Rank/Job Title/Best Jobs Rank/% Who Say Their Job Is Low Stress

1. Education-Training Consultant / 35 / 60.0%
2. Physical Therapist / 7 / 59.5%
3. College Professor / 3 / 59.2%
4. Software Developer / 12 / 59.0%
5. Technical Writer / 28 / 56.4%
6. Telecommunications Network Engineer / 30 / 55.6%
7. Speech-Language Pathologist / 27 / 53.0%
8. Software Architect / N.A. / 51.6%
9. Occupational Therapist / 14 / 50.0%
10. Civil Engineer / N.A. / 49.1%

A List of Tough Job Interview Questions for Tough Times

The information presented here is designed to provide a benefit to anyone who must answer questions during the dreaded job interview. The main point presented here is that the key to a successful job interview is preparation. The following discussion expounds on this key point.

While some tough job interview questions take us off guard, others we can see coming a mile away. How we answer job interview questions will make the difference between getting and not getting the job. We all have questions that we'd rather not be asked during an interview. But how can one prepare completely for a tough interview?

The answer to this question really comes down to intense preparatory work. In a nutshell, do your homework. Make sure that you know your resume thoroughly and expect questions to come from your work history. Also, expect questions about the company you want to work for and the type of future you want in that company, and finally, expect questions about you. You should use several large lists of questions in preparation for the interview. Below, you will find a list of tough job interview questions, which should be helpful in preparation for the job interview.

While the questions below are pretty standard and can be expected at most job interviews, you should also create your own questions. In creating your questions in preparation for an interview, you really need to sit down and think through what you would ask if you were the interviewer. Remember that the person interviewing you has a job to do as well. If you can provide a good answer to most of the questions below, and to the questions you have created, you have increased the probability of obtaining the job you are seeking.

Obviously during a job interview, regardless of your personality, you need to be congenial and polite. Try not to appear nervous as well. Most importantly, try to appear confident in yourself but not to the point of appearing cocky. Remember, the interviewer is not only trying to select the best candidate for the job, they also want to be sure that you will be compatible with other employees you will be working with. Also, remember that the interviewer is trying their best to find any red flags that may be present in your past work history.

The following is a list of questions you can expect at most job interviews. You most likely will not be asked all of these questions, but you can expect some of them. Many of these questions come from About.com, and some were created by our staff.


Job Interview Questions: Work History

What is the name of the company you worked for and what titles or positions did you hold?

In a nutshell, describe what you did at your previous company.

When were your employed by this company?

What were your expectations for your previous job and to what extent were they met?

What were your starting and final levels of compensation?

What were your responsibilities?

What major challenges and problems did you face? How did you handle them?

What did you like or dislike about your previous job?

Which was most and least rewarding?

What was the biggest accomplishment and failure in this position?

Why are you leaving your current job?

Why were you fired?

What was the most enjoyable aspect of your previous job?


Job Interview Questions: About Your Supervisors and Co-Workers.

What was it like working for your supervisor?

What do you expect from a supervisor?

Who was your best boss and who was the worst?

What is the ideal co-worker?

What is the ideal boss?


Job Interview Questions: About You

What is your greatest weakness?

What is your greatest strength?

In terms of your current or last position, describe a typical work week for yourself.

Do you take work home with you?

How many hours do you normally work per week including work completed at home?

How would you describe the pace at which you work?

How do you handle stress and pressure?

In terms of your career, what motivates you to move upward and attain further success?

What are your salary expectations?

What do you find are the most difficult decisions to make?

Tell me about yourself.

What has been the greatest disappointment in your life?

What has been your greatest accomplishments in your life?

What are you passionate about?

What are your pet peeves?

What do people most often criticize about you?

When was the last time you were angry? What happened?

If you could relive the last 10 years of your life, what would you do differently?

If the people who know you were asked why you should be hired, what would they say?

Do you prefer to work independently or on a team?

Give some examples of teamwork.

Were you responsible for any major projects at your last position, and if so, please describe in a nutshell the project you were responsible for.

What type of work environment do you prefer?

How do you evaluate success?

Have you ever given a work related presentation to a group of people greater then 10, and if so, how did that work out?

If you know your boss is 100% wrong about something how would you handle it?

Describe a difficult work situation or project and how you overcame it.

Describe a time when your workload was heavy and how you handled it.

What have you been doing since your last job?


Job Interview Questions: About the New Job and the Company

What interests you about this job?

Why do you want this job?

What applicable attributes or experience do you have?

Are you overqualified for this job?

What can you do for this company?

What do you know about this company?

Why do you want to work here?

What challenges are you looking for in a position?

What can you contribute to this company?

Are you willing to travel?

Is there anything I haven't told you about the job or company that you would like to know?

How do you plan to move up within our company?

What is the highest level you wish to be promoted within our company?

Why should we select you for this job?


Job Interview Questions: The Future

What are you looking for in your next job?

What are your career goals for the next five years and ten years?

How do you plan to achieve those goals?

How long would you like to stay with our company and why?

What are your salary requirements - both short-term and long-term?

What will you do if you don't get this position?


Once again, the key to a successful job interview is preparation. When you are completely prepared, you will tend to be less nervous. Of course, it is highly likely you will be presented with a question or two that you did not expect. This is why preparation also entails having the knowledge base that you can expect the interviewer will tap into.

Here I am not talking about the knowledge needed to do the job. That should be a given anyway, otherwise you would have not been asked to be at the interview. Here I am talking about knowing yourself and your attitudes, and being able to present your attitudes in a way the interviewer can appreciate. It does not hurt to let the interviewer know what really makes you tick, if the interview goes in that direction.

Make sure that you display an enthusiastic attitude. Make sure you present to the interviewer a willingness to learn and a desire to advance in the company you are about to potentially work for. You do not want to appear as if you are lacking seriousness and definitely do not appear cavalier. Try to appear enthusiastic and positive in a mature and professional way. If you are naturally an enthusiastic and positive type of person, then half the battle is won. The point is to be your self, but try to present the best of who you are.

Remember this, many employers prefer a less educated candidate with fewer credentials who is bright and willing to learn, over one who is more prepared but lacks the proper attitude. A good example of this is the entrepreneur who wants to launch a new business. For him or her who is starting a new venture, hiring someone who is bright and has the right attitude is extremely important. More important then previous education. In this case, the entrepreneur is looking for someone who is not afraid to take risks and is very much goal oriented. Here it is very important that you display to the interviewer your ability to work as part of a team. The 9 to 5 type worker who expects to work basically the same hours 5 days a week would not fit well here. And the interviewer needs to know this.

To conclude, in the end, most interviewers are looking for the right attitude for the job they are trying to fill. If you also have the right credentials along with the right attitude, then your chances are increased tremendously. If you can answer most of the above questions, display an enthusiastic attitude, and present yourself in the best possible way, this should result in you obtaining the job you are seeking.

Article posted by Tom Cleary

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in July (-247,000), and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The average monthly job loss for May through July (-331,000) was about half the average decline for November through April (-645,000). In July, job losses continued in many of the major industry sectors.

Household Survey Data

In July, the number of unemployed persons was 14.5 million. The unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, little changed for the second consecutive month. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, unemployment rates for adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (7.5 percent), teenagers (23.8 percent), whites (8.6 percent), blacks (14.5 percent), and Hispanics (12.3 percent) were little changed in July. The unemployment rate for Asians was 8.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) rose by 584,000 over the month to 5.0 million. In July, 1 in 3 unemploy- ed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See table A-9.)

The civilian labor force participation rate declined by 0.2 percentage point in July to 65.5 percent. The employment-population ratio, at 59.4 percent, was little changed over the month but has declined by 3.3 per- centage points since the recession began in December 2007. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in July at 8.8 million. The number of such workers rose sharply in the fall and winter but has been little changed for 4 consecutive months. (See table A-5.)

About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in July, 709,000 more than a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals, who were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-13.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 796,000 discouraged workers in July, up by 335,000 over the past 12 months. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.5 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in July had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Establishment Survey Data

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 247,000 in July. From May to July, job losses averaged 331,000 per month, compared with losses averaging 645,000 per month from November to April. Since December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 6.7 million. (See table B-1.)

Employment in construction declined by 76,000 in July, about in line with the average for the past 3 months (-73,000). Employment had de- creased by 117,000 a month on average from November to April.

Manufacturing employment fell by 52,000 in July and has declined by 2.0 million since the recession began. In motor vehicles and parts, fewer workers than usual were laid off in July for seasonal retool- ing. As a result, the estimate of employment for the industry rose by 28,000 after seasonal adjustment. In large part, July's seasonally- adjusted increase reflects the fact that previous job cuts had been so extensive that there were fewer workers to lay off during the sea- sonal shutdown. Elsewhere in manufacturing, several industries con- tinued to lose jobs in July, including machinery (-15,000) and fabri- cated metal products (-14,000).

In July, retail trade employment declined by 44,000. Job losses in the industry had averaged 27,000 per month over the prior 3 months. Em- ployment in wholesale trade fell by 19,000 in July, with the majority of the decline occurring among durable goods wholesalers.

Employment in professional and business services continued to trend down in July (-38,000); the industry has shed 1.5 million jobs since the start of the recession. Within professional and business services, employment in the temporary help industry edged down in July. While temporary help has lost 844,000 jobs since the recession began, the declines have lessened substantially over the past 3 months.

Transportation and warehousing lost 22,000 jobs in July. Since May, the average monthly job loss was half the average monthly decline for November through April (-17,000 versus -34,000).

Financial activities employment continued to trend down in July (-13,000). The average monthly decline for this industry was 23,000 over the past 3 months compared with 46,000 per month from November through April. Since the start of the recession, the financial acti- vities industry has lost 501,000 jobs. Employment in information declined by 16,000 in July, including losses in publishing and telecom- munications.

Health care employment increased by 20,000 in July, about in line with the average monthly gain for the first half of this year but down from an average monthly increase of 30,000 during 2008. Employ- ment in lei-sure and hospitality has been little changed over the past 3 months.

In July, the average workweek of production and nonsupervisory work- ers on private nonfarm payrolls edged up by 0.1 hour to 33.1 hours. The manufacturing workweek increased by 0.3 hour to 39.8 hours. Fac- tory overtime was unchanged at 2.9 hours. (See table B-2.)

In July, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $18.56. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.5 percent, while average weekly earnings have risen by only 1.0 percent due to declines in the average workweek. (See table B-3.)

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for May was revised from -322,000 to -303,000, and the change for June was revised from - 467,000 to -443,000.

posted by Tom Cleary