Sample Interview Questions
Students are encouraged to book an advising appointment for a mock interview to prepare for interviews, but you can also use these questions for self-study. You can book your advising appointment on campusBRIDGE.
You can also partner with a friend and they can ask you a sample question while you answer to practice interviewing.
- Please describe your past work experience for me. I am particularly interested in learning about experience that may be relevant to this position.
- What were the important career influences that directed you to choose this particular program of study (or career field)?
- Tell me what you know about our organization and one of the projects that we are working on that you are interested in. How would you fit into that project?
- Tell me about one skill that you possess that you feel is essential for this position.
- Tell me about your interdisciplinary research experience.
- Tell me about a time when you had to make a presentation to people who were not your colleagues and were not fellow students. What was the subject? How did the presentation go? What feedback did you get? What did you learn from the experience?
- Tell me about a time when you were faced with performing a task you have never done before. How did you approach the task? What did you learn?
- Tell me about a time when you had an idea for an improvement and how your organization was affected.
- Tell me about a time when you had to change your priorities to meet a deadline.
- Give me an example of a time when you faced a lot of obstacles to achieving a goal.
- Describe a time when your supervisor provided you with insufficient guidance to complete a project. How did you proceed?
- Tell me about a time when you managed a project from beginning to end. How did you set your priorities? What feedback to receive during the project? What was the outcome of this project?
- Give me an example of a time when you provided feedback on a project, one from another organization.
- Tell me about a time when you worked with team members from different cultures and who may have had competing goals about the project output.
- Describe a time when you had a conflict with a supervisor. What was the nature of the conflict and how was it resolved?
- Tell me about a time when you led a project. How many members were there on your team? Were you the only leader? How would you rate yourself as a leader and why that rating? What do you feel is one asset you bring to group leadership?
- Tell me about a time when you used creativity to solve a problem.
- Give me an example of a time when flexibility was an asset in your work.
- Describe a technique that you use to evaluate the work of people you have supervised.
- Tell me about a time when your ability to analyze a problem led to an innovative solution.