50 Interview Questions And Answers [2023]

What motivates you?

This is one of those gray interview questions that can throw you for a loop after going through a list of black-and-white ones. This question demands a bit of introspection, a dash of eloquence, and a whole lot of intuition about what the interviewer is looking to hear.

Thinking through your answer ahead of time will not only help you come up with the right words when you’re actually in your interview, but it will also force you to consider if the job you’re applying for truly aligns with your passions and goals.

Read more: “What motivates you?”

Do you work well with others?

Working on a team is essential to almost every job, and the interviewer wants to know you can get along with others. When you respond, you need to give an answer that goes deeper than just saying that you like working with other people.

Interviewers want to know how you’d interact with your coworkers and if you’d fit into the company culture. People usually say that they “enjoy working with other people,” but don’t give any details to back up their response.

Even if your job doesn’t require a lot of collaboration, it’s still important to be able to engage with your coworkers in a friendly and professional manner.

Read more: “Do you work well with others?”

How would your friends describe you?

This question is a test of two things: your self-awareness and what non-career characteristics you find valuable in yourself and others.

Interviewers already know that you’re going to paint yourself in a good light, but by getting you to remove yourself from the interviewee position for a moment and empathize with another person’s perspective, they encourage you to be just a bit more realistic.

This question is a test of your self-awareness and an honest appraisal of how the world sees you, not just how you see yourself.

Read more: “How would your friends describe you?”

Why are you looking for a new job?

Being on the job hunt while you still have a job is, in general, a pretty great position to be in. It’s certainly better than the alternative, as it gives your prospective new boss no reason at all to doubt your ability to play well with others and hold down a job.

To answer this question, avoid negative talk about your current job. Focus on why you want to work for this company in particular and why you’re applying for this position. Always bring it back to the skills and value you can add to the company.

Read more: “Why are you looking for a new job?”

How do you define success?

Your interviewer is looking for an answer that has to do with meeting goals, the quality of your work, overcoming difficult challenges, and impressive accomplishments. Even if you measure success by material wealth or power, leave those out of your answer.

For the best answers, research the company to see what they value and align your answer accordingly. For instance, if they’re all about innovation, talk about how you feel most successful when you develop a new way of doing something.

By giving a specific example of when you’ve felt proud of your success in the past, you’ll show off the skills that will make you a great employee for this job.

Read more: “How do you define success?”

What is your work style?

You can answer this question a couple of ways, but it helps to think about how you want to frame your answer. Things to consider include your preference for working independently or collaboratively, the pace of the work environment, and whether you like a strict routine or prefer to adapt on the fly.

You can also incorporate what contributes to you getting your best work done, whether that has to do with how you’re managed or your capacity for multitasking. Don’t be too rigid in your response, or you may send up a red flag that your work style won’t gel with the company.

Also, it’s best to never say you prefer to work alone since most jobs require some level of collaboration. But you can state that certain responsibilities of your job are best performed independently, before bringing it to the rest of your team.

Read more: “What is your work style?”

Describe your work ethic.

Don’t exaggerate or just list a bunch of impressive-sounding adjectives when describing your work ethic. Instead, focus on your motivations for working hard, whether that be tackling a new challenge or being super reliable.

Keep the position in mind and consider using some similar language from the job description to describe your work ethic. For example, if the job posting says something about “efficient” and “responsible,” you should bring up examples of when you actively tried to make your work faster and more mistake-free.

Read more: “Describe your work ethic”

Walk me through your resume.

Like “tell me about yourself,” but a little more focused. The best advice for this prompt is to know a coherent, natural story of your career. The end of your story should be your explanation of how this position fits in perfectly with your career goals.

This question allows you the freedom to speak about elements of your resume that you wish you could’ve put in 32-pt font with flashing neon signs. Emphasize your relevant skills and experience to show why you’re the ideal candidate for the job.

Read more: “Walk me through your resume”

Why should we hire you?

This interview question may seem infuriatingly open-ended, but really it’s your chance to hammer home why you believe you’d be great in this role. That information can sometimes get lost in the rest of the interview, so take advantage of this opportunity.

As usual, whenever you can, end with what you and your skills would do for the company.

Read more: “Why should we hire you?”

What do you do for fun?

The key here is to bring up wholesome and/or productive hobbies. Even seemingly unproductive hobbies can be framed in a positive way.

For example, instead of saying you play video games for 8 hours straight every night, mention how you enjoy solving puzzles and playing collaborative strategy games. Or instead of binging shows like The Crown, talk about your interest in 20th-century history.

Another tip: don’t go too deep into a niche hobby. Start small, gauge your interviewer’s interest, and adjust accordingly.

Read more: “What do you do for fun?”

Who is your mentor?

Talking about people you admire professionally says a lot about you as a job candidate. You’ll naturally bring up qualities that you highly value when answering because part of this question is also “why is this person your mentor?”

Choose someone that you can honestly and enthusiastically speak about. You can give a quick story to summarize how you’ve developed certain strengths from this mentor.

Don’t feel limited to just one mentor, either. It can only make you sound good if you’ve had a lot of positive mentor-mentee relationships in your life.

Read more: “Who is your mentor?”

What’s your management style?

If you’re interviewing for a position that involves overseeing others, you can expect to hear the question “What’s your management style?”

Not every management style works for every company, and the interviewer is trying to figure out if you would be a good fit for their team. To give a good answer, you have to show off your ability to handle situations and problems as a manager, while talking about real experiences.

Read more: “Whats your management style?”

What gets you up in the morning?

A large part of the interview is meant for the hiring manager to learn how you would work as a member of their team, so you should prepare to answer personal questions like this one.

Don’t just list off seemingly obvious answers. Your interviewer doesn’t want to hear about your love of coffee or how your cat with borderline diabetes meows at you until you get out of bed to feed it. This question is meant to help the interviewer learn more about you, what you value in life, and what motivates you.

Read more: “What gets you up in the morning?”

What makes you unique?

Skip the party tricks and deeply personal answers. Tie your answer back to the job in some way, even if it’s seemingly irrelevant.

For instance, if you’re a world-traveler, talk about your love of learning new things and meeting new people (especially if the job you’re applying for involves a lot of that).

Don’t feel compelled to be exciting or special with your answer. Boring can be perfectly fine if framed the right way. Even the most ordinary hobbies can involve important professional skills.

Read more: “What makes you unique?”

What are you passionate about?

When answering this question, be sure to choose a passion that you’re actively involved with and knowledgeable about. There’s no right or wrong answers here, but you should select a passion you’re actually enthusiastic about, or your interviewer may see right through you.

You don’t have to force your answer to tie back to work-related skills (although it’s not bad if it does.) Honesty reigns supreme for this question.

Read more: “What are you passionate about?”

How do you prioritize your work?

Interviewers hope to learn about your organizational skills, time management, ability to handle stress, work values, and industry knowledge with this question. There are a few ways to go about your answer.

You can mention what you do to stay organized (charts, lists, etc.). Talking about previous experience with tight deadlines is also good, especially if this position is deadline-driven. Or you can go into how you deal with curveball situations where prioritization isn’t easy.

Read more: “How do you prioritze your work”

How do you handle stress?

Interviewers ask questions like this because they want to know how pressure affects you and what you do to handle it. To give a good answer to this question, you should provide examples of how you’ve handled stress in the past and how it’s made you a more productive worker.

Employers want people who work well in stressful situations and solve problems instead of avoiding them. They want to know that you won’t crumble emotionally under the weight of your responsibilities or pass off your duties onto everyone else.

Read more: “How do you handle stress?”

Tell me about a time you failed.

The telling of your failure story shows how much responsibility you’re willing to take for the mistake. Talking about one of your work-related failures can give a hiring manager a lot of insight into how you’d react to making a mistake in the position they’re hiring for.

Failures happen, but the hiring manager wants to know that you can overcome them with poise.

Describing a failure to a person that you’re actively trying to impress is daunting, but there are ways to frame your answer as a learning experience.

Read more: “Tell me about a time you failed”

Tell me about a challenge you’ve faced at work.

To be successful with this question, you need a strategy. When choosing a challenge to discuss, be discerning about what scenarios will portray you as a professional and prepared candidate.

Show off your accomplishments with a story you can be proud of, even though you’re discussing a situation that was challenging to deal with.

Read more: “Tell me about a challenge you’ve faced at work”

Why did you leave your last job?

The question seeks to gauge why you’re back on the job market and whether you’re diplomatic enough to talk about your previous employers in a positive way despite the fact that you’re no longer working with them.

The interviewer is looking for a good reason why you’re no longer working for your previous employer, but not a list of your every grievance.

Read more: “Why did you leave your last job?”

What is your greatest accomplishment?

Start answering this question by giving the interviewer some context; what was the situation that led to your accomplishment? Next, present your exact task and the actions you took to achieve your big accomplishment.

Focus on the value that your accomplishment provided for your employer.

Bonus points if you can quantify your results and tie your achievement in with job responsibilities for this position you’re hoping to get.

Read more: “What is your greatest accomplishment”

Why is there a gap in your employment history?

If your resume shows gaps in your employment history, be prepared to talk about it at the interview. Be honest and give specifics of how you spent that time. Don’t let your interviewer assume you were completely idle between professional pursuits.

Keep your answer short and sweet.

Read more: “Why is there a gap in your employment history?”

How do you handle conflict at work?

This is a behavioral interview question. Using the STAR method is a winning strategy for answering this type of question. STAR stands for describing the situation, task, action, and result involved in a professional situation.

The first step to using the STAR method is explaining a conflict story that clearly sets up the situation. Next, get into your task in this situation, whether it was your job to solve the conflict or get work done despite the conflict. Additionally, talk about what actions you took to resolve the conflict.

Finally, explain a positive result where everyone involved came out better than they started. Avoid stories where you caused the conflict, or the conflict went unresolved. Don’t throw blame around. Just talk about how the situation was fixed.

Read more: Conflict Resolution Skills

When have you made a split-second decision at work?

This question will often come up in departments with a fast-paced work environment. Again, the STAR method is really handy for answering behavioral interview questions like this.

Talk a little about your decision-making skills and show how you’ve been successful at making quick decisions in the past. Your thought process is also important to spell out when answering this question.

Read more: “When have you made a split-second decision at work?”

What did you like most/least about your last/current position?

Whatever form this question takes, focus on the job rather than the people.

Always consider what the recruiter thinks as you answer this question. Something seemingly harmless, like “my last job was repetitive, and I like new challenges every day,” might give an interviewer pause.

Keep your new professional opportunity in mind when devising your response.

Read more: “What did you like least about your last job”

When have you demonstrated leadership skills?

This question is more common for supervisory roles, but it may come up in an interview for any position. The key is to think about what leadership means to you and how you try to embody those qualities when the situation calls for it.

Think of a story that shows these traits off. Like many interview questions about the past, it’s a behavioral question, so the recruiter is hoping to learn what your future actions might be based on your past behaviors.

Think about the rest of your selling-points you’ve been building throughout the interview and try to highlight them again when talking about your leadership skills.

For instance, if you’re a problem-solver with great communication skills, tell a story where you fixed a situation quickly by communicating each team member’s responsibility in a clear way.

Read more: Leadership Skills

What’s your dream job?

The interviewer wants to make sure that the job you’re interviewing for matches up with the one you really want — so you need to be sure that you don’t imply that this job would be a temporary pitstop, but rather a checkpoint on the journey to your fulfilling life.

Your real goal in answering this question is to describe a position that the job you’re applying for could feasibly help you reach.

Read more: “What’s your dream job”

What are your career goals?

You can talk about short and long-term goals in your answer, but remember that the position you’re applying for should fit logically with your goals. For example, don’t say your career goals include designing aircraft if you’re applying for an accountant position.

This is similar to “where do you see yourself in five years,” but your answer can be a bit vaguer here. The interviewer is asking what you hope to achieve with your career rather than what position you hope to land.

If you don’t have any definite career goals, don’t feel compelled to lie. Instead, you can use this opportunity to ask where this position typically leads and then express (hopefully) genuine enthusiasm about your career progressing in that direction.

Read more: “What are your career goals”

Where else are you interviewing?

When this question comes up, usually interviewers are curious about what other companies you have interviews with for a variety of reasons.

Interviewers might want to know how focused you are on furthering your career or how seriously you’re looking for a new job. They want to get a sense of your job hunt and exactly what it is you’re looking for in an employer.

Even though this is a pretty simple question, don’t get too comfortable. There’s no need to give specific company names when answering this question. Just mention the industry you’re focused on and the sorts of positions you’re applying for.

Also, don’t say this is your only interview — they don’t need to know that and it won’t help your chances.

Read more: “Where else are you interviewing”

Where do you see yourself in five years?

The goal of every interview answer is to show how you are the solution to the company’s problem. You need to ask yourself — what kind of response are interviewers looking for with this question? They’re generally trying to get a sense of how your career aspirations align with the company and position.

Interviewers want to see how motivated, hardworking, and ambitious you are, and they want to know all about your career goals and if you plan to stick around.

Avoid answers like “in your seat” or “running the company” –they’re obnoxious as hell.

Read more: “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

What made you change career paths?

Never focus on the negatives when you’re discussing a dramatic career change. Things to avoid include hating the company culture/management, being fired or laid off, and being bored in your former industry.

Instead, give an inspiring reason that shows how passionate you are about your new field of choice. Additionally, you can focus on where you see your future going with this new career path and the exciting challenges you hope to take on and conquer.

If you know this question is likely to come up, get ahead of it and address your lack of formal experience in the new field. Focus on your transferable skills and the value and energy that you’ll bring to this new job.

Read more: How To Change Careers

How do you like to be managed?

This one requires some self-reflection to answer, so take the time to consider what qualities you appreciate in a manager (and which you don’t). You can talk about negative experiences, but frame them positively by talking about what you learned about yourself as an employee through each experience.

You can talk about the type of work environment you prefer, communication styles, and levels of oversight in your answer. Use positive and negative examples to fill out your answer with some context.

Finally, use your research of the company to inform your answer. If you’ve learned that this employer offers flexible schedules and has a flat corporate structure, then an answer stating your preference for a traditional supervisor-supervisee relationship probably won’t go over well.

Read more: “How do you like to be managed”

Are you willing to travel?

This question is only likely to pop up at a job interview for a position that requires travel. But it will come up 100% of the time you are applying for such a job.

Don’t lie or overstate your availability, or you and the employer will both be unhappy later on. However, if you’re excited about the prospect of traveling for your job, mention positive travel experiences and past work experiences where you had to travel.

Just don’t make it sound like travel is all fun and games; your interviewer doesn’t want to hear that you love going out to new bars when you travel, because that’s not what they’re paying you for.

Read more: “Are you willing to travel”

What’s your ideal work environment?

If it’s genuine or you don’t have much of a preference, try to describe your ideal work environment as one that matches the employer. Use your research of the company to inform your answer.

Things to consider include the office pace (slow or fast), how structured the roles are (hierarchical vs. egalitarian), whether you prefer emerging or traditional industries, how flexible you like your workspace and time to be, and if you prefer competitive or collaborative environments.

Read more: “What’s your ideal work environment”

What skills would you bring to the job?

Your answer should include at least a couple of the skills listed in the job description. Try to incorporate both hard and soft skills, and really emphasize those that will have the greatest impact on your job performance.

Keep your answer short, or the interviewer won’t remember any of it. It’s better for her to hear and remember your top 2-3 skills than hear a list of every skill under the sun and forget it all.

As always, incorporate examples of when you’ve successfully leveraged your skills to accomplish great things.

Read more: “What skills would you bring to the job?”

What do you want to accomplish in the first 30/60/90 days of this job?

Try to be as specific as you can be in your answer using your research and what you learned in the interview itself. If you can have a 30/60/90 day plan ready before you even step foot into the room for the interview, that’s incredibly impressive.

Show the interviewer that you know what needs to be done and how to do it while admitting that you don’t have all the answers. You’ll need to go through orientation to learn exactly how the company operates, after all.

But showing that you know the job requirements and have the ability to predict your milestones will go a long way in convincing the interviewer that you’ll be adding value to the company from your very first day.

Read more: 30/60/90 day plans

What do you know about our company?

You’re almost guaranteed to hear this question during a job interview. Even if you hadn’t even heard of the company before applying for the job, you don’t want to be remembered as the person who gave the answer “jack diddly squat?”

Failing to give a thorough and thoughtful answer to this question can hurt your chances of getting a job offer, but with some careful research before your interview, you can gather all the information you need to seamlessly and successfully answer this question and leave a positive impression on your interviewer.

Read more: “What do you know about our company?”

How did you hear about the position?

Out of all the questions you’re going to be asked during a job interview, this one is one of the easiest to answer and hardest to screw up. This question usually comes at the beginning of an interview and is meant to be an icebreaker, not a trick question.

Even though this question seems to be a no-brainer, some people do somehow still manage to screw it up. Don’t be one of those people. Icebreakers can determine how the rest of your interview goes. You should look like you actually want this position with their company, instead of just looking like the least-bad option.

Read more: “How did you hear about the position”

What are your salary requirements?

When you’re looking for jobs, at some point you’ll probably be asked to give an employer your salary requirements or salary history. It’s important to be careful with how you describe this information — you don’t want to be screened out or offered a low salary.

Use salary calculators to determine a fair salary for your position, region, and level of experience. Always give a range rather than a hard figure, so there’s room for negotiation. Start on the higher end, so you don’t sell yourself short.

Read more: “What are your salary requirements?”

Why do you want to work for us?

Of all the questions you can expect to be asked during an interview, this one might be the easiest to answer — as long as you can keep your eyes on the prize.

Unlike some of the other questions you’ll hear during an interview, total honesty could work pretty well for this question. After all, this can’t be some cookie-cutter answer — it needs to apply specifically to the company you’re interviewing with.

Read more: “Why do you want to work for us?”

Why are you interested in this position?

“Why are you interested in this position?” can be a deceptively tough question to answer if you haven’t given it the proper level of thought and preparation.

It’s easy to get so caught up in worrying about making a good first impression that you start talking about the one thing you know the most about — yourself.

But while your personality and your interests are part of the answer, they’re not all of it, and focusing too much on the ways that the job might benefit you can leave your hiring manager with a sour taste in their mouth.

This question takes some significant forethought about who you are and what kind of company you’re applying to, especially when it comes to the projects the company is actively working on or the corporate culture you’d be entering.

Read more: “Why are you interested in this position?”

Illegal interview questions.

During a job interview, you’re bound to hear all sorts of questions that are meant to help employers pick people who have the skills and experience that are needed for the job. But beware — there are some questions that have no place in an interview.

Every now and then, an illegal interview question or two will slip out. Most of the time, these questions aren’t meant to demonize you or make you feel like you’re not good enough for the job. Sometimes people just ask questions without even realizing that they’re illegal.

Questions about your family situation, religion, or disabilities that are asked in a discriminatory way can all be illegal.

Read more: Examples of illegal interview questions

How to give an elevator pitch.

An elevator pitch is a 30-second speech that summarizes who you are, what you do, and why you’d be an ideal candidate. The idea behind an elevator pitch is that you should be able to tell someone all of that in the time it takes to ride the elevator.

How do you get the attention of someone important who has a dozen other things on their mind? How can you turn a quick hello into a promising job lead?

The answer may or may not surprise you — it’s the use of a practiced elevator speech.

Read more: How to write an elevator pitch

Do you have any questions for me?

Perhaps the most common final question in any job interview is “what questions do you have for me?” Unfortunately, this question is inherently a trap. Despite having plenty of correct answers, the question has a definite wrong answer that’s easy to accidentally give, and that’s “no.”

Having no questions to ask a hiring manager at the end of an interview is a major faux pas when it comes to job hunting. And there’s no trick you can use as a defense for this question. Either you’ve done your research into the company and you’re prepared to ask a few substantive questions about it, or you’re not.

Think of questions about the role, the company, or the next steps in the hiring process if you’re drawing a blank.

Read more: “Do you have any questions for me?”

Is there anything else we should know about you?

This is one of those wrap-up questions that gives you a final opportunity to share something extra special about yourself as a candidate. You can drive home your strengths and make sure that your final impression is exactly how you want it to be.

Or you can bring up new and interesting information that doesn’t directly relate to the job in question but shows impressive attributes nonetheless. You don’t have to add anything else if you feel like the interview went well but still ask about the next steps in the hiring process at this point.

Above all, avoid talking about your weaknesses, and don’t forget to thank the interviewer for their time as things wrap up.

Read more: “Is there anything else we should know about”

When can you start?

Congratulations on making it to this part of the interview; it’s a good sign if your interviewer is asking when you can start. Obviously, your answer depends on your situation.

If you can (and want to) start right away, then it’s pretty straightforward. You can also turn the question around and ask when they’d prefer you start working.

If you need to give two weeks’ notice to your current employer, explain that as well. The interviewer will understand and appreciate your professionalism. Don’t give a long-winded answer here — one or two sentences should suffice to explain your availability.

Read more: “When can you start?”

Job Interview Questions FAQ

1. What are the 10 most common interview questions and answers?

   10 of the most common interview questions are:

   • Tell me about yourself.

   • Where do you see yourself in five years?

   • What is your greatest weakness?

   • What do you know about our company?

   • Why do you want this job?

   • Why should we hire you?

   • How do you handle stress?

   • What is your greatest accomplishment?

   • How would you handle conflict with a coworker or client?

   • Is there anything you would like to know?

2. What is the STAR method in interviews?

   The STAR method in interviews stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. It is a way to answer behavioral questions and other questions about past experiences in an engaging manner. This is because you provide information in a logical flow that is easy to follow.

   You start by describing the situation. Then, you explain what was your task. Next, you describe what actions you took to fulfill your task. Finally, you talk about the results of your actions. When you combine all of this, you give the interviewer a clear picture of your qualifications in action.

3. How can I impress an interviewer?

   To impress an interviewer:

   • Arrive early. Try to get to the interview 15 minutes before it’s scheduled. Not only does this give you time to settle in and prepare for the interview, but it also shows your level of commitment.

   • Do your research. Make sure to read over the job description, information about the company, and your own resume and cover letter. Most questions are going to involve one of them, so keep them at the top of your mind.

   • Dress appropriately and professionally. You don’t have to look like a magazine cover. Dressing smartly won’t get you the job. However, dressing inappropriately or unprofessionally will definitely be a knock against you.

   • Relax, be friendly, and be positive. Even if you are nervous and shy, do your best to make yourself comfortable around others. This in turn will help them be more comfortable around you. A positive outlook on things will especially help demonstrate your ability to handle tasks in a professional manner.

   • Answer questions clearly. Don’t let your answers get to long-winded. Make sure you address exactly what was ask of you.

   • Show your qualifications through a relevant story. It’s the classic “show, don’t tell” adage, and it really helps you set yourself apart from other candidates. The more specific and unique you can make a story that shows your skills in actions, the better chance you have of sticking out.

   • Be confident and gracious. You don’t want to be cocky, but you do want to act like you are confident in your qualifications. Make sure to show your gratitude to drive this home.

4. What is a behavioral interview question?

   A behavioral interview question asks you about a past event. It is a way for the interviewer to gauge your skills in action. Common behavior questions include asking about how you handle past mistake, a conflict with a client, or a stressful situation. Your answer should show that your past has helped you develop your qualifications.

5. What is a situational interview question?

   A situational interview question asks you to answer a hypothetical scenario. Similar to a behavioral question, a situational interview question will attempt to gauge your skills. The main difference between the two is that a situational question also comes with the added challenge of asking you to address something you may never have had to think about before, which reveals your problem solving skills.

References

1. U.S. Department of Labor – Interview Tips