99 popular interview questions

 

Please see below a list of popular interview questions, that we hope you find useful.

1. What do you feel is the important political issue affecting our organisation? 
2. What has been your biggest success as a public affairs professional? 
3. For example, how would you prepare for a face-to-face meeting with an MP? 
4. Which legislation should our organisation be focusing on and why? 
5. Whilst working for MP xxx, what has been your biggest challenge? 
6. Why do you like working in politics? 
7. Looking at our organisation what suggestions do you have to raise our profile in parliament? 
8. How would you attract media coverage (if needed) for our messages to influence government/parliament? 
9. How would you feel if you had to brief against your party/former employer in our organisation's interest? 
10. What do you think is the most important political issue the press are not talking about? 
11. Can you explain how you would influence a bill going through parliament? 
12. What is your approach to public consultations? 
13. What political risk does (insert your sector) face over the next 12 months? 
14. Who would give you your best reference and why? 
15. Who would give you your worst reference and why? 
16. What have you done to generate more income for your company? 
17. What have you done to save costs for your company? 
18. What have you done to save time by increasing workflow for your company? 
19. What have you done that has caused you to stand out amongst your peers? 
20. Walk me through your progression in your current job, leading to what you currently do on  a day-to-day basis. 
21. Describe a problem you encountered at your current job and how you solved it. 
22. What are your short-term and long-term career goals? 
23. The three most important duties we want you to perform are __________, ________ and _______.  What experience have you had that would qualify you to perform these tasks? 
24. What other background or experience have you had that would be useful to my client? 
25. What personal goals did you set when you took on your last job? 
26. How well did you accomplish them? 
27. What were your favourite and least favourite subjects in secondary school/university?  Why? 
28. What were your grades in your favourite and least favourite subjects? 
29. What subjects did you do best in?  Poorest in? 
30. Why did you decide to go to university? 
31. What was your degree in? 
32. What type of extracurricular activities did you participate in? Why did you select those? 
33. What career plans did you have at the beginning of university? 
34. What career plans did you have when you graduated? 
35. What did you gain by attending secondary school/university? 
36. If you had the opportunity to attend secondary school all over again, what, if anything, would you do differently?  Why? 
37. How did secondary school/university prepare you for the “real world”? 
38. Describe your studies in the area of (whatever field the job opening is in). 
39. How do you feel your studies in this area have prepared you for this job opening 40. When did you decide that you wanted to do a degree in _______? 
40. Who were your favourite and least favourite teachers in secondary school/university?  Why? 
41. Describe your study habits in secondary school/university. 
42. Describe any part-time jobs you had while attending secondary school/university. 
43. Which of your part-time jobs did you find most/least interesting? 
44. How did you spend your summers while attending secondary school/university? 
45. Why did you work while attending secondary school/university? 
46. What plans do you have, if any, to continue with school? 
47. What did you find to be the most difficult about working and attending school at the same time? 
48. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to work and attend school simultaneously? 
49. Please describe your activities on a typical work day. 
50. What is your description of the ideal manager? Subordinate?  Co-worker? 
51. What kind of people do you find it difficult/easy to work with?  Why? 
52. What did you like most/least about your last job? 
53. What is your description of the ideal work environment? 
54. What motivates you?  Why? 
55. What makes you an effective supervisor? 
56. What is the greatest accomplishment of your career to date?  Why? 
57. Describe a situation at your last job involving pressure.  How did you handle it? 
58. What do you feel an employer owes an employee? 
59. How do you feel about work-related travel? 
60. Describe your past experience with work-related travel in terms of duration and frequency. 
61. How do you feel about relocation?  Are there any places where you would not be willing to relocate? 
62. What were some of the duties of your last job that you found to be difficult? 
63. How do you feel about the progress that you have made in your career to date? 
64. What are some of the problems you encountered in your last job? 
65. How does your present job differ from the one you had before it? 
66. Of all the jobs you have had, which did you find the most / least rewarding? 
67. In what ways do you feel your present job has prepared you to assume additional responsibilities? 
68. What has been the most frustrating situation you have encountered in your career to date? 
69. Why do you want to leave your present job? 
70. How did you feel about the way in which your department/division was managed at your last job? 
71. If I were to ask your supervisor to describe your work, what would they say? 
72. What would you do if …? 
73. How would you handle…? 
74. What does the prospect of this job offer you that your last job did not? 
75. What are you looking for in a company? 
76. How does your experience in the military relate to your chosen field? 
77. What immediate and long-term career goals have you set for yourself? 
78. What would you like to avoid in future jobs? 
79. What are your salary requirements? 
80. Who or what has influenced you with regard to your career goals?  In what way? 
81. To what do you attribute your career success thus far? 
82. What do you consider to be your greatest strength? 
83. What are the areas in which you require improvement?  How would you go about making these improvements? 
84. How would you describe yourself as a manager?  Subordinate? Co-worker? 
85. What aspects of your work gives you the greatest satisfaction? 
86. How do you approach tasks that you dislike? 
87. How do you manage your time? 
88. What is your management style? 
89. What did you learn from each of your previous jobs? 
90. Please give me some examples of decisions you have made on the job.  What were the ramifications of these decisions? 
91. How do you go about making a decision? 
92. How would you describe your delegation skills? 
93. How would you describe your standards of performance, both for yourself and for subordinates? 
94. How would you describe your relationship with your last supervisor? 
95. Please give me an example of a project that did not turn out the way you planned.  What happened? 
96. Why are you applying for a position with our company? 
97. Why did you go to work for your last employer? 
98. Which of our clients interest you the most and why? 
99. What is your approach to business development? 
100. How do you manage a client to ensure retention? 
101. Why agency over in-house? 
102. Do you want to become an MP one day? 
103. How do you choose which clients to prioritize each day? 
104. What is the biggest challenge you have faced since working in an agency setting? 
105. What do you prioritize: retaining current business or winning new business? 
106. A client is unhappy with the service, how would you deal with this? 
107. What is your pitching style? 
108. Have you ever done marketing? 
109. How do you deal with a junior member of the team who are underperforming? 
110. How would you advise a client against a course of action? 
111. How do you build a relationship with clients? 

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Thank you for reading this article. This is an extract from the book Political Careers: The secret and confidential guide to finding, applying and getting a job in British politics. The book is available on Amazon in Ebook and Paperback formats.

** Any Questions **

If you have any questions, please email joseph@homeworkworkinghenry.com

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