Asking the right questions and knowing the response that you are looking for is crucial when looking to hire the best candidate. Below are several example questions and what information you are hoping to get from it.
Question | "Look fors" in response | Probe for more |
Tell me about a a recent task or project that didn't go as planned. How did you change your approach and what was the result? | • Persistence-candidate took whatever measures necessary to overcome obstacles and get it done | What motivated you to stick with it? Were you happy with the result? |
Tell me about a time in which you had to manage conflicting priorities | On any of these, I will look for amount of effort put in |
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What has been the highest-pressure situation you have been under recently? How did you cope with it? | How did they handle the situation and what was the end result | What did you learn from the experience? |
Tell me about a time you had to overcome a roadblock or obstacle, at work or in your personal life. | How have you applied that lesson in your professional life? | Have you found ways to adjust/optimize this approach as time has gone on? |
Tell me about the last time you stayed late at work, is that usual for you? |
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Tell me about a time you had to change your communication biased on feedback from team? | How did you know your changes were successful? | (If they didn't get the results they wanted) "What actions would you change should the task present itself again?" |
Tell me about a time you had to lead a team that was assigned an important project. How did you approach the situation and what was the end result? | •How did they motivate their team? | •What did you learn from this experience? |
Describe a difficult situation that you have had to deal with and how did you resolve it and what efforts did you put forth to institute lasting resolution? | Degree of difficulty in the situtation |
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Tell me about a time when you were given a project with ambiguous direction from your manager/boss. | Look for someone who didn't buckle under pressure and found a way to complete the project. Look for someone who leaned on other team members for help. |
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What is a new hobby/skill that you have picked up? How did you go about learning that? | I like to see creative approaches to learning things | Why was this important to you? How did your manage your time? What challenges did you find? |
Tell me about a time when a project or timeline changed significantly and how you handled the situation. | Adaptability, ability to pivot, see it as an opportunity |
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Have you ever dealt with company policy you weren't in agreement with? How? | Looking for honesty and open communication. | How did you go about bringing this to your managers attention? |
Tell me about a time when you faced competing deadlines/expectations. How did you respond? | How did they approach the problem, focused on what specific detail to organize themselves to reach the objective | Would they have done anything different if or when it happened again? |
Tell me about your greatest achievement or what you feel most proud of and why | Look for honesty, struggles and challenges | Continue why quesitons, why this, what was the outcome, what is the success for failure, what did you learn |
Tell me about a time when you tried something new. | Look for initiative and innovation | Why did you choose to work on that task? |
Tell me about a time when you had a tight deadline that you confident you wouldn't meet, but inevitably did. | Look for perserverance | How did you organize/plan the steps that you took to meet the deadline? |
Tell me about a team project when you had to take the lead or take charge of the project? What did you do? How did you do it? | Looking for "taking charge" personality | What was the result? |
Tell me about you favorite job position and why it was your favorite | Look for positivity and adaptability | Can you provide a spefic example as to what made it your favorite? |
Tell me about the moment when you first decided you wanted to pursue your career, that you knew this was for you. | Look for excitement and enthusiasm in their response, something more than "I thought I could make a lot of money" | What kinds of things keep you interested and excited about the path you've chosen? |
Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult supervisor, peer, or customer. How did you respond? | Ability to work with varying personalities with a positive attitude | What steps did you take to improve that relationship? |
Give an example of how you handled dual responsibilities ? |
| How did you focus equally to achieve timely deliverables in both these responsibilities |
Tell me about a time when you experienced a major change to your normal work practices. How did you handle it and what was the outcome? | Dealing with ambiguity | What were the results? |
What motivates you, the thrill of victory, or the agony of defeat? | No right or wrong answer, but want to hear the logic and energy behind what motivates them. | What have other victories/losses taught you in your career? |
What is the most exciting or intriguing part of your current job? | I'm looking for someone that has a reason to get up in the morning, a driving force. | What does an ideal role look like for you, a day to day? |
What are you looking forward to most in achieving in this new opportunity? | Looking for someone who is excited to make an impact | Any other examples that stand out? |
Tell me about a time you gave feedback and it wasn't taken well by the recipient. How did you resolve that situation in a manner that left everyone content? | Checking to see how a candidate can pivot and own a message, even if it's a hard message to deliver. | Was the receipient able to agree with the feedback and did they show growth? |
Tell me about a time you you might have had the opportunity to lead a group/project, and something went wrong. | Organization | What are the steps you took to overcome any interference/challenges? |
Tell me about what motivates you? | -Motivated by results | If their motivators don't make me think that they enjoy being challenged, I might ask more specifically for a time when they had a challenge and what motivated them to work through it, and what was the result. |
Tell me about how you plan your day | Looking for energy to plan, engage and start. Proactive activities | How does this look and how to you replan or take on changes |
Tell me about a time when you had a sudden, tight deadline, how you handled it and what the results were? | Positivity - enjoyed the challenge; problem solving | How did you measure your success specifically? |
Tell me about a new initiative or project you managed start to finish, how did it go and what did you learn? | Shows excitement in response about accomplishments, is straightforward about challenges but faced them with a positive attitude, ultimately drove the project to completion! | How have you adapted to overcome those challenges for future projects |
Tell me about the most exciting project you worked on in the last year | Can the person talk about results and contribution | what was the person's role and how did that person gel with other ICs |
Tell me about the most recent project you're most proud of. What things went well? Did any challenges come up, and if so how did you work to resolve? | You want to see if the candidate was really passionate about the project with the energy in which s/he responds. | What things do would you have done differently if presented with the same situation again? Did you work with your team to come up with the solution? What was you biggest takeaway from the experience? |
Tell me about a situation where you were involved in an unplanned outage. How did you respond and what was the result? | Look for calm under pressure, organizational, time pressure and how they contributed to resolving the issue |
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What kind of activities do you like to do outside of work? |
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Tell us about a time where you had a production deployment failure and how you handled it? What was the result? | Try to look for the following - planning, action taken, auditing, lessons learnt review, sharing with team members | How did they audit? How did they share with team members? |
What gets you excited and makes you want to jump out of bed and go to work in the morning? | Passion, excitement, enthusiasm | What are the specific examples of areas of passion, energy, excitement |
Talk about what you have done when a project/task/position has ended. | timing of response and adjustment to change | WHat did some of yourcolleagues do? Why did you choose to react differently? |
Tell me about a time when you experienced a setback, or something you considered to be a learning opportunity? How did you overcome and learn from the experience? | How did they respond to adversity? Did they see it as a learning opportunity? | How have you applied what you learned to future projects? |
Tell me about a time you took initiative on a project? | Going above and beyond what was asked, digging into a problem deeper, leading the thought of how a team tackled a problem |
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Tell me about a time you had to work longer and harder than usual? | Ability to stay focused, driven to manage multiple tasks at a time. | How did you maintain motivation even under stress? |
Have you worked for a remote manager before, and how did you manage communication with your team? | Proactiveness is key here. Specifics are great. | If you were managing a remote team, what would be your 3 mantras? |
Tell me about a time where you were assigned a project with a short deadline? | Looking for taking the time and energy to complete the project | Would you handle this differently in the future? |
Tell me about a time when you took on additional work when you were already very busy. | Was task out of scope or something that was typically expected of the role? | Ask about the task and the thought process behind accepting and executing on the task. |
Describe a time you received feedback that wasn't supported by user research |
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Share an example of how you were able to motivate employees or co-workers. | Is this candidate a team player? If a teammate was having a difficult time, will they have the energy to motivate others? Can they influence people to action |
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Tell me about your best experience establishing trust with a team. | Being proactive, methods they used to establish trust |
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What do you like most about working with a team to take on new challenges? | - How they would interact with the team | What is a great example of when you've taken on a new challenge in a team setting |
Tell me about a time you had to balance several tight deadlines | Had an action plan, worked hard to achieve it, set expectations with team | What did you learn from that experience? Are you comfortable working in an enviroment where that's the norm? |
What motivates you? What gets you up in the morning each day? |
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Think about a project that completely exhausted you. How did you stay focused? How did you overcome hurdles? How did you keep your team focused? What was the outcome? |
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Please explain your understanding of this position and the job responsibilities | - Curious about the role and interested in learning more | What makes you interested in this role? |
How do you keep up to date with the changing technologies in the IT field? | - What they use for resources | Why are you interested in the X technology? |
Tell me about a time you had to work with someone who disagreed with a new task, how did you encourage them to buy in? | How well did they handle it, how well did they sell the value. | What encouraged you to influence your peer? |
Tell me a time when you had to stop what you were doing because a higher priority project came to you. How did you respond? | Looking for positive atttitude rather than a defeatist attitude. |
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Give me a specific example of a situation where you were accountable for results and had no prior experience with the task at hand? | Looking for succint summary of issue, positive attitude. | Was there anything that coudl have been done to make this easier? |
Tell me about a time you had to work longer and harder to get the job done? |
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Tell me about a time you had several competing priorities and how you handled that? | High energy resposne to a situation requiring a additional effort | How did you engage others? |
Tell me about a long term project that you delivered. How did you keep focused and what did you do to help others keep their focus. | Did they describe actions they took or were they along for the ride. | What kinds of incentives did you use and how were they received. What was the end result of the project? |
Tell me about a time when you saw a problem and owned the resolution of that problem. | Did they even see opportunities for improvement? Do they have a sense of ownership in making their world better? Are they willing to put in the energy to see and solve problems. | How did it help them? How did it help the team? |
Describe a time you were given a project to complete but didn't "buy-in" completely. | Looking for the actions and results and the measure of success even though this wasn't in the candidate's wheelhouse. | Why were not bought in? |
Tell me about an improvement idea you were passionate about in which you convinced your manager to impliment. | How creative was their idea. Did they initially get denied and have to defend their idea. |
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Do you have an example of a project or task that had the requirements change midway through the project? How did you handle that? | How did they 'reset' their work to accommodate the change? How did they maintain a positive outlook? How did they ultimately deliver? | What could they have done better? What lessons did they learn from that? |
Tell me about an effort that you had a lead role in, were you assigned or did you create it? | How they received it, what they did to outline the tasks, were they familiar with the effort? | How did you go about organizing? What was the outcome? What did you learn from the experience? |
Tell me about a time when you were brought into a project last minute by your manager due to a rapidly approaching deadline and they needed your support. | How they learned more about the project purpose, what they did with their "regular work" (i.e. did it get dropped, did they delegate it), how was their attitude regarding having their priorities shifted without warning | How did you approach joining a project in progress and conribute to that project? |
Tell me what you like to do outside of work? | What interests to they have. Do they do anything besides work. | Tell me more about (activity)... |
Tell me about a time where you were at low energy or exhausted but had to get something important done or lead a meeting. How did you recover? What were the results? | They came up with a way to regroup and recover. They were able to have good results and show good energy even though they were exhausted. | Will you be able to use this same method to reinvigorate yourself in the future or other methods? Would you share some of these methods with your team? |
Did you ever get into a situation where you felt like overloaded with work and how did you manage that situation | Delegate as much as possible to the right resources in the team and keep the positive attitude as this is part of corporate life where we see changes happening often resulting into extra work to be accomplished than initialy assigned. Use time management techniques. Try to be more organized. | The appreciation & recognition for the team when we handle this situation with a great team effort. |
How do you sustain energy and focus through long and arduous projects? | Internal Motivations, External Desires, External Commitments | What can be demotivating? |
What do you like most about your current position or company? | T | What did you like the least about your current position / company? |
Tell me about a time you were excited to go into work. What was the project and why were you engaged? | motivations, what types of projects are interesting to the candidate | how long did the excitement last? |
Tell me about a time you lead your team through a tough situation | The ability to help the team gain perspective, motivation |
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Tell me about a time you went the extra mile to complete something that was challenging. | Collaboration or teamwork. innovative ideas to solve a problem | How did the team/leadership respond to your achievement? |
Tell me about a time where a team member or direct report questioned a decision or didn't want to participate. How did you handle their engagement? | Ability to motivate / inspire others, examples of actions they took to get team members bought in on an activity | How did the team member's behavior change after the project was completed? |
Tell me about a time when you had to work to maintain a positive attitude at work despite being discouraged | Creativity, resourcefulness |
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Tell me about a time when you helped a fellow team member overcome a work challenge | duration and type of involvement. | would the team member be able to resolve a similar issue in the future if it happened again? |
Tell me about a time you had to take on a project that was not planned out well and how you modified the plan to execute. | Positivity, Drive, Adaptability, Will | How did you rally support behind it and get the project moving? |
Tell me about a time that had a long project and how did you maintain the momentum to completions. | How they maintained focus. | Was the project a individual task or a group task? |
Tell me about a time you had to work longer than normal hours to complete a project on time. |
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Tell me about a time that you had competing projects and how did you manage those? | - Time management | - Was there some misplanning upfront (was it in their control) |
Tell me a about you had a project or task that did not go as planned. How did you overcome this obstacle and what did you learn from it? | Perservance to continue through the project and the ability to implement what they learn from it to prevent it from happening it again. | What was the end result? |
Tell me about a time you had multiple projects due at the same time and how you prioritized with competing deadlines? | - what tools or techniques does the candidate use to stay organized | What was the outcome? |
Tell about a time that you had to learn a new skill in order to accomplish a project. | a skill learned independently | how did you pick up that new skill? |
Tell me about a time you had to work longer or harder than expected to complete a task | looking for them to identify the siuation on why it would take more time, how did they manage the extra work, what was the outcome to make that worthwhile | How did you set goals for yourself, avoid burnout etc. |
Tell me about a time when you had a last minute pivot with a tight deadline. | Looking for them to show how they handle change and execting to a deadline. Did they organize their thoughts. Were they open to change | How did you react to the new focus? How did you plan your execution of completig by deadline? |
Tell me about a conflict you had with a teammate or manager and how you resolved the conflict. | Looking for willingness to negotiate, recognition of conflict, and strategies used to resolve the conflict. | How did the conflict originate? Are there steps that could have been taken before the conflict occured to mitigate or prevent the conflict? |
Tell me what attracted you to Boost Mobile or Us? | Looking to see if they did any research on the company not just looking at the position | Tell me the first thing that caught your attention? |
If i were to ask a previous employeer for feedback on what an opportunity of yours wouldve been in your role, what would do you beleive they would say ? | Looking to see if they are negative or pessimistic in relaying their response. |
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Have you experienced a job task that had been worked on off and on by several other people but needed to be completed in a short time frame |
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Please tell me about a time you set a goal and how you went about achieving it. | How they approach goal setting; what intrinsicly motivates them; and how to overcame any obstacles that may have arisen. | How did you apply that new skill or achievement? In what ways have you become better at your job because of it? |
Please tell me about the activities, techniques and methods you've used to reach your goals? | Looking to see if they can capitolize on unforseen opportunities, if they can overcome obstacles, and how they deal with setbacks. | Please tell me what the outcome was? Can you share how you implemented that plan? How did you do that? How did your boss or peers feel about the results? |
Please tell me about the situation where you have to resolve customer impacting bugs | Look for how energetic explaining the situation and details. | detailed explanation of finding bugs and resolving in timely mannner |
Tell me about a time you went above and beyond the expectations? | Energy in response, willingness | did you feel a sense of accomlishment |
Tell me about a time when a project you were working on got canceled from upper managment? | Positivity, shifting seamlessly to another project | Did this change in priortiy affect your work on thenew project |
Tell me why you want to come work for Boost Mobile? | Research on the company, positive attitude, heard good things about the company | Are you aware we are trying to get into the wireless industry? |
Tell me about a time when you were 70, 80, or 90% done with a project and you were asked to hold and pivot | Do they see the new challenge as a fresh battle to wage or get frustrated and shut down | What was the initial conversation like? How long before you started the new project? Did you ever get to do back and finish the original? |
Share an example of how you were able to motivate employees or co-workers | Do they have positive energy and strong motivational skills |
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What excites you about this position and coming to work for Boost Mobile? | Enthusiasm, knowledge of the position, knowledge of Boost Mobile | What specifically intersted you about the role? |
Can you describe a time that your manager was out of the office and you were asked to do something against department policy? | Finding a resource at the correct level to determine if this request was an exception. creative thinking, asking for help since it was against policy, comments on how to document the exception | How did you communicate the outcome to your manager? |
What gets you up in the morning? | Drive, ambition |
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Why Boost Mobile? | Looking for their curoisty to learn and know about Boost Mobile | Question them on what Boost Mobile's business are and what are they are into now? |