Interview Questions - JHU School of Education



Suggested Interview Questions

Choose approximately 15 questions, some from each category:

Employment History Information

Current Position

1. Tell me about your current position.

2. What are your responsibilities?

3. What do you enjoy about your present position?

4. What were some of the challenges when you accepted your present job? How did you approach these challenges?

5. Most jobs have pluses and minuses. What are some of the minuses in your present job?

6. What do you believe your greatest frustration or disappointment is in your present job?

7. What are some of the reasons that are prompting you to consider leaving your present job?

8. What do you hope to accomplish with a job change?

Other Positions

9. If I were to speak with your former manager, what would he/she indicate were your strengths?

10. Tell me what you liked best/least about the job(s) you’ve held.

11. What are the attributes of an ideal job for you?

12. What do you consider your greatest business-related accomplishments?

13. What career goals have you set for yourself?

14. What are your five year career goals?

15. What were you doing during this gap of time I see here on your resume?

Management/leadership style (for supervisory positions)

What is your management philosophy?

Define leadership.

Tell me about a time when you successfully resolved a conflict.

Give me an example of a leadership role you have held when not everything went as planned.

Think of a difficult project you had to delegate to one of your subordinates. What did you do to ensure that the work would be done properly?

Give me an example of a time when you had to make a decision without much warning.

Strengths/weaknesses and skills

What are some of your major strengths? Explain?

What would you say is your biggest weakness? Explain?

What makes you stand out among your co-workers?

What was the most important thing you learned from your previous work experience?

Interpersonal style/skills

If I were to speak with your co-workers, how would they describe the type of relationship(s) they have with you?

What types of individuals do you find most difficult to work with? Why?

Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult co-worker or customer? How did you handle the situation?

Tell me about a time when a customer came to you with a problem. What did you do to help that person?

Initiative and Innovation/Creativity

Give me an example of something that you have done that shows initiative.

Describe a time when your ability to view a situation logically allowed you to choose a course of action that was not immediately apparent to others. What were the possibilities and why did you choose as you did?

Describe a time when you devised a new way to solve an old problem. What prompted you to use a new solution instead of the traditional solution?

Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty to complete a task

Productivity/Working Toward Results

In a project where it was difficult to specify the final goal, what did you do?

Tell me about your last project? What were your responsibilities?

What results were you expected to achieve in your current position? How were you measured and how did you accomplish them?

Tell me about a project you didn’t like, but were required to complete. How did you go about getting it done?

Negotiating

Describe a situation in which you solved a significant problem. What steps did you take?

Relate an instance when you had to choose among several plans of action. What were the possibilities and why did you choose as you did?

Decision Making

Give me an example of a time when you had to make a decision without much warning.

Tell me about a decision you have made that you later regretted.

Describe a situation when someone questioned a decision you made. How did you respond?

Think of a time when you had to reach a decision even though all the alternatives had drawbacks. What did you do?

Planning/Resource Management

Give an example of a time where you were under a time/project deadline? How did you handle the pressure?

Give me an example of a project where planning ahead and being organized paid off. What specific things did you do to plan and organize?

Describe a time when you had numerous projects in process. How did you prioritize the work?

Fostering Teamwork

Do you prefer to work independently or as a team member?

Give me an example of a time when you successfully worked within a team.

In a group project, what do you do to help keep the efforts of the group focused?

Tell me about a time when the only way to get a group project done was for you to do it yourself. What led you to this conclusion, and did you explain it to the group?

How would your co-workers describe you?

Supporting Development of Others (for supervisory positions)

Describe the things you’ve done to help professionally develop one of your subordinates.

How have you helped develop a person for promotion? What skills did this individual need to learn and how did you structure the work environment so these skills would be acquired?

Job/Organization/Industry

What do you know about our organization?

What sort of value would you add to our organization? Or, what particular expertise do you have that would lend itself well to this position?

Describe the most relevant and specific items in your background which show you are uniquely qualified for this position.

What is it about this job or our organization that caught your attention?

Why does this position interest you?

What do you perceive the responsibilities for this position to be?

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