HR Interview Questions

Job interviews can be a stressful process and you need to be prepared for anything an interviewer throws at you. You're calm and relaxed, mentally ready for a challenge, and even looking forward to the chance to shine. Use each interview as a learning experience and don't beat yourself up if it doesn't go the way you had hoped. On this page, you'll find HR Interview Questions to help you get prepared.

Depending on the company, you will either interview with a person from HR or the manager you would be working under. It's good to know this beforehand because HR Interview questions are generally much different than with a hiring manager. Hiring manager questions tend to be more geared towards your experience, while HR interview questions tend to be more general in nature.

Here is a list of questions you can generally expect to be asked by someone interviewing you from a company's HR department.

1. Why do you want to leave your job?
There is no right answer to this question, only wrong ones. You don't need to make book out of this answer, just something short and positive is best. After all, it really does not matter to the interviewer, as long as you don't say something foolish. The point here is to convey to the interviewer that you are not leaving because you are mad, tired, bored, overworked, underpaid, or job hopping, just that you are leaving your job on because.

"I do enjoy working at my current job. The culture and the people make it a great place to work. But I'm looking for more responsibility with new and fresh challenges. I have worked on and successfully completed several projects, from start to finish during the past two years. Currently, advancement opportunities are scarce at my current job. I don't mind a slow down in pace from time to time, but it's important to me to keep my career continually moving in a forward direction that is consistent with my career goals."

2. Tell me about yourself?
What do you want the interviewer to know about you when you leave, your work experience or your personal interests? I'm confident their hiring decision will be based on your work experience, save your personal interests for the water cooler after you get the job.

Briefly talk about your current employer.

Discuss 2-3 of your most significant accomplishments.

Talk about a few of your key strengths as they relate to the job for which you are applying and how they can benefit from your strengths.

Then discuss how you see yourself fitting into a position at their company.

3. How do accept criticism?
This is a team player question and is asked to see how open and willing you are to being asked or told what to do. Are you someone who can follow directions? Can you accept criticism? Or, are you the type of person who does not like being told what to do or being criticized?

"I openly accept criticism without taking any offense and politely thank the person for their comments."

4. What are some of the things that bother you?
This is a common question, but don't dwell on it. The interviewer is looking for a job related answer, more like "what bothers you about your job or the people you work with?" If you dig deep and think of what really bothers you, you'll find that it's other people and their ideas, right? But don't tell the interviewer that, you can be more clever than that.

"It bothers me the most when other people I work with don't meet their deadlines or deliver what they promise."

5. Do you prefer working with others or alone?
Basically, the interviewer is asking if you are a team player. If your answer is with others, then the interviewer will think you can't work alone and if you answer alone, then the interviewer may think you have some personality issues working with other people. Your response needs to show that you can work well in a team atmosphere and still shoulder individual responsibility, as well. Before you answer, make sure you know if the job requires you to work alone or not.

"I enjoy working alone when necessary as I don't need to be constantly reassured of my work. But I would prefer to work in a group as I believe much more work can be accomplished when everyone is pulling together."

6. How do you get along with different types of people?
The workplace is loaded with a variety of different people with varying personalities and the interviewer wants to know how you think you will fit in. When answering interview questions with HR, you want to show your interviewer that it does not matter what kind of people you work with - just that work gets done. This shows the interviewer that you are more concerned with outcomes than personalities.

Best answer: 1. "I work well with anyone who delivers what they promise."

What are some of the things that you and your supervisor have disagreed about?
Though it may sound like it, this is not a time to bad mouth your supervisor. Let's take what is expected to be a negative answer and turn it around.

"Shifting priorities is usually the main reason for any type of disagreement. I may be working on a project that has a tight deadline and my supervisor may pull me from that project to work on something else. It can be frustrating to stop working on a project after I have built up a great deal of momentum only and to switch gears on the fly and start on something completely different."

7. Would your boss describe you as a go-getter?
Share with the interviewer an example of a project that you worked on, perhaps you had to put in long hours and time on the weekend to meet a deadline and that in the end you completed the project or task on time and under budget and made your department or company look good.

"Yes; absolutely. It is not uncommon for my boss to tell me that I am one of the most reliable employees he has. He even makes such remarks on my evaluations. I believe he thinks so because I am dependable and I just get things done without having to be supervised and in the end it just makes him look good."

8. Why did you choose this particular career path or what led to your chosen profession?
When answering HR interview questions like this, you need to be specific and tell the interviewer what inspired you to take this career path while keeping your answer short and to the point. If you can, try to direct your answer so that it shows a logical progression between your profession and the company you are interviewing with.

You really want to convince the interviewer that you are the right person for the job and that your education, dreams, and career goals match your profession. Describe your thought process.

Don't say that you majored in English because you thought it would be easy. Be specific and justify your answer. I chose .. because .. "I chose architecture because I have always admired beautiful buildings" or "As a child I was truly inspired by a certain TV show doctor which ultimately led me to pursue a career in medicine."

"I chose medical school because I have always enjoyed helping other people."

You have just read a small fraction of what is inside The Complete Interview Answer Guide. Each of these questions is answered in extreme detail in my guide and there are many more questions and multiple answers to each question in this guide.

More styles of Interview Questions:

Interview Questions and Answers
Phone Interview Questions
Management Interview Questions
Top 10 Interview Questions