Top Anecdotal Interview Questions & Answers:

1. Common Anecdotal Interview Questions:

► Tell me about yourself
► Why did you leave your last job?
► What qualities do you look for in a boss?
► Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
► Would you be willing to relocate if required?
► Why do you think you would do well at this job.
► What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
► What motivates you?
► What are your salary expectations?
► What are your goals for the next five years / ten years? How do you plan to achieve those goals?
► What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
► Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
► Tell me about a time that you participated in a team, what was your role?
► Do you prefer to work independently or on a team?
► What challenges are you looking for in a position?
► Why are you the best person for the job?
► What kind of contribution will you make to our company?
► What interests you most about this job?
► What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
► What kind of work do you enjoy the most?
► How do you deal with conflict?
► What are your special skills or abilities?
► Why should we hire you?
► Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
► What is your greatest strength/weakness?

2. Why Employers Ask for Anecdotal Information?

Employers will often ask you to provide examples or furnish anecdotal information to prove that you possess the key qualifications necessary for success on the job.

3. How to tell Team player story?

Being able to work in a team is essential in any company nowadays. Prepare a story for how you helped the team to achieve a great goal or how you organized a trip to Italy and increased the team spirit so that nobody has left that team since.

4. When You Overcame a Challenge?

The workplace can be full of obstacles. Whether you need to navigate a tricky relationship with your manager or you get stuck with an overwhelmingly difficult project, it's important to show that you aren't quick to back down from a challenge.

There are so many inspiring stories out there that it can be tempting to rack your brain until you come up with a tear-jerking example of how you overcame adversity. But, you don't need to lie about how you climbed Mount Kilimanjaro or pulled yourself out of homelessness. Interviewers aren't looking for a movie plot.

Instead, come up with a real-life instance of when something stood in your way and you did everything you could to get around it. For example, maybe you worked two part-time jobs in order to pay for your college tuition. Or maybe you turned around a huge work project on an impossibly tight deadline. Those are great stories to share about how you took initiative in order to climb over roadblocks.

5. How to tell story about yourself?

This is the obvious one and perhaps you will have this one prepared already. This should contain the basics as where you are from, where you went to school/university and your most recent positions. You should include where you are heading and most importantly what value you can add to your next employer. This is the one story that tends to get a bit long, as everyone loves to talk about themselves.

6. How to tell your great challenge story?

The time you faced an enormous challenge and it took you some time to get through the trials and tribulations. In the end your ingenuity helped you overcoming it and you are now stronger than ever, with new skills that nicely transfer to the job you happen to be interviewing for.

7. How to tell stories?

A story needs to have a clear beginning, middle and end. The punch line will be your result. You don't want your anecdotes to be too long, aim to be able to deliver the story within 60 seconds if required. There is no need to put more details in there, if it's an interesting story you can be sure the interviewer will ask you about it and there is your chance to elaborate.

8. How you can make money or save money?

You will be hired for your ability to make or save money for the employer. Demonstrate how you did this in the past with an anecdote of how you became the top sales rep or how you found an ingenious way to slash the phone budget by a third.

9. Tell me about a time when you terminated an under-performing employee.
How were you able to close a deal with a major client?

Share an example of how you have overcome a major disappointment on the job.
Describe a situation when you utilized your leadership abilities to move a project forward.
Describe how you have planned a major event.

10. Describe a time when you went beyond what was required to get the job done?

I have always been willing to do whatever is necessary to get the job done, but one time does stand out in my mind. Our team was preparing a major proposal for a prospective client. Our technology team leader was ill and out of work. I jumped in to learn how to construct some complex macros in Excel to showcase some key data, and took the lead with creating presentation slides for our pitch. I needed to work several evenings until midnight to get the work done in time while I was performing my regular duties during the daytime. The client ended up accepting our proposal and cited the quality of our presentation exhibits as a key reason they went with us.