{"id":19659,"date":"2017-09-28T11:51:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-28T16:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/?page_id=19659"},"modified":"2025-06-04T11:36:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T16:36:35","slug":"general-questions","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/how-to-guides\/interview-guide\/questions\/general-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"What general questions might an interviewer ask?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-modular-content-collection><p>To get the most out of the questions below, take the following steps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>print out the job description and highlight key phrases<\/li>\n<li>print out your resume, cover letter, and application\n<ul>\n<li>review the ways in which the position matches up with your skills, qualifications, and experiences<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Review the kinds of questions interviewers ask below.<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"fit\"><\/a>What is your fit with our organization?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Why should I hire you?<\/li>\n<li>Why should we select you over other candidates?<\/li>\n<li>What do you know about our organization?<\/li>\n<li>Why do you want to work for this organization\/in this field?<\/li>\n<li>What is it about this particular position or program that attracts you?<\/li>\n<li>In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to our organization?<\/li>\n<li>What criteria are you using to evaluate an organization for which you hope to work?<\/li>\n<li>Describe the relationship that you believe should exist between you and your supervisor.<\/li>\n<li>In what kind of work environment are you most comfortable?<\/li>\n<li>What questions do you have for us?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><a id=\"plans\"><\/a>What are your plans and goals for your career?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>What are your long range career goals?<\/li>\n<li>When and why did you establish these goals<\/li>\n<li>How are you preparing yourself to achieve them?<\/li>\n<li>What specific goals, other than career goals, have you established for yourself?<\/li>\n<li>How would you describe your ideal job after graduation?<\/li>\n<li>What two or three things are most important to you in your job?<\/li>\n<li>What are the most important rewards you expect in your career?<\/li>\n<li>In what part-time or summer jobs have you been most interested?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><a id=\"live\"><\/a>Where do you want to live?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you have a geographical preference? Why?<\/li>\n<li>Will you relocate?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><a id=\"personal\"><\/a>What are your personal qualities and characteristics?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/how-to-guides\/interview-guide\/questions\/tell-me-about-yourself\/\">What can you tell us about yourself?<\/a><\/li>\n<li>How would you describe yourself?<\/li>\n<li>How would others describe you?<\/li>\n<li>What two or three accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/how-to-guides\/interview-guide\/questions\/negative-experiences-or-weaknesses\/\">What do you consider to be your greatest strengths and weaknesses?<\/a><\/li>\n<li>What major problems have you encountered and how did you deal with them?<\/li>\n<li>What have you learned from your mistakes?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><a id=\"skills\"><\/a>What are your qualifications and skills?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>What qualifications do you have that make you think you\u2019ll be successful?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have experience working in a cross-cultural environment?<\/li>\n<li>How skilled are you in Excel? (Lynda.com offers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lynda.com\/Excel-tutorials\/Excel-2013-Essential-Training\/116478-2.html?srchtrk=index:1%0Alinktypeid:2%0Aq:Excel%2B%0Apage:1%0As:relevance%0Asa:true%0Aproducttypeid:2\">tutorials in Excel fundamentals<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>How skilled are you in (name the other skills required by the role)?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><a id=\"experience\"><\/a>What academic and college experiences have you had?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>How has your college experience prepared you for a career?<\/li>\n<li>What led you to choose your field of major study?<\/li>\n<li>If you could do so, how would you plan your academic study differently? Why?<\/li>\n<li>Do you have plans for continued study? An advanced degree?<\/li>\n<li>What have you learned from participating in extracurricular activities?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>If you would like to review or practice other typical questions, log on to<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monster.com\/career-advice\/article\/100-Potential-Interview-Questions\">100 Top Interview questions<\/a> (Monster.com)<\/li>\n<li>Vault.com, and link to Interview Questions under the Job Advice tab.<\/li>\n<li>Lynda.com, which offers video tutorials on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lynda.com\/Business-Skills-tutorials\/Acing-Your-Interview\/103614-2.html?srchtrk=index:1%0Alinktypeid:2%0Aq:acing%2Bthe%2Binterview%0Apage:1%0As:relevance%0Asa:true%0Aproducttypeid:2\">acing your interview<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Handshake and <a href=\"https:\/\/stolaf.joinhandshake.com\/appointments\">schedule a practice interview with a Piper Center Career Coach<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a class=\"cta\" href=\"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/how-to-guides\/interview-guide\/questions\/behavioral-questions\/\">What are behavioral questions?<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- begin-migrated-from-panel-builder --><!-- end-migrated-from-panel-builder --><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To get the most out of the questions below, take the following steps: print out the job description and highlight key phrases print out your resume, cover letter, and application [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8275,"featured_media":0,"parent":19653,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19659","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8275"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19659"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47177,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19659\/revisions\/47177"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stolaf.edu\/pipercenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}