Q TIPS:
Quick and Quintessential Career & Job Tips
Job-hunting tips from the June 23, 2003 issue of
QuintZine.
Recently, ResumeDoctor.com surveyed more than 2,000 recruiters and hiring managers worldwide to find out what questions are most
frequently asked during job interviews. Participants came from a variety of industries, including information technology,
marketing and sales, finance, and healthcare.
Here are the most frequently asked questions, according to the ResumeDoctor.com survey:
Describe your ideal job and/or boss.
Why are you looking for a job? Why are leaving your current position?
What unique experience or qualifications separate you from other candidates?
Tell me about yourself?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Describe some of your most important career accomplishments.
What are your short-term/long-term goals?
Describe a time when you were faced with a challenging situation and how you handled it?
What are your salary requirements?
Why are you interested in this position? Our company?
What would your former boss/colleagues say about you?
What are the best and worst aspects of your previous job?
A moral dilemma presented to 200 job applicants and submitted by Dick Breit to Reader's Digest
shows the importance of creative thinking in job interviews:
The dilemma: You are driving along on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, where you see
three people waiting:
1. An elderly woman who is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect mate you've been dreaming about.
Who would you choose, knowing there could be only one passenger in your car? Should you save the elderly
woman or take the old friend because he once saved your life?
You may may never find the perfect dream lover again! The person who was hired for the job gave this answer:
"I would give the car keys to my friend and let him take the elderly woman to the hospital. Then I would
stay behind and wait for the bus with the women of my dreams."
Because we're in an employer's market, job interviews are becoming more intense than ever.
Business Week reports on situational interviews in which candidates must role-play,
for example, a bank analyst responding to a customer who is
irate about money lost when a trade wasn't executed. A colleague
of ours describes a similar such interview, her third round of
interviews with the same organization. "There were four of us...
the 'final four,'" she said. "We met face-to-face to
demonstrate our abilities to conduct a brainstorming session in
order to solve an in-house problem that dealt with lack of motivation
by employees. There were six staff members in the room with us
evaluating our performance. Another aspect is that I had to conduct
an actual counseling session with a 'disgruntled employee' in an
actual work situation; I was provided an office and an actual
employee of the firm did the role-play with me. I had two evaluators
sitting in the room with me evaluating my performance."
"Behavioral interviewing is one thing," our colleague notes. "Scenario-
based interviewing is the next thing. And the neat thing is that staff
evaluate, as a way to identify if they can work with us, as candidates,
and vice versa. It was a great way to see the culture as well. There
is yet a fourth round..."
Recently, ResumeDoctor.com surveyed more than 2,000 recruiters and hiring managers worldwide to find out what questions are most
frequently asked during job interviews. Participants came from a variety of industries, including information technology,
marketing and sales, finance, and healthcare.
