應對最刁鑽面試問題的18個機智回答
Some job interviewers ask tough questions to trip you up or to get you to reveal information you may be trying to conceal. Others want to get a better sense of your thought process or see how you respond under pressure.
Whatever the reason, you’ll want to be prepared.
In her book “301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions,” Vicky Oliver says in order to prevail, you need to “trounce your competition.”
“You could be competing against someone with three times your experience, or conversely, against someone who can do the job at half your salary level,” she says.
One of the best ways to stand out: have the smartest answers to the toughest questions.
1. Q: You have changed careers before. Why should I let you experiment on my nickel?
A: As a career-changer, I believe that I’m a better employee because I’ve gained a lot of diverse skills from moving around. These skills help me solve problems creatively.
2. Q: What if you work here for five years and don’t get promoted? Many of our employees don’t. Won’t you find it frustrating?
A: I consider myself ambitious, but I’m also practical. As long as I am continuing to learn and grow within my position, I’ll be a happy camper. Different companies promote people at different rates, and I’m pretty confident that working for you will keep me motivated and mentally stimulated for several years to come.
3. Q: If you knew that things at your company were rocky, why didn’t you get out of the company sooner?
A: I was working so hard to keep my job while everyone around me was being cut that I didn’t have any time left over to look for another job. With all of the mergers that have been happening in our field, layoffs are a way of life. At least I gave it my best shot!
4. Q: From your resume, it looks like you were fired twice. How did that make you feel?
A: After I recuperated from the shock both times, it made me feel stronger. It’s true that I was fired twice, but I managed to bounce back both times and land jobs that gave me more responsibility, paid me more money, and were at better firms.
The morale here is very high. I’ve been exposed to the “seamy underbelly” of this business, but I’m still passionate about working in it.
5. Q: You majored in philosophy. How did that prepare you for this career?
A: Philosophy didn’t prepare me for a career in architecture at all. But it did force me to become philosophical about my prospects. After two years of trying to figure out what to do with my life, I visited Chicago one weekend, and was absolutely spell bound by the gorgeous architecture all around me.
I came home, applied to architecture schools all over the country, and was accepted by one of the best. I’ve never looked back…this is definitely the career that I was meant to be in.
6. Q: What do you view as your risks and disadvantages with the position we are interviewing you for?
A: I think that with the home office located halfway across the globe, there is a very small risk that one might not have the chance to interact with the key decision makers as often as might be ideal. On the other hand, teleconferencing, email, faxing, and having a 24/7 work ethic will go a long way towards bridging the gap.
7. Q: We love women at this company, but our clients are from [xyz country] and so we were thinking of hiring a man for this particular job.
A: Why is that, exactly? It seems to me that I am probably more qualified to handle this position than anyone, man or woman.
My father’s career as a diplomat took our family around the world seven times, and I even spent my junior year abroad in the Far East. I would need far less training than an American man who grew up here and has never worked outside our borders.
8. Q: Can you describe your dream job?
A: This is my dream job and that’s why I approached you about it in the first place. I am excited about the prospect of helping your promotion agency upgrade and fine tune your loyalty programs.
9. Q: What would you do if you really wanted to hire a woman under you, and you knew the perfect candidate, but your boss really wanted to hire a man for the job?
A: I’d recommend that we perform an on-site “test,” by hiring both candidates on a freelance basis for two weeks each.
10. Q: What if you worked with someone who managed to take credit for all your great ideas. How would you handle it?
A: First, I would try to credit her publicly with the ideas that were hers. Sometimes, by being generous with credit, it spurs the other person to “return the favor.”
If that doesn’t solve it, I’d try to work out an arrangement where we each agreed to present the ideas that were our own to our bosses. If that doesn’t work, I would openly discuss the situation with her.
However, if the person taking credit for my ideas was my boss, I would tread cautiously. To some extent, I believe that my job is to make my superiors shine. If I were being rewarded for my ideas with raises and promotions, I would be happy.
11. Q: How many hours a week do you usually work, and why?
A: I work pretty long hours most of the time. With the extra time, I try to find ways to “add value” to each assignment, both my own and the firm’s. When our clients read our reports, I want them to think that no one else could have possibly written them, except for our company.
12. Q: Does a company need B players? Or is it better off only having A players on staff, and why?
A: I believe that a company needs both A and B players. When you’re pitching new business, you want the A players on the front line. But behind the A players, you need the B players who can hammer out the details of the projects and stick with them on a day-to-day basis. Having too many A players on the team leads to ego clashes and a disorganized, anarchical way of doing business.
13. Q: Are you better at “managing up” or “managing down”?
A: If you aren’t good at “managing up,” you rarely get the opportunity to “manage down.” Fortunately, I’ve always been quite good at self-management. I’ve never had a deadline that I didn’t meet.
14.Q: Would you rather get permission from your boss before undertaking a brand-new project, or be given enough rope to “hang yourself”?
A: During my first week on the job, I would ask my boss how she would prefer me to handle projects. If she indicated that she wanted a take-charge person under her, I would take the ropes. If she told me she wanted me to run ideas by her first, I would comply. I think the real challenge is being able to adapt to your work environment, and I’m flexible.
15. Q: Please give an example of the most difficult political situation that you’ve dealt with on a job.
A: I was hired by a woman who was on her way out. She asked me to be her “fall guy” on a number of assignments. I just learned to drop the assignments off with my boss on the day that they were due, and when the managers would ring me up, I would recommend that they simply follow up with her. This kept me out of hot water with my boss and with her superiors.
16. Q: Is it more important to be lucky or skillful?
A: I think that it’s more important to be lucky, although being very skilled can help to create more opportunities. Certainly, [at my former job, my boss'] confidence in me inspired the decision makers at our firm to trust that I could do the job. But clearly, I also happened to be in the right place at the right time.
17. Q: Have you ever been so firm that people would describe you as “stubborn” or “inflexible”?
A: When women are firm, they are sometimes pinned with these unattractive labels. I am not shy or mousy, so probably one or two people I’ve worked with might have thought that I was “inflexible” on a given assignment. But this adjective never came out about me on any kind of a performance review, and neither did the word “stubborn.” I believe that, all in all, I’ve managed to be firm and flexible.
18. Q: When do you think you’ll peak in your career?
A: I come from a long line of healthy, hardy, mentally active types, and so I confess that I never even think about “peaking” in my career. That having been said, I do think it’s important to have some self-knowledge, and to recognize when one is past one’s prime.有些工作面試官會提出尖銳的問題，雞蛋裏挑骨頭，或者想要從你口中套出你可能試圖隱藏的信息。另外的面試官則是想要更好地瞭解你的思維過程或看你如何應對壓力。
不管原因是什麼，你都要做好準備。薇姬·奧利弗（Vicky Oliver）在她所寫的《尖鑽面試問題的301個機智回答：》一書中說，爲了獲勝，你需要“打敗你的競爭對手。”
“你的競爭對手可能有你三倍多的經驗，或相反，他的工作能力也許只夠得上你工資水平的一半。”她說。
脫穎而出的最好方法之一：用最聰明的回答去應對最棘手的問題。
1.問：你曾經換過工作，我們爲什麼要冒這種做你的墊腳石的風險？
答：正因爲我換過不同工作，所以我成爲了更好的員工。在不同的工作轉換之間我學到了不同的技能，這些技能幫助我更加創造性地解決問題。
2.問： 如果你在這裏工作五年還沒有升職，我們許多的員工都是這樣的，你會不會感到沮喪？
答：我認爲自己懷揣雄心壯志，但我也很實際。只要我可以在崗位上繼續學習和成長，我就會是一個快樂的人。不同的公司提拔員工的速率不同，我確信在貴公司工作會使我在未來的幾年內都保持積極性和工作激情。
3.問：你一早就知道自己所在的公司堅持不了多久了，爲什麼沒有早點脫身？
答：當時我周圍的很多人都被裁員了，我十分努力地上班來保住這份工作，以至於沒有任何時間去尋找另一份工作。我們這一領域處處都發生着兼併的現象，裁員已經成爲了一種生活方式。至少我爲之盡力了!
4.問：從你的簡歷裏我看到你曾經兩次被辭退，對此你有什麼感覺？
答：在從這兩次打擊中恢復以後,我感覺自己更加強壯了。的確，我兩次被解僱，但是我兩次都設法恢復了，並且都進入了更好的公司，得到了薪水更高、需要承擔更多責任的工作。
貴公司的士氣非常高。我曾經接觸過這個行業的“醜惡”，但我對於工作的熱情有增無減。
5.問：你的專業是哲學，那麼你哲學對你的職業生涯有什麼樣的幫助？
答：哲學本身並沒有對我的建築事業起到幫助，但卻是哲學使我對自己的未來冷靜規劃。我用了兩年，試圖弄清楚自己要怎樣生活，有一次週末我參觀了芝加哥，於是我被身邊華麗的建築迷倒了。
我回到家，就開始在全國各地申請建築學校，最終被最好的的建築學校之一錄取了。我從來不會回頭後悔……我肯定建築就是我註定的職業。
6.問：你認爲你做這份工作的風險和劣勢是什麼？
答：我認爲公司總部位於全球的中心，決定了失去與關鍵決策者隨時聯繫的機會的風險是非常小的。但是另一方面，在電話會議，電子郵件，傳真，還有隨時遵守職業道德等方面，公司還有很長的一段路要走。
7.問：我們公司很歡迎女性員工，但是由於這份工作比較特別，客戶來自某國，所以恐怕需要一位男士來勝任。
答：這是爲什麼呢？我似乎比其他任何男士或者女士都適合這份工作。
我父親的職業是外交官，因此我們家曾七次環遊世界各地，我甚至在遠東地區讀了大三。我所需要的培訓遠遠少於土生土長的，從來沒有在國境之外工作過的美國男士。
8.問：能請你描述一下你理想的工作嗎？
答：這就是我理想的工作，也是我來應聘的原因。我想幫助貴公司促進機構升級並調整忠誠度計劃，我爲這樣的前景感興奮。
9.問：如果你想選擇一位女性下屬，並已經有了最佳人選，但你的老闆卻希望是一位男性來做那份工作，你會怎麼做？
答：我會提議做一次在線“測試”，同時僱傭兩位候選人來做兩星期的自由工作。
10.問：如果你的同事宣稱你所有的好點子都是他/她想出來的，你會如何處理？
答：首先，我會嘗試公開稱讚她的想法。有時慷慨的讚美會促使對方“做出回報”。
如果這樣不能解決，我會嘗試達成一致，使他同意只對老闆說出自己的想法。如果這樣沒有用，我會公開和她討論這種情況。
然而，如果這個人是我的老闆，我將謹慎行事。我認爲在某種程度上，我的工作就是讓我的上司光彩。如果以加薪或晉升作爲我的想法的獎勵，我會很滿意。
11.問：你每週通常工作多少小時，爲什麼？
答：我大多數時候都工作很長時間。在額外的時間裏，我試着尋找給自己和公司的任務“增加價值”的方法。我想讓客戶看到我們的報告就會認爲除了我們公司，沒有其他人能寫出。
12.問：一個公司需不需要二線工作者？員工中都是一線工作者是否足夠？爲什麼？
答：我相信一個公司既需要一線工作者也需要二線工作者。當新業務開始時,你會希望一線工作者在前線衝鋒陷陣。但在他們身後，你需要二線工作者來敲定項目的細節，並堅持在平時注意維持。團隊中的一線工作者太多會導致自我衝突和混亂，工作則會陷入無政府主義的狀態。
13.問：你比較擅長“向上管理”還是“向下管理”？
答：如果你不擅長“向上管理”，那就沒有機會“向下管理”，幸運的是，我很擅長“自我管理”，我從來沒有完不成工作的經歷。
14.問：你比較希望在做新項目前得到領導的“允許”，還是完全靠自己來管理？
答：在我工作的第一個星期，我會問一下我的老闆她希望我如何處理項目。如果她表示，她想要手下是一個全權負責的人，我就會接管一切。如果她說她想讓我先把想法告知她，我會照做。我認爲真正的挑戰是適應工作環境，而我是很靈活的。
15.問：請舉出一個你處理過的最棘手的行政狀況。
答：當時我受僱於一位即將離職的女士，她讓我在一些任務中做她的“替罪羊”。我只是在我的女上司離開當天把這些任務全部推掉了。經理打電話給我的時候,我只是建議他們直接詢問我的女上司。這樣，我才從我的上司和她的領導之間的糾纏中脫身。
16.問：你認爲運氣和能力哪個比較重要？
答：我認爲技術嫺熟會幫我創造更多的機會，但還是運氣更加重要。在以前的一份工作中,我的老闆對我充滿信心，這激勵了我們公司的決策者，使他們相信也我可以勝任那份工作。但很明顯，我也是在正確的時間恰好處在正確的位置。
17.問：你是否曾經十分執着，以至於人們把你形容成”固執“，”死板“的人？
答：堅定的女性有時會被打上沒有吸引力的標籤。我不害羞也不膽怯，所以可能會有一兩個和我一起工作的人認爲我在某些任務上有些“死板”，但這個形容詞從來沒有在任何類型的績效考覈時被提出過，更不要提“頑固”這個詞了。我認爲大體上來說，我做到了既堅定又靈活。
18.問：你認爲你的職業生涯何時會達到頂峯？
答：一直以來我都屬於健康、頑強、思維活躍的一類人，所以我承認我從來沒有考慮過自己的職業生涯中會出現“頂峯”。人們常說起這一點，我也認爲自知之明並認識到自己的全盛期已經過去確實是十分重要的。
