Interview Questions

Before the interview :

• Prepare and practise giving responses to the questions without trying to memorise them.
• Find out as much as possible about the company as well as the position you are interested in.
• Remember to take an extra copy of your CV/résumé with you so that the employer can refer to it.

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1	Tell me about yourself.
2	How would you describe yourself? (character / personality)
3	Are you married?  Single?  Do you have partner?
4	What are your strengths / weaknesses?
5	What do you do in your free time? What are your hobbies?  /  Do you have any hobbies?
6	Why are you interested in working for our company? Why do you want to work for this company?
7	What type of position do you think you are suited for / would suit you?
8	How would you describe the position we have to offer?
9	What aspects of the position are you most / least interested in?
10	What would you like to find in this job that you didn't have in your previous job?
11	How do you think you could develop the position? What would be your strategy to develop the position?
12	What have you got to offer us? What could you contribute to our company?
13	What do you think you gained by working in your last job?
14	What were you responsible for? What did your job involve?
15	What do you think of your (last) boss?
16	Why do you want to leave your present job? Why do you want to change jobs?
17	What are your salary requirements? How much would you hope to earn in this position? How much do you think you should be offered for this position? What salary would you expect (to be offered) for this position?
18	Have you received any offers of a job?
19	Why have you had to look for a job for so long? Why have you been looking for a job for so long? Why did it take you so long to find a new job?
20	How do your feel about your future in the profession?
21	Have you had any failures?  What failures have you had? Have you had any negative experiences?
22	What sort of obstacles have you come across / encountered in your work?
23	If you had to recruit colleagues, what qualities would you look for?
24	Would you be willing to relocate/to move to another part of the country/to work abroad?
25	Don't you think you have too much experience / you are over-qualified for this job?
26	How long do you think you would stay with us? If we offered you this job, how long would you expect to stay with us?
27	Which do you prefer : to work alone or in a team? Do you prefer working alone or with other people as part of a team?
28	Do you know how to manage a team? Are you capable of leading a team? Do you think you have the ability to be a team leader?
29	Why should I recruit you? How could you persuade me to recruit me?
30	Do you have any comments to make, or any questions to ask?

How to Improve English

The importance of the English language cannot be overemphasized. Comfort with English is almost a prerequisite for success in the world today. Regardless of the industry, proficiency in English is an important factor in both hiring and promotion decisions.

A lot of us have studied English in school and are fairly comfortable with reading and writing. However, we hesitate while speaking because we feel that we lack the fluency and may make grammatical mistakes. We are afraid of speaking English in formal situations and we are quick to switch to our native language once we are in the company of our family and friends.

There is no quick fix when it comes to improving your command over a particular language. It always requires a lot of time and effort.

Here are EnglishLeap’s top ten tips for success in achieving proficiency and fluency in English:

10 tips for speaking in English

1.     The first thing I would do after getting up every morning was read the newspaper, front to back. It doesn’t matter which newspaper you subscribe to, as long as it is a major English-language paper, such as The Hindu, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Indian Express, etc.  While different people have different opinions on the quality of each paper, they are all more or less equally useful in getting to learn the language. It is also not necessary to read every page and article; it is time-consuming and, sometimes, boring. However, you should most definitely look for articles that interest you.

2.     I bought a pocket dictionary. They are cheap, compact and useful. There were many words I came across on a day-to-day basis that I did not know, and carrying a pocket dictionary everywhere allowed me to look up these words immediately so that the matter would not slip off my mind later.

3.     Once learned, I also made a conscious effort to use the words in conversation. This instilled the words in my head and I was able to draw on them whenever required.

4.     I convinced some of my friends to come together and form something of a ‘study group’; we were all interested in learning English, and I figured it would make it easier and more fun for us to do it together. We met twice a week in the evening and discussed the words and phrases we had come across, suggested articles, magazines, and books to each other, etc.