How To Introduce Yourself In An Interview! (The BEST ANSWER!)
Describe a time when the cards were stacked against you or your group completing a project on time, and you still met the deadline. What happened? Describe when you didn’t meet a deadline? What happened?
Tell me about some goals that you have set yourself and how you went about meeting them. How have you found ways to make your job easier or more rewarding?
Can you think of some projects or ideas that were sold, implemented or carried out successfully because of your efforts?
What changes have you tried to implement in your area of responsibility?
What have you done to get them underway? Tell me about some projects you generated on your own. What prompted you to begin them?
How did you sell them to your manager or peers? Tell me about what you would consider to be your greatest failure.
What did you learn from it? What would you do differently now?
What do you consider to be your greatest success and why? Tell me about a work situation where it was not clear how a project was to be addressed, and you had to figure it out on your own?
Tell me about a time when an unreasonable deadline was imposed on you. What did you do?
Describe a situation where you had to make a last-minute revision to a product based on company changes made at a higher level. How successful were you? How did you communicate changes to the people on the team?
What has been the period of greatest change in your career?
What did you learn about yourself and your skills in managing the change?
Tell me about a time when your manager handed you a task and gave you little or no direction. What was that like for you?
Describe an experience you had where you were not tenacious enough. What happened? How could you have improved the outcome?
Interview Questions to Discover Motivation
Motivation is an intangible trait that can be difficult to determine, but it’s easy to see in action.
Using these competency based interview questions (also known as behavioral based interview questions), you can uncover motivation in the context of past experience and behavior.
- Describe a time when you recognized you weren’t going to be able to meet multiple deadlines. What did you do about it? What was the outcome?
- Tell me about a time when you had an idea that was great for own work, your team or your company. How did you get your management/peers excited about it? How did you follow through to ensure your idea came to life?
- When you’re able to make extra time in your role, do you ever do anything to make your job more efficient/easy?
- What techniques have you learned or discovered that make your job easier, or make you more productive?
- What motivates you to go to work every day?
- Tell me about a time where you went above and beyond your role and expectations. Why did you do this? What exactly did you do?
- Can you describe a time where you identified a new, or unusual approach to address a problem or task? How did this approach work?
- If you find yourself stuck doing repetitive work, how do you motivate yourself to continue and complete it?
- Have you ever been a part of an unmotivated team? What did you do to stay motivated and make work interesting?
Interview Questions for Creating a Motivating Workplace
A big factor in motivation is creating an inspiring culture that employees love. Learn what type of workplace and culture your candidates find to be a motivating with these interview questions.
- How would you create a work environment that employees find motivating?
- Have you ever had a manager/peer who created a toxic workplace? What actions did you take to motivate yourself and others, despite the toxicity?
- Describe the work environment that makes you most productive and/or happy.
- What team bonding activities or out-of-work experiences do you think are necessary to keep employees motivated and excited?
- What’s one idea you think we could implement today that would make employees more excited to come to work tomorrow?
- Think back to the worst work environment you’ve been a part of. What about it made it a terrible place to work? How would you make it a better place to work?
General Motivational Interview Questions
Knowing the dreams and goals of candidates can help you learn whether they want to stick around, or branch out into the world of entrepreneurship.
These interview question examples are a great way to get a general idea of what motivates your candidates.
- What is your biggest dream in life?
- What goals, including career goals, have you set for the next 5 years? How about for your whole life?
- How would you define success in your career?
- What roles do your manager and team play in your motivation at work?
- In your experience, what motivates your best on-the-job performance?
