situations. ect...
what are you experiencing.

EdTheLad

rbowman wrote:

A wierd one you may come across is "If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?" Theres a correct answer to this one and it is....A horse. Why? Because horses work together as teams, their strong, they complete tasks, they're beutiful and professional looking and they get the job done.

If i was asked that question id say i was a lion, i have alot of pride and thats why i cant continue this idiotic interview goodbye.

okie

Badger95 wrote:

So how about it, what kind of interview questions and scenarios are you getting? How are you handling interview situations. ect...
what are you experiencing.

I have now been on six interviews, typically the interview will start with the VP of IS operations or IT Director or Manager. This person is typically a technology generalist. They ask me about my typical day at my job now. Descrie the network environment, what you do, etc. They ask questions about my supervisory skills, what is my greatest strength, weakness, (one even asked for me to come up with one word do describe both), why am I leaving my current job, what is my greatest achievment at my current job, etc. etc. Not much technically, just more get to know my personality.

The director/manager then procedes to tell me all about the job that I am interviewing for. The duties, responsibilities, team environment, technologies utilized, future projects, their management style, etc. Then I am asked if I have any questions.

I am then introduced to the rest of the IT staff (typically in another conf. room) where the manager then leaves me with the staff and I am told that this is an open peer interview where I can ask and they can ask any question.

The technical questions have been similar to the following:

-Take us through how you would troubleshoot wkstation connectivity to the network if the user can logon/cannot logon.

-What command is used to check the 4th serial interface on a Cisco 2600 series for CRC errors.

-Describe AD, Describe group policy and it's flexibilities, How many FSMO roles are there and what are their functions,

-What is Syslog and how is it used? How is it used in network security?

-How familiar are you with the tools of Gork and Blat from a security standpoint? (blat I use now, but gork??? I think this was a check to see if I was honest)

Quite the variety of questions. My big question back to the peer interviewers has always been, Do you enjoy working here?

You might be surprised at the honesty you get back... One place the two guys actually told me ... and I quote:

"It is a necessary evil, we must feed our children"

So, that is the gammut of my experience take or leave what you will.

jaeusm

I also, and this is going to annoy some of you, ask a question that I know the interviewee will not be able to answer and I wait for them to tell me that they do not know or that they will look into it. Some folks lie and that is an instant deal breaker for me.

What is your reasoning for doing this?

TheShadow

That person is a Project destroyer and would tend to not ask for help until it is too late giving their manager and/or team members bogus information. Look at the Air Force analogies in the message above to see the effect of not admitting that you do not know everything and the affect on the team.

jaeusm

Many recruiters that prep candidates for job interviews tell them to never respond by saying "I don't know". This seems to be a conflict of interest. Of course, in my opinion, I don't think it is a good interview technique.

That person is a Project destroyer and would tend to not ask for help until it is too late giving their manager and/or team members bogus information.

I think that's a stretch to come to that conclusion. I would think a more reliable way of getting that information would be calling the candidate's previous supervisors. There's also the chance that the question was misunderstood.

TheShadow

Interviews are always subjective. I am of the opinion that the recruiter prep person needs to take a security and project management course. Most government jobs for sure would rather hear "I don't know" than a lie. The government always fires from the top when there is a major mistake or project failure. So do large companies. I learned those lessons first hand when I was a young engineer. You knew your project was in trouble when you saw the boss cleaning out his or her desk. You may have known it before the boss because some key person refused to ask for help or admit a mistake. The person leaving is always doing something like going to spend more time with their family or pursue entrepreneural activities etc.

However it is up to the interviewer to determine if it is a misunderstanding and redirect the question. Most interviewers will give a candidate a chance to retract an answer. As far as an interview technique, I have found it quite common and has existed for many many years. I had one in an interview on DRAM once when most people had not heard of anything other than core memory. quote "could you design a refresh circuit". My response was I did not know what one was but I would find out. I got the job; the interviewer said the two other people before me said "sure". How he determined truthfulness would only be speculation.

I guess it goes with braindumps; truthfulness seems to be disappearing from society. Employers have no choice but to look for seemingly over qualified candidates hoping to get a minimal level of BS from the pool.

sharptech

Great read- have an interview next week and will go over all these to prepare.