Essential ingredients
for a successful interview:

Do your research - the job, the company, the industry.

Dress to impress - smart suit, minimal jewellery, no strong perfume or aftershave.

First impressions count - firm handshake, smile and make eye contact.

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INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Questions you may be asked at interview:

• Top 20 Interview Questions
• Examples of competency based questions
• Ability to overcome challenges
• Initiative
• Leadership skills
• Your experience in achieving standards of excellence and best practice
• Ability to work in a team
• Your ability to use a methodical approach to complex decision-making
• Lateral thinking
• Adaptability
• Client focus
• Communication
• Problem solving
• Influencing skills
• Relationship Building

For advice on how to answer these and other interview questions contact our Interview Coach.

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Top 20 Interview Questions

1. Tell me about yourself.
2. Why did you apply for this position?
3. What do you know about this company?
4. What are your strengths?
5. What are your weaknesses?
6. Where do you see yourself in five years time?
7. What do you enjoy most in your current job?
8. What do you enjoy least in your current role?
9. What is your greatest achievement to date?
10. Why do you want to leave your present job?
11. How would your colleagues describe you?
12. What one thing would you change about your present job/circumstances?
13. What has been the biggest disappointment in your career to date?
14. Describe your management style.
15. Do you prefer to work on your own or with others?
16. How do you react to criticism?
17. What is your present boss like?
18. Why should we employ you?
19. What are your outside interests?
20. Do you have any questions that you would like to ask us?

Examples of competency based questions

Organisational skills

• Please give an example of when you have had to organise a project or event. How did you plan this and what was the final outcome? What have you learnt from the experience?
• How do you approach a typical project?

Ability to overcome challenges

• Tell us about the most challenging project you have worked on. Why was it particularly challenging, and how did you undertake it?
• How do you cope if a project you are working on goes wrong?

Initiative

• Tell me about a time when you have identified an opportunity and driven it forward to the benefit of the business. What specifically did you do?

Leadership skills

• Describe how you handled a situation where you had to initiate and complete a task in the face of resistance from others.
• What part of your management style would you like to change?
• How would your team describe you?
• Describe a situation where you inspired others to meet a common goal.

Your experience in achieving standards of excellence and best practice

• What impact would you say you have had in improving your company's operational systems / service levels?

Ability to work in a team

• When as a member of a group did you contribute to a particular task; how did you personally add value and what was the outcome?
• Have there been times when you thought that consulting other members of the team was unnecessary or even a waste of time? Please give an example
• What sort of people do you find it difficult to work with?
• What sort of contribution do you make to a team or work group?
• Describe a situation where you were a member (not a leader) of a team, and a conflict arose within the team. What did you do?

Your ability to use a methodical approach to complex decision-making

• Please outline one of the toughest business decisions you have made. How did you set about making the decision and what options did you take into consideration?

Lateral thinking

• Give an example of a situation where you solved a problem in a creative way.
• Tell me about a time when you identified a new, unusual or different approach for addressing a problem or task.
• Can you tell me about a time when you acted to improve a process or make a system work better?

Adaptability

• Tell me about a time when you changed your priorities to meet others expectations.
• Can you describe a situation, where you had begun a task involving other people and were then required to change your approach and do something in a different way?

Client focus

• Give me an example of when you provided a service to a client beyond their expectations. How did you identify the need? How did you respond?

Communication

• Give me an example of a difficult or sensitive situation that required extensive communication.
• Describe a situation where you have had to deal with an angry customer. How did you cope and what was the outcome?
• Give an example of a time when you have had to communicate a complex idea/message/concept.

Problem solving

• Tell me about a time when you had to identify the underlying causes to a problem.

Influencing skills

• Can you give me an example of a time when you have had to convince a person or group to do something that they were initially reluctant to do?

Relationship Building

• Have you ever had to work with a manager you simply couldn’t get on with? If you have, why, and how did you deal with it?