HR Interview Questions and Answers
1. Tell me about yourself
I am Haricharan, an electronics and telecommunication engineering graduate with 5 years of experience in the IT industry. I work for XYZ company as Technical Lead. I specialize in web development and possess business knowledge of telecom domain. My job responsibilities include leading a team of 5, ensure in-time delivery and bug fixes from my team.
2. Why did you leave your last job?
I worked for this ABCD company for two and half years. I was involved in the complete software life cycle of two projects during this course of time. I learnt a lot from my job. I thought I needed a change when things became repetitive and lacked challenges for more than half an year.
3. What experience do you have in this field?
I have 5 years of hands on experience in IT industry. I had the opportunity to work for two IT outsourcing companies that serve telecom giants of the world – AT&T, Vodafone and British Telecommunications. Fortunately all the three projects that I worked for, gave me good exposure to Telecom knowledge. Corporate experience reinforced the concepts of telecom that I learnt in my college.
4. Do you consider yourself successful?
Yes, I do consider myself quite successful. Having said that, I don’t deny that I never failed. Whenever I had encountered a failure, I made sure that I converted my failure into a success by putting in extra efforts and learning from my previous mistakes. My success rate is quite high.
A couple of months back, I was asked to develop one of the toughest modules of my project. After a few days of work I foresaw that my team’s results were indicating a slip in the delivery of that module. I insisted on focusing on the bottleneck of the module. We stopped working on the unimportant parts, identified the bottleneck of the problem. Started working on that single most important part of the module. Soon our work paid off, we could deliver that module within time with reasonable quality.
5. What do co-workers say about you?
My co-workers like me because they think that I have good team skills and I smoothly cooperate with them. My coworker, Welch says that I am one of the kind who shares what he learns. He thinks that my helping nature draws other team members towards me. And yes, I do like sharing my knowledge.
I am strict when necessary with co-workers working under me. My team members understand me when I am tough with them. When I get tough they know that there is a reason behind it and they fully cooperate with me.
6. What do you know about this organization?
Amdocs is a global company with a strength of 17,000 employees. It supports and manages the telecom giants British Telecommunication and AT&T. The fact that Amdocs has been serving few of its old customer since decades testimonies consistency of the company. I also appreciate the customer centric attitude of Amdocs.
7. What have you done to improve your knowledge in the last year?
Last year I improved my expertise in the technologies that I use in my current job. I nominated myself for external trainings that dealt with the specifics of a technical tool. I also conducted few one day training sessions on the technology that we used for our project. I believe that it reinforces my knowledge and the discussion session at the end of training gives me useful insights that I would have probably not got myself. This way my training sessions help me thrive in that technology.
8. Are you applying for other jobs?
Yeah, I am looking for a job suiting my work history and current role. I did apply for a couple of IT companies this month.
9. Why do you want to work for this organization?
I would be glad if I could work with an esteemed telecom organization such as yours so that I could use the business knowledge that I’d accumulated over years in telecom domain. I particularly like the corporate ladder structure in your company which seems to offer flexibility in choosing a managerial role after having worked for three years in the same project. I am looking forward for a managerial role more to do with business than technology after a few years from now. So, I think of your organization as the best choice I can get.
10. Do you know anyone who works for us?
My friend and ex-colleague Sanjay Thapar works for your organization. In fact, he was the person who referred me to this job position. He works as a Project Manager of ABC project in XYZ department.
11. What kind of salary do you need?
This is a tough question to answer. It depends on the job details too. What is the range of salary that you pay a person for a role similar to this one?
12. Are you a team player?
Yes, I’m a team player for sure. Last year this time, the development team and testing team had lost synchronization during the peak days of delivery owing to a mis-communication between them.
I was leading the development of an important module in the development team. I had to underplay my module and help the other module in getting up to speed of the delivery. With a few hours of extra effort and co-operation, we could deliver everything as per the schedule. I was appreciated by my boss and was nominated for the Valuable Team player of the month award.
13. How long would you expect to work for us if hired?
I plan to work for you at least for three years. As I told you earlier, I look forward to become a Project Manager in the coming years.
14. Have you ever had to fire anyone? How did you feel about that?
Yes, I had to fire an individual in our team. It was a tough choice to make, but rejection is the most important factor for maintaining quality in a team. The person who I fired had a record of bad productivity continually for more than two quarters. When I got the orders from higher management to reduce the head count, I had to choose this unproductive team member over the other productive resources.
I feel sad for him, but like I said rejection is the single important factor for quality. I could not compromise quality in my team. Later, I was glad to know that he was hired by another company within weeks of getting fired.
15. What is your philosophy towards work?
I strive hard to get the work done in the scheduled time. I put extra efforts to make my work or my team’s work noteworthy at the same time. I believe in giving your best shot and completing work in time. (I also like being appreciated for my work)
16. If you had enough money to retire right now, would you?
No work would bore me much. I guess I would prefer to work rather than retire too early.
17. Have you ever been asked to leave a position?
No, not until now at least.
18. Explain how you would be an asset to this organization
I give utmost importance to three dimensions: delivery, deadline and distinction. I have demonstrated these qualities many times in my work history. I believe that by strictly adhering to these three dimensions, I add value to my team, project and thereby to my organization.
19. Why should we hire you?
From the job description you have given, I believe that I have met your expectations as a resource. My expertise in the technologies mentioned and my knowledge of the business processes related to work help me to add value to my work. So, I think I am a good fit for this position.
20. Tell me about a suggestion you have made
I can quote many examples as my one of roles at my current job is to suggest high level technical changes to the project.
For example, I had suggested few changes in the architecture of the project. I also insisted that the development followed a particular design pattern. I also reviewed and suggested changes in the coding standards and project structure in my current project.
21. What irritates you about co-workers?
I do not like it when people try to steal each others credit. I encourage my team to appreciate each other in public when things go right and to give due credit to the team or individuals fairly.
22. What is your greatest strength?
My greatest strength is my ability to focus even in a high pressure environment.
23. Tell me about your dream job.
I have no such thing as a dream job. If I perform and live up to my satisfaction, that’s my dream job.
24. Why do you think you would do well at this job?
I think that the single most important factor that gives me an edge is interest. I am very much interested in the field that this job position has to offer. Interest helps me give my best at work without feeling any stress.
25. What are you looking for in a job?
I am looking forward for an opportunity to work with a vibrant and knowledgeable team where I can learn, share and grow my knowledge.
26. What kind of person would you refuse to work with?
I do not like working people who try to dominate for the sake of showing their presence in a team. I also do not encourage people who try to fake their work.
27. What is more important to you: the money or the work?
Both are equally important for me. They are two sides of a coin for me. Either of them can’t go without the other.
28. What would your previous supervisor say your strongest point is?
My previous supervisor thinks that hard work is my strongest point. I used to secretly wish that he praised me for my smart work over hard work.
29. Tell me about a problem you had with a supervisor
A few years ago, during an annual performance review season, I felt that few people in my team were given preferential treatment for no professional reason. I went back to him to request him to tell me what was wrong in my performance that I did not get a good appraisal. I returned back dissatisfied with his answer.
30. What has disappointed you about a job?
I respect my peers and team members and expect that they respect me in return. I feel disappointed if my coworkers show lack of respect towards me or other team members in general.
Technically lack of processes and coding standards disappoints me. What disappoints me more is disinterest among team members in improving the existing processes and coding standards.
31. Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.
I had to develop an item for customer. Had too less time to create code, fix it, test it. Handling thousand lines of code. Completed 6-7 days. We were close to release. Release date would have got postponed. They were waiting for us. It would give our team a bad mark. He would need an explanation.
32. Do your skills match this job or another job more closely?
This job requires a resource with an experience of 4 years or above with technical knowledge of X, Y and Z technologies along with business knowledge related to Telecom. I think my job skills perfectly match this job.
33. What motivates you to do your best on the job?
Learning new things motivates me, applying what I learnt motivates me more.
In our company there was a work of porting a huge application. It involved a lot of thought and a huge process of work. Many developers had attempted to accomplish this task but they all remained unsuccessful. I told myself why not take up this challenge. I took 2 hours from my daily schedule for few days and learnt more about the application, discussed with other developers about salient parts of the application and began to port the application. I successful finished the task in a couple of months. There were a lot of things that I learnt through this task. I enjoyed a lot doing it.
34. Are you willing to work overtime? Nights? Weekends?
I believe in smart work. If I can do my job satisfactorily working for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, I don’t prefer coming on weekends or nights. With an exception of disaster when a project is sinking. But I am confident that I will not let the project I am leading get close to such a condition at the first place.
35. How would you know you were successful on this job?
I would know that I was successful when I get a feeling that the job could not have been done in a better way by anybody else.
36. Would you be willing to relocate if required?
I am afraid, no. I am happily married with 2 kids. My wife works in XYZ company in this city. My relocation would not only disturb my wife but also affect my children.
37. Are you willing to put the interests of the organization ahead of your own?
Yes.
38. Describe your management style.
I believe in the one minute manager management style. I give one minute praises and one minute reprimands to employees under me. I tell them in no uncertain terms about what I expect from them and clearly define their job responsibilities.
39. What have you learned from mistakes on the job?
One of the biggest mistake I learnt on the job was that if you are not proficient at something, don’t feel shy asking others. Professional help gets things done properly and saves a lot of time. I also learnt not to over estimate myself or under estimate myself.
40. Do you have any blind spots?
I can’t recollect any blind spot.
41. If you were hiring a person for this job, what would you look for?
I would look for doers rather than dreamers. I would make sure that the person I am hiring is a pragmatic guy who speaks with his actions.
42. Do you think you are overqualified for this position?
I don’t think I am overqualified for this position. I believe that my extra experience as a technical lead will come into help to get things started quicker.
43. How do you propose to compensate for your lack of experience?
I believe that I’m a quick learner. I propose to spend a few hours outside the work time with the experienced team members. Take some knowledge transfer and dive straight into work. I am confident with some help from coworkers, within a span of 2-3 weeks, I can get the ball rolling.
44. What qualities do you look for in a boss?
I would be really happy to work for a boss who values his/her team and appreciates them for their good work. I also think that a boss being fair and unbiased is immensely important in the success of a team.
Should know to optimize the work. Not only progressive in his thoughts make sure by helping them being progressive. He follows values of company and ensures that others are following. he should not be enemy.
45. Tell me about a time when you helped resolve a dispute between others.
A couple of years back, I was working in a sub team of four members. A dispute arose between a senior and a junior team member. It came up due to the lack of communication between them and due to the mounting pressure. They started blaming each other for the delay. I resolved their conflict by first easing the tension off them and communicating verbosely with both of them.
46. What position do you prefer on a team working on a project?
I prefer to be working in a technical lead position. However, I am comfortable handling multiple roles, such as development, architecture design, requirements gathering and client interaction.
47. Describe your work ethic.
I work hard to be very reliable and accurate in predicting and delivering the work assigned to me or my team. I believe in smart work over hard work.
48. What has been your biggest professional disappointment?
customer, problem with loading activities, some enhancement, comparing our product with another product telling it was slow. I took responsibility to prove that our product was faster. The problem is not with us, it was with the other team. We convinced the customer that it was their problem, the other team put it to low priority and backlog. All our efforts got wasted. Did not materialize customer disappointed
49. Tell me about the most fun you have had on the job.
A couple of months back, our team encountered a critical situation logged by our customer. Our customer was on the verge of losing a million dollars with this issue. The responsibility of fixing this issue was assigned to a team of three which included me. We walked through few of the important parts of code.
After a continuous three day struggle, I discovered that the bug was fixed by simply replacing a < (lesser than symbol) with a > (greater than symbol). The customer was happy that the issue got resolved. I had fun fixing this issue, as I almost went through the whole code of my project.
50. Do you have any questions for me?
Does my role involve direct communication with the client?