Interview Questions Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Palladian Career Resources

Interviewing With Your Current Employer

Preparing for an interview with your current employer poses several unique challenges. You know the company and the interviewers. The process is clearly defined. You even have insight into the position that outside candidates would never have. Despite this, many people struggle with internal interviews.

Preparation is the key for internal interviews. You need to be able to talk about your experience in detail. Interviewers will expect you to discuss your accomplishments and experiences as if you were an external candidate. You need to prepare thoroughly.

In an internal interview, it is likely you will know some or all of the interviewers. They will also know you and have an impression of your abilities, experience and performance. Most interviewers will also recognize that they may only have a partial picture of your performance. Managers do not have the opportunity to see the full performance of every person within a company. They often form impressions of people based on a few isolated accomplishments or failures. It is possible that the interviewer is someone you see every day, but because they are in a different functional area, they may have little to no understanding of your day-to-day work.

Current or Past Experiences

One of the most common questions individuals have about internal interviews is whether to talk about experiences at their current employer or focus on experiences at prior employers. Many assume that the interviewer knows what they have done in their current role and only talk about past employers. This is a huge mistake. It leaves one impression above all others… you can tell a good story but have accomplishment nothing in your current role.

Focus on your experiences at your current employment. The most important assessment criteria in any interview is the value you will offer in the role. If you cannot show any value you have provided in your current role, no matter how impressive your performance in past jobs, you will not convince an interviewer that you will add value in a new role.

Focusing on your current experiences does not mean you disregard your past. Some interviewers will only know you by your current role. If you are interviewing for a position in a different functional area, you should discuss your experience with skills critical to that area. This may require discussing past jobs.

If you have been with your current employer for less than a year, you should prepare to discuss your current role for 25-50% of the interview. Experiences with prior employers will fill the remainder of your answers. If you have been with the company for 1 to 3 years, try to focus 50-75% of your answers on your current role. If you have been with the company for more than 3 years, you should target 80% of your answers from roles with your current employer.

As you discuss your experience with your current employer, prepare all the details as if you were interviewing with someone that knows nothing about you. Don’t assume that the interviewer knows the details and background behind each of your experienes. You are better off providing more detail, including information the interviewer already knows, than leaving out details that make your answer confusing or less effective.

Behavioral Interview Questions for Nonprofit Careers

Working for a nonprofit organization has a lot of similarities to other industries, but there are some significant differences. Behavioral interview questions are a good tool to assess a job candidate for the specific skills required in a nonprofit. This makes these questions common in interviews with nonprofit organizations.

Behavioral interview questions are a good tool to assess a job candidate for the specific skills required in a nonprofit. This makes these questions common in interviews with nonprofit organizations.

Preparing for a behavioral interview is essential for success. You need to be able to discuss very specific examples from your background. Without adequate preparation, your performance will suffer. To prepare, look at each of the questions below and develop a 2 to 3 minute story from your background to answer the question. Then, practice the stories. Once you know stories inside and out, try to apply them to other questions. This will help you learn how to answer questions you don’t expect. As you get better, complete a few mock interviews. The more practice you get, the better you will preform. Unfortunately, most job seekers improve their interview skills by going on a lot of interviews. They use their failures to teach them. A better way is to work with a coach and complete mock interviews so that you improve prior to a real interview.

Below is a selection of questions you may encounter:

Fundraising

Tell me about a time when you led a successful fundraising campaign.
Tell me about a time when you missed a fundraising goal.
Tell me about a time when you tried a new approach to fundraising.
Tell me about your most successful fundraising effort.
Tell me about the most innovative fundraising activity you have utilized.
Tell me about the most challenging target group you have approached for fundraising.
Tell me about the biggest donation you have ever obtained.
Tell me about a time when you recognized the contributions of donors.
Tell me about a time when you wrote a grant proposal.

Marketing

Tell me about a time when raised community awareness for your organization.
Tell me about a time when you developed a marketing plan.
Tell me about a time when you expanded the client base you served.
Tell me about a time when you increase public support for your organization.
Tell me about a time when you lobbied a government entity.
Tell me about a time when you recruited new volunteers.
Tell me about a time when you improved volunteer retention.
Tell me about a time when you recruited new board members.
Tell me about a time when you managed a community outreach effort.

Operations

Tell me about a time when you cut costs.
Tell me about a time when you developed a budget.
Tell me about a time when you had a budget shortfall.
Tell me about a time when you improved the efficiency of the organization.
Tell me about a time when you changed a process.
Tell me about a time when you made a significant change in policy.
Tell me about a time when you implemented a new technology.

Virtually any work situation can be assessed with a behavioral question. This makes preparation essential. You need specific examples from your experience that you can discuss and adapt to a wide range of questions. Use the behavioral interview questions above to help identify examples you can talk about in an interview.

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Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Questions About Personal Accountability

Behavioral interview questions focus on assessing your performance in past situations. One common topic for behavioral questions is personal accountability. These questions focus on a candidate’s past failures and the candidate’s willingness to admit their mistakes.

Tell me about a time when you took responsibility for a failure.
Tell me about the last time you made a mistake.
Tell me about your biggest failure in your career.
Tell me about your greatest weakness.
Tell me about a time you did something you regret.
Tell me about a time when you received negative feedback from your boss.
Tell me about a time when you learned from a mistake.
Tell me about a time when you failed to meet a commitment you had made.

To be successful with a behavioral question about failure, you need to give a specific example and acknowledge your responsibility for the failure. Some individuals always have an excuse for their mistakes. Trying to deflect responsibility in an interview will usually make a very poor impression. To be successful with an answer about a failure, include a discussion of what you learned from the experience.

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Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Questions About Organizational Skills

Organizational skills are an important factor in a person’s career and are a common interview topic. There are a wide variety of behavioral interview questions about your organization skills that you could see in an interview.

Tell me about a time when you managed a complicated project.
Tell me about a time when you worked under a tight deadline.
Tell me about a time when you had to multitask.
Tell me about a time when your organizational skills helped you succeed.
Tell me about a time when your planning led to positive results.
Tell me about a time when you missed an important deadline.
Tell me about a time when you went the extra mile to get a project done.
Tell me about a time when you felt overwhelmed by your workload.
Tell me about a time when you took on more than you could handle.
Tell me about a time when you failed to delegate effectively.
Tell me about a time when you delegated an important task successfully.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Questions About Values

Behavioral questions can target any potential situation at work. Included are a selection of questions that target a job candidate’s values, attitude and personal courage.

Behavioral questions ask the job candidate to provide details of a specific situation they have encountered. The interviewer assesses the candidate based on how they performed, since past performance can be an excellent indicator of future performance.

Behavioral questions can target any potential situation at work. Below are a selection of questions that target a job candidate’s values, attitude and personal courage.

Tell me about time when made an unpopular decision.
Tell me about a time when you stood up for your values.
Tell me about a time when you confronted a superior about something they were doing.
Tell me about a time when you took a risk that worked out.
Tell me about a time when you took a risk that didn’t work out.
Tell me about a time when you did something outside your comfort zone.
Tell me about the most embarrassing thing you have done at work.
Tell me about a time when you didn’t stand up for your values and you wish you had.
Tell me about a time when you had a confrontation with a coworker.
Tell me about a time when you took responsibility for a failure.
Tell me about a time when you discovered a coworker was doing something dishonest.
Tell me about a time when you made a decision you knew would make someone mad.

To be successful answering behavioral questions, you need to be specific. General answers will not be effective. The best answer will provide a clear, specific example from your experience.

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Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Questions For Leadership Skills

Hiring managers often focus on assessing the leadership skills of job seekers. To do this, many use Behavioral Interview Questions. A behavioral interview question asks the job seeker to tell a specific story from their experience, illustrating how they acted and the results they achieved in the past. The goal of a behavioral question is to predict how the job seeker will preform based on their past performance.

Below are a selection of questions targeting leadership skills:

Tell me about a time when you led a team with low morale.
Tell me about a time when you managed two people that did not get along.
Tell me about a time when you fired someone that was very well liked at the company.
Tell me about a time when you helped someone improve their performance.
Tell me about a time when you had to get your team to make a major change that they disagreed with.
Tell me about a time when you recognized the achievement of someone you managed.
Tell me about a time when you hired someone that didn’t work out.
Tell me about the most challenging leadership situation you have faced.
Tell me about a time when you delegated effectively.
Tell me about a time when you made an unpopular decision.
Tell me about a time when you took over an under-performing team.
Tell me about the biggest leadership mistake you have made.
Tell me about a time when you had to adapt your leadership style to meet a challenge.

These questions touch on some of the aspects of leadership. There thousands of potential questions, and it is unlikely you will hear any of these specifically. If you prepare for these, though, you should be able to adapt to a wide range of leadership questions.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Answers for Sourcing Careers

Answering behavioral interview questions can be challenging due the level of detail required. Behavioral interview questions assess past performance of a job candidate in order to predict how the individual will perform in the future. To impress a hiring manager, answers need to be specific and detailed.

Behavioral interview questions require the candidate to tell a story. The questions cannot be answered with a yes or no. The best answers will give a detailed example that frames the situation, details the actions taken and gives the results of those actions. Providing an answer with these elements will allow the hiring manager to picture how the candidate performed in the past, leaving a strong, memorable impression.

Many candidates answer in generalities when posed behavioral questions. This is a big mistake. General answers do little to differentiate the candidate, leaving an impression that the candidate is average and ordinary. Instead, a focused example, with clear results, will make the best impact.

Below is a behavioral question followed by two answers. The first answer is a typical general answer many candidates give. The second answer provides a detailed example. Following each answer is an assessment of the effectiveness of the answer.

Example Question: Tell me about a time when a major supplier had significant quality issues with materials shipped to you.

General Answer: Managing supplier quality is a constant challenge. We have supplier scorecards we use to track quality, and perform quality audits on a routine basis. When a major quality problem occurs, we contact the vendor and work to the resolve the problem quickly. This includes traveling to the vendor or having the vendor travel to our facility to work on resolving the problem.

General Answer Assessment: This answer fails to answer the question. It describes how quality problems are dealt with, but does not provide a specific example. Many job seekers make this mistake with behavioral questions. For questions about routine activities, the candidate discusses activity in generalities. Answers like this will not be remembered and will not help sell the candidate to the hiring manager.

Specific Example Answer: Managing supplier quality is a constant challenge. Usually, we can resolve quality issues quickly, without affecting production schedules. One situation I encountered proved to be especially challenging. We had a key raw material with very high quality specifications. Any deviation from these specs made it impossible for us to produce a product to our customer’s requirements. The key vendor we used was located outside of New Orleans. After Katrina hit, it was a major priority to get them up and running. Within a week of the storm hitting, I relocated to their location to monitor the plant restart. The storm damaged some key equipment, leading to fluctuations in quality. It was clear that fixing their problems was not going to happen overnight. I traveled to potential vendors in six countries over a two week period and found two suppliers that could provide this key raw material within our specifications. We expedited shipment and only lost eight production days due to the supply interruption. Today, we divide our purchasing between our original supplier and the two new suppliers, mitigating any risk we might face from a situation like this in the future.

Specific Example Answer Assessment: This answer is specific and addresses the question directly. The example is easy to follow and demonstrates exactly what the job candidate did to solve the problem. In addition, the answer discusses how the supply interruption led to sourcing changes (adding additional suppliers) to ensure that this situation is never repeated.

When preparing for a behavioral interview, develop a number of stories from your experience you can tell. This will allow you to adapt to a wide range of questions. Providing specific examples will also make your answers more memorable.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Questions for Sourcing Jobs

Sourcing manages the process a company uses to find and acquire materials with the supply chain function. A selection of behavioral interview questions targeted to activities and challenges within the sourcing field is provided.

Behavioral interviews focus on assessing the past performance of a job candidate. The questions explore specific situations and activities the job seeker is likely to have experienced. This makes behavioral interviewing a good tool in selecting sourcing professionals.

Sourcing manages the process a company uses to find and acquire materials within the supply chain function. The complexity of sourcing, especially from international suppliers, opens the door to a very wide range of interview questions. Below is a selection of behavioral interview questions that can help prepare for a supply chain interview:

Tell me about a time when you switched from a domestic to an international supplier for a major raw material.
Tell me about the greatest sourcing challenge you have faced in your career.

Tell me about the most difficult vendor relationship you have managed.

Tell me about a time when you made a poor decision in selecting vendors.

Tell me about a time when you assessed the risk of a supply interruption from a source of critical purchased materials.
Tell me about a time when you reduced the landed cost of a material by sourcing from a supplier with a higher unit cost.
Tell me about a time when a major supplier had significant quality issues with materials shipped to you.
Tell me about a time when a cultural issue between you and a vendor or potential vendor led to a collapse of the relationship.
Tell me about a time when you reduced raw material inventory levels without affecting customer service.
Tell me about a time when you utilized intermodal transportation for a key material.
Tell me about a time when you utilized a freight forwarder.
Tell me about a time when you utilized a 3PL.
Tell me about a time when you conducted an audit of a potential vendor overseas.
Tell me about a time when you had to overcome significant security concerns in an international market.
Tell me about a time when you replaced a preferred vendor due to changes in exchange rates.
Tell me about a time when miscommunication with a vendor led a conflict with the vendor.

Tell me about a time when you utilized a international procurement office to identify and manage vendors.

These questions cover a variety of topics related to supply chain and sourcing roles. With the thousands of potential interview questions, it is unlikely you will see many from this list in each interview. Despite this, preparing for these questions will help your interview performance.

Almost all companies will have challenges with some of the topics in the list. If you are prepared to discuss these challenges, few questions about your sourcing experience will be difficult.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Questions for Production Scheduling

These behavioral interview questions will help you prepare for an interview for a production scheduling position.

Production schedulers develop the forecasts and production plans for manufacturing operations. These positions are critical to the success of a company and have to adapt to changing business conditions quickly. This makes behavioral interviews a great choice for assessing production scheduling candidates.

A behavioral interview focuses on assessing the candidate’s past performance by asking questions about specific situations the candidate has encountered. Some of the behavioral questions you may see for a production scheduling position include:

Tell me about a time when you had to schedule around a major unplanned equipment outage.
Tell me about a time when you had to add a new, large customer on short notice.
Tell me about a time when you faced the loss of a large customer on short notice.
Tell me about a time when you were significantly overstaffed for your forecast.
Tell me about a time when you were significantly understaffed for your forecast.
Tell me about a time when you planned for a new product introduction.
Tell me about a time when you faced finished goods inventory levels that were too high.
Tell me about a time when you faced a large backlog and could not ship all orders on-time.
Tell me about a time when a major supplier could not deliver enough to meet your plan.
Tell me about a time when you worked with an operations manager that disagreed with your production plan.
Tell me about a time when you had to overcome technical problems with your MRP system.
Tell me about the worst production schedule you have ever built.
Tell me about a time when you were able to reduce inventories through changes in scheduling.
Tell me about a time when you had to overcome a major bottleneck.
Tell me about a time when a major quality problem affected the ability to meet your production plan.

To be successful answering behavioral interview questions, you need to discuss specific situations. A clear, easily understood story of a challenge you faced, how you dealt with the challenge and the results of your actions can make a very impressive presentation.

Failing to prepare for a behavioral interview makes it very difficult to succeed. The best presentation requires specific details of the situations discussed. A general answer, lacking specificity, will not make a strong impression and will not be remembered.

The questions listed about above cover a range of challenges a production scheduler may face, but they are far from an inclusive list. There are thousands of potential interview questions. The key to preparing is to develop stories you can use to answer a variety of questions. If done effectively, preparing a number of stories can allow you to adapt to almost any interview question.

Get our book on behavioral interviewing.

Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews:

Behavioral Interview Questions in Manufacturing

Behavioral interviews include questions about specific situations in your career. This question type is open-ended and requires you to give details of how you acted in the past. A number of manufacturing firms conduct behavioral interviews and even more incorporate behavioral questions.

Virtually any work situation can be the focus of a behavioral interview question. Preparing for a wide range of questions is essential. I’ve gathered a number of sample behavioral questions that relate to manufacturing and production management positions.

Tell me about a time when you reengineered a process.
Tell me about a time when you increased throughput in a process.
Tell me about a time when you eliminated a bottleneck.
Tell me about a time when your actions resulted in greater efficiencies of your team.
Tell me about a time when your department was overstaffed.
Tell me about a time when your department was understaffed.
Tell me about a time when your team’s morale was very low.
Tell me about a time when you made an unpopular decision.
Tell me about a time when you dealt with a conflict between people within your department.
Tell me about a time when you encountered quality problems in your department.
Tell me about a time when you needed another department to do something that helped your department’s performance but hurt that department’s performance.
Tell me about a time when you managed a large capital project.
Tell me about a time when your team was performing below expectations.
Tell me about a time when you installed new equipment in your department.
Tell me about a time when you reduced downtime.

This list of behavioral interview questions is just a sampling of the questions you might encounter in a manufacturing interview. There are thousands of potential interview questions you might be asked. It is impossible to prepare a unique answer for every question you could encounter. To be successful, you need to prepare to discuss specific situations from your experience that you can tailor to answer a variety of questions.

In addition, questions targeting manufacturing operations, you may see questions that apply to multiple industries. More general questions about leadership, communications skills, technical skills, teamwork, attitude, and values are common in behavioral interviews.

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Other Great Books to help you prepare for Behavioral Interviews: