Top Interview Questions & Examples

Posted June 15, 2022 in Learn by Krista Place

Preparing and conducting an interview takes time, so here are some of our top interview questions to help you get started. Beginning with an open-ended question such as “tell me about yourself” can help put the candidate at ease for a smoother transition to the more challenging questions. Next, you’re ready to learn how they’ve handled past scenarios as an indicator of their performance in the future. Finally, you’ll want to assess their critical thinking and/or skills requirements for the role.  We like to categorize them as behavioral and situational questions.

Learn about the past with behavioral questions

Behavioral interview questions probe candidates to share how they navigated certain situations and allow them to highlight their skills, including soft skills. Even though the questions get at examples of past behavior, they do not need to be dependent on specific previous experiences. When asked in the same way to all candidates, behavioral interview questions set the stage for candidates to highlight what is relevant from their unique backgrounds. You can touch on everything from assessing time management to teamwork to motivation. This is also where you can ask about strengths and weaknesses. Some example questions are:

• Tell me about a difficult work situation and how you handled it.
• What achievement are you most proud of and why?
• Tell me about a time you set a goal for yourself.  How did you go about trying to achieve it?
• Give me an example of a time when you successfully persuaded someone at work to see things your way.
• Tell me about a time when a colleague or customer disagreed with you. What did you do?
• Describe a time when your team or company was undergoing some change.  How did that impact you, and how did you adapt?

Assess skills with Situational Questions

Situational questions are more specific to a role and are used to assess the analytical and problem-solving skills necessary for the role.  They present particular situations and ask the candidate what they would do.  Example situational questions are:

• You have been working on a project for over a month and are about to distribute the results. When you pull the final data, you realize it drastically changes the recommended next steps. What would you do in this situation?
• You get a new project assignment but not much direction.  How would you get started?
• The open rate of our emails has decreased. We have different customer personas and stages of the customer journey, but we don’t segment our emails. We also have the ability to A/B subject lines. How would you evaluate our email open rates?
• How would you react and respond to an angry customer who is upset about something that is not your fault?
• Tell me how you connect and get to know your team virtually.

Pairing these with a skills assessment will help you learn the most from your potential candidates and help you make your hiring decision.

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