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[interviewpenguin] Interview Success Package 2022 Edition – Multiple brilliant answers to 158 interview questions
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Dear job seeker,
Many things have changed in the job interviews during the last five years. The days when you simply talked about your working experience, answered a few questions almost everyone was aware of, such as “Tell me about yourself”, “What are your weaknesses?”, or “What motivates you in work?”, and signed a new job contract, are gone.
Things have become more sophisticated, and situational, behavioral, and tricky questions prevail in the interviews today.
What’s more, with the recent pandemic, many interviews take place online. This format emphasizes the importance of your interview answers, because you cannot benefit anymore from that firm and warm handshake, eye to eye contact, and other strengths you may have in face to face interactions with other human beings.
Everything is about your answers to their questions now. Whether you do not remain silent, whether you have a situation ready for each behavioral question, and can convince the hiring managers of right attitude to work, customers, colleagues, and life.
That’s why I put together the most comprehensive interview preparation guide online, reflecting the reality of the interviews in Fortune 500 companies, and in big public institutions. Here’s what I have for you:
In the eBook, you will find multiple brilliant answers (from 3 to 10, including answers for people with no previous working experience) to each of the following questions:
I tried to keep things simple and straightforward. The eBook is divided into three sections: common interview questions (23 questions), behavioral and situational questions (55 questions), and the tricky questions (80 questions). You can also easily find any question in a table of contents.
Each question is followed by a hint, describing what the hiring managers try to find out (the purpose of the question), and what you should focus on in your answer. Some hints are longer and some are shorter, depending on the difficulty and complexity of the question.
Sample answers follow the hint. The number of sample answers depends on the difficulty of each question, but more than eighty questions have 7 or more sample answers, and each question has some sample answers for people without previous working experience, so you can really choose an answer which reflects your attitude, preferences, situation–basically one which resonates with you, and with the message you want to convey in the interviews…
Check the samples below to see how the Interview Success Guide 2022 Edition can help you:
Q 44: Have you ever worked on a project that was a failure?
Hint: Life is full of ups and down, successes and failures. The role-coaster ride goes on for most of us, basically since the day we are born until the day we die. In some periods of life successes may prevail and we may feel like standing on the top of the world. But sooner or later a huge setback arrives, teaching us a lesson of humility and acceptance.
Recruiters and hiring managers know that we learn the most important lessons when things do not go as planed. It’s then that we have to use our creativity and try to change things, or learn our lesson and quit, starting from scratch on another project, pursuing some other dream, or a new walk of life.
That’s why questions about failures make a perfect sense in almost any interview.
Try to show the interviewers that you take failures as they come, accept them, learn from them, and move on. Do not blame others for the bad results. Accept responsibility. They expect such an attitude from the very best job candidates.
Sample answers
– Speaking honestly, I worked on many such projects in my life. I have always enjoyed venturing into the unknown, trying new things, innovating, experimenting. In my last job in sales I actually designed some new sales strategies, trying to capture leads on social media, such as Facebook groups. But I didn’t understand the platform well. After all my planning, and implementing, I actually captured only a few leads, and they did not convert anyway. However, I failed to reach my goal, but I learned something new and improved my skills with social media. I believe I will benefit from it in my professional career down the road.
– This is my first job application, and I have not worked on any real projects so far in my life. But I had my fair share of successes and failures, for example in personal life and relationships. Maybe you can call a relationship with a man a project… I definitely failed in one. But instead of crying over my misfortune, I tried to analyze the relationship and identify things that I did wrong. I wanted to do it better next time. I believe that the same attitude can be applied to failures in work. We cannot entirely avoid them, but it’s our attitude to failure that matters.
– Successful people do not fail. They either succeed, or learn. This is my attitude to both work and life. Surely as a manager I failed to reach my targets many times. If I always reached them, I would not be here interviewing for a job with you… But I did not consider it a failure. It would be a failure if I didn’t try hard enough, which was never the case. I tried my best, and it didn’t work out. Is it a failure? I would not say so. It’s a learning experience, something inevitable in a life of any successful man.
– I remember one demand forecast that went completely wrong. My employer paid the price, losing money in the process. But it was my mistake. What happened is that I underestimated certain market indicators, and was too optimistic in my analysis, predicting much greater demand for a certain product in the summer months. The company bought stock and proceeded accordingly, but my predictions were wrong and at the end of summer we ended up with a lot of stock that we could not sell during autumn or winter. But I prefer not think about it much. It happened, I learned my lesson, and I would not repeat the same mistake.
– I am just trying to get my first job with you, and have no previous working experience. Still young enough to experience some big failures, things that will shape me and teach me the most important lessons. However, you can be sure that I can admit making a mistake, and take responsibility for my actions. I will try to learn from my failures. And while this is an excellent company and you have a renowned training program for new hires, some failures will inevitably come. That’s the way it works in human life.
– My biggest failure so far was when I did not succeed in getting to a college of my choice. I prepared hard for the entrance exams and for the interviews, did what I could. It was not enough. At the end of the day, I simply had to accept that other candidates were better, and move on. But I already learned that a failure can be a blessing in disguise. Maybe I will get this job with you, make a great career in your company, and eventually end up happy that I did not succeed to get to college.
Q 50: When you worked on multiple projects, how did you prioritize?
Hint: Corporate managers love to bury their employees under a heavy workload. They assign you yet another client, or one more project. You are working overtime already–they know it. But why wouldn’t you take some work home, or manage your time better while in the office?
You are young, and you can surely handle a heavy workload. And if you cannot, they will simply chew you and squeeze you to the maximum, until you cannot stand it any longer and leave the place, or experience a complete burnout…
Mark my words: if they ask you about managing multiple projects or working on several project simultaneously, it’s not necessarily a good sign in an interview, and you should consider twice whether to accept their offer. Back to the question though.
You can prioritize your work according to deadlines, importance of each task, or even according to how you feel, and what task you can realistically do at a certain time of the day.
Each of that is fine, as long as you have a system, some criteria, and can decide on your own. Ensure the hiring managers that you do not rely on luck, coincidence, or a flip of a coin. You have your way of prioritizing work, and just as you followed it in your last job, you can do so in their place…
Sample answers
– I always try to have a to do list in work. I assign low, mid, or high priority to each task on the list–not to the entire project. And then I work accordingly–taking care of the tasks with highest priority first, regardless of the project they belong to. Of course, when I got a call from a manager, or a specific deadline was set for me to deliver some report, or some analysis, I prioritized it to other tasks to ensure I’d meet the deadline. In my opinion, the most important thing is to have a meaningful system in your work, something you can rely on when you aren’t sure what to do next. That’s what I always try to do.
– This is my first job application, so I have not experienced this situation before. But I recall my school times, when we had to prepare for different exams, plus of course I had my duties outside of school. I think it is important to set your priorities clear–for me school was my first priority, and hence I prioritized my student duties to everything else. In the workplace probably my manager will set the priorities, or I will decide about them based on certain criteria. Once it is clear what has a priority, it’s easy to decide on which project I should work each day in the job.
– To be honest, I actually struggled to prioritize, and that’s one of the reasons why I am here today. They assigned me to many projects in my last job, one too many I’d say. I was getting 100+ emails daily, from different people involved in different projects. I also had to participate on several short meetings, almost daily. And to tell the truth, most of them were pointless. When you sum everything up, I actually didn’t have time to do the real work–I was just attending meetings or answering emails. Prioritization was out of question. I tried to explain this to my manager, but they did not get it. Hence I left them, and I am looking for work in some place with a better management.
– I divided my day in work to three parts. Early morning was the most productive time. I arrived before anyone else, nobody bothered me with anything, and I could work on some tasks that demanded creativeness, or a lot of thinking, or a quiet office. That’s when I worked on the most important tasks in all my projects. Later during the day when the office was buzzing with people and everyone wanted something from me, I spent time responding to emails and internal communication, and taking care of easier administrative work. Later in the afternoon when the atmosphere calmed down again, I focused on more creative tasks again, working always on the one with the closest deadline.
– I’ve never worked anywhere, but I guess the entire life is about prioritization. We try to juggle our roles in life–a son, a father, a colleague, a friend, a husband and perhaps even a lover… depends on how many of them you have. The more balls you have in the air, the more difficult it gets. My personal philosophy is to try to find balance in life. I mean, you should not give all your time to work, or to your wife, totally neglecting all other bonds and relationships. And you should always try to find some time also for your own hobbies, when you do something you love. In my opinion, a similar attitude may work well in the job. Instead of prioritizing one project to another (which will certainly result in a neglect of some duties in the later), I’d prefer dividing my time in work, and give some time to each project and each manager–so we progress on all fronts… But as I said, I am new to the workforce. I’d gladly learn from more experienced managers how to prioritize my work in a most effective way, while working on multiple projects.
– To be honest, it depended on the client, or my manager–who was more demanding, or threatened to fire me, or similar stuff. I know this isn’t the right way to prioritize in work. Yet in worked that way in my last job, and I am pretty sure it works that way in many other companies. It is not easy to get over our ego, and my former managers had big egos. And since I knew it was wrong, and could not stand this model any longer, I decided to quit. I hope that in your corporation you have a better system in place, or a better management, and I will be able to prioritize work according to milestones, deadlines, and urgency, and not the wishes and threats of different managers.
– I worked under an autocratic leader in my last job. It had certain disadvantages, but at the same time it was easier to prioritize, because they always told me exactly what I should do. They loved to have everything under control. Hence I simply worked on the task they assigned me to, and when I was done with it, I asked what I should do next. It was as simple as that. Having said that, I feel ready to decide on my own, and if I should prioritize the work I will decide according to deadlines and importance of each task on my list.
Many things have changed in the job interviews during the last five years. The days when you simply talked about your working experience, answered a few questions almost everyone was aware of, such as “Tell me about yourself”, “What are your weaknesses?”, or “What motivates you in work?”, and signed a new job contract, are gone.
Things have become more sophisticated, and situational, behavioral, and tricky questions prevail in the interviews today.
What’s more, with the recent pandemic, many interviews take place online. This format emphasizes the importance of your interview answers, because you cannot benefit anymore from that firm and warm handshake, eye to eye contact, and other strengths you may have in face to face interactions with other human beings.
Everything is about your answers to their questions now. Whether you do not remain silent, whether you have a situation ready for each behavioral question, and can convince the hiring managers of right attitude to work, customers, colleagues, and life.
That’s why I put together the most comprehensive interview preparation guide online, reflecting the reality of the interviews in Fortune 500 companies, and in big public institutions. Here’s what I have for you:
In the eBook, you will find multiple brilliant answers (from 3 to 10, including answers for people with no previous working experience) to each of the following questions:
- Describe the situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone.
- What is the most competitive situation you’ve experienced?
- Give an example of an occasion when you used logic to solve the problem.
- Describe a situation when you faced a particularly demanding problem or challenge in your personal life. How did that affect you in your job?
- What does quality mean to you?
- Why shouldn’t we hire you?
- Who has impacted you the most in your career?
- How do you define success?
- Tell me one thing about yourself you wouldn’t want me to know.
- Sell me this pen (role play).
- If you were an animal, what would you be?
- Have you ever worked on a project that was a failure?
- What is your greatest professional achievement?
- Tell me about a time when you were overwhelmed with work.
- and over 140 other common, situational, behavioral, and tricky interview questions.
I tried to keep things simple and straightforward. The eBook is divided into three sections: common interview questions (23 questions), behavioral and situational questions (55 questions), and the tricky questions (80 questions). You can also easily find any question in a table of contents.
Each question is followed by a hint, describing what the hiring managers try to find out (the purpose of the question), and what you should focus on in your answer. Some hints are longer and some are shorter, depending on the difficulty and complexity of the question.
Sample answers follow the hint. The number of sample answers depends on the difficulty of each question, but more than eighty questions have 7 or more sample answers, and each question has some sample answers for people without previous working experience, so you can really choose an answer which reflects your attitude, preferences, situation–basically one which resonates with you, and with the message you want to convey in the interviews…
Check the samples below to see how the Interview Success Guide 2022 Edition can help you:
Q 44: Have you ever worked on a project that was a failure?
Hint: Life is full of ups and down, successes and failures. The role-coaster ride goes on for most of us, basically since the day we are born until the day we die. In some periods of life successes may prevail and we may feel like standing on the top of the world. But sooner or later a huge setback arrives, teaching us a lesson of humility and acceptance.
Recruiters and hiring managers know that we learn the most important lessons when things do not go as planed. It’s then that we have to use our creativity and try to change things, or learn our lesson and quit, starting from scratch on another project, pursuing some other dream, or a new walk of life.
That’s why questions about failures make a perfect sense in almost any interview.
Try to show the interviewers that you take failures as they come, accept them, learn from them, and move on. Do not blame others for the bad results. Accept responsibility. They expect such an attitude from the very best job candidates.
Sample answers
– Speaking honestly, I worked on many such projects in my life. I have always enjoyed venturing into the unknown, trying new things, innovating, experimenting. In my last job in sales I actually designed some new sales strategies, trying to capture leads on social media, such as Facebook groups. But I didn’t understand the platform well. After all my planning, and implementing, I actually captured only a few leads, and they did not convert anyway. However, I failed to reach my goal, but I learned something new and improved my skills with social media. I believe I will benefit from it in my professional career down the road.
– This is my first job application, and I have not worked on any real projects so far in my life. But I had my fair share of successes and failures, for example in personal life and relationships. Maybe you can call a relationship with a man a project… I definitely failed in one. But instead of crying over my misfortune, I tried to analyze the relationship and identify things that I did wrong. I wanted to do it better next time. I believe that the same attitude can be applied to failures in work. We cannot entirely avoid them, but it’s our attitude to failure that matters.
– Successful people do not fail. They either succeed, or learn. This is my attitude to both work and life. Surely as a manager I failed to reach my targets many times. If I always reached them, I would not be here interviewing for a job with you… But I did not consider it a failure. It would be a failure if I didn’t try hard enough, which was never the case. I tried my best, and it didn’t work out. Is it a failure? I would not say so. It’s a learning experience, something inevitable in a life of any successful man.
– I remember one demand forecast that went completely wrong. My employer paid the price, losing money in the process. But it was my mistake. What happened is that I underestimated certain market indicators, and was too optimistic in my analysis, predicting much greater demand for a certain product in the summer months. The company bought stock and proceeded accordingly, but my predictions were wrong and at the end of summer we ended up with a lot of stock that we could not sell during autumn or winter. But I prefer not think about it much. It happened, I learned my lesson, and I would not repeat the same mistake.
– I am just trying to get my first job with you, and have no previous working experience. Still young enough to experience some big failures, things that will shape me and teach me the most important lessons. However, you can be sure that I can admit making a mistake, and take responsibility for my actions. I will try to learn from my failures. And while this is an excellent company and you have a renowned training program for new hires, some failures will inevitably come. That’s the way it works in human life.
– My biggest failure so far was when I did not succeed in getting to a college of my choice. I prepared hard for the entrance exams and for the interviews, did what I could. It was not enough. At the end of the day, I simply had to accept that other candidates were better, and move on. But I already learned that a failure can be a blessing in disguise. Maybe I will get this job with you, make a great career in your company, and eventually end up happy that I did not succeed to get to college.
Q 50: When you worked on multiple projects, how did you prioritize?
Hint: Corporate managers love to bury their employees under a heavy workload. They assign you yet another client, or one more project. You are working overtime already–they know it. But why wouldn’t you take some work home, or manage your time better while in the office?
You are young, and you can surely handle a heavy workload. And if you cannot, they will simply chew you and squeeze you to the maximum, until you cannot stand it any longer and leave the place, or experience a complete burnout…
Mark my words: if they ask you about managing multiple projects or working on several project simultaneously, it’s not necessarily a good sign in an interview, and you should consider twice whether to accept their offer. Back to the question though.
You can prioritize your work according to deadlines, importance of each task, or even according to how you feel, and what task you can realistically do at a certain time of the day.
Each of that is fine, as long as you have a system, some criteria, and can decide on your own. Ensure the hiring managers that you do not rely on luck, coincidence, or a flip of a coin. You have your way of prioritizing work, and just as you followed it in your last job, you can do so in their place…
Sample answers
– I always try to have a to do list in work. I assign low, mid, or high priority to each task on the list–not to the entire project. And then I work accordingly–taking care of the tasks with highest priority first, regardless of the project they belong to. Of course, when I got a call from a manager, or a specific deadline was set for me to deliver some report, or some analysis, I prioritized it to other tasks to ensure I’d meet the deadline. In my opinion, the most important thing is to have a meaningful system in your work, something you can rely on when you aren’t sure what to do next. That’s what I always try to do.
– This is my first job application, so I have not experienced this situation before. But I recall my school times, when we had to prepare for different exams, plus of course I had my duties outside of school. I think it is important to set your priorities clear–for me school was my first priority, and hence I prioritized my student duties to everything else. In the workplace probably my manager will set the priorities, or I will decide about them based on certain criteria. Once it is clear what has a priority, it’s easy to decide on which project I should work each day in the job.
– To be honest, I actually struggled to prioritize, and that’s one of the reasons why I am here today. They assigned me to many projects in my last job, one too many I’d say. I was getting 100+ emails daily, from different people involved in different projects. I also had to participate on several short meetings, almost daily. And to tell the truth, most of them were pointless. When you sum everything up, I actually didn’t have time to do the real work–I was just attending meetings or answering emails. Prioritization was out of question. I tried to explain this to my manager, but they did not get it. Hence I left them, and I am looking for work in some place with a better management.
– I divided my day in work to three parts. Early morning was the most productive time. I arrived before anyone else, nobody bothered me with anything, and I could work on some tasks that demanded creativeness, or a lot of thinking, or a quiet office. That’s when I worked on the most important tasks in all my projects. Later during the day when the office was buzzing with people and everyone wanted something from me, I spent time responding to emails and internal communication, and taking care of easier administrative work. Later in the afternoon when the atmosphere calmed down again, I focused on more creative tasks again, working always on the one with the closest deadline.
– I’ve never worked anywhere, but I guess the entire life is about prioritization. We try to juggle our roles in life–a son, a father, a colleague, a friend, a husband and perhaps even a lover… depends on how many of them you have. The more balls you have in the air, the more difficult it gets. My personal philosophy is to try to find balance in life. I mean, you should not give all your time to work, or to your wife, totally neglecting all other bonds and relationships. And you should always try to find some time also for your own hobbies, when you do something you love. In my opinion, a similar attitude may work well in the job. Instead of prioritizing one project to another (which will certainly result in a neglect of some duties in the later), I’d prefer dividing my time in work, and give some time to each project and each manager–so we progress on all fronts… But as I said, I am new to the workforce. I’d gladly learn from more experienced managers how to prioritize my work in a most effective way, while working on multiple projects.
– To be honest, it depended on the client, or my manager–who was more demanding, or threatened to fire me, or similar stuff. I know this isn’t the right way to prioritize in work. Yet in worked that way in my last job, and I am pretty sure it works that way in many other companies. It is not easy to get over our ego, and my former managers had big egos. And since I knew it was wrong, and could not stand this model any longer, I decided to quit. I hope that in your corporation you have a better system in place, or a better management, and I will be able to prioritize work according to milestones, deadlines, and urgency, and not the wishes and threats of different managers.
– I worked under an autocratic leader in my last job. It had certain disadvantages, but at the same time it was easier to prioritize, because they always told me exactly what I should do. They loved to have everything under control. Hence I simply worked on the task they assigned me to, and when I was done with it, I asked what I should do next. It was as simple as that. Having said that, I feel ready to decide on my own, and if I should prioritize the work I will decide according to deadlines and importance of each task on my list.