Interview questions

[Ridge]

Nope I was looking for "Doing your wife."

[Irving]

Whenever I've interviewed for an internal position, at pretty much every company I've worked for, a packet of interview questions that the company uses for that level position, magically appears on my desk at some point. I've found it is best (for me) to actually write out answers to real questions, rather than just browse the questions. I happened to have saved (thank God) one of these packets that I had written on recently, so tonight I'm going through it and re-typing both the questions and answers into a word document that I can easily bring up and edit/add to in the future. For me, typing stuff out always helps me retain it, and going through it again tends to prime my memory for the actual interview.

I've interviewed the best by using this method, first because you don't have to strain to memorize anything, and second, even when the questions are different, they are usually similar enough that you can pull from your same bank of answers that you've already written. You don't have to memorize because you've put in the work to come up with the answers ahead of time, and as long as the interview is within a week or so of your pre-work efforts, the information will still be relatively fresh. This still works well when the questions are different, because you have an answer ready, and you have to spend a little mental time making your answer fit the question better, and it makes it look like you are thinking about the answer, instead of just pulling from a script you memorized.

Anyway, that is just one method that works for me in the corporate world where there are no technical or extremely specific questions for interviews. It is sooo much easier to prepare for an interview when you can start by reading things you've already answered, instead of starting from scratch every few years. Plus it's nice to see how your answers develop over time. Good luck anyone who is currently interviewing.

[Madeinhb]

Lucky that you get the questions. All mine - we get none.

[USMC_5-Echo]

Anything is easy when you "magically" get the questions ahead of time. I would honestly hope you get the job if you get the questions ahead of time and have prep time. Cause there is something wrong if you still can't get the job

[Irving]

To be accurate, just because you see a packet of questions (that everyone seems to have a copy of) doesn't mean those are the questions they ask you. I've yet to be asked an exact question from something I've already seen.

You guys missed the point completely though. Anytime you do an interview, or even prepare for an interview, you should save your efforts somewhere, in the event that you'll ever have to go through the process again.

[kawiracer14]

Ok I had three interviews of the past two weeks. The best question I got out of all of them was:

For an exempt position you're expected to work 40 or more hours per week. Out of those 40 hours, how many of them would you say you are actually doing work?

[Irving]

Sounds like a trick question. How did you answer?

[ChadAmberg]

"Define 'Work'? Doing just what's in my job description? Or including dealing with the bureaucracy and other corporate issues, not being able to get to sleep at night because my brain is still stuck on solving work issues for hours?"

[USMC_5-Echo]

I have never prepared for an interview by studying questions, that has never seemed to be a good use of time to me. I always study up on the company and find out as much about them as I can. From that information I also prepare my own questions for the interviewers. It is an interview after all, it's your time to see if THEY are a good fit for YOU, not just YOU for THEM. I've found that most people don't understand that. Folks that I've talked to over the years are usually appalled that I quiz the people that are interviewing me because they seem to think that you can't ask questions for some reason.

[kawiracer14]

Sounds like a trick question. How did you answer?

It's a project management roll so I said it depends on the phase of the project that we are in. Sometimes you're working 50 hours and barely have time to go to the bathroom, other times it may be slow and you have some time to sit and BS with your coworkers about what's going on in their world.