There are probably an infinite number of questions that can be asked in an interview. Nevertheless, the following is a representative list of questions you may encounter. They are organized by type of question and/or by the type of interview in which they are most commonly found. At the bottom, you will also find a list of questions by functional areas.

You should be prepared for any or all of these questions in your interviews–particularly those focused on what motivates you and what qualifies you to pursue a given career path/job role. As part of your preparation, you may wish to write out your answers, perhaps in bullet-point style, to ensure that you can identify and communicate the key points of your answers at anytime. To improve your answers, review your resume and identify examples from your experience that illustrate your points. Use these specific examples to reinforce your strengths and to contribute detail to the overall story you wish to present to the interviewer.

Please note well the following two points:

1. Anything on your resume is fair territory for the interviewer to explore.
2. Technical questions are often asked. If you are specializing in Finance, for example, the interviewer may ask, “How do you value a company?” If you have not taken the first corporate finance course, tell your interviewer. You are not expected to know what you haven't taken yet.Tell me about a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem at work.

Personal

These are often part of the “fit” interview that focuses on who you are as a person. This kind of question can appear in any type of interview. The questions in the first group are followed by hints to help you structure your answers.

• Tell me about yourself. This common opening question is designed to let you talk and relax. You can choose any combination of events to describe. Interviewers don't want an autobiography. Keep it to two to three minutes--max! Your 60-Second Commercial is a good opening for your answer. Be prepared to elaborate.
• What are your goals? Describe carefully. You can talk about where you want to be, but don't give a canned answer--“I want to be in management.”
• Tell me about your experience at your previous employer. Always be positive. If there was a problem, don't provide details. Talk about what you learned, how you developed, and how you can transfer these skills to the new position.
• Under what type of supervision do you work most effectively? They want to know if you can work independently and take direction. Talk about being self-motivated and that you work well in diverse situations.
• What challenges you? This is a character question.
• If your best friend were here, what do you think s/he would tell me about you? Clearly, this is trying to get insight into your character and how you think others view you.
• What was the last book you read? It is asked to see what your interests are.
• Are you fluent in [language]? Be prepared for the rest of the interview to be conducted in that language. The interviewer is looking for honesty and ability.
• What are your hobbies? This is designed to see if you are a well-rounded individual.
• With whom are you talking? How have you been doing? Cite comparable companies. Any offers yet?
• What is the biggest contribution you made to your former company/organization?
• What are the three most important events of your life? Why?
• Who are your heroes? Who has most shaped your life?
• How do you define success?
• What are your career goals?
• Where do you see yourself in five years? In ten years?
• How would your friends describe you? Your colleagues/coworkers/classmates?
• What makes you stand out among your fellow students?
• How do you see your fit in our company?
• What are your expectations and goals for this position?
• What is most important to you with regard to job satisfaction?
• Why do you want to work for us? How did you happen to find us?
• Did you get an offer from the firm you worked for this summer?
• Do you have other offers? Why would/wouldn't you take our offer over one of the others?
• Why do you want to relocate?
• Are you willing to relocate every two years or so?
• How do you feel about travel?
• To what extent have you traveled in your past jobs?

Industry/Job/Company/Organization
These are found in all types of interviews. In behavioral interviews, they are often buried amid more specific examples of how you handle situations, stay abreast of industry news, and analyze/manage data. See also the sections dedicated to specific functional areas. The first two questions are followed by hints to help you structure your answers.

• Why are you here? This means: Why are you interviewing with XYZ Company? This is where you want to use your research on the company and demonstrate how you can meet the company's needs and how it meets your needs. One applicant answered, “Because you invited me!” This is not the answer interviewers appreciate.
• Why should we hire you? This is your chance to really shine! Sell yourself. Show your fit for the job.
• Why are you interested in ________?
• What makes you want to be a _______?
• What do you think this job requires?
• What do you predict is going to happen in this industry in the next 5 years?
• How would you go about evaluating a business?
• What do you know about our company?
• Who do you see as our most important competitors?
• What other types of jobs are you considering?
• With what other organizations are you interviewing?
• What criteria are you using to evaluate the organization for which you hope to work?
• What two or three things are most important to you in your job?
• What are the attributes of your ideal job?
• What parts of the job do you think you will find least satisfying? Why?
• What do you think it takes to be successful in this industry/company/job?

Education

These are common in the “fit” or resume review types of interviews. A behavioral interview will focus on your thought process in deciding to attend certain institutions, pursue degrees, etc. The first two questions are followed by hints to help you structure your answers.

• Why did you choose Sacred Heart? This one is designed to determine why you made the choice and how you made the choice. If you applied to several schools and Sacred Heart was the only one that selected you, you don't need to provide all the details.
• What do you like most about Sacred Heart? With this question, they will assess your fit with the company.
• What made you decide to major in _______?
• What have you learned at Sacred Heart that will help you in this job?
• What extracurricular activities are you involved in here? Why did you choose these particular activities? Do you hold any leadership positions?
• What electives have you taken? Why?
• What courses at Sacred Heart have you enjoyed most/least? Why?
• How are you different from other Sacred Heart students?

Resume Review
Many of these questions focus on industry, company/organization, or functional skills.

• Walk me through your resume. Focus on accomplishments and your thought process in making transitions.
• What is the most important thing on your resume? Why?
• What should I know about you that is not on your resume?
• What was the most important thing you learned from your previous experience/internship?
• Given that you have no background in this field, why do you think you will be successful? What interests you about this field?
• You have five minutes to describe the most relevant and specific items in your background that show you are uniquely qualified for this position.
• What particular expertise do you have that would lend itself well to this position?
• Demonstrate/illustrate skills that you can transfer from past experience.
• What are the immediate and future problems you would expect to face if we hired you for this position?
• Describe the most difficult job you have ever had to perform.

Behavior
These questions generally look for specific examples/demonstration of the attributes or values that are important to the organization. They often encompass management or leadership style and approach, problem solving skills, teamwork, presentation skills, and strengths and weaknesses. Remember to choose stories or examples from your resume and background that are most relevant to each interviewer. The questions in the first group are followed by hints to help you structure your answers.

• How do you set an example for others? They are really asking: ”Are you a leader?”
• Describe your major life accomplishments. This sums up what is really important to you. You may include personal accomplishments, but the majority should be work related. If you have no work experience, talk about your extracurricular activities--civic, social, sports. Talk about the team aspects, dealing with various personalities. If you organized something, talk about your organizational skills or your ability to generate interest in others.
• Tell me about your weaknesses. Never provide more than two. Describe how you are overcoming your weaknesses. Alternatively, you may choose to focus on improvements you are making in technical or leadership skills or other areas where you recognize you need to add to your professional “tool kit”.
• Tell me something at which you failed. Be honest. We have all failed. The interviewer wants to see how you view failure and what you do with failure.
• What conditions at Sacred Heart have been most stressful to you? The question is designed to see your tolerance for stress. Recruiters are looking to see how you deal with ambiguity and change. Recruiters may also ask about your course load.
• Compare and contrast [two things]. This is designed to test your analytical and reasoning skills.
• Walk me through a situation in which you had to get information by asking a lot of questions of several people. This is asked to see how you process things. Analytical skills are assessed.
• The interviewer may cite examples of problems going on at work and ask you how you would go about solving them. This provides an assessment of your analytical skills and probes to see how much you know about the company.
• What tricks or techniques have you learned that make your schoolwork or your job easier? The question is used to determine your ability to learn and your initiative. Are you able to master new information? How quickly? Are you proactive? This answer is different than the one about analytical skills.
• Do you prefer to work on a team or alone? If your answer is “on a team”, then be prepared to describe a successful team experience and your role on the team.
• How did you get around an obstacle that prevented you from completing a task? The interviewer wants to learn about your flexibility and initiative. S/he is trying to see if you can adjust to changing situations and if you can overcome barriers to get the job done.
• Have you ever had to “go the extra mile” for a customer? What did you do? They want to learn about your customer service skills.
• Tell me about a situation in which you made a decision too quickly. This is asked to learn about your judgment.
• Tell me about a risk you took. This is put forward to see if you are risk averse or a risk taker.
• The interviewer may describe an ethical dilemma and ask how you would handle the situation. Be prepared for ethical questions, particularly with Wall Street firms.
• Describe a time when you were part of a particularly difficult team. What was the situation? What role did you play? How did you handle it? What was the outcome?
• Give me an example of a time when you successfully worked within a team. What was your role? What was the outcome?
• Tell me about the last time you took the initiative to move a project ahead. What happened?
• Tell me how you reacted when given “constructive” feedback on one of your projects/responsibilities that wasn't going as well as others had expected. Who was providing the feedback?
• Describe a time when you have had to influence the actions or decisions of more senior people, yet did not have the requisite authority to dictate behavior. How did you handle it? What was the outcome?
• Give me an example of a leadership role you have played in an event, meeting, presentation, or project, when everything did not go as planned. How did you handle it? What was the outcome? What did you learn from this experience? What might you do differently next time?
• What was the most difficult decision you've had to make in the last 12 months?
• Discuss a setback you have overcome in the last 12 months.
• Describe a problem situation where you had to seek out and prioritize relevant information. How did you define key issues, decide which steps to take to achieve the desired results, and gain approval to implement them?
• Tell me about a time when you have successfully resolved a conflict. What was your role in the situation? How did you handle it?
• Give me an example of a creative or innovative idea you have had recently. What was the context? What made your idea innovative? What did you do with this idea? Where does it stand today?
• How do you stay abreast of industry/functional news?
• Tell me about a time when you made effective use of primary and secondary research data to create consensus and bring others to your way of thinking. How did you approach this situation? What was the outcome?
• Give me an example of how you assessed a situation and achieved good results by focusing on the most important priorities. How did you determine what the priorities were? What was your strategy and plan to achieve the desired outcome?
• Tell me about a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem at work.

Function

 

Consulting

• What background do you have that would be helpful in consulting?
• Why consulting?
• How do you think the consulting industry is structured?
• What are some differences among the consulting firms that are important to you?
• What were the sales of your last employer? What was its profitability?
• Are you a generalist or specialist? Where do you see yourself specializing?
• Are you competitive?
• How are you going to make your decision if you get more than one offer?

Healthcare

• Why are you interested in the health care industry?
• What strengths do you have for the health care industry?
• Prioritize the most important issues facing health care management.
• Provide your recommendations to address these issues.
• What is the current administration's goal towards health care?
• Why have some HMOs been successful and others have not? Elaborate.

Investment Banking

• What would you do if you weren't going into investment banking?
• What was your quantitative SAT score?
• Some technical finance/accounting questions:
• How do you value a firm?
• What is an interest rate swap?
• What is DCF? How do you calculate the discount rate?
• How do you determine if a stock is undervalued?
• How would you price the stock for an IPO?
• What is working capital? Quick ratio? Free cash flow?
• Tell me what you know about [the firm].
• Tell me about the cultures of the different firms.
• How are you going to make your decision if you get more than one offer?
• What do you want to do and why- M&A, capital markets, or corporate finance?
• The bond market is going down; what is the stock market going to do?
• Where is the industry going? What is the market doing?
• What are the headlines in today's Wall Street Journal?
• What do you read regularly on the industry?
• Why choose investment banking? Why pick this bank?
• Tell me what an investment banker does.
• Tell me the difference between commercial and investment banks.
• Why pick corporate finance as opposed to sales and trading?
• What are your outside activities? Why would you be willing to give them up for such a demanding job?
• What role do you play in group situations?
• What would you do if offered drugs as part of the deal? (or other ethically-oriented questions)
• Sell us on your quantitative skills.
• How smart are you? How do we know how smart you are?
• If we made you an offer today, would you take it?
• What did the Dow, S&P, or NASDAQ close at yesterday?
• What stocks do you follow and why? (Be prepared to discuss the stock's performance.)

Marketing

• Give me the attributes of a good brand manager.
• Now take me through your background and demonstrate how you have each attribute.
• Rate SHU's marketing program.
• How would you sell more [Tide]?
• Talk about an ad—what makes it effective? interesting? etc.
• What are some examples of bad advertising? Why?
• How do you sell your ideas?
• What are you looking for in a consumer products company?
• What do you think are the most important traits in a marketing person?
• Describe your leadership style.
• Provide an example of your problem solving approach.

Sales and Trading

• What other firms have you talked to?
• What makes you think you can sell?
• Would you like to do sales or trading? Why?
• Tell me what you think a trader (salesperson) does.
• Why choose selling debt vs. selling equity?
• Why didn't you choose corporate finance?
• What particular markets or instruments are you interested in? Why?
• Will your personality make you a good trader? Why?
• How will you motivate yourself to make the calls you hate to make?
• What are your grades?

Strategic Planning and Corporate Finance

• What do you hope to gain by working for our firm?
• Where do you see yourself five years from now?
• How do you see your career progressing in our firm?
• What do you know about our industry?
• How would you describe our competitive position?
• Our ____ division is thinking of introducing a (such and such) new product. How would you go about determining if this is a good idea?
• We are having trouble managing our ____ division. What do you think are the key performance metrics? How would you improve them?
• How would you value our _____ for a potential sale, spin-off, or liquidation?
• How does M&A activity in banking affect our industry?

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