Commonly asked why questions

Describe a time you went above and beyond at work. Tell me about the last mistake you made. What do you want to accomplish in the first 30 days of this job? Describe a time you got angry at work. Describe a time when you had to give a person difficult feedback. Describe a time when you disagreed with your boss. Would you ever lie for a company? Tell me about how you dealt with a difficult challenge in the workplace. What do you really think about your previous boss?

What has been the most rewarding experience of your career thus far? How would you deal with an angry or irate customer? Describe a time you chose to not help a teammate. Describe a time you went out of your way to help somebody. Describe a time when your work was criticized? What do you want to accomplish in the first 90 days of this job?

Do you think you could have done better in your last job? How would you fire someone? Questions about salary. Can you discuss your salary history? How much do you expect to be earning in five years? Questions about you. What makes you uncomfortable? What is your ideal working environment? What commonly accepted view do you disagree with and why? What are some positive things your last boss would say about you?

What differentiates you from our other candidates? Are you a morning person? How would a good friend describe you? Are you more of a leader or a follower? Do you have a personal mission statement? What do you like most about yourself? How long do you expect to work for this company? How do you keep yourself organized? What character traits would your friends use to describe you? What is your favorite movie of all time and why? What are three skills or traits you wish you had?

Describe your perfect company. Do you prefer to work alone or on a team? What is your proudest achievement? How do you want to improve yourself in the upcoming year?

Who are your heroes? What is your favorite memory from childhood? What is your favorite website? When were you most satisfied in a previous job?

What is the best job you ever had? What is your greatest fear? What was your greatest failure, and what did you learn from it? What was the last project you led and what was the outcome? How many hours per week do you normally work? Do you ever take your work home with you? What three things are most important to you in your job? What is one negative thing your last boss say about you? What will you miss about your previous job?

Describe your work style. What is your management style? Who has impacted you most in your career? What is your least favorite thing about yourself? What is your biggest regret and why? What are your coworker pet peeves? Why did you choose your major? What is your ideal company size? What is a book that everyone needs to read and why? Do you prefer working alone or in a team environment?

Do you find it difficult to adapt to new situations? Do you have a mentor? What do you do in your spare time? Describe your top three technical skills?

What causes are you passionate about? If you could get rid of any US state, which would you choose and why? Which is more important, creativity or efficiency? Is it better to be good and on time or perfect and late with your work?

How many stacked pennies would equal the height of the Empire State Building? Interview questions with example answers. Assets the employers finds valuable: Review the job description for role responsibilities as well as required and desired skills, qualities, experience and qualifications. For example, if a position emphasizes cross-collaboration, you might speak about your ability to unite a team around a common goal.

Ways you've been successful in previous roles: Reflect on past accomplishments and list the qualities that helped you achieve them. For example, if you received an award for your marketing skills you might share this along with the project or experience that earned you the award. It's a quick and easy way to stay one step ahead. Thank you! You are now a Monster member—and you'll receive more content in your inbox soon. By continuing, you agree to Monster's privacy policy , terms of use and use of cookies.

Search Career Advice. Advice Interviews Interview Questions. Answers to 10 Most Common Job Interview Questions Here are the most commonly asked interview questions you can expect to be asked in your interview and advice on how you can craft effective responses.

Carole Martin, Monster contributor. Know these popular interview questions and answers. Related Articles. Browse articles by Find The Right Career Path. Professional Development. Most Recent Jobs. See More Jobs. Debate continues over the numerous instances of cats being terrified by cucumbers.

Theories range from "the cats are simply scared of any object unexpectedly placed behind them" to "cucumbers resemble snakes and trigger an inherent flight reflex. Some enjoy the taste of grass, but many do it for nutritional especially fiber purposes. Better question—if the searches for questions 6 and 8 were combined, would they have made the top 3? The world will never know. To convey a variety of emotions, often happiness, but sometimes discomfort. Keep those cucumbers away from them.

Science isn't entirely sure, but some think it's to bring more oxygen into the blood during slower-breathing periods when we're tired. Oh, the kiddie gloves are off now, eh? Probably because you've read three questions in a row related to this. He was created as an infant, but when he aged, the show decided to keep his unique bald look.

The more you know! We really don't know. Perhaps dreams are just what the brain happens to do as it rests during the night. This forward-and-backward motion with the front paws is likely a remnant from kittenhood, where young felines knead to stimulate the flow of milk from their mothers. Ok, now this is really starting to get ridiculous.

People are starting to treat search engines like their own personal magic 8-balls. Going from plural to singular see question 5 won't change my answer, compadre. We're not sure, though one scientist jokes "so that men can have the breast of both worlds. In relationships? Because some of us are jerks. In games? Because I'll be darned if I'm going to lose at Candy Land again. This famous unanswered riddle was presented in Alice in Wonderland.

Author Lewis Carroll eventually revealed "both can produce a few notes, though they are very flat. Actually, they're born with gray feathers; these turn pink through a natural dye, canthaxanthin, in their meals. This isn't an actual question; it's just a search for the humorous "why not both" meme.

Hombre, you need to be more specific. You looking for The Judds' or Eric Church's song? Er, it could be a condition called hyperhidrosis, or simply nervous sweat. The interviewer isn't necessarily looking for the right answer but instead a little insight into your reasoning abilities. All you can do is talk through your logic as you try to solve the problem. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself if you get it wrong -- sometimes the interviewer is merely trying to assess how you deal with failure.

Don't waste this opportunity. Ask smart questions, not just as a way to show you're a great candidate but also to see if the company is a good fit for you -- after all, you're being interviewed, but you're also interviewing the company. If you weren't asked this question, ask it yourself. Great candidates want to hit the ground running.

They don't want to spend weeks or months "getting to know the organization. Great candidates also want to be great employees. They know every organization is different -- and so are the key qualities of top performers in those organizations. Maybe your top performers work longer hours. Maybe creativity is more important than methodology. Maybe constantly landing new customers in new markets is more important than building long-term customer relationships. Maybe the key is a willingness to spend the same amount of time educating an entry-level customer as helping an enthusiast who wants high-end equipment.

Great candidates want to know, because 1 they want to know if they will fit in, and 2 if they do fit in, they want to know how they can be a top performer. Employees are investments, and you expect every employee to generate a positive return on his or her salary.

Otherwise why do you have them on the payroll? In every job some activities make a bigger difference than others. You need your HR team to fill job openings, but what you really want is for them to find the right candidates, because that results in higher retention rates, lower training costs, and better overall productivity. You need your service techs to perform effective repairs, but what you really want is for those techs to identify ways to solve problems and provide other benefits -- in short, to build customer relationships and even generate additional sales.

Great candidates want to know what truly makes a difference and drives results, because they know helping the company succeed means they will succeed as well. Great candidates want a job with meaning, with a larger purpose -- and they want to work with people who approach their jobs the same way.

Employees who love their jobs naturally recommend their company to their friends and peers. The same is true for people in leadership positions -- people naturally try to bring on board talented people they previously worked with.

They've built relationships, developed trust, and shown a level of competence that made someone go out of their way to follow them to a new organization.

Every business faces a major challenge: technological changes, competitors entering the market, shifting economic trends. There's rarely one of Warren Buffett's moats protecting a small business. So while some candidates may see your company as a stepping-stone, they still hope for growth and advancement. If they do eventually leave, they want it to be on their terms, not because you were forced out of business. Say I'm interviewing for a position at your ski shop.

Another store is opening less than a mile away: How do you plan to deal with the competition? Or you run a poultry farm a huge industry in my area : What will you do to deal with rising feed costs? Great candidates don't just want to know what you think; they want to know what you plan to do -- and how they will fit into those plans. Top Stories. Top Videos. Getty Images. So your "biggest weakness" is that you'll put in more hours than everyone else?

In either case you learn nothing, other than possibly how well candidates can sell themselves. For interviewers, here's a better question: "What business would you love to start? And if you don't know why the position is a perfect fit, look somewhere else. Life is too short. What happened? Three words describe how you should answer this question: relevance, relevance, relevance.

What did you do?