By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
With credit to yscouts.com, here are 15 questions I think you will find helpful.
The Best Way to Google Yourself
This is No BS Job Search Advice Radio, episode 1830. Yes, 1830. I’m your host, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter, and welcome to Friday.
Yes, it’s Friday. And today’s show is one for interviews in the C-suite. Hope you find it helpful and give it a great review.
I really would appreciate it. I really, really would appreciate it. Please do it.
I’m begging. It just takes a minute. Well, you can do it on your phone.
Just go to the show and give it a great review. Five stars. That’s really what this show deserves.
Five stars from you. After all, 1830 videos later, I’m more than two to one to the next show and I had that one, too. And with that, let’s get going.
Okay? Now, I was looking for some questions to continue with tough interview questions, because I think that’s really where a lot of my focus is going to evolve over the next year. Just like I did a year of podcast shows about interviewing, I want to dig in deeper with tough interview questions and their answers. And in doing some homework, I stumbled into a website from a search firm.
The site is WhyScouts. That’s the letter Y, scouts.com. And they had a terrific article, 15 outstanding executive interview questions. Now, I want to be clear.
I’m not endorsing the firm. I’m just simply saying they had some very good questions here. So, I want to give them credit.
Again, WhyScouts.com is the site and it’s 15 outstanding executive interview questions. There are hyphens between each of the words if you want to locate the page. So, let me give you a couple of exam . . . actually, let me give you all 15.
Wrestling to Find Enough Leads?
Which one assumption people make about you is dead wrong? It’s a great question because it reveals
emotional intelligence and self-awareness about how you affect others. If you were going to teach a college course, which course would you teach? So, it basically reveals where some of your passion is about, as well as where you think your strengths are. What leader or leaders do you look up to and why? Now, I’m not a big fan of this question because I think it doesn’t reveal as much as a firm hopes for because most people will come up with pat answers or pat names.
But if you go with a name they’ve never heard of and then talk about the qualities and characteristics that this person has, I think that serves you better. And you could talk in terms of . . . I know a lot of people might talk in terms of Steve Jobs or Jack Welch or Larry Ellison or whoever the famous leader is. But there was a a woman or a guy who really was very helpful to me and what they did was reveal to me some things I didn’t know and then you’d go into some of that and that’s a great way to answer what is one truth you believe in that most people disagree with you on so it helps them understand the belief system of the candidate.
What’s one assumption people make about you that’s dead wrong? I already did that one. I’m sorry. Who are . . . who’s your mentor or mentors and what recent challenges have you sought their advice for? Now, I think this is a wonderful question in that real leaders don’t try and figure everything out on their own.
What they try to do is, when I identify a problem, they put a court of support around themselves so that they’re not doing everything by themselves. They have a mentor. They have coaches.
They have advisors who can see things from different angles than they can. So, it’s a great question. It’s very revealing.
Tell me about a time where you had to make a tough business decision that supported your company’s purposes but may have had a negative short-term financial impact. It’s a gutty question and you have to reveal guts to answer it. Tell me about a time you broke a rule for an employee.
So, it talks in terms of people orientation. There are employee handbook rules. These aren’t safety risk rules, the firm points out.
Again, some good observations here can be gained by an employer or search firm about you. If you went back and gave your 21-year-old self a valuable piece of advice, what would you say? Now, the pat answer is don’t work so hard. It’s all going to work out.
You don’t have to feel frightened about everything. These are all pat predictable answers. Go deeper.
Think about this one in advance so you can actually reveal something. Not too revealing that you hurt your candidacy but you know what I mean. As you think about your career, who’s a team member who had a huge impact on it and what are you doing today as a result of your leadership? Question doesn’t need explanation.
If you could work on solving any problem in the world, what one problem would it be? Again, this is one that reveals your passion and something about your character. Also, if you can align your answer with the firm you’re interviewing and its mission and purpose, that’s the home run. What is your leadership philosophy? Now, the question is vague, as the search firm points out.
It’s intentionally done that way. So, basically, they want to hear you reveal core values or the way in which you lead. So think core values as you answer this question.
What’s the one mistake you’ve made in your career that you wish you could go back and fix? Go back in time to when you were a rookie. The classic answer I suggest to people is always one around how you tried to tough things out when you were struggling on something, didn’t give your boss a heads up and you learn that there’s an impact of your action upon others. Others were affected by it.
And you decided to . . . you took away from this that you can’t . . . you have to let your boss know at the earliest possible point you need help. Yes, you can try and tough it out while they’re helping you. But the idea becomes what you do affects others.
Tell me about a contentious situation between colleagues that you’ve had to resolve. How did you work through the tension? So this is about conflict resolution. Now, it doesn’t say you and colleagues.
It says colleagues. Perhaps it’s about subordinates in your group or between someone you report to and a subordinate in another group. Don’t put yourself into this situation as though you’re the one that’s having the difficult situation.
Instead, put subordinates in. What specific mental, physical, emotional or spiritual activities do you engage in to keep yourself operating at optimum level? I don’t need to explain that. And the last one, which I think is an important one, what are you learning right now? For many people, their growth becomes stilted as they get more experience.
They become so immersed in their immediate tasks, they stop learning. And the best leaders, the most successful individuals, are constantly learning. Don’t think in terms of, you know, I don’t have time to do that right now.
Read. Take classes. Go to lectures.
Go to conferences. Talk about your coaching relationships. Basically, think in terms of where you can continually grow.
After all, you’re not a finished product and they don’t believe you should be a finished product. Instead, talk about who your advisors are in life and what you’ve been learning in recent times. It could be about people management and people leadership and the difference between people management and people leadership.
So, be creative here. So, that’s today’s show. I hope you found it helpful.
And if you did, here are a few more ways to get information and advice from me. First of all, there’s my website, which is TheBigGameHunter.us. I have more than 8,000 blog posts there that you can watch, listen to or read that will help you find your next job. In addition, if you’re interested in my coaching you, at the site, there’s a button there that says schedule.
Schedule time for a free discovery call. Schedule yourself in for coaching, interview preparation coaching, salary negotiation advice, coaching related to hiring more effectively, managing and leading, helping you to be a better executive in your organization, and overall being a better employee of your firm. If you have questions for me, you can ask them at wisio.com forward slash TheBigGameHunter.
You can also connect with me on LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in TheBigGameHunter. Mention that you watched or listened to my content. I like knowing I’m helping folks.
Once we’re connected, you know, it’s nice to hear from you. I’d love to hear from you from time to time about how I’m helping. You can also watch me on TV.
And in the meantime, I hope you have a great day. Be great.
What Recruiters Know That You Don’t: They Aren’t Watching All Those Screening Videos
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers easier. Those things can involve job search, hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3000 episodes.
Website: https://www.TheBigGameHunter.us (schedule a paid coaching session, a free discovery call or ask questions using my Trusted Adviser Services)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter
Courses: https://www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses
Main YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jobsearchtv
No BS Job Search Advice Radio Podcast: https://anchor.fm/nobsjobsearchadviceradio
Video Podcast of No BS Job Search Advice Radio: Spotify
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffaltmancoach
Medium: jeffaltmancoach.medium.com
Resume & LinkedIn Profile critiques www.TheBigGameHunter.us/critiques
We grant permission for this post and others to be used on your website as long as a backlink is included to www.TheBigGameHunter.us and notice is provided that it is provided by Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter as an author or creator.
