Appendix

Questions by Career Fields and Industries

Production of virtually every Hollywood flick concludes with the director’s “wrap party” (“That’s a wrap!”). The classic event for cast and crew of a film celebrates the end of principal photography before the work goes into post-production.

Welcome to the Wrap Party

Adapting that pleasant film tradition to Job Interviews For Dummies, 4th Edition, I’m throwing a wrap party. Sorry, you won’t find coupons here for champagne or canapés, but I do celebrate with an extra helping of a different kind of popular job interview questions. If you’re wondering about the primary distinction between previous questions and those you’ll find in this appendix, here it is:

Wide angle: Job interview questions within this guidebook’s chapters shine floodlights on information about you that can come up in any line of work.

Narrow angle: Job interview questions in “The Wrap Party” shine a spotlight on information about you that can come up in a particular line of work.

Read questions even when they’re out of your territory. With a little imagination, you can adapt a number of topics to your scenario.

The upcoming pages include selected job interview questions for the following categories:

Accounting	Information Technology
Administrative	Law Enforcement
Air Transportation	Legal Services
Education	Management
Engineering	Nursing
Financial Services	Sales
Hospitality

Accounting

People who work in accounting jobs help make sure that companies are run efficiently, public records kept accurately, and taxes paid properly and on time. Specific job duties vary widely among the four major fields of accounting: public accounting, management accounting, government accounting, and internal auditing.

Accountants and bookkeepers

With which accounting applications are you most familiar?

In what aspects of hands-on accounting did you participate?

Can you give me examples of the accounting reports you have prepared?

Can you describe any accounting process that you have developed or revised?

What do you consider to be the biggest challenge facing the accounting profession today?

What cost-cutting measures have you been responsible for implementing?

Can you discuss your experience in financial analysis of company/ad hoc projects?

Can you describe the expense forecasting for which you have been responsible?

What role did you play in the audit process?

Which management reports have you prepared?

Can you discuss your experience in tax planning and preparation?

How do you stay updated on all the accounting rules and techniques?

Using the Internal Revenue Service rules, what criteria differentiate a consultant from an employee?

Have you experienced handling an invoice discrepancy? If so, how did you resolve the discrepancy?

Can you tell the difference between billable and nonbillable expenses?

Can you explain the relationship between cost accounting, financial accounting, and managerial accounting?

Administrative

Receptionists, administrative assistants, and secretaries perform a variety of clerical duties necessary to make an organization run efficiently. Office and administrative support personnel are increasingly assuming responsibilities once reserved for managerial and professional staff. Extensive knowledge of computer software applications is a big plus.

Receptionists

How would you go about making a visitor feel welcome to the company?

How would you handle answering a phone caller’s question with five other lines ringing?

How did our receptionist greet you? Would you have done anything differently?

Can you give an example of how you dealt with a difficult situation/caller?

Why do you think enthusiasm is an important requirement for being a receptionist?

What is the most irritating aspect of a receptionist’s job?

How would you respond to the following: Upset caller? Upset supplier? Upset employee?

Give us an example of a difficult situation and how you handled it.

What three things most likely would make you angry with a caller?

How would you handle a person who has to wait a long time for a scheduled appointment?

Above all else, what character quality do you think is the most important for a receptionist?

How would you handle an interruption from a visitor with an urgent request?

How would you handle a caller while a visitor is standing before you?

What is more important to handle first — internal or external demands on your time?

How would you handle multiple demands from your managers?

Can you tell us about a time you found it necessary to be abrupt with a person to finish your task?

What is the most stressful experience you’ve had as a receptionist, and how have you handled it?

If your boss was working in his office and had asked not to be disturbed, what would you tell a caller asking for him?

Administrative assistants and secretaries

Are you comfortable using a phone with multiple lines and handling a high volume of telephone calls?

How would you feel supervising two or three other employees? What do you expect from a supervisor?

What did you dislike the most about working in an office environment?

This office has an official dress code. Have you reviewed our code and are you comfortable with it?

Do you have experience making national and international travel arrangements?

Were you involved in the budgeting and financial planning of the projects that you handled?

Have you handled procurement or hiring of suppliers or vendors in your previous jobs?

What process do you follow in receiving and filing incoming letters?

Can you give me an instance of an assignment, which you have recently worked on, that involved the learning of a fresh technical development?

Could your work presentation be improved by incorporating new technological knowledge and developments?

What is your experience with software used in your job? What resources do you use when faced with a computer problem?

Have you ever used software to make a work-associated presentation?

Are you acquainted with Microsoft Outlook? MS Word? MS PowerPoint? MS Excel?

What is your typing speed?

What is your knowledge with meeting planning and calendar maintenance? How do you organize and schedule a meeting?

If I asked you to plan a meeting and cover all aspects of the meeting, what would you do?

Can you name the factors to consider in determining the suitable preservation period for records?

What actions can you take to make the retrieval of records easy?

Can you tell me your experience in managing an off-site records storeroom?

What are the significant service requirements in using a contract facility for off-site records storage?

Tell me about the last job you did that concerned record keeping or bookkeeping?

How would you “file” computer files? Can you explain your knowledge of the digital filing system?

In what circumstances have you used social media? Google Plus? Twitter?

What is the reason for a records retention schedule?

What types of records would be measured as very important records for an organization?

What are the responsibilities of an executive secretary to a CEO?

Describe a situation when you had to handle multiple interactions simultaneously. What did you do?

(Also see “Information Technology” later in this chapter.)

Air Transportation

Pilots are highly trained professionals who fly airplanes or helicopters to carry out a wide variety of tasks. Most are airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers who transport passengers and cargo. Except on small airplanes, two pilots usually make up the cockpit crew. Generally, the most experienced pilot, the captain, is in command and supervises all other crew members.

Aircraft pilots

You find your captain drinking before a flight. How will you handle this?

You are talking to the captain and you smell alcohol. Although you didn’t see him drinking, what would you do?

The aircraft is loaded well beyond gross weight, but the captain tells you that he does this all the time and the aircraft will fly. What do you do?

If you were a professional pilot and had an early morning trip, how would you prepare yourself for it?

What are some of the limitations of your aircraft and yourself?

You smell smoke in the cockpit. What initial action should you take?

How would you fly this airport’s SID?

Have you ever had an in-air emergency; if so how did you handle it?

What is the importance of proficiency in several languages for a pilot?

Can you obtain ground reverse/braking thrust from propellers?

What is propeller feathering, and why is it used?

How would you overtake (in the air) another aircraft at the same altitude and direction of flight?

Who has the right of way on the ground?

Can you explain stress analysis?

What is the requirement to become a professional engineer (PE) in the field of aerospace?

What is your definition of CRM (crew resource management)?

What is the pattern altitude of jet aircraft and what is the maximum speed at 10,000 feet?

Can you explain the differences between aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering?

What is V1 (takeoff decision speed)?

Can you define balanced field length?

What would you do if you saw a passenger being abusive to a member of the cabin crew?

What do you think poses the greatest threat to airline security today?

Can you discuss the most significant business issue currently affecting the airline industry and what measures you think this airline is taking in response to its effects?

Education

If you can read this guidebook, thank a teacher. Teachers not only must be able to teach and motivate students, but they also often take on roles as advisors and mentors. American teachers who work in K–12 grades number in the millions and are found in every school district in the United States.

Teachers

What motivated you to become an educator?

How do you motivate students? What would you do if you realized that your approach wasn’t working or wasn’t as effective as you wanted it to be?

What have you found to be the toughest aspect of classroom management?

How do you develop curriculum? What would you do if you realized that your curriculum wasn’t effective?

How do you evaluate a student’s performance? How can you tell if a student is “getting” the material? Or if not “getting” the material, how would you deal with the latter?

How do you individualize learning in a classroom of students with different learning styles and needs?

How do you handle students with consistent behavior problems?

Can you describe a time that you deviated from your lesson plan for a “teachable moment”?

Do you believe that humor has value in the classroom? Is so, how do you use it to the advantage of your teaching message?

How do you give your students recognition? Do you think a student can have too much recognition?

How do you encourage students to learn?

How do you prefer to use computers in the classroom?

If a student came to you and said, “None of the other students like me,” what would you say?

How would you handle a child who seems gifted but is a discipline problem?

How would you handle making a difficult phone call to a parent?

How would you work with parents who disagree with your teaching style or assessment of their child?

How do you involve parents in the learning process?

What is your view of the role of a principal (or other administrator)?

Engineering

Engineers apply the principles of science and mathematics to develop solutions to technical problems. Their work links scientific discoveries with commercial applications. Most engineers specialize in a career field (such as electrical engineering), industry (such as motor vehicles), or technology (such as turbines). Engineering technicians assist engineers.

Engineers and engineering technicians

Can you describe the most significant written technical report or presentation you had to complete?

Can you tell me about your greatest success in using the principles of logic to solve an engineering problem in your last job?

Can you give me an example of a time when you applied your ability to use analytical techniques to define problems or design solutions?

To what extent has your engineering background required you to be skilled in the analysis of technical reports or data?

Can you describe a time when you used your engineering knowledge to solve a problem for which there appeared to be no answer?

I expect the engineer who I hire for this position to be precise — detail- oriented in everything he or she does. What checks and balances do you use to avoid mistakes?

Some of the best-engineered ideas are born of an individual’s ability to challenge conventional thinking. Can you tell me about a time when you were successful in doing this?

Do you have any patents? If so, can you tell me about them? If not, is it something you see yourself pursuing, and why or why not?

What factors would you consider in building an engineering department from scratch?

To whom did you turn for help the last time that you ran into a major technical wall, and why did you choose that person?

In the field of engineering, priorities often change quickly. Can you give me an example of a time when that happened? How did you handle it?

What software do you really, really know?

Are you keeping pace technically and technologically? How?

Financial Services

The financial services industry features professionals in investing, securities trading, and other activities that are “in the money.” Financial analysts generally focus on trends impacting a specific industry, region, or type of product. “Buy side” analysts devise investment strategies. “Sell side” analysts help securities dealers sell stocks, bonds, and other investments.

Financial analysts and sales agents

What are the headlines in today’s Wall Street Journal?

What do you read regularly on the industry?

What did the Dow, S&P, or NASDAQ close at yesterday?

What stocks do you follow and why? (Be prepared to discuss each stock’s performance.)

What are some differences among financial consulting firms that are important to you?

What were the sales and profitability of your last financial services employer?

Are you a financial generalist or specialist? Where do you see yourself specializing?

What is an interest rate swap?

What is DCF? How do you calculate the discount rate?

How do you determine if a stock is undervalued?

How would you price the stock for an IPO?

What is the yield on a zero coupon bond trading at par with ten years to maturity?

What is working capital? Quick ratio? Free cash flow?

What do you want to do and why — M&A, capital markets, or corporate finance?

Why pick corporate finance as opposed to sales and trading?

What makes you think you can sell stocks?

Why choose selling debt vs. selling equity?

What particular markets or instruments are you interested in? Why?

What processes did you use to evaluate financial risk?

Our division is thinking of introducing a new product. How would you go about determining whether this is a good idea?

How would you value our company for a potential sale, spin-off, or liquidation?

Hospitality

Most of the people in this service industry work in hotels and restaurants. Hospitality covers a wide range of employers who sell food service and/or lodging. Travel and tourism jobs fit into this category. Although the hospitality industry employs many seasoned managers and executives, the industry is a magnet for young workers seeking entry-level employment.

Hotel and restaurant personnel

If you needed to organize a party or meeting for customers, how would you go about it?

How do you resolve conflict with customers or staff members?

Have you ever stayed/dined here? What do you think about our services and staff?

What do you know about our company?

What does customer service mean to you?

What do you understand about the term hospitality?

If a guest were upset, what would you do to regain the guest’s goodwill?

How do you greet a high-profile customer and escort the customer to his or her restaurant seat?

How would you help build repeat business?

What steps have you taken in your previous hotel/restaurant management job for cost-cutting?

How many languages do you speak?

Cooks and food prep workers

How would you describe your style and values in cooking?

What trends/schools, if any, have influenced your development as a chef?

What, if anything, do you believe is unique about your cooking?

Tell me about experience(s) you have in designing your own dishes. How was it/were they received by diners? How do you know?

Describe a situation in which you had a cooking disaster in a restaurant or other kitchen, with hungry patrons waiting. What did you do to cope/rectify it?

Can you give me some examples of how you manage costs in your kitchen without compromising quality and freshness?

Information Technology

IT professionals are moving away from the traditional pure geeky technology emphasis to become hybrid IT/business professionals. “Technology and business skills have collapsed into each other, creating legions of these new hybrids,” says David Foote, a leading IT expert. The following probes reflect a collection of industry-wide IT job interview questions.

Software engineers, programmers, and other IT specialists

What is your experience with enterprise disaster recovery?

Can you describe the maintenance and administration practices that you utilized to ensure effective performance of the corporate VOIP/WAN/IT?

Have you been responsible for the budget of company IT systems? Can you tell us how you monitored costs, business plan, and cash flow?

How do you keep yourself updated with technology?

Can you tell us about your experience in developing or maintaining an Internet site?

How can our company effectively manage our investment in personal computers and mobile devices?

Tell us about a difficult or complex programming assignment you’ve had. What steps did you take and how successful were you?

What techniques and tools can you use to ensure that a new application is as user friendly as possible?

How would you compare the use of a mainframe system versus a personal computer system?

What are the factors to consider in establishing a web presence?

Can you tell me about your experience with network administration?

What has been your experience in developing apps?

What various tools and measures can be implemented to secure data?

Does a business analyst need domain expertise?

Can you explain the term system design document (SDD)?

Let’s suppose that you work for Happy City and it has recently implemented a website. Can you name some of the means by which a website may be used to improve communication with the citizens and encourage community involvement?

Have you had an experience when you, as a technical person, have had to work with nontechnical types to complete a project? Did you find the situation frustrating? If so, in what way? How did you finally work together?

You have been given the assignment to develop a training program for a new application. Approximately 30 staffers will require training. What steps will you take in developing the training?

Your assignment is to prepare the specifications to purchase a new application. What will you do?

What are some of the hot topics that technology professionals are talking about?

We need to publish a new brochure. How would you approach this task?

How would you define SEO and SEM?

What is your previous SEO history like? Can you give examples of rankings you’ve achieved?

Which blogs and websites do you follow daily to keep up-to-date and why?

Do you know who Matt Cutts is?

Which Google products do you use?

Which SEO tools do you prefer?

Do you use any type of web analytics?

What is a PageRank?

What is a NoFollow attribute?

How do you rate your HTML hand-coding skills?

Why is a sitemap important and how would you make search engines find it quickly?

Do you know anything about robots.txt?

How would you track the number of a website’s outlinks?

Law Enforcement

Criminal justice jobs include three major fields: law enforcement, courts, and corrections. Police officers and detectives, the largest group of law enforcement officers, protect lives and property. Bilingual candidates with college training in police science or military police experience have the best chances of being hired.

Police officers

How do you feel about carrying a gun and possibly having to take someone’s life in the line of duty?

What are the sources of stress in your personal and professional life? How do you manage this stress?

As a police officer, suppose you catch your friend doing something illegal. How would you handle the situation?

What is the importance of building relationships with colleagues in your professional life?

How do you handle conflict situations? Are your techniques successful?

Legal Services

The legal system affects nearly every aspect of our society. Attorneys (lawyers) form the core of this system, holding positions of great responsibility. They are assisted by court reporters and other judicial workers, especially paralegals and legal assistants. Most paralegals work for law firms and have formal training in paralegal studies.

Attorneys

Do you think your law school grades are an accurate reflection of the kind of work you will do as an attorney?

What types of cases do you usually take on, and what types of cases do you feel most passionate about?

How much preparation on files for trial do you do?

If we take a l5-minute break, can you present a closing argument based on the following x-y-z set of facts?

In your last corporate attorney leadership role, you had a large staff. Can you work without such a large staff?

How would you react if a judge threatened you with contempt of court, but your information was vital to winning your case?

What have previous employers said about your legal-writing skills?

What does negligence mean?

Why do you want to practice at a big firm?

How versed are you in bankruptcy law?

You’ve gone back and forth between plaintiff work and insurance defense. Which is your real interest?

What section of the x,y,z code would you change if you could?

Do you watch lawyer shows on TV? If so, other than entertainment value, what do you think of their presentation of a lawyer’s work life? And which shows are your favorites? Why?

How would you have decided X case?

How would you placate a business client who’s complaining about the firm’s performance issues and threatening to leave?

Can you bring new accounts to this firm?

How would you educate a client regarding the liabilities of employment discrimination?

What would you do if a client tells you he is going to lie during his trial testimony?

How many depositions have you taken?

How many court appearances have you made?

Who was the worst client you ever had? Why?

Partway through litigation, your client decides to get another lawyer and demands you return all fees. What is your response?

Paralegals

How good are your analytical and research skills in law and legal procedures? How have previous employers rated these skills?

Can you describe an instance when you interacted with a client while the law team was busy dealing with cases and you were required to fill in?

Although you are interviewing for your first paralegal job, how has your paralegal training prepared you for it? Can you be specific, matching coursework with specific skill requirements outlined in our job post?

As a candidate for this banking paralegal position, can you describe a typical day in your previous position? Can you include common banking terms and procedures?

What area of law appeals to you?

Management

Management is getting work done through people. Recognizing that people matter, managers work to improve an organization’s structure, efficiency, profits, or mission accomplishment. Changes in the business world are forcing managers to make changes in everything from regulatory and credit operations to pricing strategies and marketing changes.

Managers (in general)

How do you reinforce behavior you want repeated?

How do you develop untapped potential in your staff?

How do you build and maintain morale with your staff in a nonmonetary way?

How do you demonstrate that you value people for who they are, as well as for what they accomplish?

What are the primary management styles? Describe each. Which is your predominant style? How have you applied those characteristics? What successes and shortcomings have you experienced with your management style?

Marketing managers

Can you give us an example of a marketing brief you developed for a recent marketing project or program?

Can you give an example of how you have effectively used digital marketing tools?

Can you give me an example of a campaign that did not work out as you had planned?

What factors do you consider the most important when attempting to influence consumer behavior?

Are you familiar with our target market?

What do you use to find out if your marketing plan is working?

What do you consider the five most important aspects of successful marketing?

How do you feel about PPC (pay per click) advertising?

Do you subscribe to a particular marketing belief or methodology?

Can you describe your most successful marketing campaign?

What is the difference between marketing of service and product?

What is the important factor in service marketing?

Nursing

Millions of nurses practice nationwide, making nursing the largest workforce within the healthcare industry. There are dozens of types and levels of nurses, ranging from advance practice to bedside care. Registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs), certified nursing assistants (CNAs), and nurse aides comprise the bulk of the nursing workforce.

Nurses

Can you tell me about the last time an upset family member irritated you and how you handled it?

Can you describe what a good day of care for a hospice patient would be?

What is it about this job that excites you, and how do you relay that excitement to patients in your care?

How do you respond to crabby people in pain?

Approximately how old were you when you decided to become a nurse? Were there any defining moments that helped you decide to become a nurse?

If you encountered a patient who was uncharacteristically upset and/or difficult, what would you do?

If a patient has just expired and the family unknowingly has just arrived at the facility, how would you handle the unexpected dilemma?

Mrs. Jones is in the facility for a fractured hip. She constantly seeks attention by putting on the call light, pretending to be in pain. You pass by the room and hear her crying. What is your response?

How do you react to a sense of being overwhelmed with unfinished work ten minutes past your shift deadline when you find a new patient in need?

What would you do if you saw another nurse stealing from a patient?

How often do you think a charge nurse or director of nursing needs to be on the unit?

After an extremely demanding day with a patient who required much attention, a family member aggressively approaches you and accuses you of negligence and calls you nasty names. How do you handle this?

How would you go about making a hospital visitor feel welcome?

If needed, would you like to work another position, or would you rather not be cross-trained?

How do you make seamless transitions on shift changes?

The schedule shows eight nurses assigned, but only five show up. How does that make you feel? What would you do?

Sales

Sales is the activity of convincing prospective buyers to purchase a product or service in return for money or other required compensation. Sales workers are found in virtually all business endeavors. These questions focus first on retail sales clerks, retail department managers, and retail store managers, and are followed by sales workers in general.

Retail salespersons, department managers, and store managers

What is good customer service?

Why do customers shop at this store?

A coworker is rude to customers. What would you do?

A customer wants to pay for $15 worth of merchandise in quarters. Do you accept it?

A customer wants to return a package of food that is open and half gone. What would you do?

How do you go about familiarizing yourself with the products you sell?

How would you greet your customer? Can you give me a sample greeting?

How would you soothe an angry customer?

Sell me a product. How would you do it?

How can you increase the sales of my store?

Can you explain the importance of body language in a retail job?

I am your customer and I am asking for a product that is out of stock. Can you demonstrate how you will convey this fact to me?

I am your customer and I am asking for a discount of 10 percent, but you cannot grant more than 8 percent. How will you explain that to me?

How important is customer satisfaction to you in doing your job?

How will you remember the location of different merchandise in the store? Any ideas?

Can you describe a time when you had to handle a difficult customer?

What kind of training/induction/orientation were you given in your previous job?

What was your sales target? Were you able to achieve it?

What kind of customer complaints have you ever received? How did you handle them?

If this position requires you to handle money, are you ready to accept the responsibility? Will you sign a background screening check permission form?

How do you feel about the philosophy of the customer always being right?

How do you respond if you know the customer is wrong?

Salespersons (in general)

Are you comfortable placing cold calls to leads and existing clients?

In what ways do you maintain contacts and business relationships with clients and vendors?

Is quota a bad word for you? Does this word irritate or scare you?

How would you handle achieving a very high quota the first 90 days?

Can you describe your experience with corporate sales?

This job covers a large territory. How much travel time are you willing to commit to being a road warrior?

In the past, how did you expand your customer base?

How well do you know your way around the western United States?

How would you sell to a doctor who you can’t meet face to face?

What have you done as a sales manager to organize a new sales force?