HR Interview Questions

HR Interview Questions

Tell me something about yourself? This is the most common and very first question usually asked in any interview. When you answer this question you usually have to tell about the following:

• · Educational Qualifications: When you talk about educational qualifications, don’t talk about percentages unless they are very good. If you have made any achievements like topping college academics or secured a gold medal make sure you tell about it.
• Family Background: Donot spend too much of time here. Let the interviewer know your father’s and mother’s profession and how many siblings you have.
• Hobbies/Interests: This is very important section and be prepared for follow up questions. If you say my hobby is reading books. Interviewer might ask a followup question like, what type of books you usually read. If you say I read fiction books. The interviewer might ask you, Who is your favourite author.

So be very careful when you are making up hobbies. It is better if your hobbies add value for the type of job you are doing. For example if you are going for a software engineer

interview, you can say browsing internet as one of the hobby. If a software engineer has good browsing skills he might find solutions online quickly and solve the problem at hand in less time. When you say browing as one of your hobby, be prepared for the follow up interview questions like, What do you usually browse on the internet? What is your favourite website? Who is your favourite technical article writer?

• Strengths: Tell interviewer about your strengths with example. Examples of strengths are listed below. Make sure you back up each strength with an example from your past experience.
• Weakness: When ever you say you have a weakness, make sure you also have a plan and working on it to over come your weakness.

• Hard Working in nature.
• Dedication.
• Commitment.
• Good Team player.
• Communication Skills
• Problem solving skills
• Taking Initiatives
• Beging Pro-active
• Design Skills

• Too invloved : Some times when there is a technical issue or a problem I tend to work continuously until I fix it without having a break. But what I have noticed and am trying to practice is that taking a break away from the problem and thinking outside the square or taking suggestions will assist you in identifying the root cause of the problem sooner.
• Over confident : Very rarely I become over confident, especially when a simple task is given, I get to solving the issue without spending much time planning. So I am working on applying the 80/20 principle of planning and implementation. Spend 80% of my effort and time in planning and 20% on implementation.

Why should we hire you? This is another common question asked in your interview. This question deals with your ability to market yourself with the experience and skills you have.
The interviewer is asking this question to find out how can your skills and experience be a value add for the job you are being interviewed for.

Answers that would get the interviewer’s attention:

• I have three years of experience in this technology and my skills enables me to develop better products in less time
• I have what it takes to fill the requirements of this job – solve customer problems using my excellent customer service skills.
• I have the experience and expertise in the area of customer support that is required in this position.

This is a time to let the interviewer know what YOU can do for them and why they should listen to what you have to offer. The more detail you give the stronger your answer will be. This is not a time to talk about what you want. It is a time to summarize your accomplishments and relate what makes you unique and therefore a viable fit for this position.

Look at the job description. Find out requirements of the job? Make a list of these requirements. List your skills and think of two or three key qualities you have to offer that match each requirement that the employer is seeking.

Other ways of asking the same question:

• What can you bring to this position?
• What can you bring to the table if selected?
• Why do you think you are qualified for this job?

Why are you looking for a change? Don’t talk bad about your current organisation, Manager or your co-staff.

What ever may be the reason why you left your present job, don’t speak badly about your previous employer. The interviewer may think, you will you will talk bad about his company next time you’re looking for another job.

Reasons why you might have left your job:

• They didn’t pay you enough.
• Odd shift timings.
• You did not like the management.
• This new job offer pays much more than what you are getting now.
• You are fired for poor performance or bad code of conduct.

Answers that could get interviewer the attention:

• My organisation is very small and I have already spent 3 years and as there is no scope for growth with my current employer and I’m ready to move on to a new challenge.
• I’m looking for a bigger challenge and to grow my career and I couldn’t job hunt part time while working. It didn’t seem ethical to use my former employer’s time.
• I’m relocating to this area due to family circumstances and left my previous position in order to make the move.
• I am interested in a new challenge and an opportunity to use my technical skills and experience in a different capacity than I have in the past.
• I was looking for a position like this which is an excellent match for my skills and experience and I am not able to fully utilize them in my present job as there is very limited scope for growth.

Other ways of asking the same question:

• Why are you leaving your job?
• Why did you leave your job?
• What made you leave your current job?

What do you like/dislike most about your current or last position? The interviewer is trying to find the compatibility between you and the open position you are being interviewed for.

So do not say anything like:

• You dislike overtime.
• You dislike management.
• You dislike your immediate manager or co-workers.
• You dislike deadlines.

It is safe to say:

• You like challenges.
• Opportunity to grow into design, architecture, performance tuning etc
• Opportunity to learn and/or mentor junior developers
• You dislike frustrating situations like identifying a memory leak problem or a complex transactional or a concurrency issue. You want to get on top of it as soon as possible.

How do you handle pressure? Another common interview question, asked to find out how well you can handle on-the-job stress.

So do not say anything like:

• I dislike stress and cannot perform well under pressure. All organisations work with deadlines and at times there will be a crucial need to work under pressure. This is the reason why most interviewer’s ask this question.

It is safe to say:

• First, I understand why there is a need to complete the given task at hand with in so less time and react to situations, rather than to stress. That way, the situation is handled and doesn’t become stressful.
• I actually work better under pressure and I’ve found that I enjoy working in a challenging environment.
• Prioritizing my responsibilities so I have a clear idea of what needs to be done when, has helped me effectively manage pressure on the job.
• If the people I am managing are contributing to my stress level, I discuss options for better handling difficult situations with them.

What are your career goals? or Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years? When you answer this question make sure you give realistic answers. For example a person with 1 year of experience cannot say I would see myself as a Project Manager in the next 3 years.

Every organisation has a career path and we have to spend the required time at each level, learn the stuff what it takes to get it to the next level and move on. Hence set your expectations realistic.

• Next 2-3 years to become a senior developer.
• Next 3-5 years to become a team lead.

Also, let the interviewer know that in terms of my future career path, you are confident that if you do your work with excellence, opportunities will come your way and you will be able to achieve your career goals.

How did you handle your most challenging experience in your previous job? Think of a stressfull thing that happened at your last job. Then write a short description of what it was and what you did. Did you work to resolve the problem? Did you remove yourself from the problem and let other handle it? Stuff like that. Just a short explaination of what happened.

This is more related to problem solving., first, think of a problem you had in you work and what is the action/ solution you have taken to resolve. It is always better to explain the point in logical order with a good example.

When answering a question like this, you should always try and remember two things:

• use an example.
• use the word ‘teamwork’.

Employers want to know how you handle stress, how you worked through that problem, and if you’re a team player.

If you are a fresher with no work experience or does not have any challenging experience, talk to your seniors or people who has experience. They may give you some examples.