Twenty Five Great Job Interview Questions

Sept. 17, 2003 -- Need help figuring out what to ask during the interview? Here are 25 great questions to ask.

1. Why are you here?

2. If you had only one word to describe yourself, what would it be?

3. When have you failed? Describe what happened and what you learned from it.

4. What's the one accomplishment you're most proud of? Why?

5. What qualities in your co-workers bother you most? Do you appreciate most?

6. How do you take advantage of your strengths? How do you compensate for your weaknesses?

7. If I were to ask your current boss what your greatest strength is, what would he or she tell me?

8. If I were to ask your current boss to tell me one thing you do that drives him crazy what would he tell me?

9. What's one thing you would like to do better? What's your plan for improving?

10. What changes have you made in working with others to be more effective at work?

11. What do you think are the most important attributes of successful people? How do you rate yourself in those areas?

12. How do you make decisions?

13. If you were limited to just one person to get advice and help from, which person would you choose? Why?

14. Tell me about a work incident in which you were totally honest, despite a potential risk or downside.

15. What would you do if you made an important business decision and a co-worker challenged it?

16. Describe a crisis you faced at work. What was your role? How did you resolve it? What were the results?

17. Describe a time when you were asked to do something you weren't trained to do. How did you handle it?

18. Describe the boss who would get the very best work from you.

19. What will make you love coming to work here everyday?

20. What would you do if management made a decision you didn't agree with?

21. What is there about this opportunity that most excites you?

22. What's your greatest fear about this opportunity?

23. If you get the job, how could you lose money for me?

24. Assume that you come to work here. One year from now you go home one Friday evening thinking that accepting this job was the best thing you ever did. What happened during the year for you to feel that way?

25. Is there any question I haven't asked you that I should?

Bob Rosner is the co-author of The Boss's Survival Guide (McGraw-Hill, 2001), along with Allan Halcrow, former editor of Workforce Magazine and Alan Levins, senior partner of San Francisco-based employer law firm Littler Mendelson. Rosner is also founder of the award-winning workingwounded.com. He can be reached via fax at (206) 780-4353, and via e-mail at: bob@workingwounded.com.