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Jokes of the day

A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."

What is Stress?

    Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life.

HR Interview Questions

Q1       Tell me about yourself

BEST ANSWER:  Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.
So, before you answer this or any question it's imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer's greatest need, want, problem or goal.

Q2       What are your greatest strengths?

BEST ANSWER:  You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from Question 1, you know how to do this.

Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achieve

Q3       What are your greatest weaknesses?

PASSABLE ANSWER:  Disguise a strength as a weakness.
Example: “I sometimes push my people too hard.  I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Q4       Tell me about something you did – or failed to do – that you now feel a little ashamed of.

seem as if you’re stonewalling either.
Best strategy:  Say you harbor no regrets, then add a principle or habit you practice regularly for healthy human relations.

Q5       Why are you leaving (or did you leave) this position?

BEST ANSWER:
(If you have a job presently)
If you’re not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post, don’t be afraid to say so.  Since you have a job, you are in a stronger position than someone who does not.  But don’t be coy either.  State honestly what you’d be hoping to find in a new spot.  Of course, as stated often before, you answer will all the stronger if you have already uncovered what this position is all about and you match your desires to it.
(If you do not presently have a job.)
Never lie about having been fired.  It’s unethical – and too easily checked.  But do try to deflect the reason from you personally.  If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division wide layoff, etc., so much the better.

Q6       The “Silent Treatment”

BEST ANSWER:  Like a primitive tribal mask, the Silent Treatment loses all it power to frighten you once you refuse to be intimidated.  If your interviewer pulls it, keep quiet yourself for a while and then ask, with sincere politeness and not a trace of sarcasm, “Is there anything else I can fill in on that point?”  That’s all there is to it.
Whatever you do, don’t let the Silent Treatment intimidate you into talking a blue streak, because you could easily talk yourself out of the position.

Q7       Why should I hire you?

BEST ANSWER:  By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer’s needs before you answer questions.  If you know the employer’s greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to…reasons tied directly to his needs.
Whether your interviewer asks you this question explicitly or not, this is the most important question of your interview because he must answer this question favorably in is own mind before you will be hired.  So help him out!  Walk through each of the position’s requirements as you understand them, and follow each with a reason why you meet that requirement so well.

Q8       Aren’t you overqualified for this position?

BEST ANSWER:  As with any objection, don’t view this as a sign of imminent defeat.  It’s an invitation to teach the interviewer a new way to think about this situation, seeing advantages instead of drawbacks.
Example:  “I recognize the job market for what it is – a marketplace.  Like any marketplace, it’s subject to the laws of supply and demand.  So ‘overqualified’ can be a relative term, depending on how tight the job market is.  And right now, it’s very tight.  I understand and accept that.”

Q9       Where do you see yourself five years from now?

BEST ANSWER:   Reassure your interviewer that you’re looking to make a long-term commitment…that this position entails exactly what you’re looking to do and what you do extremely well.  As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves.

Q10     Describe your ideal company, location and job.

BEST ANSWER:  The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you.
Remember that if you’re coming from a company that’s the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much admired company, industry, city or position, your interviewer and his company may well have an “Avis” complex.  That is, they may feel a bit defensive about being “second best” to the place you’re coming from, worried that you may consider them bush league.

Q11     Why do you want to work at our company?

BEST ANSWER:   This question is your opportunity to hit the ball out of the park, thanks to the in-depth research you should do before any interview.
Best sources for researching your target company:  annual reports, the corporate newsletter, contacts you know at the company or its suppliers, advertisements, articles about the company in the trade press.

Q12     What are your career options right now?

BEST ANSWER:  Prepare for this question by thinking of how you can position yourself as a desired commodity.  If you are still working, describe the possibilities at your present firm and why, though you’re greatly appreciated there, you’re looking for something more (challenge, money, responsibility, etc.).  Also mention that you’re seriously exploring opportunities with one or two other firms.
If you’re not working, you can talk about other employment possibilities you’re actually exploring.  But do this with a light touch, speaking only in general terms.  You don’t want to seem manipulative or coy.

Q13     Why have you been out of work so long?

BEST ANSWER:  You want to emphasize factors which have prolonged your job search by your own choice.
Example: “After my job was terminated, I made a conscious decision not to jump on the first opportunities to come along.  In my life, I’ve found out that you can always turn a negative into a positive IF you try hard enough. This is what I determined to do.  I decided to take whatever time I needed to think through what I do best, what I most want to do, where I’d like to do it…and then identify those companies that could offer such an opportunity.”

Q14     Tell me honestly about the strong points and weak points of your boss (company, management team, etc.)

BEST ANSWER:  Remember the rule:  Never be negative.  Stress only the good points, no matter how charmingly you’re invited to be critical.
Your interviewer doesn’t care a whit about your previous boss.  He wants to find out how loyal and positive you are, and whether you’ll criticize him behind his back if pressed to do so by someone in this own company.  This question is your opportunity to demonstrate your loyalty to those you work with.

Q15     What good books have you read lately?

BEST ANSWER:  Unless you’re up for a position in academia or as book critic for The New York Times, you’re not expected to be a literary lion.  But it wouldn’t hurt to have read a handful of the most recent and influential books in your profession and on management.

Q16     Tell me about a situation when your work was criticized.

This question is also intended to probe how well you accept criticism and direction.
BEST ANSWERS:  Begin by emphasizing the extremely positive feedback you’ve gotten throughout your career and (if it’s true) that your performance reviews have been uniformly excellent.

 

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