Job Interview Questions and Answers

Tag: had

  • What is the biggest failure you’ve had in your career?

    When you are interviewing for a job, no matter what type of job it happens to be, you can usually rely on the fact that the employer will be interested in finding out what you have accomplished in prior jobs as well as what you were not able to accomplish. This is a fairly common question and one that you should be prepared to answer because there is a good chance that it will be presented to you.

    Everyone has failed at something from time to time. The only difference is the severity of the failure or at least how severe you perceive the failure to be. Consequently, if you are asked this question you should not have any problems coming up with a relevant example to share, but you do need to take care regarding what you share and what you do not.

    The best way to respond to this type of question is to provide an example of a situation that is relatively minor but is one which you will be able to transfer into a positive. For example, you might say that at one point you were working in a particular job and were faced with a tight deadline. In that situation you found that you needed to adjust the workload in order to get everything back on track and complete the project on time and actually ahead of schedule. This clearly shows that you take important matters such as deadlines seriously and also that you are able to take a negative and turn it into a positive.

    When answering this question you should make sure that you never respond by describing any type of situation which you would consider to be a big failure. You certainly do not want to venture into any territory where you talk about being terminated from a position even if that is what actually happened. Unless you are directly asked about something like this by the interviewer, it is better to just leave such topics alone and not introduce them into the interview. Choosing a situation that is relatively minor and then showing you were able to turn it into a positive shows your dedication to the job and also demonstrates that you are able to take even bad situations and make something good out of them.

  • Evaluate the best supervisor you’ve ever had?

    This is a question that you must be extremely careful with. The person who is interviewing you for the current job may very well be your future supervisor so they are looking for some critical information in your response to this question.

    Your answer needs to demonstrate that you have a solid understanding of what makes a good supervisor. By asking this question the interviewer is attempting to discover how you respond to supervision and what they can expect if they should hire you for the open position.

    Therefore, it is critical to carefully prepare an answer to this type of question. Remember that you never want to say anything negative about a former supervisor because the interviewer will naturally assume that if you are willing to discuss a former boss negatively that you might do the same to them if they should hire you for the job. Instead, you want to focus on discussing the good qualities of a former supervisor that you performed well under. For example, you might say that he or she was a good supervisor because they had an open door policy and supervised staff with a balanced and fair approach.

    It can be difficult to know what the supervisory policy is in the company where you are interviewing and exactly what they are looking for in your response, so to some degree your response to this question should be somewhat generic. You should not go into a lot of details when you are answering this question because becoming too detailed in your response can lead you into trouble.

    Instead, focus on describing a supervisor that you felt was fair and supportive. Keep in mind that you never want to leave the impression with your response that you carry a grudge or that you assess blame in any way. The key is to make sure that you indicate what you were able to learn from a supervisor. This reflects well on you and demonstrates to the employer that you are willing to listen and have a desire to learn in order to improve your abilities. Ultimately, the interviewer is not seeking information about your former bosses but more importantly information about you. Keep this in mind and you will be able to handle this question without any problems.

  • Describe the worst job you’ve had?

    This is the type of question that you will need to be very careful answering. This question is actually a lot like a question where you are asked to describe your ideal or dream job. Your response to this question should be similar to that of the dream job question for the same reasons. When you describe the worst type of job that you have ever experienced you do not want to mistakenly describe the type of job environment for which you are interviewing. For example, you do not want to say that the worst job you have ever had was one in which you had to work in a team environment and everyone on the team got on your nerves. If the job for which you are applying is one which you will have to work as a team it is likely that this type of answer could cost you the job.

    Unless you are very well versed about the job for which you are applying, it is better to stay away from specifics when answering this question. Instead, you should rely on providing an answer that is generic in nature. For example, you might state that the worst job you’ve ever had was one in which you were not able to contribute as much as you would like due to a lack of opportunity. Steer away from describing employment situations you hated because of the attitudes of the supervisor, co-workers or something specific that related to that job.

    You can easily find yourself in murky waters when answering this question if you do not prepare properly. One of the benefits about this question is that it is easy to practice and prepare your answer. There is no standard right or wrong answer to this question, but it is a good idea to practice so that you feel comfortable giving an answer that is detailed enough to provide the interviewer with the information they seek while at the same time remaining generic enough to ensure that you do not accidentally say the wrong thing.

    When you are preparing for an interview it is important to make sure that you practice a response to this question because it is one of the more common questions that are commonly asked during interviews so there is a good chance that you will encounter it at some time.