25 HR Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced

In addition to the general questions fresher graduates face in an HR interview, here are some typical questions which experienced people can face during the interview:

What makes you interested in this job?

If you can’t add any value to the company, the interviewer will not be very interested in knowing how this job can offer you a career progression and how much you enjoy taking up new challenges. The best way is to keep the focus of your answer on how your skills, experience and personal qualities fit into the requirements of this particular position.

Why do you think should we take you for this job?

Analyse the requirements of the job profile well before you go for the interview. Relate your skills, experience and qualification with the and these are reasons why they should consider you for this position.

If there are any new things that you are expected to perform in the new job you can say that every new job needs a person to do something new and you have an ability to grasp new things quickly. Back this up with an example from your last job.

What is the motivating factor for you at work?

You can say that competition and new challenges motivate you at work.

Why do you want to leave your present job?

The reasons for switching the job could be numerous. The best answer to offer for this question is to say, “for better prospects”.

Now they can ask you another question, what do you mean by better prospects? To this you can say, better prospects in terms of experience, and exposure.

If you have been made redundant, put your words across very carefully. Your wrong words can give an impression that only you were the one whose position was made redundant, which hardly might be the case.

May be you can say something like, “Over last 8 months a lot of restructuring was going on in the company and 40 positions became surplus. One of them was mine but I have learnt a lot during my tenure at XYZ company and I am sure I can add a lot of value to a position like the one we are discussing about”.

What is your greatest achievement?

Find an answer to this question from the recent past and focus on the qualities that were required to achieve it.

What qualities would you look for, if you were recruiting someone for this position?

The purpose of this question is to estimate your understanding of the position. Make sure that you have analysed the requirements of the role before appearing for the interview. Focus your answer on the skills, personal qualities and experience you would seek in a person for this position.

You seem to be working with the same company since a long time. - Why?

Staying with the same company for too long may be considered as lack of ambition in the candidate.

You can put this negative thought to rest by telling the interviewer how you were adding value to yourself being in the same company. Discuss some different kinds of assignments you handled and their importance to the company.

You seem to have switched many jobs-why?

Too much job hopping gives an impression that the candidate is unstable and unreliable. If you have switched jobs very often you can say that you did it to broaden your experience.

You do not have all the experience we are seeking for this position.

The answer to this question lies in your analysis of the requirements for this role. If you have most of the qualities required for the role, you can highlight that and say that you understand every new job needs a person to learn new things and you are pretty capable to picking up new things quickly.

Back this up with an example about the new things you learnt at your last job.

How did you manage to attend this interview during your working hours?

Interviewer knows that you won’t ask for a permission in office to attend the interview. You can say that you took an off from the office to attend this interview.

Would you like to work in a team or on your own?

The agenda behind this question is to assess if you are a team player or a solo performer.

There will be times when you will be required to work in a team while at others you will be required to work independently. You should prepare yourself to work in both the situations.

A good answer to this question can be, I can adjust very well in a team but if required to work alone with more responsibility on some project, I can handle that also very effectively.

If your boss was present here, what do you think he would tell us about you?

This question can be handled in two ways depending on the situation in which the interview is going on:

- First way: If the situation is light and you have built up a good rapport with the interviewer, you can say that, “I am the diamond of his team, you must pick me up”. This needs to be accompanied by a right body language.

- Second way: If the discussion is proceeding in a serious situation, you can pick up some formal appraisal he gave you and say that I think he would repeat it here.

Did you face any problems in your last role?

The agenda of this question is to understand if you were the one who caused the problem.

Did you think of changing your present job earlier? If yes, what do you think made you stay back?

You might have thought about leaving your present job earlier but later decided to continue. To answer this question you need to recollect the reason for which you wanted to change the job and then your thought process which made you decide to continue.

You can discuss about the positive aspects of the job, any advancement opportunities you saw or any type of flexibility which kept you attached to your last employment.

Was your work ever criticized? What did you do?

The purpose of this question is to see how do you handle criticism. If you have been in such a situation, you can tell a bit about it and then focus your answer on how you handled it.

If you have never been in such a situation, you can say that though you have not been in such a situation, you know that it is important not to lose your cool and improve your work.

You don’t seem to have lead in your last role. How would you be able to do it here?

If you know how to do the work and you have leadership qualities, you can lead a team. You can say that, I know the job well and I have the qualities which need me to lead here. I believe I am ready to take a more challenging and responsible role than the one I am currently playing.

Have you ever been in a situation where you were required to fire anyone? How did you handle it?

Being a boss means being ready to even part away with your most favourite people if they are not able to add value to the business. However, it is important to deal with firing an employee in a proper way so that there's no bad feeling on either of the sides. If you have not fired any one, you can say that " Though I haven't fired any off till now but if I am faced with such a situation, I would get to the root of the problem, try to solve it, apply methods like job rotation where ever possible and if nothing works, I'll tell the person that for these reasons we need to part our ways".

One of your team members is not able to meet his targets on a regular basis. You discussed it with him and tried all measures to improve his performance in that role but nothing works. What would you do as a team leader?

When faced with a situation like this, may be you can try to put that person to another job and if that also doesn't work you might have to fire them off. The question is to check your ability to make practical decisions in favour of business.

If you face a problem with your own performance, what would you do?

Through this question the interviewer wants to find out if you can see problems with your performance or not. Tell him that you will analyse the problem and its reasons and work on each one of them.

How was your performance measured?

Discuss about the key performance indices here.

How would you classify your style of management?

One style of management would not suit all the situations. So, you can say that your style of management is situational.

How would you describe your work style?

You can say that your work style is performance oriented and you love to enjoy the work. Most companies will find this answer convincing.

What would you do if your team does not perform as expected?

The agenda behind this question is to understand your management style. A good answer to this question could be, I will try to establish the reasons for non-performance of the team and eradicate them.

Your expected salary?

Don't jump at a figure immediately when this question is asked. Try to turn the ball back into the interviewer’s court and ask him the type of salary the company offers for a position like this.

If you are required to answer this question, mention a range rather than mentioning an exact figure but don't keep the range too vast. Probably you can say, I should be comfortable with something in the range of mid fifties for example.

What will you do if you are offered a job with a salary higher than this?

By asking this question the interviewer tries to analyze if the candidate will leave the job for a couple of thousands.

Recruiting a candidate is a costly and time consuming affair, so the employers are cautious before they hire someone. You can answer this question by saying that you will discuss the issue with your senior and ask his views on your growth in the present job and if you see that there is a potential to grow in the present job, you will stick otherwise you will politely inform him about your decision to move ahead in life.