Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEWING
Behavioral interviewing is a relatively new style of interviewing that was
developed in the 1970’s by industrial psychologists. Behavioral interviewing
asserts that “the most accurate predictor of future performance is past
performance in a similar situation.” Currently, 30 percent of all organizations
are using behavioral interviewing to some degree.
Unlike traditional interviews, which include such questions as:
1. Tell me about yourself.
2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
3. Why are you interested in working for us?
Behavioral interviewing emphasizes past performance and behaviors. As a
consequence, candidates unprepared for the rigor of behavioral interviewing
have not fared well.
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
ASSESSING A CANDIDATE: 121 QUESTIONS
While some interviewers prefer to ask all candidates the same questions, others
prefer to tailor the dialogue to the applicant. Past behavior often is the best
indicator of future performance.
The following questions, excerpted from From Here to There by Larry Stuenkel,
are geared toward positions with more responsibility; they require candidates to
give specific examples of past work and experience.
Questions for candidates
1 Describe a complex problem you have worked on recently that required indepth analysis. What factors or variables did you consider?
2. Describe a significant project or idea you have conceived within the last two
years. How did you know it was needed and would work? Was it used? Did it
work?
3. What sources of information did you use to keep aware of problems within
your department? Can you tell me about a time you relied on those sources to
inform you of a problem?
4. How often is your schedule upset by unforeseen circumstances? What have
you done to improve the reliability of your schedule?
5. How have you stayed attuned to potential obstacles to achieving your goals or
accomplishing your work?
6. How do you set your work plan for the year? What were your objectives for last
year? How were they achieved?
7. What are your long- and short-term plans? Are they in writing? Describe how
you use them.
8. When beginning a new assignment, what steps do you take to plan how you
will complete it?
9. When organizing a project, how have you determined which resources to use?
Give an example of one project, describing the method and the result.
10. Describe a situation that required several things to be done at the same time.
How did you handle it?
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
11. Tell me about a time when you reorganized your work group. What prompted
you to do that, and what was the outcome?
12. Take me step-by-step through how you determined the budget for your unit
or division. What information did you use in preparing the budget? What
information was lacking?
13. Describe how you have estimated the costs of a project. What determines the
priorities? Give an example.
14. How have you allowed for unexpected expenses when preparing a budget?
How did you control your division's budget? What action did you take when
expenses exceeded it?
15. What methods do you use to keep informed about what is going on in your
area of expertise?
16. What have you done when you found that your techniques for monitoring
activities were loosely adhered to by your subordinates? Give an example.
17. Describe a situation when you had to act quickly to correct a problem. Could
closer monitoring have prevented it? What did you do? What was the result?
18. What difficulties do you have in establishing actions to take in your job? Give
an example.
19. What was the most difficult decision you have made in the last two years?
What made it difficult?
20. How have you gone about making an important decision related to your job?
21. What was a challenging business decision you have recently faced? How did
you decide what to do?
22. When, if ever, have you delayed decisions to give yourself more time to
think? Describe the situation and outcome.
23. What kinds of decisions do you make rapidly? Which ones do you take more
time on? Give an example, please.
24. When have you declined to make work-related decisions? Why?
25. Describe a situation when you were faced with obstacles. How did you
handle it?
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
26. Give an example of the most practical decision you have made in the past
two years. What were the alternatives? Why was it practical?
27. What are the most important business issues you have addressed in the last
two years? Tell me what you did about them. What was the result?
28. What was the biggest risk you had to take while at your company? Why was
it risky? Why did you take it? What was the outcome?
29. In your job, when did you have to use common sense? Tell me about the
situation and the results of using common sense for that particular issue.
30. What other divisions or departments do you have to frequently deal with in
your current job? How often and under what conditions?
31. Have you ever made a decision that affected departments or divisions other
than your own? What was the situation, and what was the result?
32. How have events in your area of the organization affected other parts of the
organization? Give examples.
33. What organizational resources or services do you most commonly use? What
type of training or information about these resources do you give your
subordinates?
34. With whom do you work to accomplish your objectives? How have you
insured that you get cooperation? Give an example.
35. How did you keep your employees informed of what was going on in the
organization?
36. How have you minimized undesired side effects from incorporated new
procedures in your work unit? Give an example.
37. What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome in order to incorporate a
new idea or process in your area? Why was it an obstacle? How did you
overcome it?
38. Describe a situation where you got the most mileage out of a procedure or
policy change you had to introduce to your subordinates? How did you take
advantage of the opportunity produced by the change?
39. Could you cite an example of when you were faced with delegating authority
and/or responsibility? How did it work out?
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
40. When looking at applicants, how do you select the best person? Have you
had any problems with this method? If yes, what were they?
41. Describe how you hired your last subordinate. How well is the person doing
the job?
42. Have you oriented and trained your new employees?
43. How have you established work objectives with subordinates, and are they
usually reached?
44. How have you used feedback to encourage good performance? Give a
specific example.
45. How do you know if the feedback you give an employee is effective? Give a
specific example.
46. How do you keep your employees informed of what is going on in the
organization?
47. Describe how you handled the situation where a subordinate did an
outstanding job, and what you did when a subordinate had a performance
problem. What was the result of each situation?
48. How have you helped your subordinates develop themselves? Give specific
examples.
49. Tell me about a situation in which you dealt with a controversial topic at work.
50. Tell me about the last time that you took a stand on an issue that others
disagreed with. What were the merits in the others' viewpoints? Give a specific
example.
51. Tell me about a situation in which you became frustrated or impatient when
dealing with customers, subordinates, your boss or co-workers. What did you
do?
52. Describe a situation at work when someone criticized you. How did you
react?
53. What is the most imaginative or innovative thing you have done in your
present position?
54. Can you think of a situation you had to handle in which old solutions didn't
work? What did you do to handle it?
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
55. Describe a problem in your organization that you handled in a different
manner or different way. How was your approach different, and what were the
results?
56. How have you gotten your employees to come up with new ideas in the past?
Give an example.
57. Describe a new idea or suggestion.
58. Tell me about a situation in which you had to adjust quickly to changes in the
organizational priorities. What was the impact of the changes on you? Give a
specific example.
59. What was the highest-pressure situation in which you have been involved in
recent years? How did you cope with it? Give a specific example.
60. What situations do you find most frustrating? How have you dealt with them?
Give a specific situation.
61. How did you get your job at your present company?
62. What changes have you tried to implement in your area of responsibility?
What have you done to get them underway?
63. How have you tried to influence events to achieve goals? Give a specific
example.
64. In your position, how do you define doing a good job?
65. How do you measure success? Have you been successful at your present
company? Explain.
66. Tell me about the time when you were not very pleased with your
performance. What did you do about it? Give a specific example.
67. What competitive situations have you been in during your career? How did
you handle the competition? Did you win?
68. Give an example of a project or task that needed an extra effort to complete.
What did you do?
69. What was the biggest obstacle that you had to overcome to get where you
are today? How did you overcome it?
70. How have you scheduled your time and set priorities?
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
71. In the past, what did you do when you became overloaded with work? Give
an example of the situation.
72. What have you done recently to develop your knowledge or abilities? How
have you applied that knowledge to your present position?
73. How does your current job relate to your career goals? What are your career
goals?
74. What are your career goals for the next five years?
75. What magazines or newsletters have you recently read and gotten useful jobrelated information from?
76. What company-sponsored development courses have you taken? How did
you get involved with those?
77. What was one of the worst communication problems you have experienced in
your career? Give an example.
78. At one time or another, we have all had some problems getting our point
across when talking on the telephone. Give me an example of when this
happened to you.
79. What is the most complex topic you have had to explain to a group? How did
you handle this?
80. How did you develop a rapport with your co-workers and people from other
departments? Give an example.
81. Tell me about a situation when you felt you shared too much information or
shared information with the wrong associate. Why? What was the result?
82. Tell me about some of the toughest groups that you have had to get
cooperation from. Did you have any formal authority? What did you do? Give a
specific example.
83. How frequently did you meet with your immediate subordinates as a group?
Why? What did you do in preparation, at the meeting and after the meeting?
84. What recent problem have you had in which you included your subordinates
in arriving at a solution? What approach did you take to get them to accomplish
the task?
85. How did you set the objectives for your unit last year?
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
86. What was one of the best ideas you ever sold to a supervisor? What was
your approach in order to do that selling?
87. What was one of the best ideas you tried but failed to sell to a peer? What
was your approach, and why did it fail?
88. How do you approach a negotiating situation? Describe a recent situation
that required negotiating. What was the result?
89. Tell me about a situation when you had to work out a compromise solution.
Did both sides compromise equally; if not, why?
90. What recent conflict have you had with a peer, subordinate or supervisor?
Did it interfere with getting the work done? How was it resolved?
91. Describe a situation when you had to help people with different viewpoints
reach a constructive solution.
92. Did you have any subordinates who did not work well together? What did you
do about it?
93. Have you, in your past career; perceived any problems you caused others?
What are they? Could they have been avoided?
94. Tell me about a project you generated on your own because you saw a need
for it. What did you do to set it up? Did others also see a need for the project?
95. Describe a change you have had to explain to other people. Did they
understand your vision of the situation?
96. Describe a situation when you initiated a change that would affect many
people. How did you involve those who would be affected with the change?
97. Tell me about some of the toughest groups that you have had to get working
as a productive team. What did you do?
98. How often did you attend meetings with your peer? What role did you play in
the meetings? Tell me about a meeting and how you participated in it.
99. How did you improve the decision-making process in any group meeting that
you were a part of? Give me an example.
100. Sometimes we have to bend the truth a little when dealing with a particular
customer or situation. Can you give me some examples of when you had to do
this?
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
101. How have you become active in your community? What have been the
results of your involvement?
102. We have all had to work with people who are difficult to get along with. Give
me some examples of when this happened to you. Why was that person difficult?
How did you handle that person?
103. When working with people, how do you determine when you are pushing
too hard? How do you determine when you should back off?
104. How do you go about collecting information regarding your customers' likes,
dislikes and priorities?
105. How far in advance do you usually know the details of a competitor's
products? How do you learn about them? Give an example.
106. Tell me about how you forecast what the needs of your customers will be.
Have your forecasts been successful? Why? Why not?
107. How do you keep up to date on key competition?
108. At your level, how have you maintained contact with your customers? What
improvement do you notice in relationships with the organization because of your
contact?
109. In your professional arena, how have you ensured that important details
were not overlooked when planning a project? Be specific with an example.
110. We all have occasions when we were working on something that just
"slipped through the cracks." Can you give me an example of when this
happened to you?
111. Can you give me some examples of times when you found errors in your
work? What were the causes? How did you handle the errors?
112. Do you have a system for controlling and checking errors in your own work?
If so, describe that system for me.
113. Take me step-by-step through how you prepared the budget for your last
project.
114. How have you scheduled the timeline for a project and set priorities?
115. Can you think of some projects or ideas, not necessarily your own, that
were implemented or carried out successfully primarily because of your efforts.
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Assessing a Candidate- 121 Questions
Research HR Training
September 2010
116. What kind of system do you have for keeping track of the progress workers
are making on a particular project that you assigned them?
117. How have you prepared for meetings that you would be leading?
118. Tell me about a time when you were leading a meeting that the discussion
got away from the agenda. How did you handle it?
119. Describe how you follow up a meeting to make sure that what was agreed
to be done was completed.
120. Tell me about the three most important people in your education and career.
121. I would like you to think of the biggest challenge on the job where you
succeeded and the biggest challenge you failed to meet.
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