GENERAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
General
1. Why are you interested in this position?
2. What strengths will you bring to this position?
3. What 2 or 3 things are most important to you in a position?
4. What 2-3 accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction? Why?
5. What have you done about your own (professional or skills) development in the last few years?
Technical
1. How have your educational and work experiences prepared you for this position?
a. Education – Formal education or equivalent experience?
b. Experience?
2. Computer Systems – Describe your usage of MS Office products (excel, word, PowerPoint, project, etc.), brio/business objects/SQR, large ERP systems etc.– both required and nice to have
3. Have you participated in a company-wide implementation of a new software system? What was your role? How and what improvements did you make?
4. Tell me about a time you discovered an internal control weakness and what you did to improve it within the business environment.
5. Tell us about your experience and understanding of advanced accounting principles, GAAP, internal controls, and auditing techniques.
6. What are some of the creative ways that you have implemented regulations or policies in the business environment?
7. Provide examples of the following and elaborate on their effectiveness. What might have you done differently and what would you keep the same?
a. Information you have published
b. Professional writing you have composed
c. Web content design you have developed
Communication/Writing Skills
1. What types of experiences have you had in talking with customers? Specifically, tell us about a time when you had to communicate under difficult circumstances?
2. Tell about a time when you were effective in a verbal communication.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to communicate in writing very detailed procedural information or instructions. What was the situation? How did you structure your writing to address all the details?
4. What are your experiences specifying reports to answer questions being raised? Were these reports effective? What were you challenges?
5. Tell me about a specific experience of yours that illustrates your ability to influence another person verbally?
6. What has been your experience in making presentations or speeches to small and large groups? What has been your most successful experience in speech/presentation making?
7. Give an example of a complex regulation that you needed to disseminate to a group. Did you provide training, develop new internal policies & procedures, develop new external policies & procedures, or use some other way to disseminate the information? Was it successful?
Decision Making
1. Tell me about a time when an upper level decision or policy held up your work. Were you able to overcome the obstacle?
2. Tell me about a goal you have set for yourself in the past, and how successful you were in accomplishing it.
Initiative
1. Have you suggested any new ideas to your manager or someone else regarding you current position recently? Give examples.
2. Have you found any ways to make your job easier? Give examples.
Judgment/Problem Solution
1. Give me an example of a good decision you made recently. What alternatives did you consider? Why was it a good decision?
2. Describe any new procedures, ideas, or other innovations you developed within the past year. How did you know they were needed?
3. What sources of information do you use to stay aware of problems in your work area? Tell me about a situation in which you used one of these sources.
4. Give an example of a problem you solved and the process you used.
Planning/Organizing/Work Standards
1. When scheduling your time and others, how do you determine what constitutes a priority?
2. Sooner or later, everyone comes under some pressure to sacrifice quality to complete work on time. When has this happened to you? What did you do?
3. When managing a project with several people, what communication methods have you used to keep the group informed about project goals, milestones, and deadlines? Give am example of a project you led where you used communication methods to keep the group informed.
4. Describe any tools that you use to measure results for a completed project or in any of your work.
5. Describe a situation that required you to do several things at the same time. What did you do?
Presentations/ Training
1. Describe an effective presentation you made. What made it so effective? How do you know it was effective?
2. Describe an effective training session you conducted. What made it effective? How do you know it was effective?
Report Writing
1. What are your experiences developing reports to answer questions utilizing system reporting tools such as Brio, Business Objects, SQR or others? Were these reports effective? What were your challenges?
2. Have you ever developed reports to answer questions being raised either by customers or by management? Were these reports effective? What were your challenges?
Analysis/Problem Identification
1. What complicated problems have you had to address on your job? Describe how you identified or gained a better understanding of the problem(s). Give examples
Following Instructions
1. Tell us about a time when you had detailed instructions to complete a task and the process broke down. What did you do?
Supervision/Leadership
1. What is the process you use to set goals and monitor progress on goals within your work group? Give a recent example that demonstrates how you set and monitor work group goals.
2. Tell us about a time when you were a team leader or member and had responsibility to develop a way to recognize team achievements. How did you determine what to recognize? What were the actions that you took to create and sustain team recognition?
3. What are some of the creative ways that you have implemented regulations or policies in the business environment?
4. Tell us about how you recognized your department’s achievements. How did you determine what to recognize? What were the actions that you took to create and sustain recognition?
5. Describe a time when you had to give constructive feedback to an employee where you knew the feedback might not be well received. What was the situation, and what did you say or do?
6. What characteristics are most important in a good leader? How have you displayed one of these characteristics?
7. Describe your leadership style. In a particular leadership role you had, what was the greatest challenge?
Project Management
1. When managing a project with several people, what communication methods have you used to keep the group informed about project goals, milestones, and deadlines? Give an example of a project you led where you used communication methods to keep the group informed.
2. Describe any tools that you use to measure results for a completed project or in any of your work.
Other
1. Given the vision, as the new Director, what ideas would you want to implement to achieve the vision?
2. What else should we ask about your and your experience?
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