Classic Interview Questions

Experienced job seekers know the four basic types of interview questions and use them to prepare accordingly.

Resume questions
These relate to your past experience, skills, job responsibilities, education, upbringing, personal interests and so forth. Resume questions call for accurate, objective answers, since your resume consists of facts that tend to be quantifiable (and verifiable). Try to avoid answers that exaggerate your achievements or sound opinionated, vague or egocentric.

Ability/Performance questions
Interviewers will usually want you to comment on your abilities or assess your past performance. They’ll ask self-appraisal questions like:

· What do you think is your greatest asset?

· Can you tell me something you’ve done that was very creative?Situation questionsInterviewers like to know how you respond to different stimuli.

Situation questions 
ask you to explain certain actions you took in the past or have you explore hypothetical scenarios:

· How would you stay profitable during a recession?

· How would you go about laying off 1,300 employees?

· How would you handle customer complaints if the company drastically raised its prices?

Stress questions

Stress questions are designed to evaluate your emotional reflexes, creativity or attitudes while under pressure. Since they can be off-the-wall or confrontational, the best way to handle them is to stay calm and give carefully considered answers.

· After you die, what would you like your epitaph to read?

· If you were to compare yourself to any U.S. president, who would it be?

· It’s obvious your background makes you totally unqualified for this position. Why should we consider you?

Even if it were possible to anticipate every interview question, memorizing dozens of stock answers would be impractical. The best strategy is to review your background, priorities and reasons for considering a new position. You should also be as honest as you can, and humor can come in handy as long as you keep it conservative. If you don’t know the answer to a question, just say so, or ask for a moment to think about your response.