HR Guide to the Internet:
Personnel Selection: Interview Questions: Difficult Questions

1. Do you remember what new products I told you we were working on?
2. Have you ever been in the position to fire anyone? Why did you fire that person?
3. Have you ever received a grade lower than expected? What did you do about it?
4. How do you deal with pressure situations?
5. How do you deal with surprises?
6. How do you deal with tension?
7. How well do you work under a deadline?
8. How well do you work under pressure?
9. Is there anything you haven't revealed that would affect our decision?
10. Tell me about a time you had a problem with decisiveness.
11. What are some things you had planned to accomplish that were not carried out?
12. What are your pet peeves?
13. What do you least like about writing a term paper?
14. What is your biggest professional challenge?
15. What job experiences have angered you?
16. What mistakes might we make in hiring you?
17. What types of things make you angry?
18. Why aren't you making more money with all this background?
19. Why do you want to work in a job for which you are overqualified?
20. Why is your grade point average so low?
21. Why were you in school for so long?
22. You've been with your current employer for a very short time. Is this an indication that you'll be moving around a lot throughout your career?
23. You've changed jobs quite frequently, what assurances do we have that you will stay with us?

    Terminated/Fired

24. Have you been asked to resign?
25. Have you ever been asked to resign?
26. Have you ever been demoted?
27. Have you ever been denied a promotion?
28. Have you ever been fired for reasons that seem unfair?
29. Have you ever been fired?
30. Have you ever been laid off?
31. Have you ever been rejected?
32. Have you ever been turned down for a promotion?
33. Have you ever laid off anyone?
34. What did you do during the gap in your employment history?
35. Why did you leave your last job?
36. Why did you leave your last job?or Why do you want to leave your current job?
37. Why do you want to leave your current employer so soon?
38. Why do you want to leave your job if you like it so much?
39. Why have you been out of work for so long?
40. Why haven't you accepted a job yet?
41. Why haven't you been hired yet?
42. Why haven't you found work yet?
43. Why is there a large gap in your employment history?
44. Why were you let go?

    Poor Evaluations

45. How was your last performance review?
46. How were you evaluated in your last job?
47. What were the results of your last performance appraisal?
48. What's the biggest mistake you can recall making?

    Dislikes Others

49. Have you ever had a communication- problem with anyone?
50. Have you ever lost your temper?
51. Have you ever openly criticized someone else?
52. Have you ever worked with someone you didn't like?
53. In the past, how have you dealt with co-workers who have disagreed with you?
54. Tell me about the last time you got angry on the job.
55. Tell me about the time when someone has lost his/her temper at you in a business environment.
56. Tell me about your last situation with an unhappy customer? What did you do?
57. What bothers you?
58. What did you dislike about your previous company?
59. What did you dislike about your supervisor?
60. What did you dislike most about your previous job?
61. What kinds of people do you have problems working with?
62. What types of people seem to rub you the wrong way?

    Illegal/Immoral Dilemas

63. Did your former employer have any policies that you consider unfair?
64. Have you ever been discriminated against or treated unfairly?
65. Have you ever intentionally deceived someone?
66. Have you ever used drugs?
67. How did you resolve the last moral dilemma you solved?
68. How do you react when your honesty is questioned?
69. How would you deal with a subordinate who violated a company policy?
70. How would you react to a situation in which a fellow employee confided in you that he was stealing from the company? (situational)
71. Tell me about a time when you felt it might be justifiable to break company procedure.
72. To what extreme do you use liquor?
73. Would you be willing to take a drug test?
74. Would you submit to a drug test?

    Failures

75. Can you give me an example of one of your failures?
76. Did you have any problems in your previous jobs?
77. Have you ever been put on the spot by a professor when you felt unsure of yourself? How did you respond?
78. Have you ever been turned down for a salary increase?
79. Have you ever missed a deadline?
80. How do you deal with failure?
81. How often do you miss deadlines?
82. Tell me about a situation that you just couldn't handle.
83. Tell me about a situation when miscommunication created a problem on the job.
84. Tell me about something in your last job that you're not proud of.
85. What are your biggest failures in relation to your career?
86. What are your weaknesses a person?
87. What are your weaknesses as an employee?
88. What are your weaknesses?
89. What have been your greatest disappointments?
90. What have you done that you regret?
91. What was the greatest disappointment in your last job?
92. What was the worst mistake you made at work? How did that affect the company?
93. What were your biggest failures?

    Disagreements with Supervisor

94. Have you ever had a demanding supervisor?
95. Tell me about the worst boss you've ever had.
96. What are some areas you disagreed with your supervisor?
97. What would you say about a supervisor who was tough to work with?
98. What would you say about a supervisor who was unfair?

    Accepts Criticisms

99. Did you ever have a customer get mad at something that wasn't your fault?
100. Have you ever been openly criticized?
101. Have you ever been reprimanded?
102. How do you deal with rejection?
103. How do you handle people who are critical? (or How do you handle rejection?)
104. What has been the biggest criticism of you?
105. What have you been most frequently criticized for?
106. What would you say if I said your presentation was awful?
107. When has your work been criticized?

     Areas of Weaknesses

108. What about your performance do your bosses tend to criticize most?
109. What are some problems you found in your job?
110. What decisions are difficult for you?
111. What difficult problems have you dealt with?
112. What do you think are the biggest challenges you'll face in this position?
113. What do you worry about?
114. What do your subordinates consider your weaknesses?
115. What duties did you find the most troublesome?
116. What is your greatest weakness?
117. What is your worst personality trait?