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Types of Interview Questions
Interviewers often use different methods of questioning in order
to assess your abilities. Shown below are the most common methods
of questioning currently used in Australia.
Open Ended Questions
These are questions such as "tell me about yourself?"
or "what do you think of such and such?", where the
question is quite general leaving you in somewhat of a dilemma
about what to answer. These questions are often used as
ice-breakers to allow you a chance to relate what you have
done in your own words, and to get you talking.
The advantage to this type of question is that you have more
control over the direction of the subject matter in the answer,
but on the other hand it also gives you as much rope as you need
to hang yourself. Try not to go on and on and on about any one
thing as you don’t want to bore them.
With these types of questions it is often a good idea to give
them a brief outline starting with the most recent or
most pertinent information. If you are worried that you
haven't said enough, ask them if they would like you to expand
on any of the points that you have made.
For example, if you were asked "what interests you about this position?".
A possible answer could be:
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"I have been researching mining companies a lot while I have been applying
for graduate positions. During this research Newcrest has stood out to me.
I had the opportunity to talk to one of your employees, Sally Smith, at
the Careers Expo at UNSW in March this year. In this conversation I was
made aware of the full extent of the projects that you are currently
carrying out in Indonesia. It’s the long term nature of these projects
and the potential to travel while working for the company that really appeal
to me. In my industrial training last year in Rio Tinto, I had the
chance to work in the project management department. It was an excellent
opportunity and I got to see first hand what goes on there. I made full
use of the opportunity to become involved and actually made a meaningful
contribution to the projects I was working on. This has really spurred
my interest in this graduate position; I know this is the position in
which I want to start my careers."
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You will often find that they will prod you for more
information on a particular point that you have made.
This does not necessarily mean that you have said something
wrong, rather it is more likely that you have said something that
has sparked their interest and that they want to know
more about it.
Behaviourally Based Questions
These are questions that are asking you to describe previous
experiences where you have displayed specific behaviours. An
example of such a question would be "Can you give me an
example of a time when you had to conduct a difficult
negotiation, what did you do, and how did it turn out?"
Many people find these questions quite scary. However, if
approached correctly, they are reasonably easy to answer
as the structure of your answer is contained in the question.
A good acronym to remember here is STAR. STAR stands for:
Situation or Task
Action
Result
What was the situation or task that you were presented with?
What did you actually do? And why did you choose this course
of action? What was the result? And most importantly what did
you learn from the experience?
This sort of question is very hard to answer unless you have
really thought about how your skills and abilities relate
to the position. So it is very important that you have thought
about your previous positions/education and how these could be
used to display to an employer that you have the skills that
they are looking for.
For example, if you were asked to "Describe an occasion
when you had difficulties working with a team. What caused
the problems? How did you respond? What was the outcome?"
A sample answer would be:
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"(Situation) I regard the ability to work cooperatively
and effectively with others as being important to a successful
team. Working for the marketing team for the UNSW Solar Racing Team,
for example, (task) I stepped up and offered my help to other team members
in times when tight schedules were to be met. (Action) I attended meetings
with sponsors on behalf of the team leader and promoted our sponsorship
program. I shared my views in ways to promote the project and, in
the mean time, made an effort to achieve the common goals in
maximising the cost-effectiveness of our marketing campaign. Together,
we evaluated our options and were able to reach consensus regarding
the most effective way of marketing. (Result) Our promotional campaign
was so successful that we were able to attract two new sponsors for the team."
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With these questions employers are looking to predict future
responses to envisaged situations based on how you have
responded in the past. To this end, they are often more
interested in why you did what you did rather
than what you did.
Situational Questions or Hypotheticals
These types of questions are often the scariest of all. With this
type of question you are presented with a hypothetical situation
and asked how you would respond if you were put in such a position.
To gain an understanding of what they are looking for with this
type of question it is probably easiest if you understand how
these questions are developed.
If an employer decides to adopt this approach, the interviewer,
with the aid of the relevant managers, would identify the 5-10
key competencies or skills that an applicant must have to be
successful in the envisaged role. They would then design
situations that focus on each of these areas. The interviewer
would then get the managers to say how they thought their best,
worst, and their mediocre employees would respond to each
situation. In this way they can develop a scoring key which
they can use to rate respondents' answers.
The thing to remember here is that while there is a scoring key,
there is not necessarily a definitive (right) answer. Most of your
points will be gained through the reasoning that you use to
explain your decisions. It is therefore more important that
you explain fully the "why" as well as the
"what" you would do.
When answering these types of questions you can make
assumptions when describing your course of action. For example,
"assuming A and B remain constant, this is what I would do
and why, however, if A were to change then my response to
the problem would change in this way".
For example, if you were asked "What would you do if you
thought your supervisor gave incorrect information in a staff
meeting?" Your answer could be:
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"In this situation I would consider the magnitude of the error
and I would be very careful not to damage my working relationship
with my supervisor. If it was a trival mistake, such as stating
slightly inaccurate sales figures, then I think it would be the
best not to correct him/her in front of other staff. However,
if it was a more serious mistake which would affect the team's
next course of action, I would try to tactfully point out the error
to save the team wasting time working from the wrong information."
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Through these types of questions employers seek to gain a
better understanding of how you approach problems so that
they can better predict how you will respond in the position.
Regardless of the type or style of question asked, remember
to take the time to think about your answer before you open
your mouth. A little bit of planning in your answer is worth
the few seconds gap between their question and your answer,
as your answer will be so much more coherent.
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