Emotional intelligence, or EQ, has come into vogue as a good trait to hire for.
EQ is the ability to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, to recognize other people's emotions and your own, and to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately.
EQ is considered essential to help teams function well. Here are some of the top questions for help you get an idea of how candidates perceive their emotions and those of others.
1. If you started a company today, what would its top values be?
2. Who inspires you? Why?
3. How could you create more balance in your life?
4. What makes you angry?
5. How do you have fun?
6. How good are you at asking for help?
7. How did you deal with a bad day?
8. What's something you're really proud of? Why?
9. Tell me about a time when your mood altered your performance (positively or negatively).
10. Has there ever been a time when you felt you needed to change your behavior at work? How did you do it?
11. Did you create friendships that lasted while working at a previous job?
State a business case to your manager / leader as to why you need the tools and make the request for them.
First, find out which skills are the ones that you're currently lacking. Then identify what the steps would be to acquire/build those skills. Then take action to do so.
4. Are you good at working in a team As Apprentice, Painter, Brush?
Before you answer, consider how you best contribute to a team:
☛ Do you get along easily with people?
☛ Are you an effective collaborator?
☛ Can you communicate with people from various backgrounds and with different personalities?
☛ Can you motivate people?
☛ Do you know how to push back tactfully?
☛ Can you mediate conflicts?
☛ Can you deal with difficult personalities?
5. If the company you worked for was doing something unethical or illegal, what would you do?
Report it to the leaders within the company. True leaders understand business ethics are important to the company's longevity
6. What did you dislike about your old job?
Try to avoid any pin point , like never say “I did not like my manager or I did not like environment or I did not like team” Never use negative terminology. Try to keep focus on every thing was good As Apprentice, Painter, Brush , I just wanted to make change for proper growth.
This would be the first question asked in any interview. Therefore, it is important that you give a proper reply to the question regarding your education. You should have all the documents and certificates pertaining to your education and/or training, although time may not allow the interviewer to review all of them.
8. Would you like doing repetitive work?
Why not, I am not only doing a repetitive work but also earning but also getting a good salary by the company As Apprentice, Painter, Brush. And second thing is that nothing is interesting in the life till we are not interested.
9. What's your management style?
The best managers are strong but flexible, and that's exactly what you want to show off in your answer. (Think something like, “While every situation and every team member requires a bit of a different strategy, I tend to approach my employee relationships as a coach...”) Then, share a couple of your best managerial moments, like when you grew your team from five to 15 or coached an underperforming employee to become the company's top employee.
10. What would your previous employer say is your greatest strength?
Be prepared for this question. If you have to sit and think about it it's going to appear as if you're not sure or that you've never identified your own value in the work place - not good. You don't have to have a complex response. Keep it simple and honest. For example, several possibilities could be Leadership, Problem solving ability, Initiative, Energy, Work ethic, Innovative, etc., etc.
11. What do you expect from this job As Apprentice, Painter, Brush?
Talk about the potential career development, your career aspirations, your work relationships and the learning you'll receive.
Discuss your work experiences. The key is to show you're calm under pressure and can handle sensitive situations with a clear train of thought.
13. Why do you want to leave your current company As Apprentice, Painter, Brush?
Bad Answer: Complaining about or blaming their former job, boss or colleagues. Also, having no good reason.
Good answer: One that focuses on the positives about why the job they're applying for offers them better learning or career opportunities, chances for advancement, aligns more closely to their long term goals, or is a better fit for them.
14. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others?
Be sure to discuss a very specific example. Tell the interviewer what methods you used to solve the problem without focusing on the details of the problem.
15. Give me an example of a time when you set a goal and were able to meet or achieve it?
Show that you set great goals and the process and steps you took to achieve it. Details really matter here.
16. Did you consider yourself a team player?
Of course you're a team player - who isn't. But a simple yes probably isn't the response the interviewer is looking for. Be ready to provide specific example of how you've worked as part of a cohesive team to get things accomplished and how you've focus on team performance rather than individual performance. Make sure not to brag as this will make it appear as that you're more concerned about your own performance and accomplishments than those of the team.
17. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
Remain optimistic and do not be too specific. Good attributes include moral character, honesty, and intelligence since managers usually believe they possess these qualities.
Heading information: This should include job title, pay grade or range, reporting relationship (by position, not individual), hours or shifts, and the likelihood of overtime or weekend work.
Summary objective of the job: List the general responsibilities and descriptions of key tasks and their purpose, relationships with customers, coworkers, and others, and the results expected of incumbent employees.
Qualifications: State the education, experience, training, and technical skills necessary for entry into this job.
Special demands: This should include any extraordinary conditions applicable to the job As Apprentice, Painter, Brush (for example, heavy lifting, exposure to temperature extremes, prolonged standing, or travel).
Job duties and responsibilities: Only two features of job responsibility are important: identifying tasks that comprise about 90 to 95 percent of the work done and listing tasks in order of the time consumed (or, sometimes, in order of importance).
19. How long do you want to work for us if we hire you?
Here being specific is probably not the best approach. You may consider responding, “I hope a very long time.” Or “As long as we're both happy with my performance.”
20. How do you prioritize your work?
Depends on the situation... I like to label certain tasks as either A B or C...A being the one that requires immediate attention, and C which are tasks that aren't urgent but eventually need to get done... I like to focus my work As Apprentice, Painter, Brush on the things that need to get done, and done quickly... While balancing the other work alongside our first priorities.
21. If you could offer suggestions on how to improve our company, what would you say?
Examine the trends of the company and also where there may be some weaknesses (news articles often document this on public companies or look at their competitors to see how they're positioning it against them.) Then, once you have that knowledge, think creatively on how you could improve upon that weakness for them.
22. Did you get on well with your last manager?
A dreaded question for many! When answering this question never give a negative answer. “I did not get on with my manager” or “The management did not run the business well” will show you in a negative light and reduce your chance of a job offer. Answer the question positively, emphasizing that you have been looking for a career progression. Start by telling the interviewer what you gained from your last job As Apprentice, Painter, Brush
23. Did the salary we offer attract you to this job?
The interviewer could be asking you this question for a number of reasons. Obviously, the salary is an important factor to your interest in this job, but it should not be the overriding reason for your interest. A good answer to this question is, “The salary was very attractive, but the job itself is what was most attractive to me.”
24. What type of mentors do you seek out and why?
Think of your top 3 mentors and what attributes they exhibit that you want to emulate. Common attributes include passion, desire, will, leadership, ability to influence others, intelligence.
25. What are three positive character traits you don't have?
List three attributes that you aspire to attain / build in the next few years - and then explain how you would develop those.
26. How do you stay up to date with industry?
Discuss how you stay up to date by reading industry specific sites, magazines, and Google / yahoo news. Also make sure you stay up to date by reading the current news on the company's website.
The list of crucial character traits includes patience, tact, and poise, with personal and cultural sensitivity. One needs the ability to work long hours, with much walking and some physical tasks. But the most important trait of all is to love people and to have the desire to care for them.
28. What do you feel you deserve to be paid?
Do your research before answering this question - first, consider what the market average is for this job. You can find that by searching on Google (title followed by salary) and globalguideline.com and other websites. Then, consider this - based on your work experience and previous results, are you above average, if yes, by what % increase from your pay today from your perspective? Also - make sure if you aim high you can back it up with facts and your previous results so that you can make a strong case.
29. What's been your biggest failure to date?
Describe your biggest failure and discuss what you've learned from it and ideally how you've been successful since because of that lesson.
Usually, if the answer to a brainteaser seems too easy, chances are the answer's wrong. And in this case, the answer is not zero degrees. The hour hand, remember, moves as well. That is, in addition to the minute hand. And so, at 3:15, the hour hand and the minute hand are not on top of each other. In fact, the hour hand has moved a quarter of the way between the 3 and 4. This means it's moved a quarter of 30 degrees (360 degrees divided by 12 equals 30). So the answer, to be exact, is seven and a half degrees (30 divided by four).
31. Who are your role models? Why?
If possible, cite role models you're truly passionate about - passion is contagious and will show you're being genuine. If the role model is in the same or similar industry as the company in an executive level position, even better.
32. How would you be an asset to us As Apprentice, Painter, Brush?
Think again about the job specification and the skills needed for this role As Apprentice, Painter, Brush. Have a paragraph prepared highlighting how you will be able to do the job and what you can bring to the team. It goes without saying that this paragraph should be positive.
33. What do you think of your previous boss?
Do not belittle or talk badly of your last boss - it will come off as being petty. Instead, talk about the positive lessons you were able to learn from your last boss.
34. What are you passionate about?
Ask yourself - what are your core passions that you wake up excited to act on each and every day? Ask yourself what makes you happy or drives you - is it helping others? Is it making money? Is it creating something? Is it about changing the world? Etc.
35. Describe your vision of your perfect dream job?
Ideally, the role you're applying for either is that dream job or will help you get to it. If it's going to help you get there, describe the elements of that job role that you are passionate about so that it ties to the vision of what your dream job is. Be honest and talk about the type of work environment, management team / leadership, coworkers, culture, vision and products/services you'd like your dream job to entail.
36. Describe yourself in three words?
Pick three adjectives but then back up each with a real life story that demonstrates those characteristics.
37. Do you like being around people?
People skills are a necessity for medical assistants. When answering this question, be sure to show that you enjoy interacting and working with others and that you also derive great enjoyment from helping others. This will show that you are a team player and that you would be a valuable team member As Apprentice, Painter, Brush.
38. What are three positive characteristics you wish you had?
The key here is to be honest about your wish list but then to describe how you plan on developing or growing those characteristics so that it becomes a reality. For example, I wish I had a stronger work ethic and I am reading a book right now about how to instill a better discipline around getting work done efficiently.
39. How do you feel about taking no for an answer?
It's good to be persistent, but not overbearing. Everyone will face rejection at some point in their life, so at some point you'll have to take no for an answer but then learn why you were turned down.
40. What do you consider to be your weaknesses?
What your interviewer is really trying to do with this question-beyond identifying any major red flags-is to gauge your self-awareness and honesty. So, “I can't meet a deadline to save my life As Apprentice, Painter, Brush” is not an option-but neither is “Nothing! I'm perfect!” Strike a balance by thinking of something that you struggle with but that you're working to improve. For example, maybe you've never been strong at public speaking, but you've recently volunteered to run meetings to help you be more comfortable when addressing a crowd.
41. How do you think I rate as an interviewer?
I think you did fine. I'm sure you've conducted a lot of interviews, and it's probably second nature for you now. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me today. I'm sure you have a lot of things you have to juggle every day.
I'd say you rate at least ten out of ten. The questions you asked seemed spot on. I can tell you guys are working hard to find the perfect applicant for the job. I'm glad I could meet with you.
42. What do you know about this department?
One good way to find out about the department is to try to "informally" interview the existing employees over coffee (outside of the office) if possible. It's hard if you don't have any connections there, but if you do a great way to learn about it. Other than that, it's often hard to learn about the department so you can turn the table back on them by asking questions to learn about it.
43. How have you changed in the last five years?
All in a nutshell. But I think I've attained a level of personal comfort in many ways and although I will change even more in the next 5-6 years I'm content with the past 6 and what has come of them.
44. How much time do you need to join the organization As Apprentice, Painter, Brush?
You should be able to join it right away, barring plans you've already made (family travel, vacation, other obligations). The key is to simply be open in communication of what's already committed on your schedule. Most companies are accommodating. If they are not, weight the importance of joining that company vs. your plans.
Show that you were communicative with that person and that you were able to collaborate effectively in sharing ideas and work tasks. They want to see that you can be a team player.
46. Do you work well under pressure?
Yes.. When it comes down to the wire, the best thing I can to remain focused, have some flexibility, and understand priorities.. Giving them attention in the order they are needed.
47. What features of your previous jobs have you disliked?
It's easy to talk about what you liked about your job in an interview, but you need to be careful when responding to questions about the downsides of your last position. When you're asked at a job interview about what you didn't like about your previous job, try not to be too negative. You don't want the interviewer to think that you'll speak negatively about this job or the company should you eventually decide to move on after they have hired you.
48. What aspect of supervision do you find the most difficult?
Managing different personalities and keeping them focused on the goal at hand.
49. What general trends do you see in our industry?
Examine what's happened in the industry in the last 5 - 10 years and how it's evolved and then look at what both the company and analysts are saying about the future of that industry in which that company competes in. Read trade magazines / online sources in that industry as well to make sure you stay up to date on trends.
50. Give me an example of when you competed hard and won?
You can reference many different areas here when discussing a story of where you won in competition: Work experience (ideal), sports, clubs, classes, projects.
51. How would you define success?
Success is defined differently for everybody. Just make sure the parameters are defined by you with regards to work life balance, financial gain, career growth, achievements, creating meaningful work / products and so forth. If you can clearly articulate what it means to you that is a strong answer.
52. How do you handle stressful situations?
By remaining calm, weighing out all my options and executing a plan to get the situation resolve .
Just be honest about where you'd like to be - you never know - you may end up bonding with the interviewer with the location. However, you want to stress that you want to work out of the location that you're interviewing for.
54. What are three positive things your last boss would say about you?
It's time to pull out your old performance appraisals and boss's quotes. This is a great way to brag about yourself through someone else's words:
“My boss has told me that I am the best designer he has ever had. He knows he can rely on me, and he likes my sense of humor.”
It should say the same thing - after all - if you think this salary is fair then it should suit the responsibilities!
56. What do you think we could do better or differently?
This is a common one at startups. Hiring managers want to know that you not only have some background on the company, but that you're able to think critically about it and come to the table with new ideas. So, come with new ideas! What new features would you love to see? How could the company increase conversions? How could customer service be improved? You don't need to have the company's four-year strategy figured out, but do share your thoughts, and more importantly, show how your interests and expertise would lend themselves to the job.
57. Does your boss know you're here today?
Usually, you probably haven't told your boss for obvious reasons. So it's ok to say that they do not. You don't want to upset the balance at your current job after all and nothing is guaranteed in an interview. The interviewer should understand this stance.
58. What's a time you exercised leadership?
Depending on what's more important for the the role, you'll want to choose an example that showcases your project management skills (spearheading a project from end to end, juggling multiple moving parts) or one that shows your ability to confidently and effectively rally a team. And remember: “The best stories include enough detail to be believable and memorable,”. Show how you were a leader in this situation and how it represents your overall leadership experience and potential.
59. What do you expect to be earning in 5 years As Apprentice, Painter, Brush?
Discuss how you expect yourself to be excellent at your job. Thus, it would be reasonable to expect pay that is based on the merit of your work.
60. Where do you see yourself professionally five years from now As Apprentice, Painter, Brush?
Demonstrate both loyalty and ambition in the answer to this question. After sharing your personal ambition, it may be a good time to ask the interviewer if your ambitions match those of the company.
