The list of possible interview questions can be quite large and overwhelming. Fortunately, there are only five different types of interview questions. This structure helps put these questions in a manageable framework. The five different types of interview questions:
1. Questions related to the curriculum (your questions)
2. Requirements for employment questions
3. Behavioral questions
4. Case interview questions
5. Personality questions
Resume Related Questions (Your Questions)
This group of questions can be described as “you” questions because they tend to focus on what “you” have done. Sample interview questions might include:
- Tell me about youyourself?
- What did you college major?
- What did you do in this position?
The main focus of these questions is trying to find out if the information on your resume is accurate and if you have been exaggerating or modest about your credentials. This is most often done by asking questions based on the information shown on your resume.
Job qualification questions
These questions will be generated primarily from the job description and may overlap a bit with the resume-related questions. They are designed to see if you have the experience or qualifications for the overall position. They will ask you sample interview questions like:
- Have you ever led a team before?
- Do you have any experience with conflict resolution?
- Have you ever made a presentation to external clients?
Behavioral questions
These questions specifically attempt to determine if you have the appropriate level of experience or qualifications for the position. They tend to go beyond job qualification questions by having you provide answers based on your previous work experience. These questions provide you with a basic problem scenario and hope that you can answer it based on an example from previous work experience. Sample interview questions might include:
- Tell me about a time when you used your conflict resolution skills.
- Tell me about a project where you implemented a process improvement idea.
- Give me an example of a time you were unable to complete a project on time and how you corrected the problem.
These questions can take the form of something positive or negative, so it is a good idea to have thought through examples beforehand that you will want to use. It is also a good idea to try to identify in advance what skills you will base your behavioral questions on. For example, a salesperson can expect to gain presentation skills based on behavioral questions. One such question might be: tell me a time when you gave a successful presentation to a client or for customer service skills, tell me about a time when you used your customer service skills to help keep a customer upset with the company.
Case Interview Questions
These types of questions tend to suit customer-centric positions such as consulting and sales. Basically, they involve providing you with a list of facts related to a business problem and asking you how to approach the problem. Depending on the position, this may include doing things like doing math or creating presentation aids. Regardless of the position, you can expect to have to present your findings and answer follow-up questions.
The purpose of these types of interview questions is to see how you think, whether you can perform in a stressful situation, and to determine if your personality is a good fit with the team. These interview questions are generally asked individually; however, you can also answer these questions as part of a group for some companies to judge your interpersonal skills.
Personality questions
These types of questions usually take two forms. A form is a formal standard test that asks you many questions about what kinds of things you prefer or would choose to do based on a list of options. The second form of personality questions are of the informal type that can occur anywhere in the interview process and are geared towards determining whether you have a good personality for the position. Sample interview questions could include:
- What was the score of the Cowboys game last night?
- What did you think of the last episode of American Idol?
The purpose of these questions is to see if you are complete enough to be able to speak to a potential client about a general topic such as football or a popular television show.
By becoming familiar with these types of sample interview questions, you will help reduce your overall learning curve. Although interview questions tend to get most of the attention in other interview guides and books, you should divide your focus between all aspects of the interview process. By having a more complete perspective on the interview process, you will tend to get better results by appearing more complete and professional to your interviewers throughout the interview process.