tough interview questions and answers

“You Don’t Have a Lot of Experience With . . . | No BS Job Search Advice

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to respond when an interviewer says, “Gee, you don’t seem to have a lot of experience with . . . “

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[spp-transcript]

Today, I’m going to talk with you about 1 of those tough interview that is actually designed to rescue you.  The question is (it’s actually more of a statement, then the question) goes something like this… They are staring at your resume, looking very seriously at it and say

Gee.  You don’t seem to have a lot of experience with…

If it is something specific like a specific type of technology or some aspect of accounting or engineering. You can kind of get slammed. For example, in tennis, you can hit an overhead and immediately defeat your opponent.  There’s no retaliation for it.  That’s what they’re really begging you for at this point.  If you respond by saying, “It’s true. I don’t have a lot of experience with…” You’ve shot yourself in the foot and can kiss the interview goodbye. You’re not getting the job.

It is like an earlier video that I did about the 2 dirty words of job interviewing. The 2 dirty words are “only,” (as in ‘I’ve only done this’) and “light”(as in,’ I have laid experience with…’). It says, “I don’t know anything about this. Can we go on to something else?”

Here, with this question, they’re giving you an opportunity.  Take it.  Tell them exactly what you know and what you’ve done.  Why you claim the experience.  For example, a movie using IT example, “Gee, you don’t seem to have a lot of experience with C#.”  At this point, you would talk about how you got your training C#, how in previous jobs. You did work with C#, you work very closely with the manager you reported to so that you have very good insights. So, even though it’s not 10 years of experience with the technology, you have good underpinnings and solid experience with it. You talk with him about what you’ve done. Yada yada yada.

If you are in accounting, you talk about how you work with your manager on certain functions and were able to deliver things on time and within budget. And, yes, you had some support, but, there was a lot of support.

Basically, what you are doing is taking the opportunity to talk about what your training is, talk about your experience, speak with confidence and certainty about what you’ve done, looking him square in the eye, not backing down and hitting that overhead slam back at them and winning the point.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Why Are You Making So Much Money? | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this tricky interview question, both when times are good and when economic times are not good.

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Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Tough Interview Questions: How Do You Handle Office Politics?

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer the tricky interview question, “how do you manage office politics?”

 

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you today about 1 of those tough interview that are designed to baffle you, make you reveal things that you would prefer not revealing! Ooooooh!

So dramatic!

Today’s question is, “How do you handle office politics?“

Politics in the office usually translates into 2 people have different opinions about how to do something and the other person’s opinion was chosen.  The other way is “credit grabbing.”  Let me address both of these.

The 1st 1 with their 2 different opinions.

“I try not to get involved with office politics, but the fact of the matter is we all compete.  For some people, office politics is that they lost the disagreement over how something should be done. It happens.  My opinions are good, but sometimes, someone else’s are better.  I have an opportunity to learn from what their thought process was and there is nothing to be bothered or troubled about.”  You can then continue by saying, “But, sometimes, office politics can mean someone is credit grabbing   Or trying to take control of the situation, that doesn’t really belong to them.  There, I try to get support from management to sort things through.  After all, we could argue and fight and, what’s the point of that?  Management not as an idea of who they want to handle things. Maybe I didn’t understand my side, but maybe they didn’t understand their site.  So let’s get that sorted out as quickly as possible before the office starts taking sides, before really becomes problematic.”

That’s how it address the kind of question. I don’t really think it’s that hard.  I think it is pretty logical, but you have to address both situations in answering the question.  So, again, in the 1st situation, you start off by saying, “Office politics often means 2 things. Number 1 is 2 people have a disagreement over which of their ideas is best. Management chooses the other person. Someone thinks it’s politics.  I don’t see it that way.  I see it as that. There were 2 good ideas. Management chose the one that they thought was best, and I have something I can learn from that.”

The 2nd one is, “I would try and sorted out with my colleague but, if I can’t, I go to management.”

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

How Well Defined is Your Job? | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this question and why it is asked.’

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[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you today about 1 of those tough interview that are designed to get you talking, see if you reveal something unusual about yourwork… Stuff along those lines.

Today’s tough interview, like all of them, really isn’t that tough if you understand what they are trying to find out about you.  There’s the question:

How well-defined is your job?

The fact of the matter is, there is a framework to every job and you want to speak of the framework to the job and you want to speak of the framework of your role, rather than it being well-defined.

Why don’t you want to talk about it being well-defined?

Because you would seem like a clerk.  Like a low level individual in an organization when it becomes well-defined.

You want to talk about the framework of your job, rather than the specifics in answering the question. For example, you might talk about, “Every day is a bit different.  The framework is…” And then you lay out a few different things.

“It’s not like from 9 o’clock to 9:15 AM, I do this from 915 to 930, I do that it is nothing along those lines. I do my own time my own management, I control my own circumstances. I am asked to produce an outcome and to work within the framework of our organization in order to accomplish my goals.  What are my goals?”  You might talk about 1 or 2 of them.  “Ultimately it is up to me to do my job within the framework of my relationship with others how I’m going to accomplish these things.  I have milestones and benchmarks, deliverables to my tasks that allow me to fulfill it.  So, is it well-defined?  I don’t really think so. I am given a framework to work from and ultimately, these are my choices.”

Some of you do have jobs that are very well defined.  Period where you can direct the answer, as I just did, it serves you better.  Why?  You may want to take a step up in class and do something a little bit more high level than what you are currently involved with.  This idea of speaking to a framework and making your own choice, serves you well. Again, by pointing out that you have decision-making over your own work, deliver at a high level and achieve the deliverables that you have to.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Why Are You Making So Much Money?

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this tricky interview question, both when times are good and when economic times are not good.

 

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I think today’s tough interview question is hysterical but there was a legitimate purpose to it.  The question is, “Why is your salary so high?”  

Even if they don’t say it in that sort of voice that sounds serious and accusation all, you will hear it that way.

There are 2 ways to answer this question.

Firms are suggesting with this question that their budget for this job  is less than what your current salary is.

“It’s not the my cell is so high per se, there are the obvious parts of doing such and such type of work and the less obvious parts.” Then you go on to a full-court full-blown defense of what you’ve done and how you went about doing it, as well as everything that you do beyond you job description that demonstrated why you are an extraordinary employee for your current organization.  This is an answer that you need to think about in advance to explain why you justify the money when times are good.

Now, let’s look at how to answer this question. When times are bad, the market’s collapse for what you do and you are definitely earning more than the market is willing to pay.

When times are bad you have to go “humble” on them.

“The reality is I was paid more than market value, my firm chose to do that and who am I to argue with that!  I understand that now the market is at such and such level for this kind of role (and then you mentioned the salary range) and I am fully prepared to come down to that price range.”

Again, when times are good, you go in talking about all the extra things that you do; when times are bad, you may start off by talking about some of those extra things as well and then shift gears and be humble and saying, “Yes, I understand I was being overpaid for what I do and I understand that the range for this kind of role now is between such and such and such and such and I am prepared to accept the salary offer in that area.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

Is There Any Type of Person You Would Not Work With? | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this complex question, “Is there any kind of person you would refuse to work with?”

 

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Today, I want to talk with you about 1 of those tough interview questions… And this 1 is a tricky one. So I want to spend a little time answering it.  The question is, “What kind of person would you refuse to work with?”

I know if I were asked that question, I know there is certain personality types that come to mind based upon certain people I have worked with in the past.  However, you can’t initially talk that way.  You can come to that later on, but initially you have to say, “You know, I am not the CEO of this firm yet, I want you to understand, that the firm hires people for the best of their abilities.  Other certain types of people have more difficulty working with?  Absolutely!  2 types come to mind right away.  Know it all’s and liars.  They are really hard for me to work with because know it all’s talk down to me in a very patronizing way.  I don’t think I have to explain myself with liars.  But, at the same time, I have to trust that this organization is doing its best to staff.  So, if I rented the difficulties with people like this, I would go to try and create situations where we can air our differences and have someone adjudicated.  In this way, my difficulty or their difficulty doesn’t become damaging to the work at hand.  That there is someone there who can manage it if we just can’t get along.  I am not an argumentative sort. But, like I said, I have trouble with lawyers.  I have trouble with no withdrawals.  Many people do.  That’s probably how I would handle.  At the same time, I trust that the firm is trying to hire people to the best of your ability and I’ll work with anyone.”

That’s the way I would answer it, starting off by acknowledging that you work with anyone, but that there are 2 personality types that you would struggle with and that you will look for an intervention. If it became so difficult to work with this person.

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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

What Would a Co-Worker Who Doesn’t LIke You Say About You? | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer the tough interview question, “What would a co-worker who doesn’t like you say about you?”

 

[spp-transcript]

Let’s talk about 1 of those tough interview questions that’s designed to blindside you.  This is not 1 of those hedge fund questions that firms ask.  You know, brainteasers.  This is just 1 of those standard interview questions that shows up from time to time and I want to make sure you’re prepared for it. Here’s the question:

“How would someone who doesn’t like you describe you?”

Boing!

For most people, that is a shocker question.

  1.  It’s hard of the think of people not liking you in the workplace.
  2. How do you explain that to the interviewer?
  3. You cannot use the pat answer (Everyone likes me.  There is never a problem with any of my coworkers.)

There is always someone who will have had a disagreement with you. Here’s a way to play it, and it can be done in more than one direction.

For example,  you are working with someone who is somewhat analytical.  You can say, “That’s a great question!  I haven’t really thought of that!” (Remember, interviewing can be an acting job as part of answering questions). So you want to appear as though  you have been taken off guard even though you have a way of answering the question.

So, again, you start off by saying, “That’s a great question!  I ever really thought of that!”   Then you take a moment  and continue by saying, “I know with a coworker who is somewhat analytical  and wants to look at a problem from a lot of corrections, they may find it uncomfortable to deal with someone like me who likes to charge right in and is able to figure things out on the fly,, to be able to move things along.” That’s a great answer in a sales role.

OR

You can also say, “For those who like the charge right in, I’d like to look at a problem from a few different directions  to ensure that we don’t unintentionally cause harm.  Along the way or do things that would be completely ineffectual.  I would rather take a moment to evaluate things before taking action.  After all, all of us are time stressed..  So I would rather do something one time extremely well and repeatedly do things to correct mistakes.”

Again, you can answer the question in both directions, but the idea is to never diminish the question By saying, “I have never had a problem with anyone at work.” No one will believe it,, they will just think you’re lying to them and you’ll hurt yourself on the interview.  On the other hand, if you acknowledge difference  and explain how you function, that can go a long way toward winning the job.

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Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

What Is Your Management Style?

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter. explains how to answer this deceptively difficult question “What is your management style?”

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I’m back today with another one of those tough interview questions that’s designed to make you sweat bullets–today is question is, “Oooooooooooh! Today’s question is, “What is your management style?”

In the US, this has a very simple answer to it. Sometimes people get nervous, though, because it’s an interview, it’s important, it’s their career and they have to get it right. They can’t mess up. They get serious and thus don’t show their personality.

Here’s the correct answer. Let’s work with the premise that you have an idea of the management style of the organization that you’re interviewing with. If you don’t, this generic answer that I’m going to give you will be very effective because, in the US, this is generally what firms look for. The first thing you say is that you are results-oriented. You’re good at solving problems. You can take on the task and figure out what needs to be done. Results-oriented indicates that you are used to getting bottom-line results. You’re very good at getting results from the team. You’re good at getting results from the organization, giving service to people, so that in this way they are able to get what they expect of you.

Finally, in the US, they like to see that you have a participative style. It’s like, “I have an open door policy in my organization.” Talk about a participative management style but also talk about limitations. Every good manager sets limits to the degree to which they are willing to have an open door style.

Recognize that each of these is going to involve the story. For example, results-oriented requires that you tell a story about how you got bottom-line results. If you say that your task oriented, talk about problems that you solve. For participative style you talk about how having an open door policy at your organization allows you to head off problems, help solve them or teach people to solve their own problems so that, in this way, your group got results.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

What Superpower Would You Like to Have?

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On today’s show, I explain how to answer the tricky interview questions, “If you had a superpower, what superpower would you like to have?”

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I’m back today with another one of those tough interview questions that are designed to make you uncomfortable, squirm, say dumb things… All that sort of stuff.

Today’s tough interview question, to me, is remarkably dumb but firms do ask it.

“What superpower would you like to have?

Isn’t that an important thing with for them to know to hire you?

They’re not expecting a serious answer, although if you came up with something related to your job, great! They’re not expecting you to say, “I would like the superpower of analysis.”

You can be playful and say, “Hmm . .. Well, I yes I would like the superpower to fly so that that way I cared work faster!” They all chuckle at some point. It will take away some of the seriousness of the conversation.

I also want to remind you that there is usually a point where you can ask questions of them. When that happens, I want to encourage you to ask them, “What superpower were you looking for?” Their answer might be very revealing to you about what their expectations are.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Why Should We Give You a Job Managing When You Haven’t Managed Before?

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to answer this difficult interview question.

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Today, I am going to address one of those tough interview questions and help you get out of one of those “stumper situations” that people find themselves in when they interview.

The question is for people who haven’t managed before and are interviewing for a managerial job. Invariably, someone is going to ask you (if you’re lucky, they’re going to ask you; sometimes they just leave it on said and you need to be proactive with it), “You’ve never managed before and this is a managers position. What makes you think you can do that?” A lot of people fumble around with an answer and there are a few different ways to answer it.

The first one is to justify it. I’m not a big fan of answering this way because the interviewer can basically nod his/her head in agreement and dismiss your answer. There are a few different ways to answer it.

“Managers have to have these attributes,” and you list a couple of qualities that managers need to have. “They need to be driven, motivated, knowledgeable, empathetic, need to be able to coach and mentor…” You talk about a number of different qualities and attributes a manager needs half. Then from there, you say, “I haven’t done them all together. I’ve been in situations such as…” And then you talk about one situation where you had to coach and mentor. Another one where you didn’t have the authority but, ultimately, you are able to influence people to follow your lead and do the things that the manager would have someone do. That’s one approach to take, but it’s easy to dismiss these arguments as being BS.

It is my favorite way of doing it. Someone asks you a question or they haven’t asked you the question and it’s late in the interview and you want to address this proactively. Let’s say they ask the question.

“I’m sure some point you didn’t manage people and were stepping into your first management job. What made you think you were capable of doing it and how did you get your shot?” When they talk about why they were able to do it, you respond by saying, “I much the same way I’ve done (and mention a few things) and I’m ready. I know I’m ready.” Or, if they just choose to talk about how they got it, you follow up with, “what qualities did you have or experience that you have that prepared you for that moment?”

You follow up by saying, “I’m that way, too.”

If they don’t ask it in the question is hanging out there on asked as the elephant in the room, toward the end of the interview or at the very end if they asked, “if they ask is there anything else,” you say, “I’m sure one point you weren’t in a managerial role. Someone saw in you the experiences and determined that you are ready. What did you’s think of yourself at that point? Did you think you are ready?”

“Yes, I thought I was ready.”

“Great. What qualities and experiences prepared you for that moment?” They will then talk about their life which, I’m sure, is not radically different than yours. You will respond by saying something like I said before. “That’s my situation, too. I know I’m ready at this point. I’ve had these experiences, as well. As such, I’d like to be able to step up in the next organization and help you folks succeed, just as I felt my current firm succeed.”

[/spp-transcript]

Do you think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

Connect with me on LinkedIn