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Question time – What kind of questions can I expect?

Questions to explore your knowledge of the job vacancy and the organisation:

• What attracts you to our organisation?
• Who do you think are our main competitors?
• What do you think are the difficulties / key issues facing our industry?
• How would you define marketing / personnel etc?
• What do you understand by the term “management”?
• What do you think are the qualities needed by a Civil / Mechanical Engineer; Social Worker; Teacher; Business Analyst etc?

Questions relating to your education, qualifications, interests and work experience:

• Why did you choose the University of Bradford and why this course?
• What do you enjoy most about your course and why? Least enjoy and why?
• What do you think you have gained from your time at the University of Bradford?
• Tell me about your Final Year Project / Dissertation / Thesis.
• What do you regard as your greatest personal achievement?
• Tell me about your interests outside of your academic studies.
• What have you learned from your past work experience?

Questions aimed at finding out more about you (attitudes, values, motivation, personal qualities and interpersonal skills):

• Tell me about yourself – For this question, prepare a brief and relevant snapshot about yourself.  The question is about your ability to communicate clearly confidently and (most importantly), concisely!
• Why did you apply for the job?
• What do you think are your particular strengths? What are your main weaknesses?
• What skills/qualities do you think make you suitable for the job?
• What would be your criteria for deciding if a job is acceptable to you?
• What other qualifications are you considering?
• Are you willing to be mobile as and when the job requires it?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 / 10 / 20 / 30 years time?

Hypothetical / Situational questions:

“What would you do if…? Best describe these types of questions.  These are used to test your overall style and approach and can be asked at any time during the interview.  From the interviewer(s) point of view, these types of questions are best used when they want to test someone’s specific knowledge, experience or judgement.

Examples of hypothetical questions include:

• What would you do if you were the Managing Director of this company?
• Lately we noticed that the “After Sales Service Department” has been receiving an increasing number of complaints from customers.  If you were the leader of the team, what would you do?
• If you found someone unconscious on the pavement, what would you do?
• An important client has indicated that you should sell his shares when they reached a particular price but that you should check with him first.  You were unable to contact him despite trying for the last few days, what would you do?
• A supplier has just informed you that he cannot deliver an essential product you ordered tomorrow – you were counting on this delivery as it will affect production. What would you do?

You are unlikely to have a complete answer as all the facts will not be available to you.  Try to suggest a logical approach – the steps you would take to clarify the problem and possible courses of action.  The employer is looking for a rational, sensible approach rather than a complete solution.

Questions which need well thought out answers:

• What would you say are your weaknesses and what steps have you taken to address these?
• What kind of situation would make you frustrated and give up on the job that you have been doing?
• You seem to have left your job search until after completing your degree.  Is this a deliberate choice?
• You took four years to complete your degree course rather than three.  Can you tell me why?

These questions revolve around self awareness.  Everybody has weaknesses and employers want to know that you are aware of yours and that you are doing something to improve them.

• Try to answer all questions which draw attention to weak points in a positive way (e.g. I used to be rather nervous during presentations but I realise that this is an important aspect of my studies, so I kept practising and volunteering to do presentations at every opportunity – I have improved quite a lot now”); but don’t pick a weakness essential to the role.
• Try to avoid answering “I’m a perfectionist” as this seems to be a classic textbook example and may sound rather trite! 
• It is also recommended that you give only one weakness (rather than several) but make sure you are prepared with another example if the interviewer(s) persisted in asking for another.

Remain positive when answering the last two questions above and don’t try to make excuses – deal briefly and factually with your reasons and, if applicable, tell them what you have learnt from the experience.

The technical / specialist questions

If you have applied for a job or a course which requires specific technical / specialist knowledge (e.g. engineering, pharmacy, science or IT), it is likely that at some stage in the selection process you will be asked technical / s p ecialist questions or have a separate technical / specialist interview to test your knowledge.

Questions may focus, for example, on what you are doing in your final year project and why you are approaching it as you are, or on real or hypothetical technical / specialist problems.  Be prepared to prove yourself but, equally, be prepared to admit to what you don’t know, while stressing that you are keen and able to learn quickly.

Examples of technical / specialist questions:

• What area(s) of research are you hoping to pursue and why?
• Why have you applied for this particular research fellowship?
• What do you think is the biggest challenge facing our industry at the moment?
• What do you think are the issues facing our industry?
• Tell me about your thesis / dissertation / final year project.
• Describe your experience in database design. 
• What experience have you had of analysing new systems?
• How would you improve our store layout?
• What do you think about the new drug on the market?
• Should Britain close its borders to immigrants?

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