Common Non-Academic Interview Questions
Personal• Tell me about yourself.
• Who or what has had the greatest influence on your life?
• What are your major strengths and weaknesses?
• What motivates you to put forth your greatest effort?
• What achievements from your past work experience are you most proud of?
• Why should we hire you over another candidate?
• How does your graduate school experience relate to this job?
• What was the most difficult aspect of obtaining a graduate degree?
• What were your favorite courses? Least favorite? Why?
• If you could re-live your college experiences, what would you do differently?
• What extracurricular activities did you participate in and what did you learn from those experiences?
• What prior work experience have you had and how does it relate to this job?
• How would your past supervisors describe you?
• What were your most significant accomplishments in your prior work experience?
• What did you enjoy most about your previous work experience? Least?
• How is your graduate work relevant to industry?
• Have you ever worked on a project outside your area of expertise?
• Have you ever led a research team in a formal manner?
• Have you given presentations before? What settings? How large were the groups?
• Why are you interested in this position?
• Why are you interested in this particular company?
• What can you offer us?
• What attracts you to this particular industry?
• What do you know about our company?
• Who else are you interviewing in your job search?
Goals and Objectives
• What are your short and long-term goals?
• Please describe your ideal work setting.
• What major accomplishment would you like to achieve in your life and why?
• What are your career interests?
• What rewards are most important to you in your career and why?
• Tell me about a conflict situation and how you resolved it.
• Describe a situation when you had multiple tasks to complete under very tight time constraints.
• Give me an example of your organizational skills? Explain how you use timelines in your work.
• Give me examples that would demonstrate that you are a self-starter.
• Describe a time when you sold your colleague/supervisor on an idea.
• Give an example of a time in which you had to come to a relatively quick decision.
• Tell me about a time when personality differences impacted your work environment.
• Tell me about a time when you worked on a project as part of a team. What role did you play?
• Describe a time when you failed at something. What would you have done differently?
• Give me an example of a situation when you took a leadership role.
• Tell me how you would explain your research to a lay person.