INTERVIEW QUESTIONS JUNIOR LEVELS

ADAPTABILITY/FLEXIBILITY
Have you ever had to be in charge of a task which was unusual to the routine of
your job or study? How did you deal with that?
Have you had the opportunity to change your usual study group for any particular
assignment? How did you adapt to the change?
Have you had the opportunity to work or study abroad or in a culture that was very
different from yours? How did you handle the situation?
Tell me about a new assignment you had to take care of immediately while you were
still very involved in some other task. How did you work it out?
How do you react when you have planned something and then something
unexpected comes up and forces you to change?
Tell me if you ever had planned to carry out some work (write a paper for college for
example) in a certain way and then your teacher or boss changed some instructions
which forced you to change the focus of your work? How did you work it out?
LEARNING SKILLS
Tell me about any new skill you have had to learn very fast.
Which subjects in your university education were the easiest? Which subject was
the most difficult to learn? What did you learn from your mistakes in the classroom?
Describe any workplace situation in which you found it difficult to learn something.
What made it difficult?
VITALITY/ENERGY
Give me an example of any special task at work or at university which demanded an
intensive effort for a long period of time. How did you go about it? What was the
result?
Tell me about any situation at work or your studies when certain unexpected events
have forced you to reorganize your time. What elements did you consider when you
were getting organized?
Whats your typical workday like?
Have you experienced situations in which youve felt the need to leave some task
unfinished? Tell me more about that.
ANALYTICAL SKILLS

Getting an assignment finished or solved usually implies picking information and

data from other sources. How do you go about it? Give me examples of an
assignment where you had to resort to diverse sources to get information.
What kind of reports do you need to write for your studies or your current job? What
kind of variables do you consider when writing those reports?
Do you remember any particularly complex problematic situation in your studies or
your job that youve had to work out recently? What were the main elements you
identified in the problem? How did you work out the situation?
Tell me about an important decision youve had to make recently concerning your
profession. What was the situation? Explain your choice.
PROACTIVITY/AUTONOMY
What factors did you consider when you chose to study at your university or
college?
What aspects did you consider in choosing to study (translation)? Do you think
youve made the right choice?
What were your most difficult years as a college or university student? What
problems did you face during the course? How did you deal with the problems?
Why did you decide to take on your first job? What factors helped you to decide to
participate in that search and not others?
LEADERSHIP
Have you had to be in charge of a team in your current job, at university, or other
activity? When? Describe the situation.
When facing a complex task assigned to the group you were coordinating in your
(previous) job, how did you get other people to respond?
Have you had to deal with a difficult person? How did you handle him or her?
When practicing sports, have you had to take a leadership role in coordinating the
team? What did you learn from that experience?
CONTACT FORMS
Do you remember any particular time when it was very important for you to know
how to communicate your ideas or feelings?
What is the toughest communication problem youve noticed at university or your
previous/current job?

Have you had to prepare and deliver oral presentations? What kind of audience was
it? What kinds of elements have you used in your presentations?
Do you remember having to persuade someone of the validity of an approach or
idea at university or in your job? How did it go?
CUSTOMER SERVICE ORIENTATION
Have you had to interact with customers at your current job? Tell me about a
situation when you felt you were able to give an optimal response to a customers
request.
Describe any situation in which youve had to work hard to satisfy a
customer/teachers request. What happened?
Did you have to answer requests from other sectors in your previous job or at any
community activity? Describe any which was difficult to respond. Why? How did you
work it out?
What have you done to build positive relationships with customers with whom you
interact at work/your classmates?
PRODUCTIVITY
Mention any situation at work or university where your performance has been better
than average. What parameters are you using to judge that you were better than
average?
Have you ever felt you didnt like your own performance at any task? What did you
do to correct your mistakes?
What tasks do you dislike? How do you approach them?
Describe any assignment at work or at university when youve done more than what
was requested.
RESPONSIBILITY
How long did it take you to finish your university studies? Did you work while you
were studying? Why?
What kind of job did you do while studying? What was your timetable? What
difficulties did you find with working and studying at the same time? Which was the
main difficulty? What did you prioritize: work or study?
Did you have any other regular activities or take any extra courses while studying at
university? What did you do during your vacations?
RESISTANCE TO PRESSURE

Describe the hardest situation youve had to deal with at work or university. How did
you proceed?
Do you remember any situation in your current job/assignment at university when
you had to resist a very intense and long-lasting pressure from your environment?
When you are facing considerable pressure at work or university and problems
accumulate, what do you do to work it out?
If youre assigned an overwhelming task with very tight deadlines, how do you plan
your strategy to meet the deadline?
TEAM WORK
Tell me about any task youve had to do with a team in your current job or at
university. What was the expected result? How did you contribute to the task?
Can you remember any occasion in which you were effective in motivating your
friends or colleagues to achieve a difficult goal?
When is your performance at best: in individual or group assignments? Give me
examples.
When youre working as a team with people you dont know, how do you get to
understand their points of view and coordinate efforts? Please tell me how you
managed to become involved in your current work team.
SELF-CONTROL
While you were studying at university, have you experienced any moment when you
felt you were about to lose your temper with a teacher? What happened? Did you?
How did you feel?
How do you react when you feel something is unfair? Tell me about a related
situation at work or university. How did you feel about that? What did you do? Would
you do it again? What do you conclude from that experience?
SEARCH FOR INFORMATION
Tell me about any job during your university studies when youve had to obtain a lot
of extra information. How did you work that out?
What kind of newspapers and magazines do you usually read? What kind of topics
are your favorites? Do you cut clippings or save news articles in your computer?
Which?
What kind of files do you save in your personal computer? What kind of system do
you use to keep your files organized?

What are your favorite websites? What do you look for when you visit them? What
do you do with that information?
SELF-CONFIDENCE
How do you feel when you have to face something new or different? Tell me about
any situation youve faced.
Tell me about a situation in which youve had to submit a proposal. Before you did,
did you think it was going to be accepted? How did it go?
When youre facing a problem, how do you feel? Do you believe youre going to
work it out? Tell me about any situation.
When facing a very difficult situation, one of those people call impossible do you
think youre going to work it out anyway? Tell me about any situation and why you
thought it would be so difficult.