Manager Interview - Top 19 Stunning Questions Likely to Be Asked

One of my long time friend who is working as a Senior Project Manager for a well-known company was looking for a change and applied for a Director position in another reputed organization in India. He was called for an interview on a Sunday evening. It was not really an interview. It was a dinner request with the Vice President (VP), who handles customer support operations for that company. He went there and met him. They had a casual talk at first. Then, the VP started to ask a few questions. The first question was “Hey Mr. John, I have looked at your resume and it looks very good. By looking at the accomplishments that you made for your current employer, I’m sure you are a suitable candidate for this position.  Now, let us talk about your personal life. Have you ever faced any failures in your personal life? If so, what was the situation and how did you handle that? He was stunned by the question. By cutting the long story to short, he did not get the job he applied for.

When I did a search with “manager interview questions” on Google Ad words, I could see 110,000 searches on a monthly basis which shows that lot of folks wanted to know the list of questions likely to be asked in management positions interviews.  As we know already, as far as the Managers Interview questions are concerned, they are a bit tough. I am sure most of us heard the standard job-interview questions. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you see yourself in five years? What would your previous bosses say about you? Most candidates prepare for it when they go for an interview. However, nowadays the hiring managers started to drill down the candidates with the different set of questions which is very difficult to answer until you put some efforts to prepare for it.

Adam Bryant has interviewed more than seventy CEOs and other top executives at large companies, small companies, non-profit organizations, educational and artistic institutions and published their interviews as a book named “The Corner Office”. It shows the kind of questions likely to be asked during managerial positions. Below shows the list of sample questions:

OK. I have got your resume. Just tell me about your life. Start wherever you want to but talk to me about you. What you have done? Then walk me through what you done with your career.

Tell me what you think this job is all about?

Do you want to work at this company or do you just want a job?

Why do you want to work here and what do you love?

What are you passionate about?

What you have done that really proud of and tell me about it?

Can you describe a decision you made, or a situation you were involved in, that was a failure? How you dealt with it?

If you have to name something, what would you say it the biggest misconception that people have of you?

If I had four of your direct reports sitting in a room, how would they describe you?

If I had four of your late bosses in the room, how would they describe you?

What makes you really mad?

Can you tell me somebody’s intelligence just by reading what they have written?

On your deathbed, what do you want to be remembered?

Wherever you worked before, what made it a good day?

What is your attitude on a one-to-ten scale?

Give me an instance where you really believed in something and you were able to change the course and it was successful, whatever it was?

Tell me the few books that you read in the last two years?

Who are the best people you recruited and developed and where are they today?

If you could be in my shoes today, what would be the top three things you would do?

In my view if we look at the questions, most of the questions are being asked to gather intangible qualities of the candidate to see whether he or she is a good fit for the position. I am sure these questions would help you to pass the interview. But the problem is that after you joined the company you should be able to prove these intangible qualities and if you don’t, you probably know the next course of action.

Please share your views.

Reference

Adam Bryant. The Corner Office, Harper press, 2011