Interview questions and answers

 The best way to present yourself for the job interview

Prepared by: Prabhakar Jaiswal  

1.     Tell me about yourself?

“Sure, so, my name is prabhakar Jaiswal,  I am 35 years old

For the past 5 years, I’ve been working in social and development sector in different organizations.

I have passed master degree in humanities and social science from Tribhuwan University. Throughout my career, I’ve noticed that I’ve always been good in social and development projects.

For example, when I was working at Nepal Red Cross Society, I led a project total sanitation. In a short period of time, my management skill led the project’s goals in a successful way. 

2.     2. what is your greatest strength

My biggest strength is that I can think on my feet and can work under a lot of pressure. As a field coordinator in a project, I was in the field to check the enumerator’s work but one of my enumerator was not feeling well that day. At the mean time I personally involved myself in data collection work till my enumerator didn’t get well.

3.     what is your greatest weakness?

My greatest weakness is that I sometimes focus too much on the details of a project and spend too much time analyzing the best points. I’ve been striving to improve in this area by checking in with myself at regular intervals and giving myself a chance to refocusing on the bigger picture.

4.  why should I hire you?

I can personally guarantee that my contribution as part of your team will generate positive revenue for the organization through my expertise in the field I am applying, my eagerness to learn more, and through hard work so I can be able to contribute to organization.

5. why do you want to work here?

I feel I have a great skill set to do this job as mentioned in the job description and I wish to improve this skill set by working at your organization.

6.Tell me about a time you showed leadership.

I think that a good leader is someone who can make decisions while also taking into account the opinions and feelings of others.

“In my previous role, my team and I were responsible for giving a big presentation on water sanitation and hygiene management in front of  local stakeholders that involved a lot of research ahead of time. I quickly assigned different tasks to members of my team, including giving the newest employee a chance to actually give the presentation. I asked my team about their concerns and gave everyone an opportunity to share their views, and it turned out that they were struggling in the roles I’d given them.

“Meanwhile, the newest employee I had assigned to give the presentation was nervous, but still wanted to give it a try. In the next effort, the newest employee become successful in presenting the presentation. I became really glad I took the time to listen to everyone’s concerns so that I could re-evaluate my approach and help my team be the best it could be.”

7.Tell me about a time you were successful on a team

I was managing one of the largest team in Flood perception survey. There were 18 persons in the team and the survey was held in 5 districts of province 2 at one time. My leading capacity and timely reaching in the spot led the survey successfully.

 8.What would your coworkers say about you?

My coworkers would describe me as an organized, thoughtful person who works well under pressure. So much of what I enjoy about doing work is creating a well-organized environment. My colleagues regularly admires my positive attitude and problem-solving abilities.

9.Why do you want to leave your current role

I’ve enjoyed working with a great group of people at my current employer, but this opportunity in this company fits very well with the direction I want to take my career.

10. Describe your most challenging project

We organized a brainstorm meeting with the team to figure out what exactly went wrong at which point in the given list for Solar Irrigation  project work. After several hours we concluded that some parts of the project works were outside of our working municipalities. I asked if I could take the lead. For me, this was a challenge, as well as a great opportunity. It was a challenge because I had to work in other municipality and we had a short amount of time, but it was a great opportunity because so it was a great chance to demonstrate my skills. I overcame the challenge by getting the goals clear of what the project exactly wanted. Ultimately the employer was very happy with our work, and we will always be hired because of our working efficiency.

For me, the most important learning from this project was that it’s important to get the goals clear before a project starts. 

Now, at the start of a new project, I focus on the most difficult parts and challenges of the project so that I know as soon as possible if there are any issues or attention areas. If this is the case I have more than enough time to work on this before any deadlines. A detailed plan to work on a project is essential to finish it successfully.’ 

11.Tell me about something you have accomplished that you are proud of

To be honest, I do not like the word proud. First of all, I was incredibly lucky in my life. Lucky to be born in human life, to receive education, to be more or less healthy. I am well aware that most people aren’t so lucky in their lives. Therefor I prefer to be grateful for anything that I managed to achieve.

     12. Can you explain your employment gap?

Due to lock down  and irregular instability of the country, there is a gap. So I’ve begun job searching and I’m focused on finding the jobs in social and development sector as a good position that will help me advance my career further now

     13. What are your salary expectations?

I'm open to discussing what you believe to be a fair salary for the position.

     14.hat do you like to do outside of work

I want to spend time with friends outside of work.

 15.  Tell me about a time you had to manage conflicting priorities

During the last year of my master level thesis, I was involved myself in thesis and a field survey project at the same time.  It made it difficult for me to schedule time for field survey project. So, four weeks into my field survey work, I met with my executive director to discuss the prioritization conflict and I became able to work out a schedule that allowed me to respond to both the most urgent and important support tasks as well as completing my survey project. The end result is that I completed both my master thesis as well as my field survey wor

16.Where do you see yourself in 5 years

My ultimate goal for the next five years is to enhance my position and advance into a managerial role within my department.  Over the next five years, I see myself taking on new and exciting projects within your company that will prepare me for a management role with the organization

17. Describe your leadership style

I think my strengths as a leader are effective delegation and communication. So, my leadership style takes advantage of those strengths. I always try to delegate tasks to whoever is best-equipped to perform well in the task, and I try to communicate clearly about what needs to be done, and why. This eliminates back-and-forth, mistakes, and needing to re-do tasks. Taking more time to communicate effectively at the beginning of the project, and delegating properly, both end up saving time as a project advance.

18. Tell me about a time you failed or made a mistake

In my previous job as the position of Program Expert in Nepal Red Cross Society, my team leader gave me the chance to choose the facilitator for Total sanitation Project. I chose to hire someone who seemed to have a lot of potential but my decision ended up being a big mistake. I learned to be more careful and I also realized how important each hiring decision is, which made me a better decision  maker in the last few years of my career. It was a great lesson to learn in my career.

19. Tell me about a time you worked with a difficult person

When I was a program expert at Nepal Red cross society, a man came in very upset, demanding a fund for his toilet construction.

I could see the facilitator was getting flustered, so I stepped in and calmly asked the man what was wrong. Apparently, after several lessons he was not in mood of investing money in toilet construction.  It was against our policy to offer funds – although, to be honest, I think it’s better to have a satisfied social worker – so I explained that the benefits of toilets and how it will preserve us from unhealthy life. respond differently to different teaching styles, he agreed to make new toilets at home.

2  20.Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone

In my previous job as a field supervisor, I tried to acquire the data of palika. But the palika stakeholder didn’t respond positively to my emails or calls. But I continued to send him, I even sent the mail to officer of the palika and told him the project details.  I was persistent in my efforts, trying to build a relationship. When they finally needed an great information to the same project, they contacted to me, and sent the data i required.

21. tell me about a time you disagreed with someone

One time, I disagreed with my team leader while working in the project how to hand over a wash plan to local stakeholder. I respectfully expressed my opinion on how to handover the wash plan, ultimately, we handed over the wash plan. It worked out well, and we both maintained open and honest communication with each other.

22. Tell me about a time you created a goal and achieved it.

When I first started out in the organization as a field enumerator, I did not have a lot of technical knowledge. I thought I would pick it up along the way, but after about two years in the field work, I realized I needed to make some changes if I wanted to be able to progress in my career. because of this, i labored hard and learnt varieties of things in social and development sector. due to it, i got many chances in different organization in different posts. 

23.  Tell Me About a Time You Went Above and Beyond" (With Examples)

A couple of months ago, I noticed that my project coordinator didn't complete the reports timely. My project coordinator normally completes them on time, but he had been working on several other urgent projects. Rather than add to his burden by complaining, I offered to help him with some of his workloads so he could complete report. We worked overtime hours for a week, and I helped him catch up on everything while learning new skills. I am always ready to go above and beyond to help a project coordinator with tasks and projects."

 24. Tell me about a time you had to handle pressure

Throughout my career, I have done some of my best work under pressure. I find that routine makes us complacent, and I am always looking for challenges that push me to give my best and to quickly come up with working solutions.

One time I was supposed to complete a project in a certain day. A colleague who was working in our team left the project but I had the same deadline, but I did not let the stress affect me. Instead, I came up with a very detailed time management plan, I involved myself in his position and completed the project in same deadline

25. Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly

I utilized and maximized my resources to the fullest, often learning technical tasks through YouTube tutorials. I learned plenty of programs and software, and best of all, had fun doing it

26. Do you have any questions for us?

Can you share more about the day-to-day responsibilities of this role? How would you describe the pace of a typical day? If I were hired for this role, what would you want me to achieve in my first two months?