Testing Character and Traits of Job Candidates
Sample Job Interview Questions & Statements about Characteristics
Interviewers attempt to assess job candidates by asking questions and statements about personal characteristics either in a set at the head or tail of the interview or throughout the interview.
Job interview questions and statements to test character and traits of job candidates are tough questions. Some sample job interview questions and statements about candidate characteristics follow by the expected timetabling in an interview.
Sample Questions about Character and Traits at Start of Job Interview
Questions that appear early in the job interview process may be forgotten by some candidates when they leave the interview room while the responses will stick in the minds and notes of the interviewers as their overall sense of that candidate.
Questions about a candidate’s character and traits include those general questions considered as the icebreakers at the start of a job interview:
- Can you tell us what it is that attracts you to this post?
- How do you feel about working at [the company]?
- How do you foresee the work of a [title of post]?
Candidates should also be prepared for clumsy sounding double-barrelled questions such as:
- What is it about [the place and the company] that makes you want to take up this post?
- Why [the company name] and why now?
Sample Question and Statements about Character and Traits at End of Job Interview
Questions that appear towards the end of the job interview process will be memorable for the interviewers and candidates:
- Explain in less than a minute why you want to work for [the company].
- If selected for this post, what would you do on your first day?
- If selected for this post, what would you achieve in your first week?
- What do you feel would be the greatest challenges in this post?
- Where would this post lead you?
- In one sentence, sum up why we should offer you this post.
Strategy for Responding to Tough Interview Questions about Characteristics
In the parachute library series The 101 Toughest Interview Questions…and ANSWERS That Win the Job!, [Ten Speed Press Berkeley, California, 1999], Daniel Porot with Frances Bolles Haynes write that a job candidate should answer by:
- “listing activities and interests.
- focusing on job-related issues when appropriate.
- listing personal achievements.
- giving examples of personal growth.
- suggesting an exchange of ideas about a job-related subject
- quickly and briefly stating any negative information and moving on to another topic immediately.”
The 101 Toughest Interview Questions…and ANSWERS That Win the Job!, authors Daniel Porot with Frances Bolles Haynes also emphasise the need for job candidates to give illustration in answers and to respond positively with honesty and passion.
Well prepared candidates will be ready for questions about characteristics to be asked at the head and tail of the interview and also during the main body of the interview.
