Director and Manager Level Interview Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
Director/Manager level
Interview Questions
Leadership and Collaborating/Partnering:
1. How do you communicate the vision and future of the organization to your
team? What methods do you use and how has this worked for you in the
past?
2. How do you describe your leadership style and the personal characteristics
you value in the workplace? How do you engage and motivate your staff?
3. Please give us an example where you chose to collaborate with others when
you could have accomplished the objective on your own. What were the
reasons for your decision, and what impact did it have on the team?
4. Describe a situation when you were successful collaborating with various
departments in your organization on a complex problem or issue. What were
some of the challenges and what was your part in making it successful?
Can also ask about a time that was NOT successful and what did they
learn, and how would they go about it differently.
5. Tell us about a time when you assisted an employee determine how to
complete an assignment or task. How did you work with the individual?
Describe the specific steps you took to help them plan their work. What was
the final outcome?
6. Please describe a situation when you took a firm stand. What negative
consequences did you encounter? What was the outcome of the situation?
What did you learn?
Strategic Financial Planning:
1. Describe your knowledge of strategic financial planning and analysis. How
have you applied that skill in your recent position? Please be specific.
2. Please describe your background as it applies to this position with emphasis
on your responsibilities involving strategic financial planning and resource
management.
3. Which strategic management tools have you used in the past and how have
you incorporated them into your actions. How do you make sure to you keep
current with the latest developments in this area?
Critical Thinking/Analytical Skills:
1. Please describe a situation where you analyzed complex data to reach a
useful conclusion. Please describe the process you used, and what would
you do differently if faced with the same situation?
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Director and Manager Level Interview Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
2. Where would you describe yourself on a continuum from being analytical to
intuitive?
3. Think of an important situation where you found yourself without the specific
technical knowledge to perform a task essential to a project. What did you do
and what was the outcome?
4. Please provide an example of a situation where it was not clear how a project
should be handled and you figured it out on your own. What specific actions
did you take to assess the situation? What specifically did you do to begin
implementation? What was the result?
Political Acumen:
1. Please provide an example of when you had to juggle the needs of a small
department with the needs of the large division. How did you advocate
beyond the division while working as a team on behalf of the organization as
a whole?
2. Please describe a situation in which your communication and negotiations
skills facilitated resolution of a sensitive situation dealing at the highest levels
of the organization. What specifically did you do to facilitate the process, and
what was the result?
3. Please describe a situation where you had to meet two critical deadlines
given to you by two different senior managers, with conflicting deadlines.
How did you handle the situation? What was the result?
Strengths
1. What key factors have accounted for your career success to date?
2. What do you consider to be some of your most outstanding qualities?
3. What is your greatest strength or asset?
4. During past performance reviews, what have been consistently cited as your
major assets, Why?
5. What two or three major accomplishments best demonstrate your key
strengths?
6. What do your co-workers most admire about you? Why?
7. What are areas your customers/clients consistently compliment you on?
8. If you had to cite a single skill or attribute that has most contributed to your
career success, what would it be? Why?
Weaknesses
1. What has been your single biggest work-related failure to date? Why?
2. From a work standpoint, what has been your biggest shortcoming? Why?
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Director and Manager Level Interview Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
3. Each of us has areas where we could improve performance. In what areas
could you improve your overall performance?
4. What areas have been suggested to you for improvement by your current
boss?
5. As you view your overall qualifications for this position, what do you see as
some of your development needs?
6. What aspects of your overall capabilities would you most like to improve?
7. What steps have you taken in the past year to improve your overall
performance? Why?
8. In what ways could you improve your effectiveness with others?
9. What has been the most difficult area for you to improve upon over the
years?
Team
1. What position in a team do you typically occupy (leader, facilitator, delivery on
a key piece, coordinator ……)?
2. Give me an example of your involvement in a successful team effort. – What
role did you play? - Why was the effort successful?
3. Give me and example of your involvement in a team effort that failed. – What
role did you play? - What factors led to the failure?
Flexibility and Adaptability
1. During your career, what was the most difficult adjustment you have had to
make? - What was the situation? - Why was this a difficult adjustment? What did you do? - What happened as a result of your actions?
2. Please tell me about a time where you had to do an assignment/project or
work activity you didn’t want to do. – What was it? - What did you do?
3. Tell me about a time when you had to work with a person that had a very
different work style, or work ethic, than your own.
Planning and Organizational Skills
1. Describe your planning process. (how often, steps, systems).
2. When can planning get in the way of results?
3. How do you go about organizing your work?
General / Misc.
1. Tell me about the most difficult technical project have you faced in the last 3
years. – Did you solve it as part of a team or individually? - What worked? What did not work? (Technical depth and understanding)
2. Give us an example of a time when you had to evaluate outsourcing a service
or function. – What was that service/function? - What factors did you have to
consider? - What was the outcome? - What was the specific impact to your
department, business, and staff? (Outsourcing)
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Director and Manager Level Interview Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
3. Give me an example of a situation that required you to compromise one of
your basic principles. – What was the situation? - What principle did you
compromise? - Why did you compromise? - How did you feel about it?
(Integrity)
4. With what aspects of this position are you most comfortable? (SelfAssessment)
5. With what aspects of this position are you least comfortable? Why? (SelfAssessment)
6. What basis do you use for measuring your own performance? (Drive &
Motivation)
Motivations for this position & for working at UC Berkeley
1. How does this position fit into your overall career plan?
2. What about UC Berkeley, as an institution, do you find most attractive? How will that affect/be felt in your daily life?
3. What about UC Berkeley, as an institution, do you find least attractive?
4. What about your current position do you find de-motivating?
5. What areas do you see as the most challenging in this position in the short
term and over the long term?
6. What has been the most successful business/organizational culture for you to
work in? - What about it made you successful? - What specifically did you
do to help build and foster that culture?
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