1.) Describe to me how XYZ technology works.
2.) What kind of training sessions have you had to ensure that your XYZ skills remain up to date?
3.) How do you go about retaining your competitive edge?
4.) Tell me about a particularly challenging project that you’ve completed and what result it achieved.
5.) How well developed would you say your technical writing ability is?
If you come from a consulting environment, there are a number of areas in which you will be expected to demonstrate proficiency. Your future boss is going to be interested in your answers to the following:
1) Describe a time when you were asked to explain a difficult issue to one of your clients? How did you do it, and how well-received was your explanation?
2) Have you ever encountered a situation where your client literally changed his/her mind in the midst of an on-going project? How did you handle this?
3) When was the last time you had to juggle multiple priorities? How did you prioritize these and what was the outcome?
4) Please discuss a time when you exceeded your client’s expectations. What kind of a reward did you receive for your efforts?
5) Have you ever encountered a problem that you did not know how to handle? What was it, and how did you ultimately resolve it?
6) Do you enjoy delegating authority? Describe a time when you needed to do this. What was the outcome?
7) What techniques do you use to manage a client? How successful are you at this?
8) What is your role in making client presentations?
When applying for a position as a manager, it makes sense that you will have already had experience in leading a team. It therefore makes sense that you will be able to discuss the following areas:
1) What would you say is your personal leadership style?
2) Tell me about a project where you had to assume more responsibility than you had originally anticipated.
3) How do you keep your department/group producing quality work? What steps do you take to motivate your staff?
4) Discuss a situation where you had to handle a difficult employee. How did you retain control?
If you are not given an opportunity to answer these questions, you should work some of the above information into your interview. It is a common practice to ask a prospective employee whether he/she has any questions or comments.
At this point, you can say, “I’d like to describe for you if I may, the management style that I have always found to be effective.” Or, I’d like to tell you about how I deal with difficult people.” Pick an area that is going to be relevant to the position for which you are interviewing and volunteer the information yourself.
One caveat here: make sure you don’t sound as if you’re boasting: nobody likes a braggart!) Stay with a factual description of the situation and review what steps you took and why you took them.
If you can paint of picture of how your experience dovetails with the requirements of the new position, you’ll already be a step ahead.
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