- Tell me about yourself
ANSWER: I worked at a small shop for two years doing 50 projects a year, meeting 100% of my deadlines. Then I worked for a bigger firm with clients like Disney and Netflix—with 99% client satisfaction. I collaborated with the team to win an A’ Design Award. I’m excited to step into a role like this that’s designed around that kind of efficiency and collaboration. Why are you applying for this position?
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| I was born in Central Maine and spent summers swimming on a lake. After college, I worked bartending jobs. I knew I had graphic design talent, so I tried it. I’ve worked for seven years now at two different firms. I’ve gotten really good. |
2.Why do you want to work here?
ANSWER:
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| You’re looking for someone experienced in pairs programming and Scrum. I’ve been part of two programming pairs in six years. In the first we raised code efficiency 45%. In the second we helped the team win a BOSSIE Award. In that job I was on a Scrum team that delivered 15 projects 20% under budget. |
| WRONG |
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| I’ve been applying to just about every job I see on LinkedIn. This looked like a good fit, depending on the salary. |
3.What motivates you?
ANSWER:
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| This is a high-end office with a great team. Your employees voted you the best place to work in New Hampshire. I know you’re looking for an administrative assistant good at resolving customer complaints. At CRM Mineral, I did that 43% faster than the previous assistant by triaging complaints and quickly escalating larger issues. |
| WRONG |
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| I need work and I’ve applied to 200 jobs in the past month. I’m ready to work hard and I’m a skilled admin assistant. |
4.Why are you a good fit for this position?
ANSWER:
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| I’m a good fit because you need an efficient nurse who is professional under pressure. At Harrison Memorial, we had a full ward and fast-paced schedule. The charge nurse commended me five times for efficiency and teamwork. |
| WRONG |
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| I’m a great nurse and I’d work very hard to do the best job possible here. I’ve always fit in very well with nursing teams I’ve worked with. |
5.Why are you the best person for this job?
ANSWER:
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| You need a business analyst who knows how to redesign customer communication protocols and fulfillment processes. I did that at Huffman Barco when outdated systems pushed our costs up. I was able to save the company $2 million a year. |
| WRONG |
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| I’m a top-notch business analyst, highly skilled in future state assessment, business process re-engineering, and gap analysis. I’ve been on the job for nine years. At Huffman Barco, I was responsible for all business analysis functions. |
6.What are your weaknesses?
ANSWER:
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| I haven’t traditionally been great at leadership. At Sintertron, the DevOps manager wanted to put me in charge of two programming pairs, and it was terrifying. I enrolled in three Dale Carnegie classes and learned a lot. It was a challenge, but I ended up enjoying it. My teams outperformed the company speed average by 5%. |
| WRONG |
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| I’m not very good at teamwork. Every time my last boss put me with someone else to work with, we never got along. I work better by myself. |
7.What interests you about this position?
ANSWER:
| The job offer jumped out at me. You need someone who knows about app prioritization and network monitoring. At AccuRight Solutions, I used those tools to boost network performance 38%. |
| WRONG |
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| It looks like a good opening at a good company. The pay is right, and it’s local to me and I need a job. I’m really interested in working here. |
8.Tell me about how you dealt with a tough challenge
ANSWER:
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| We had a big last-minute order come in from a valued customer. I called a meeting and laid out the problem. We found a way to get it done with zero overtime. We made an extra $1.1 million in revenue that month. |
| WRONG |
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| A crucial machine broke down right in the middle of a big run. I called in maintenance and they fixed the issue. |
9.What are your strengths?
ANSWER:
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| I’m a strong Python programmer and I excel at collaboration. In my last job I worked closely with a team of five software engineers that turned out 10 Python projects in two years, end-to-end. We raised customer retention by 20%. |
| WRONG |
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| I’m an excellent Java programmer and I’ve got great communication skills. In my last job I worked with six software engineers. Our team created 11 software solutions in Java in two years. We boosted customer retention by 22%. |
10.Why should we hire you?
ANSWER:
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| You need an accountant who can support general accounting functions in the monthly close process for a high-volume firm. I did that at Amex for five years. I spotted a hidden issue that saved $3 million. I also redesigned our cloud computing policies and saved $300,000 a year in labor hours spent on security. |
| WRONG |
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| I’m an experienced accountant skilled in financial statements, asset management, and account analysis. I worked for five years at American Express as an accountant. During that time I worked on cross-functional teams and improved our account analysis policies. I think I’d be a great fit. |
