Diamond Author
The way I interview people is a little bit differently than the way many people go about hosting an interview. By the time a resume crosses my desk, it has been proofread by 4 different parties. Therefore, I don't have to look at the person's resume at all. I would rather have it this way. I like to ask questions that show the candidate's thought process.
Obviously, I don't start firing out questions like the ones below because for an executive to get these questions, it would be laughable. However, though chit-chat with sales representatives all day, I could probably answer these questions in the way that various applicants would answer them.
A good interviewer will be less concerned about your resume than they will about your intellect, interest in the job, past work or scholastic achievements and overall personality. The bad ones go bit by bit over your resume. Successful interviewing, on both sides of the table, requires wit, dedication to filling the job at hand, chemistry and creativity. You don't get that from, "tell me what you did during your internship while with the _______ shipping company." Who could even stand that answer? It would be like me telling clients about how I was a doorman during college.
With that being said, below you will find some more intellectually stimulating interview questions which, if practiced, ought to make your first set of interviews a little easier. These are not going to be questions which you are going to be asked in 15 years from now, though when smart people interview recent graduates, they want thought process. They don't care about the strength and weakness question. If you don't treat answering these questions like the Super Bowl, they can prove to be quite fun.
Q: "If I was to give you a credit card with a 1 million dollar limit and tell you to do spend as you please, how would you allocate the funds in 2 day's time?"
This is not an easy question and there are no wrong answers, there are some more effective, impressing answers which exist, but none are wrong. Don't get pulled into the "I'm a cowboy mentality." It is common nature that human beings, given a lump sum of money, would think about themselves to a certain (probably great) extent; make that clear. However, you also want to give some of that money to charity. This should not just be part of your answer, but it should also be part of what you would do given the aforementioned situation.
Additionally, stay away from the vacation answer. Make the interviewer confident that you would return later that week. If you wouldn't, then you should probably not be interviewing there in the first place.
Then, when you are done answering, shoot the question right back at the person sitting across the table. They will probably enjoy this because it's a cool question and everyone wants to be listened to. See what he or she has to say.
Q: "What do you think about the economy as a whole and, subsequently, the stock market?"
This one is going to be tough as you may be walking into a death trap if the person interviewing you came from a JP Morgan where he or she specialized in derivatives for instance. Be vague with an answer like this. However, tell the interviewer why you are being vague. Essentially, it is because you are interviewing for a position which does not have direct correlation with the equity markets. Therefore you are not an expert. Pretend to be an expert in a field in which you struggle and you'll get caught.
Q: "What situations would prompt you to leave a job?"
Phrases to use: "Company became unethical" or "Company would fail to roll out new products" aka no drive for innovation or "Company would become too complacent with regards to the competition."
Phrases not to use: "Company was not doing well." Everyone wants a team player to go down with the ship, and to an extent, I agree with them.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ken_Sundheim
