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“Thank you, Sir/Ma’am for this opportunity. I am from XYZ City and
belong to a nuclear family. My father is a Central Government
Employee and my mother is a Vice Principal at a private school. My
younger sister will appear her CBSE 10th board this year. We are a
very close-knit family. On an individual front, I perceive myself as a
confident, conscientious and hardworking individual. I carry out any
task assigned to me without hesitation, provided the instructions are
clear. In the case of doubts, I never hesitate to put forth my questions.
I have always been a fast learner, and I love to keep up my process of
learning to figure out better ways of solving problems. Moreover, I
love to compete with my own past performances than competing with
my peers, as I believe that improvement is always better than
perfection!”
Don’t make the mistake of sharing too much personal
information in any of your HR interview questions and answers
round. You will not be left with enough time to sell your
experience and relevant technical skills.
“I was a good orator and always stood first in debate and elocution
competitions during my school and college days.”
Read more answers here.
What are your strengths and
weaknesses?
This is a very common question asked by HR personnel to
candidates. Remember that interviewers these days hardly ever
get impressed by flowery responses. So be careful while tackling
this one.
“As soon as I graduated, I felt the urge to start working in the real
world. It’s not that I am a total novice. I have undergone 3
internships, of which 2 are paid from reputed organizations. This
credential has helped me land an offer from one of those firms. I
sometimes wonder whether I should have first completed my post-
graduation. Had I done so, I wouldn’t have been able to develop my
complete portfolio. And I am hoping that my track record will help me
get selected for this position in your esteemed organization.”
Possible Answer #2:
“I have the requisite skills to make your risk worth it. Chatting less
and letting my work do the talking, is my motto. In the past, whatever
project was assigned to me was delivered on time and also at par with
all the quality standards.”
Possible Answer #3:
“I’ve been told that I’m a very good manager. My team tells me that I
give them a lot of freedom in how to do their work, which they really
appreciate. They also say that I’m really enthusiastic, so when we’re
faced with too much work, they tell me that my manner really helps to
keep them motivated and calm. My boss also tells me that I’m very
innovative in terms of finding new ways of working that cut out
inefficiency.”
“You might think that since I have never worked in my life, and this is
only my first job, my inexperience is my weakness. But I beg to differ.
I am a fast learner and very open minded. I assure that I do not carry
any pre-conceived notions regarding how I feel I should perform my
job.”
Possible Answer #2:
“I work too hard sometimes and care too much about my work. I take
my tasks back home and work even during the weekends. You can call
me a workaholic, but my family always points out that this is not right.
Slowly and steadily I am realizing that speed and working smartly are
the key. So, I have begun to reach out to my colleagues for ready-to-
use workarounds so that I can give more time to my family.”
If I call up your current or previous
reporting manager now, what will be
their opinion about you? What will they
say that you need to work on?
Freshers with no internship experience can move on to the next
question to prepare for HR interview questions and answers.
If you do not have any of the above, do not give out too many
details about your illness. For example, if you are suffering from
cold flu, say so. Do not exaggerate the situation as it might
create a negative impression wherein your HR will start to
anticipate your absence in the near future. If you do so, you
might bid goodbye to goodies such as travel opportunities,
promotions, hikes and even ripe leadership positions.
“In 2016, I was in the final year of college. During that time, I did
three things to improve my knowledge. 1. I got myself enrolled in
Aptech for the Sun Certified Java Programmer course. I will appear
my exam soon. 2. I have bought magazine subscriptions such as
Dataquest. These magazines help me to stay well informed about new
topics in the IT world. 3. I completed my final year application project
based on Java. The topic was Centralized Remote Based College
Information Scheme.”
Possible Answer #2:
“My ideal company is the one which can bring forth exciting
challenges. Such opportunities will bring out the best in me as I can
use my interests and experiences to grow. I like my present workplace
as it offers all this along with a clean and professional work
atmosphere, and more. But I am looking forward to a company that is
actively involved in social welfare, and your organization does
exactly that.”
Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel
about that?
This question is not applicable to first-time job seekers who are
about to face a round of HR interview questions and answers.
You can skip to the next question if you are a fresher. Mostly
manager and above level interview candidates are asked this
question.
Possible Answer:
“Yes, I have and believe me it feels horrible. But I know how to keep
emotions at bay, while I am at work. Firing comes at the very end of
road with me. When I set up a team, I do so very carefully after
considering the past feedback and history of every single team
member. But it is not always possible to choose your team.
Sometimes, you have to work with a few rotten potatoes and it is
essential to remove them from the basket, to save the rest. I have a
tendency to spot poor performers within two to three months of them
or me joining a new team. Last time I spotted one, I consulted my
peers and other team members. Then, I had to set up a one-on-one
meeting with the person and gave him several warnings, both written
and verbal, over a 30-day period. I helped him prepare a list of work
and behavioral goals, that I decided upon after consulting the rest of
the team. Eventually I had to fire that person because he showed zero
signs of improvement, drive and motivation. That firing was for a
cause and I had no other resort left in my rule book.”
“I have helped my father set up his business from scratch. This is our
family business and a startup as well. The initial days were really very
tough as I had to learn and apply everything at once. Be it sales,
marketing, leadership, management, finance, finance, human
resources etc. I became a jack of all trades overnight. It was really
difficult to running and grow the business. Nothing was so difficult or
stressful as this one, midway I even slipped into depression and
anxiety. I even made up my mind to quit my job and focus entirely on
my father’s dream, but thankfully the business took of due to our
collective efforts and today, I am free to focus on my career once
again, and do what I love the most. The accomplishment bit here is
that I feel whole and complete, as my family business is running
smoothly and my career is undisturbed.”
“Hard work is delivering work on time with more effort and smart
work is delivering work on time, with lesser effort. I feel that is the
basic difference. Most of the times, in the corporate world, I feel a
combination of both is needed to attain excellence.”
Read more answers here.
“Sir, my body clock has got tuned into regular weekday shifts from 9
to 6. I am not comfortable working nights and weekends on a regular
basis, unless there is some urgent deliverable or a resource crunch in
the team, I will surely pitch in. But working odd shifts is not good for
the mental and physical health of employees and I hope you
understand the same. Yet, if the company needs my presence
mandatorily at night or during the weekend for continued growth and
success, I will definitely work for it.”
“In a team, there are times when I and some of my peers work hard to
achieve a goal, while there are some people who leave their modules
incomplete or quit mid-way. At such a juncture, this load also gets
assigned to us, the hardworking lot. I don’t mind helping my peers
out, but when an extra load of work gets assigned to me in the
11th hour, I get irritated. Sometimes, when I know that I cannot do
justice to this new module, I politely refuse to take it up.”
“It is always good to venture into new waters and new technologies. I
am a very adaptive person and my diligence helps me pick up new
stuff quickly. Experimenting or taking risks can yield both good and
bad results, but the exercise in itself is a great learning experience.
Such experiences generate experts and I want to become an SME or a
JAVA subject matter expert someday.”
Possible Answer #2:
“It is yet to come. The day I land my first job in a reputed company
such as yours, will be my proudest achievement. That moment is still
pending.”
Possible Answer #2:
“I am very proud of how I helped ABC company set up successful
sales funnel by satisfying 60,000 hyper-responsive customers. I even
won a ‘Best Performer’ award and 100% incentive payout for the
same.”
“Last year, we wanted to improve sales by 50% but achieved just 35%
which was a huge letdown, even if there was a huge boost to our ROI.
The underlying issue was that I was on a holiday and my entire team
took this last big deal for granted. They are all star performers, but I
don’t know why they took this sure shot deal so lightly. We had built a
great rapport with this client over a period of 3 months and the deal
had almost been wrapped up. That was a huge failure in the recent
past for me. Eventually, the deal slipped out of our hands and
impacted the overall sales percentage.”
Read more answers here.
“My demands as a boss are never unreal. If the workload is huge and
timelines are not negotiable with my seniors, I do become a
demanding boss. Yet, as a manager, I always ensure that I help my
team members progress and grow on their individual career paths. If
they are having hiccups or challenges along the way, I delegate work
accordingly to make their life easy, as well as ensure project delivery
on time.”
“I make a to-do list with timelines and stick to this until any further
revision of schedule is announced. That’s how I manage time.”
Possible Answer #2:
What are the three things that are most important for
you in a job?
Possible Answer #1:
“When I was asked to step in as a temporary team leader for the first
time, I still remember how I missed a couple of key communications
from the manager. This pushed our deadlines back by 2 weeks. It was
a great lesson and since then, I always make it a point to focus on the
big-picture, instead of looking at smaller projects.”
“The amount you quoted is not huge, considering the fact that my
spouse is a social worker! In order to sustain my existence and my
family’s welfare, I would still keep working.”
Possible Answer:
“No I don’t.”
Play safe with this answer while you face your HR interview
questions and answers round. If you have an offer letter already,
keep it a secret till the salary negotiation stage comes up. There,
you can negotiate your remunerations on the basis of your
current drawn package and also the offer letter that you have.
You can negotiate with all the three organizations at this stage
(your current organizations, the company that issued an offer
letter and also the company with which you interviewed) and
finally select the best possible option. In case this strategy
conflicts with your personal theories and beliefs, you can frame
your answer, as shown below.
“I’ve been talking to ABC company for the past 15 days, but it is not
final yet. I am interested in working with them, but I’m still not sure.
Is there something you know about company ABC that you can share
with me?”
“I’m good friends with the daughter of Mr. XYZ, who is a part of this
organization. My friend is not your employee, but thinks very highly of
this organization and has been constantly encouraging me to apply.
That is the reason why I am here today, as the more I learned about
this company, the more I wanted to become a part of it.”
Possible Answer #2:
“Yes, I do!”
This is probably your very first chance during the interview, to
ask a question. Questioning will indicate that as a fresher, you
came well-prepared for the interview and you are still absorbed
in the conversation. It will also show that you do take interest in
the organization. Make a general list of five questions about the
company and ask them to your interviewer, after all other HR
interview questions and answers are over.
“How has your journey been so far in this organization? What excites
you the most about working here? How long does it ideally take a
person to prove their caliber here? Where is the organization headed
in the next years? What are the next steps of this interview?”
In case you already know everything about your potential
employer, you can ask the interviewer a direct question like: