Potential Interview Questions

Practice, practice, practice your interview and be prepared to answer all types of questions.

What goals have you set for yourself?
Who or what has had the greatest influence on the development of your career interests?
How did you decide on your major?
Why are you interested in our organization?
Tell me about yourself.
What two or three things are most important to you in a position?
What kind of work do you want to do?
How do you think you have changed personally since you started college?
What are your expectations of your future employer?
What is your GPA? How do you feel about it? Does it reflect your ability?

ADAPTABILITY

Provide an example of a time when you had to take action and didn't have as much time to prepare as you would like. How did you adapt to this situation?
Describe a time when you had to complete a project with very little direction. What are some of the issues you faced? How did you complete the project?
Tell me about a time when you had more work than you could handle. What steps did you take to ensure quality outcomes?
Everybody endures some stress in the workplace. Give a specific example of a stressful time at work. What caused the stress? What did you do to handle the stress?
Give a specific example of when you have had to handle multiple priorities. How did you meet all of your responsibilities?

ANALYTICAL SKILLS

Tell me about the most complex or difficult information you have had to analyze.
Describe a task or project you were responsible for that best demonstrates your ability to analyze information.
Describe a situation where you have gathered and analyzed facts to arrive at a decision.
There are times where there is an incredible amount of data and information to be analyzed. Tell me about a time you faced this situation and exactly what you did to boil everything down to what was most important.

CRITICAL THINKING/PROBLEM SOLVING

Tell me about a time when you had a difficult and/or complex problem to solve. Why was the problem difficult? How did you organize the available information?
Describe a situation when you were given an assignment that was difficult to complete because you were uncertain of several key elements. How did you go about completing the project?
Think of a time when you promised something to a customer or coworker by a certain deadline. What kinds of things did you consider when you agreed to the deadline? How did you go about meeting that deadline?
Can you give me an example of an innovative idea or concept you used to solve a problem that had a positive impact on the business?

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

Baseline Understanding of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Please share with us what diversity, equity and inclusion mean to you and why they're important.
What is your definition of diversity? How do you encourage people to honor the uniqueness of each individual? Please provide a specific example.

Understanding Differences/Building Community

Tell us about a time when you have taken steps to ensure that everyone (in your class, on your team, in your organization) felt included. Describe the situation, the actions you took and the outcome.
Working with people from different backgrounds or cultures can present unique opportunities for collaboration and creativity. Describe a time where a project or decision you made was enhanced by including diverse perspectives.
Working with people from different backgrounds or cultures can present challenges. Describe a time where differences in background made communication challenging. How did you handle this situation?
Tell us about a time when you were unable to be tolerant of another person’s point of view. Describe the situation, the actions you took and the outcome.
Tell me about a time when you worked with a (student/patient/co-worker) with a different background/culture than yours. What did you do to ensure that you were inclusive of their identity during your interaction?
If you were the successful candidate for this position, how would you help develop a sense of belonging for (students/patient/your stakeholders) from diverse communities to this work environment? What do you expect the challenges would be? What do you expect the benefits would be?
Please describe the ways you have promoted diversity, equity and inclusion in your current or previous campus leadership settings or work environments.

Advocacy

How would you advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion with colleagues who don't understand its importance?
Tell me about a time when you advocated for diversity and inclusion in the workplace or on campus.
How would you handle a situation where a colleague was being culturally insensitive, sexist, racist or homophobic?
What steps have you taken to reduce bias and champion diversity understanding in your classes or work setting?

INITIATIVE

Give a specific example of a time when you put forth extra effort to attain a goal. Why was the extra effort necessary?
Give a specific example in which you were asked to complete an assignment where there would be very little supervision. How did you feel? Describe the outcome of the assignment or project. How was it received by your supervisor?
Tell me about a time when you wanted to initiate a project on your own. How did you gain support for this project?
Tell me about a time when you had to take charge and start the ball rolling to get a job done. What were the ramifications if the job didn't get done? How did it turn out?
Describe a situation in which you identified a problem and took action to correct it rather than wait for someone else to do so.

INTEGRITY

Describe a time when you became particularly frustrated with a supervisor or coworker. What did you say to the other party to communicate your frustration? What happened?
Describe a situation in which you received negative feedback from a supervisor, coworker or business partner. How did you respond to this feedback? What was the outcome?
Give a specific example of a situation in which you needed to maintain confidentiality, yet someone asked you to release the confidential information. What did you do?
Discuss a time when you had to handle a situation with a coworker that could have been (or was) sensitive or uncomfortable. How did you handle this situation?
Give an example when you had to deal with a difficult ethical issue. How did you handle it?

ORGANIZATION

Please walk me through your last week and tell me how you planned your week’s activities and how your schedule worked.
How do you schedule your time and establish your priorities?
What have you done in order to be effective with your organization and planning?
Tell me about a project that you’ve planned.

TEAMWORK

Describe an example of when you were a member of a team assigned to a project or task. What was your role in the team? Did the team accomplish its task? If so, why? If not, why not?
Describe a situation in which several of your coworkers didn’t get along. How did you handle the situation in order to get results?
Tell me about a specific situation when you assisted a coworker or supervisor with a task or project. Why and how did you assist that person?
Tell me about a time when you had to enlist the support of your coworkers, subordinates or supervisors to complete a task. How did you go about getting their help?
Give an example of when you had to organize a team in order to achieve a goal. What process did you use to select the team members?

WORK ETHIC

Give a specific example of a situation in which you were faced with a difficult deadline to meet. How did you respond? What was the outcome?
Often our work environments require that numerous tasks be completed simultaneously, which can put demands on us. Give an example of when you were in this type of situation and how you resolved it.

Questions used and adapted from the following sources:

501+ Great Interview Questions for Employers, Dianna Podmoroff, Atlantic Publishing Group, 2005
High Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job, Victoria Hoevemeyer, AMACOM, 2005
“Bank of Competency Based Interview Questions,” retrieved April 16, 2009, from University of Queensland, Australia, Faculty of Business, Economics & Law.
“Competency Based Interview Questions: How Many Can You Answer (Well)?” retrieved April 16, 2009, from Government of Alberta: Corporate Human Resources.