Questions for Applicants with Long Tenure at one company

After being with the same company for so long, do you think it will be hard to adapt to a new organization?



1. Some People feel that spending so much time at one job demonstrates a lack of initiative. How do you respond to that?



2. What are the advantages of staying at one job a long time?



3. Since you were in the same job for such a long time, you’ve probably grown very comfortable in it – may be even a bit stale. How would you cope with a new job in a company such as our client?





Questions for Job Hoppers

You’ve changed jobs quite frequently. How do we know you’ll stick around if we hire you?



1. How do you explain the diversity of jobs you’ve had? The positions don’t seem to be in a logical progression.



2. You have been with your current employer for only a short amount of time. Is this an indication that you’ll be moving around a lot throughout your career?



3. How long will you stay here at this company?

Salary related questions





Can you review your salary history for me?



1. What salary, excluding benefits, are you making now?



2. How can we best reward you?



3. What kind of salary reviews or progress would you expect in this company?



4. In your professional opinion, how much do you think a job like this should pay?



5. How do you think your compensation should be determined?



6. How much did you make on your last job?



7. What sort of salary are you looking for?



8. Would you be willing to work for less?



9. How would you justify a raise of 20% from what you are currently making?



10. The salary you’re asking for is near the top of the range for this job. How would justify your expectation to get this salary?



11. What salary do you expect to make in this position? What do you base that figure on?



12. Why aren’t you making more money at this point in your career?



13. On what criteria do you believe you should be evaluated and compensated?



14. What non-cash aspects of your compensation are important to you?



How important are stock options or deferred payment plans to you?





ASSESSING SPECIFIC SKILL SETS

Questions for specific Disciplines



Entry Level



Q1. In college, how did you go about influencing someone to accept your ideas?



Q2. What’s one management lesson you learned in college?



Q3. Why do you want to get into this field/job/company?



Q4. I see that you do not have very much

organizational/Industry work experience. What qualities/skills do you have that especially qualify you for this position?



Q5. Why would you want to leave an established career at your present employer for an essentially entry-level position?



Q6. How, specifically, do you contribute toward an environment of teamwork?





Project Management / Decision Making



Q1. What do you do to make the people around you feel important, appreciated, and respected?



Q2. Most of us become more astute decision makers as the base of our experience broadens. In what respects do you feel you have improved as a decision maker?



Q3. How many projects you have handled at a time in past?



Q. Leading Question: How many projects can you handle at a time?



Q4. I’m interested in how you do your planning. What planning processes have you found useful, and how do you go about implementing them?



Q5. What do you do when there is a decision to be made and no procedure exists?



Q6. What have you learned about using deadlines to motivate people or teams?



Q7. Are you directly responsible to hire new people in your team?



Q8. How many people have you hired in the past one-year? Into what positions?



Q9. What are the typical problems and grievances that your staff brings to you?



Q Leading question: How do you handle them?



Q10. How you evaluate the performance of your team?



Q11. What measures you take to improve the performance of your team?



Q12. How has your tolerance for accepting mistakes from your subordinates changed over the years?



Q13. What has been your experience with major expansion or reduction of work force?



Q14. Some managers keep a very close check on their organizations. Others use a loose rein. What level of control do you prefer? How has it changed in the last few years?



Q15. Some managers are quite deliberate about such things as communication, development, and motivation. Do you have examples of how you addressed these areas?





CLOSING THE INTERVIEW

Questions to draw the interview to a close



Q1. Well, based on what we have discussed, how do you feel about this job?



Q2. Do you have any questions?



Q3. Is there anything else I should know about you?



Q4. Is there anything else I can answer for you?



Q5. May I contact your references now?



Q6. I’ve interviewed several very good candidates, and I will admit that you are one of them.