1. Tell us what are your hobbies? or What are you passionate about?
You can talk about your own passion here. This is a commonly asked question in all ‘HR interview questions and answers' lists.
2. Tell us the characteristics of the ideal role for you?
This question is being asked to ensure you are a good match for the role you are being interviewed for. If you have researched the role and know you want it, then your characteristics should match up nicely. If they don't–why did you agree to this interview?
3. Tell us what software packages are you familiar with?
Make sure you know each of your skills thoroughly. In case you don't know a particular software package or a terminology, please do not talk about it in front of the interviewer. (Keep this important tip in mind while preparing for HR interview questions and answers).
4. Can you tell me an example of your creativity?
Recently, the company that I work for, inaugurated a new store. On the day of the opening, the air conditioning of the outlet failed. In order to keep all the new customers comfortable, I immediately cracked the idea of organizing a sidewalk open-air sale! It was a life saver as the shop was super-hot inside. This is an example of how resourceful and creative I can be when the situation demands!
5. Explain what is your greatest fear?
Don't simply talk about your weaknesses, your interviewer genuinely wants you to talk about your loopholes! Try to resist the urge to give him/her more points to reject you. Answer diplomatically.
6. Tell us are you demanding as a boss?
Freshers may skip this question as it is not relevant to their set of HR interview questions and answers.
7. Tell us what experience do you have in HR?
If you do have experience, provide details of companies you have worked for and your responsibilities. If you do not have HR experience, say that this is the first role that you are applying for but you are very keen to work in HR.
8. Tell us what's your absenteeism record like?
This is rarely asked to professionals during interview discussions pertaining to HR interview questions and answers.
9. Explain me what is the difference between hard work and smart work?
Hard work is delivering work on time with more effort and smart work is delivering work on time, with lesser effort. I feel that is the basic difference. Most of the times, in the corporate world, I feel a combination of both is needed to attain excellence.
10. Suppose if you won a Rs.10-crore lottery, would you still work?
The amount you quoted is not huge, considering the fact that my spouse is a social worker! In order to sustain my existence and my family's welfare, I would still keep working.
11. Can you please explain what do you like about your present job?
This is a straightforward HR interview question. All you have to do is make sure that your ‘likes' correspond to the skills required for the job on offer. Be enthusiastic; describe your job as interesting and diverse but do not overdo it – after all, you are looking to leave.
12. Please explain why have you applied for this particular job?
This interview tricky question is popped because the employer wants to be clear whether the candidate applying for is aware of the duties and it helps him to make decision easy.
The candidate should do his/her homework about understanding the job description and be responsible enough to answer the question.
13. Explain me how do you work under pressure? Can you handle the pressure?
Working under pressure is what I have done a lot during my college days. I have realized that I can actually work well under pressure. It is the pressure factor that brings out maximum efficiency in me.
14. Tell us what was the toughest decision you ever had to make?
When I was asked to step in as a temporary team leader for the first time, I still remember how I missed a couple of key communications from the manager. This pushed our deadlines back by 2 weeks. It was a great lesson and since then, I always make it a point to focus on the big-picture, instead of looking at smaller projects.
15. Explain me what do your friends/co-workers say about you?
Since I like to build strong professional relationships with my teammates, most of them have become great friends. We have been spending eight hours a day, five days a week for several years now. So, I am sure that whatever they say, will be realistic and not made up. One thing that they will surely mention about me is my love for food! The rest is up to you to find out.
16. Can you tell us what makes you angry?
In a team, there are times when I and some of my peers work hard to achieve a goal, while there are some people who leave their modules incomplete or quit mid-way. At such a juncture, this load also gets assigned to us, the hardworking lot. I don't mind helping my peers out, but when an extra load of work gets assigned to me in the 11th hour, I get irritated. Sometimes, when I know that I cannot do justice to this new module, I politely refuse to take it up.
17. Tell us which area of HR do you enjoy working in most?
This should be an honest answer based on your own experience. If you have still not chosen a favorite area to work in then you should provide an answer that is relevant to the role for which you are applying.
HR is generally subdivided into recruitment, administration, performance and compensation, training, departmental coordinators. Some HR departments will also include compliance. Choose an area that interests you and be able to provide a reason why you wish to work in that area.
18. Tell us how do you feel about shift rotation?
This question is asked to see your approach, to see how you react if your shift change after some point of time.
So always take these kind of questions in a positive way, because it is asked just to check your approachability.
If shift rotation is there you will be knowing it before you start applying for this job. So, if an employer asks such hr question in interview it is just to know your approach.
19. Explain me how have you used creativity in an HR position?
Say that HR provides many opportunities to add creativity to a company when a more creative attitude is taken. A successful business is about creating a culture of creativity and HR can guide a business in this matter.
20. Explain me what are your other interests or likes?
This is really very casual conversation through which an interviewer is trying to communicate with the candidate. By asking about interests and hobbies, an interviewer is considering candidates ability and dedication.
So the candidate can be normal while answering this question and even can explain an interviewer about his achievements in such area of interests.
21. Tell us are you willing to relocate or travel?
Never answer “NO” this may slam all the doors of your effort shut instantly.
First find out where you have to relocate and how much travel time is involved. Then respond to the question, if you are fine with it.
22. Tell us why should we hire you? or Why should I hire you?
Most freshers might treat this as a challenging question. Remember that it's not some sort of a blow to your ego, but a stress test which you can pass smoothly with a powerful answer. Below given is your perfect answer, which you can use in your discussion pertaining to HR interview questions and answers.
23. Tell us what do you always regret? or Do you have any regrets?
I still regret turning down the position offered to me at XYZ company last year. I have gained good experience in my present organization. But it's good that I turned it down, otherwise, I wouldn't have been promoted and become a Manager. Neither I would have got the opportunity to interview with your esteemed organization today!
24. Explain me you have changed jobs/jumped ship too many times already, why so?
This question is asked exclusively to experienced professionals who have switched jobs more than two times in their entire career. Freshers can skip to the next question.
25. Tell us aren't you overqualified for this position?
Through this question employer may feels that you may grow dissatisfied and eventually leave the job later.
Don't ever feel that this question made all your effort fail but instead of that teach the employer to look into this question in a different way.
Show him/her what's best for his/her business and also the advantages instead of drawbacks.
26. Tell us why do you enjoy working closely with people?
An answer to this question should be personal to you, but also say that you enjoy communicating with people and like to help. By working closely with people you can better understand their needs and aspirations and help them to achieve their goals.
27. Tell us are you reliable? or Can I trust you with responsibilities?
Yes, I am not only reliable but also a very dependable person. If a task is assigned to me, it will be dutifully handled and completed within the stipulated deadline.
28. Explain me what are your biggest achievements till date?
Till date, I have accomplished several goals and milestones in my career as an app developer. The one that rings a bell is the latest version update on a core product of my current organization for customer profiling and payments. We had been slogging on this version update for 12 months at a stretch and I was a core team member. My team made me their team lead during the last 6 months and at that time, we were working on the mobile components of the product. To meet the deadline, I brought in 5 more resources, who had expertise in certain technologies, which were crucial for the pending modules.
29. Tell us what did you do in the last year to improve your knowledge?
Being an L3 or senior level Windows/Linux Administrator I have mastered my virtualization experience on VMware, KVM, Xen, Hyper-V etc. I made sure to understand storage and networking better last year. I picked up PERL scripting last month and plan to pick up Ruby and Python in the next 3 months. I am also a beginner level programmer as I learnt C++. I mastered Chef on job and have deployed Amazon AWS to understand cloud better. I also earned my Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) license and I am targeting RHCA by the end of 2017.
30. Tell us what are your strong points? or What are your strengths?
Don't just talk about your strengths, your interviewer genuinely wants to know about your strong points.
31. Can you tell us are you a team player?
This is to know how well you can make yourself comfortable with your fellow staff. Every organization prefers employees who work accordingly with their colleagues.
So while answering this question start with the example of your previous worked organization where you worked comfortably and successfully.
32. Tell us why did you change your last job?
The main and very essential tip for every candidate is to never badmouth their previous working employer or industry.
Always avoid statements like “personal problem”, “personality clash” or “didn't get along” kind of excuse while answering for your relieving the previous job.
If you are currently having a job, don't be nervous to answer because you are part of that organization and you know in and out of it. But still you are not allowed for such badmouth so it's better if you state that why would you prefer to find a new job.
33. Explain me do you have any ideas to improve our recruitment process?
This is not an easy question to answer. You could ask them to explain what their recruitment process is; as you have only experienced it from the outside, and then go on to suggest that it is difficult to provide an honest appraisal without having the opportunity to experience it from the HR perspective.
34. Explain me are you applying for other jobs? Do you have any other offer in hand?
Do not get intimidated with this HR interview question and answer. You can be open about the other offer or keep it private, depending on how happy you are with it. HR recruiters generally ask this to understand your demand in the market. They also want to know that by the time they interview you and reach the offer stage, you would have already accepted another one.
35. Tell us can you describe your time management skills?
I decide on the order of my task list and prioritize tasks according to the instructions from my seniors. I try to deliver urgent tasks first and then the remaining ones. In case the urgency part is unclear, I prioritize complicated or time taking projects over the simpler and smaller ones. Throughout the process, I keep adapting and updating my seniors to ensure that I am on track and my efforts are not getting wasted.
