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Interview Questions

Interview Question: What energises you? – Answer Tips

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Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank

Other interview questions that are similar

What do you find motivating?
Are there any aspects of the job you find more appealing than others?
If you could pick one thing to do for the rest of your life what would it be?
What are you unenthusiastic about that others are not?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

Energises is the word that the Civil Service Interview guide likes to use for this question. In other sectors though it is most often worded as “What motivates you?” and it is a strength based question that I really hated when I was a fresh-faced youngster applying for my first jobs.

It’s a nuisance question because it gives you no indication as to what the interviewer actually wants. What energises me?…I suppose that pint can of Monster I just downed is giving off some energy I suppose.

So what does the interviewer want?

They are looking to see what makes you tick, how do you gather up the energy to come into work and do a good job day after day, what part of the role do you find actually interests you.

And finally they want to see if what energises (or motivates) you is in line with their organisation and how they work.

The best approach to answering this question

So how do you answer this question when you don’t even know what they want?

Firstly you should ensure that you are well prepared for the interview. Research the company itself on Glassdoor and LinkedIn, you are looking to see if anyone has left a review on the interview process and any feedback they were given. If you are lucky you will get some good information about what it is they are looking for.

Make sure you have read the job description over and over looking for any clues as to what they are looking for – the first paragraph is usually were they keep all their buzzwords; “Results-driven”, “Inquisitive nature”, “People person”.

Use these buzzwords when tailoring your answer.

So if they say they are looking for someone who is ‘passionate about improvement’ then in your answer talk about how self-improvement and process improvement is a passion of yours and that is what energises you through the day – the continued pursuit of development.

How NOT to answer this question

Don’t talk about personal activities – It’s easy to say that your family motivates you (or something similar), and while it is almost certainly true it’s not really an appropriate answer here. The interviewer is going to assume that you already love your family, what they want to know is what motivates you in the workplace.

(Side note – I did hear a fantastic answer once were a candidate said their kids were their biggest motivator, the role was with Forestry England and the candidate talked about how much the Forestry service played a role in her childhood and how ensuring that her kids could have the same experiences as her is what would motivate her in helping to preserve and enhance the woodlands across the UK – So the above isn’t a hard rule, but if you are going to talk about personal motivators make sure you can tie them into the job somehow)

Don’t talk about money – Interviews are a weird construct that we humans have devised. Everyone knows that the primary reason anyone is applying for a job is to make money, but for some reason it is uncouth to say as much. But this is an interview and you want this job so you have to play the game. Don’t talk abut how your primary motivator is to get paid.

Don’t talk about what motivated you to apply for the role – It’s easy to confuse what energises/motivates you in work with what motivated you to apply for this job, particularly as that is also a very popular interview question, but this question is not about that.

What energises you? – Example answers

Motivators Example Answer 1

“I am motivated by the people I work with. I enjoy when we succeed together and I am spurred on during difficult times knowing that I have a solid team around me. For example in my most recent role I was on a great team that really had each other’s backs. When one of our colleagues dropped the ball on a piece of work we all rallied together and worked overtime so that there was no gap in output from the team. This type of team support is what energised me to perform in that role.”

Motivators Example Answer 2

“Success is what energises me. This is why I prefer project type roles. The ability to say that a project has been successfully deployed is what drives me during the more mundane run of the mill day-to-day activities. Recently I was able to close the book on a 30-month IT infrastructure deployment. This was a project that had been completely re-scoped 3 times just during the time I was attached to the project. But knowing that the project would eventually be deployed is what drove me throughout.”

Motivators Example Answer 3

“I am motivated by helping people and by solving problems, this is why Level 2 support roles are where I flourish the most. I like being able to speak with customers and help solve their tricky problems. For example, a few weeks back a bug was discovered that was preventing a customer from making online payments through our new app. After liaising with the customer and with the relevant developers I managed to isolate that the issue was due to the customer’s VPN location. Once this was resolved the customer was able to access the app as normal. I was particularly driven by this encounter because the issue itself was particularly complex in that it had never been seen before but also the issue was very important to the customer as they were attempting to make payments abroad for hospital treatments so it was very rewarding to be able to help them with that.”

Other Interview Question and Answers

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
35 Project Coordinator Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
29 Teacher Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
Quality Assurance Analyst Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
32 Test Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
34 Change Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)

35 Project Coordinator Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

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What is a Project Coordinator?

A Project Coordinator is usually the person within the project team that handles the administrative tasks. Reporting in to the Project Manager their role usually focuses on updating project plans and reports, organising and scheduling meetings, receiving and documenting updates from stakeholders. Pretty much all of the clerical work needed by a project will either be handled or overseen by the Project Coordinator.

Being a Project Coordinator can be a very rewarding role. It is usually quite demanding and days can be full of activities to organise and maintain.

Most people use the Project Coordinator role as a stepping stone into becoming a full fledged Project Manager (if this is your goal check out our post on PM interview questions), but both positions are decently paid and come with their own challenges.

This post will look at one specific challenge. Getting the job in the first place! And particularly getting past the interview stage. If you are struggling to even get your foot in the door then consider reading out post on How to Write a Project Coordinator CV (With Examples).

Firstly we will take a look at some general tips, then we will look at the best way of structuring your answers (including what NOT to do), and finally we will look at some example interview questions and share some sample answers.

Project Coordinator Interview Tips

Learn all areas of project delivery – The role of a project coordinator is going to differ within each organisation. The responsibilities will range from being responsible for arranging meetings all the way to taking ownership of the project plan. I have even seen project coordinators take on all of the responsibilities of a Project Manager – albeit on smaller projects than the PM would undertake. With that in mind you should be prepared to answer questions across the whole project cycle.

Lean heavily on your experience – Follow the B-STAR process (discussed further below) and refer back to your previous role regularly. Show the interviewer that you are very well acquainted with projects and can apply good project management techniques in your work.

Name drop the processes, systems and tools you have used – If you are telling a story about a sprint or a project you worked on name drop the software you used (MS Projects, JIRA, etc.). If you are explaining how you did stakeholder management discuss how you utilised a RACI Matrix. Basically pepper your answers with Project Management vernacular. Make sure it comes across naturally though. don’t just shoehorn in any phrase just because.

Tailor your answers to the organisation – Learn all you can about the organisation that is interviewing you. You particularly want to know:

  • What are their current, past and future projects?
  • What is the level of their PMO, what processes/methodologies do they use, what are they looking to use going forward?
  • What software and tools do they use day-to-day?

When answering your questions try to showcase your experience that you have in the above areas. For example if you learn that they are looking to move into an Agile delivery then you talk about how you have experience with Agile and in coordinating with Agile project teams.

How Best To Answer Project Coordinator Interview Questions

Unless the question you are asked is a straight ‘up or down / yes or no’ style question then you are going to need to learn to describe, expand and elaborate on your answers. The best way of doing this is to follow the B-STAR technique for answering interview questions.

Answers using this method follow the below structure:

B – Belief – What are your thoughts and feelings with regard to the subject matter? – As a Project Coordinator you should have your own work-style and processes that you tailor to each situation.

S – Situation – What was going on? Briefly explain the scenario that was taking place. – Try not to spend too much time describing the situation. The bulk of your answer needs to be about you and what you did so keep the situation simple to understand and even simpler to describe.

T – Task – What was your role in the action? Most of the time it is best that you are taking an active rather than passive role in the encounter – You are going for a Project Coordinator role (presumably) so the situation you describe should have you coordinating some activity to do with the project delivery.

A – Activity (or action) – What did you do? Detail the steps you took and why you took them. – This should take up the bulk of your time answering the question.

R – Result – How did everything end up? Try to use figures if possible (e.g. we cut costs by $3m, customer satisfaction scores increased 25%, failures reduced to zero, ice cream parties increased ten-fold).

Remember though that the B-STAR technique is descriptive not prescriptive. You do not need to follow this flow strictly, go with what is best for your answers and that will allow you to put your point across and show your experience the best.

What You Should Not Do When Answering Questions

Do not avoid the question.

Do not describe a failure (unless specifically asked).

Do not downplay the situation.

Do not overhype the situation.

Do not say you have no experience with the subject matter.

Do not reject the premise of the question.

Do not have a passive role in the situation.

Do not give a one-sentence answer.

Do not overly describe the scenario and miss the action.

Project Coordinator Standard Interview Questions

What are you good at?

“As you can see from my CV I am an experienced project coordinator and I do believe I am very good at my role. I am a very good planner, I am quick to adapt to changing business environments but I believe my best attribute is my communication skills.

Being a project coordinator is all about being able to communicate effectively and to all different types of stakeholders – something I learned recently when we released a new software upgrade and I was communicating with front-line customer service colleagues all the way up to the CEO of the whole group! – It is this experience and others that have moulded me in to the skilled communicator I am today“

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

What are your weaknesses?

“I have never worked with <insert tool or software> before and I see that it plays an integral role in your organisation. I have worked with <insert other tool> before and from what I hear it lacks a number of features present in <tool>. I look forward to the opportunity to use this new tool as I hear great things about it, I have also found a crash course online that I would look to take to get up to speed as quickly as possible…should I be offered the job”

Check out our full post on how to answer this question (and see more example answers)

When you are given a new project what do you do first?

The first thing I do when given a new project is to seek out the project sponsor and ensure that we are both on the same page. I prefer to do this face-to-face but will settle for a call or video conference if that is all that is available. I feel that at the start of a project it is crucial to make sure that nothing is lost in translation and that all expectations are clear.

In my current organisation the sponsor for most of my projects is the Chief Technology Officer. Just recently I was given a new project that would deploy a major upgrade to one of our core systems. I made sure that I caught a coffee meeting with the CTO so that we could discuss the project.

I enquired as to what the expectations were from both the business and from him personally. I find asking this is key as my CTO has higher expectations than the wider business so while the business was expecting delivery by the end of the year my CTO was expecting it much earlier.

Similarly with regard to quality and budget, the business had minimum quality requirements and a budget restraint. My CTO however had higher quality requirements and made me aware that the budget could be expanded if I needed it – something that was not in the project presentation provided by the business!

Finally I confirmed with the CTO which project members were available and made a mental note to which colleagues I had worked with before and which were new to me (for the new ones I tried to pry information from the CTO as to their skills and work style)

As far as first steps goes I feel like getting the project sponsor, in this case the CTO, to have a frank and open discussion as to the aims and expectations is the best thing to do. After my conversation with the CTO I was in a really good space to start my planning, with the next step being to bring the project members into the loop.

In the end we managed to deliver the upgrade within the timelines and meeting the quality expectations set by the CTO – something that might not have been given the proper attention had I not taken that first step.“

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

What Project Management methodology do you believe is better?

“My preference is for Agile. I find that it is the most adaptive methodology meaning that we can pivot on a dime and be able to deliver quickly and often. Something that I don’t believe is possible when working with a Waterfall or even a Hybrid model.

That is not to say though that I believe Agile is better. I think all of the methodologies have their place in an organisation. I have worked Waterfall before and believe that it is better adapted for complex projects with a single one time delivery, like the time I helped coordinate the opening of a new call centre wing. That was better suited to Waterfall as there were defined stages and a handover to the business.

Contrast that with the time my firm performed a software deployment (to the same call centre in fact). This was better suited to an Agile-based deployment as we initially delivered a MVP of the software and then deployed multiple releases that introduced new features as we went. Agile was the better choice in this instance as it allowed us to deliver a working product much earlier than we would have done had we used Waterfall.”

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

What do you enjoy the most about coordinating projects?


What is your communication style?

How do you prioritize your tasks? Do you find it difficult to manage your time when you report to more than one person?

Which of your attributes do you think are most beneficial for a role as a project coordinator?

What are your salary expectations?

Describe your ideal work environment

Project Coordinator Experience Based Interview Questions

How do you assess and monitor risk within a project?

“Managing risk is one of the most important tasks that I undertake as a project manager. It is crucial to success that risks are appropriately identified, assessed and monitored throughout the project lifecycle.

In order to achieve this one of the first project artefacts that I create when forming a new project is the RAID log. Within this log I record all potential risks to the project (as identified by the project team and stakeholders).

Within the log risks are assessed as to the likelihood and severity and an appropriate plan is put in place, usually looking to reduce or eliminate the risk or to mitigate the impacts should the risk crystallise.

Within the log I include a date for review. When this date comes around the item is re-examined to determine if all the underlying logic still holds true.

I have found that the on-going monitoring of the risks is the most difficult to get people engaged with. It is easy to explain the need for the initial session but slightly more persuading is needed to get people involved in continually updating the risks.“

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

Suppose the project has gone off the rails. What steps would you take to get it back on track?

“The first step I would take is to confirm if the project is still viable in its current state. I would do this by re-confirming the business justification and seeing if the same assumptions still hold true now. Assuming the project is still viable I would investigate the issues with the team and prioritise remediation or mitigation of each item, re-scoping or re-defining the project plan as need be. Once the new plan was ready I would re-issue to the project stakeholders for review and approval. Later on I would lead an investigation as to why these issues were not catalogued in the RAID log already, but that investigation would be held once the project was back on track.

I actually have some recent experience with a wayward project. COVID-19 had caused a number of our internal projects to stall out. I was brought onto a project when the previous PM had left the business. The aim of the project was to offshore one of our business processes. The project had stalled after our offshore office had been closed due to a lockdown.

The first thing I did was to re-confirm the business justification. In doing so I found that the project was no longer viable. The main aim of the project was to offshore a particular process (and therefore save on the labour costs), however the process itself was to be discontinued in around 18 months time anyway in favour of a new automated process. Given this, and the delays realised by COVID, the assumed cost savings were no longer accurate and the revised cost savings were negligible. I presented my findings to the Change Committee and requested I be allowed to take the necessary steps to close the project.

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

Tell me about a time you had to manage a difficult stakeholder

“Difficult stakeholders are unavoidable when you have been in the industry for any amount of time. It is just one of those things that you need to be aware of, not everyone is going to be on the same page or have the same goals as you and you will need to handle these people appropriately in order to deliver on your goals.

Whenever I find someone being difficult or not giving me the level of support I require in my projects I tend to do 2 things. Firstly I make sure that I fully understand the issue and therefore my colleague’s concerns and secondly I approach my colleague to discuss potential remedies to get things back on track.For example, recently I was working on a project that would automate a key data gathering task within the process. This task was performed by 2 teams within the organisation and the lead SME of the teams was assigned to my project

After some time I found that the SME was not participating in project meetings and any actions they would pick up would go incomplete or be delivered very late. I spoke to the rest of my team individually as well as some contacts I had in the wider department. I learned that there was a rumour going through the two teams that once the project was delivered that the organisation was going to fire the 2 teams as they would no longer be needed with the new automation process going live.

This was not true however. Our actual plan once we delivered the project was to train these colleagues on a different process where more resources were required. I approached my senior manager to discuss a change to our communication strategy so that a notice could be sent to all impacted parties.

Once the communication was confirmed I approached the SME to explain the situation and remind them that the project still required their 100% focus. Thereafter the SME was much more involved in meetings and all actions were delivered on time. The project ending up a success and the teams were successfully trained on the new project with no colleagues being let go.“

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

How Do You Manage Frequent Changes Made to a Project?

“If this was one of my projects then there would be a clearly defined change request process that should be followed for all requests. This will have been discussed with all stakeholders and approved by all. Given this I would speak to the stakeholder in question and guide them through the Change Request process so that their request could be reviewed and actioned if necessary.

When these type of requests occur I find it best to gently remind the stakeholder that there was a process agreed at the beginning of the project and to remind them of that process and how changes are reviewed and progressed. I had a similar request recently where a senior stakeholder wanted to increase the scope of the software product we were deploying in a month’s time, the stakeholder reached out to me directly and requested it was added for the first release.

I gently reminded my colleague that all change requests needed to be raised to the CR portal and would be triaged by a member of the project team, as his change was above the agreed small change limit it would need to be approved by the Change Board. The colleague was content with this and progressed his item through the proper channels were the request was approved for deployment in second release.

Of course this all assumes that the project was being deployed using waterfall methodologies, if we were following a more agile approach the change request would have been prioritised and added to the sprint plan where appropriate.“

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

Tell us about a time when you had to manage a difficult or unhappy client. What was the result?

“I believe that good customer service is key to the long term success of any business, keep customers happy and they will come back. That is why whenever a customer expresses displeasure in our service I immediately jump at the chance to make things right.

There was one occasion back when I was working at [redacted] flooring company. We had recently taken up a contract with a national chain to re-fit the flooring in all of their stores nationwide – so it was a really big customer for us. During one of the project update calls one of the store managers expressed concern regarding one of the floor fitters we had on site. The number of hours he was supposed to be on site did not tally with actual hours he was on site and the manager had concerns this would impact the quality of the work completed.

My primary responsibility for this project was to recruit and direct the sub-contractors in each of the areas that our customer had stores, so the responsibility for sorting this fell directly to me.

I immediately took action and confirmed that the manager was correct that the fitter was in fact shaving hours. I then enlisted the help of one of our most experienced and longest servicing fitters. We both travelled to the store in question to inspect the quality of the floor that was being worked on. While a serviceable job had been made on the floor it was not to the high standard that was expected from our organisation.

The floor fitter was let go and we brought in an experienced outfit to re-do the floor to the correct standards. In order to still make our deadlines we paid extra for this new outfit to work evenings and nights – extra costs were taken out of our end not the customers.

In the end the customer was extremely pleased with how we handled the issue and how quickly we acted to correct the problem. Once we finished the refitting of all the stores the firm actually picked up a bigger contract from the customer’s parent company.“

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

How do you feel about deadlines?

“Obviously having a future date that something is due looming over you can be daunting, especially when it is a hard deadline. It is quite easy for people to get overwhelmed and get stressed. But I feel differently. I hold a begrudging respect for deadlines. I appreciate their importance as they force you to provide more structure to your work and can act as a motivator. Without deadlines I feel like a lot of work would just not get done.

To give you an example, last year I was brought in as Project Manager on an infrastructure upgrade project. This project had been ongoing for 3 years with no end in sight. There was no urgency within the team to get their work completed as there was no deadline to meet. Instead the team would prioritise other pieces of work over this project.

Eventually this pushed on long enough that a hard deadline did appear. This infrastructure upgrade became a dependency for another project of mine and it needed to be completed before I could go-live with my project.

Immediately on taking ownership of the project I created a project plan using the new deadline to create a work breakdown structure. Then I spoke with all project team members and stakeholders to advise them of the new deadline and the new plan that everyone was to adhere to.

In the end the infrastructure upgrade was deployed successfully. As a result I was able to deploy my other project on time also. So to circle back to the question I truly believe that deadlines are important as otherwise I do not believe a lot of work would get completed.“

Check out our full post on how to answer this question

What are the different ways you’ve communicated with project stakeholders before?

How has your previous experience prepared you for a role as a project coordinator?

What’s the largest budget you’ve worked with?

Which tools and software are you most familiar with from previous project coordinator roles?

What’s the largest project team you’ve worked with?

Have you ever had to hire vendors or suppliers? What’s your process for doing so?

Have you ever worked on a project that failed to meet a client’s expectations? What did you do to ensure the same mistakes weren’t made the next time?

How often do you communicate with clients during a project?

What expectations do you normally have for the other members of a project team?

How do you establish the timeline for a project?

Why do you think some projects fall behind schedule or go over budget?

What are the most crucial steps you feel are important for a project coordinator to complete?

What do you find most challenging about working as a project coordinator?

What certifications do you possess that make you stand out as a project coordinator?

Interpersonal skills are required for this job because you will be delegating duties to many people. How would you rate your interpersonal skills?

If the morale of your team member is low, how do you intend to motivate them and prevent them from affecting the operation of the project?

What is your system of providing regular updates to your team members? Has that system been effective so far?

What are the steps you take to manage risks?

What is the Biggest Challenge That You Foresee in This Job?

How Do You Deal with Pressure to Deliver?

Do you have any questions for us?

10 Questions To Ask At The End Of An Interview (And 6 That You Shouldn’t!)

10 Questions To Ask At The End Of An Interview (And 6 That You Shouldn’t!)

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Let’s set the scene; you are 80 minutes into a gruelling interview session.

The interviewer has thrown every possible job related question at you, from your skills to your qualifications, just for good measure they have even tossed in a few “Tell me about a time” questions to test your competencies.

You are feeling good about your responses and you feel that you and the interviewer have a really good rapport built.

The interview starts to wind down and the interviewer signs off with…

Do you have any questions for us?

You might be thinking, great, the interviewer is finished, this is finally over – I don’t want to waste the interviewer’s time so I’ll say I’m happy and I’ll be on my way.

This is not the correct approach.

Make no mistake, this is an interview question and you will be assessed on it.

Therefore you should rehearse ahead of time what your answer – or question even – is going to be.

That is why in this post I am going to give you some great questions for you to ask at the end of your interview. These questions are intended to make you seem engaged, knowledgeable, skilled and to leave a genuinely good and lasting impression with your interviewer.

But first, let’s take a look at some questions that you should absolutely not ask!

Questions YOU SHOULD NOT Ask At The End Of An Interview

Did I get the job?

99/100 hiring decisions are not made on the spot. So all you are doing by asking this question is annoying the interviewer.

In the 1/100 that they have decided whether to hire you or not they will tell you, you don’t gain any value out of asking this question but run the risk of leaving a bad lingering impression.

Do you do random drug tests?

It is incredible how many people think this is a reasonable question to ask. Sure most employers will not be bothered about what you do on your own time, but the ones that do will definitely not take kindly to a question like this.

Hint: if you need to know the answer to this question research the company online first and see what their current employees have to say.

How many days off do I get?

This is not a question for the interview. If days off (or anything in the advertised benefits) is not suitable to you then you should iron out these details when negotiating the offer – or if you need clarification then seek this prior to the interview.

What is it that I will be doing here? / What is it that your company does?

This shows a lack of research on your part. Prior to any interview you need to research the role and the company. How else are you expected to show you can do the job if you do not even know what the role or company do!

As an aside there is a difference between asking the above question and asking something like “What would an average day in this role look like?”, the latter is trying to understand more about the role specifics and company culture that is not easily researched, while the former could be answered by a google search.

How often will I get a pay rise?

Take one step at a time there chief. You haven’t got this job yet and you’re already saying you want more money (that is what the interviewer will hear).

Try and phrase the question to something like “How will my performance be assessed”.

Is the position remote?

I think any job that can be remote should be remote. That’s my personal view. But companies – for their own reasons – often do not agree with me. If the position is remote it will be advertised as such before you get to the interview stage. If you are only interested in remote positions then you should ask this question prior to the interview and avoid wasting anyone’s time.

Questions YOU SHOULD Ask At The End Of An Interview

One thing to remember when asking your question is that an interview is a 2 way conversation. Sure you are being interviewed to see if you are what the organisation needs, but you are also interviewing the organisation to see if it is somewhere that you would like to work.

What would the average day look like in this position?

This is a great question to ask as it allows you to plenty of chances to show your experience in the following discussions. It also shows the interviewer that you are really interested in the position.

Has the firm made any changes to how they operate as a result of COVID-19? – And do you envision any of the changes will be ‘rolled back’?

This question is good for your own peace of mind more than anything else. A lot of firms will have changed operating processes during COVID-19 and all of the various lockdowns. Now that restrictions are largely a thing of the past (at the time of writing this anyway!) some companies may be looking to wind these changes back.

You don’t want to accept a fully remote position only to be told that remote working was only a temporary measure and you will be expected to be in the office full time.

Are there any gaps in my skills/knowledge that I can work on to improve my chances?

It’s good to put your interviewer’s mind at ease. During the interview the interviewer may have noticed that there are some areas of the role that you are not as experienced in. By asking this question you can either show the interviewer that you have the necessary experience – perhaps you didn’t communicate all areas of your experience – OR you can assure the interviewer that you will be able to up-skill quickly.

I remember one interview I sat in on where the lead interviewer was hesitant as a candidate did not possess any PM qualifications. The candidate asked the above question and was told, quite honestly, that the interviewer was having reservations due to the lack of formal qualification. The interviewee – brilliantly in my opinion – stated that they will achieve the PRINCE2 foundation qualification prior to the job start and will achieve the practitioner qualification before the probation period ended. If he did not produce these documents he said he would happily resign with no hard feelings. The candidate did end up getting the role and sure enough was able to produce both certifications quite quickly, keeping his promise and his job!

What do you find most enjoyable [and/or least enjoyable] about working here?

This is a good question to ask to show that you are interested in the role. Take any answer from the interviewer with a massive grain of salt. Not many current employees are going to be that candid with you about the pains and tribulations of the organisation.

Can you tell me more about the team I will be working with?

Who you are working with will greatly determine how much you enjoy your role. You want to know how good this team is and how well you will fit in with their work style. Try to learn if the team is new or very experienced. If it is a new team then you might be being brought on to help train others (whether that is a pro or con is for you to decide)

How will my results be assessed? What does success look like for you?

Asking this shows the interviewer that you are already thinking about how you can perform well in your role. From the interviewer’s answer you should also be able to glean some information about salary reviews!

Will I be offered the room to grow in the role? What are the opportunities for advancement within the organisation?

This is an important thing to know if you are trying to turn this role into a career. If the organisation just wishes for a desk filler and has no intention of providing upward mobility it is best for you to know upfront.

Why is this current position available?

This is a good backdoor way of finding out what the workplace is like. If the position is available because the previous occupant moved up then it shows there is room for advancement. Perhaps the person quit because they couldn’t keep up with the pace (this will show you the work is demanding).

Have I answered all of your questions? Is there anything you would like me to elaborate on?

There’s nothing worse than missing out on a job because the interviewer was missing some piece of information.

Can you advise what the next steps are with regard to this application process?

Managing expectations is important and your interviewer should be appreciative of what the interview process is like for the candidate. If they are unable to provide you with a proper timeline of how the application process will progress then you have to question what it would be like to work this organisation.

What To Do If You Can’t Think Of Any Questions

It’s all well and good talking about questions you can ask at the end of an interview. But sometimes on the day your mind just goes blank. Or maybe your questions were already answered during the rest of the interview and now you are sat there with nothing to ask.

If this happens then don’t panic you can still produce an answer that will leave a good impression while not actually needing to ask any questions.

You can say something along these lines:

“Most of the questions I had have been answered during this interview actually! I was particularly interested in what we were discussing earlier about the projects that you currently have in the pipeline, they seem like something I can really hit the ground running on.

I am very conscious of the time and we are running close to the end, there’s nothing I have left to ask that would stop me from considering any offer, and I am sure you are very busy so we can wrap this up here and hopefully speak again soon?”

It’s not a perfect response by any means. But you are showing the interviewer a few things here; firstly you show that you care about your interviewer’s time and are empathetic to their needs and commitments. Secondly you refer back to earlier comments in the interview which shows you were engaged. Thirdly the wording of this response shows the interviewer that you did come prepared with questions but you managed to have these questions answered during the interview itself (efficient!). Finally you express eagerness in doing a good job straight away.

Interview Question: Tell me about a time when you have made a mistake in a project – Answer Tips

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Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank
Project Manager Question & Answer Sheet

Other interview questions that are similar

What was the last error you made?
Have you ever been part of a failing team?
What areas do you believe you are weakest in?
After you have made a mistake, how do you ensure you don’t repeat the same error in the future?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

No this is not a trick question. But it is not as straight forward as it seems on the surface.

The interviewer is not as interested in the mistake that you made but rather how you handled the situation once the mistake was realised.

  • Did you attempt to cover up your mistake?
  • Did you draw attention to your mistake?
  • Did you, successfully, fix your mistake?
  • Did you change how you approached the task in the future to prevent re-occurrence of the mistake?

All of these things will be running through the interviewers mind when you are answering this question.

The interviewer is less interested in the actual mistake* than they are in how you handled yourself in the face of the mistake being realised and what, if any, steps you took to fix the mistake and learn from the experience to prevent similar issues going forward.

*That said the interviewer is going to raise an eyebrow if you talk about a particularly devastating mistake so try to keep it minor (no showstoppers!)

The best approach to answering this question

This is a “Tell me about a time” question. As with all questions phrased in this manner your answer is going to require sharing an example from your experience. I always recommend that when answering questions like this that you follow the B-STAR technique.

Let’s see how this method would work on this question:

B – Belief – What are your thoughts/feelings on the matter? – Explain to the interviewer how you feel about making mistakes (presumably not great). Talk about how when you realise a mistake has been made that you seek to highlight and correct the mistake at the earliest possible opportunity. Once the damage from the mistake has been reversed (or minimised) then you look to see the root cause of the failing and take steps to prevent re-occurrence.

S – Situation – What was going on? And what was the mistake? – Set the scene for the interviewer. It is important to remember at this point that this is still an interview, and is under a time restraint. So don’t spend too much of your time describing the issue, if possible make your example very easy to understand – simple project, simple mistake.

T – Task – What was your responsibility at the time? – Talk about what your role in the situation was. What tasks were you responsible for in the original project, in making the mistake and in the clean-up. Good answers will touch upon how you took a pro-active role in helping to fix your mistake.

A – Activity (or Actions) – What steps did you take? – Upon realising your mistake what did you do? Run through each activity you completed while conveying to the interviewer why you believed these steps to be necessary. This part of the question should form the bulk of your answer.

R – Results – How did it all turn out? – What was the end result? Again, this is an interview so let’s try to keep it simple and say that the end result was positive. The mistake was spotted, you owned up to it, you were pro-active in getting the issue remedied and finally you enacted some changes to how you work to prevent the issue from happening again.

How NOT to answer this question

Do not describe a work place catastrophe – I appreciate that the question is asking you to share a mistake but don’t fall into the trap of sharing your biggest mistakes. Keep your examples to mistakes that were somewhat important to your role/function but that did not have life or career threatening impacts.

Do not use a failure as an example – When choosing your example try to talk about one where you were able to wind back all (or at least some) of the damage that your mistake caused. Also ensure that you were able to learn something from the experience for the next time you are in a similar situation. Do not describe a time when you made a mistake, it was never fixed, and you do not know how you would react if a similar situation were to happen again.

Do not avoid the question. Don’t tell the interviewer that you never make mistakes. I have seen candidates use that answer hundreds of times and not once has it ever endeared them to the interview panel. Everyone makes mistakes. If you claim that you never make mistakes the interviewer is not going to believe you, they will either assume you are lying or that you are very inexperienced.

Tell me about a time when you have made a mistake in a project – Example answer

“I hate making mistakes – I suppose everybody does – that is why I always advocate for proper planning. I am a ‘measure twice cut once’ type of girl. When a project is planned correctly the risk of mistakes by any one person are greatly reduced. However on the occasions that a mistake of mine does ‘slip the net’ I always immediately highlight it to the project/workstream and take steps to remediate the fallout.

For example, back when I was Delivery Manager at [REDACTED] my project team were in charge of delivering an important piece of work to the business every Tuesday morning. This piece of work took my team 1 day to produce. One such week – after a bank holiday – the report was going to be delayed until Wednesday (as my team needed the Tuesday for production since Monday was a non-working day).

The mistake that I had made was that I had not communicated this delay to the business area expecting the report and as such there were a team of people without any work to do.

Upon learning of my error I immediately contacted the team lead of the business area and explained the situation, taking full blame for the error and apologising for the inconvenience caused. I listened to the lead talk about how their team used the report and between the two of us we devised a temporary solution. My team would deliver the report in 4 stages, so as opposed to receiving one full report the business would now receive 4. This would allow them to start work on the first stage while my team continued to produce the remaining stages.

Had I not took responsibility and sought out how to rectify the situation then the entire team would have lost a full day’s production, in the end they only lost 1.5 hours, of which the Team Lead advised me they used to complete mandatory learnings anyway.

Once the situation was resolved I went back plugged the gaps in my RACI matrix and communication strategy so that this issue would not present itself going forward. I also took the time to take a couple refresher courses on LinkedIn with regard to stakeholder management. I can safely say failure to communicate will not be an issue for me again!”

Other Interview Question and Answers

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

Interview Question: Tell Me About A Time You Improved A Process – Answer Tips

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Question forms part of:

MOST POPULAR INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Civil Service Question Bank

Other interview questions that are similar

Have you ever initiated and delivered a change to the way of working within your organisation?
Do you have any suggestions for how to improve your current role?
Can you give an example of a time you streamlined a process?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

In order for a business to survive it needs to continually grow, it is not enough for a firm to just tread the waters as eventually another company will come along and take their place.

This is true in the public space also, the general public is not content to receive the same level of service forever when they see other cities, counties, states, countries etc. receiving better and better service.

So how does a business continue to grow? One of the main ways is via continuous improvement.

Constantly looking for ways to reduce costs, increase profits, improve efficiencies by looking at and introducing change to current business processes.

That is what the interviewer is looking for when asking this question. Are you someone who will look at the process and notice areas for improvement? Or are you content to just work the process as is?

As this is a behavioural question the interviewer will want to know how you have gone about changing processes in the past, what steps did you take, did the changes stick, was it a success, etc.?

The best approach to answering this question

This is a “Tell me about a time” question. Clearly the interviewer is expecting an example of a time you improved upon a process, that much is obvious. But there are good examples and there are bad examples.

The best way to approach this is to first discuss your thoughts on process improvement. Talk about how you feel strongly that all colleagues should take the time to review their processes to identify areas of improvement.

Once that is out of the way you want to get straight into your example using the S.T.A.R method.

The best example to give is one in which you identified an enhancement to a process that would save time or money for your organisation.

Once you identified the enhancement you took steps to organise your idea and present it in a straightforward manner to your management team.

The best answers talk about how after presenting to management you either led the project to change the process yourself or were an important SME during the project.

Finally once the process was updated to include your changes what were the results? Did you get the benefits you thought you would? It is best during an interview to use an example were the process change was a success.

Not every process improvement is a success but this question is not the right time to talk about that. Pick an example where you were key to the change and the change was a success.

How NOT to answer this question

Don’t avoid the question. If you have truly never improved a process in a professional setting then think of an example from your personal life or from back in school. There is no worse answer you can give than:

“I don’t think I’ve ever done that, every job I’ve had I have just followed the process as given to me”

If you really are hitting a brick wall and literally have no examples to give then resort to giving a hypothetical answer about how you would change a process if you could.

Another thing you should avoid talking about is making changes to the process unilaterally:

“Prior to logging case files onto the system the process was to send it to a colleague for a ‘buddy check’. After working some 50 cases without any feedback from the ‘buddy’ I opted not to follow this part of the process. This meant that I could log cases onto the system a day or so earlier than normal.”

In this example the interviewee has removed a step from the process in order to save time. It also appears as though the interviewee failed to clear this with anyone in his department before doing so. Given the nature of the task it is probable that this ‘buddy check’ was there to catch quality issues and approval to remove this step would not have been given had the request been made.

A better thing to do would have been for the interviewee to query the buddy check process itself, it seems unusual for there to be zero feedback at all across 50 cases.

Tell Me About A Time You Improved A Process – Example Answer

The examples provided below can serve as a foundation for creating your unique answers. For additional inspiration, our new guide includes five sample responses to this question and over 100 answers to all of the most common interview queries.

Check out “INTERVIEW SUCCESS: How to answer 20 of the Most Popular Interview Questions (with over 100 sample answers!)”

“I am a big fan of continuous improvement. I am always looking for ways to improve my skills and to make the people and processes around me better and more efficient. I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is my passion but something I very much enjoy doing is automating repetitive functions.

One such occasion was in a previous role where I was working in the accounts department of a flooring company. This firm employed numerous contractors across the country who would be submitting expense reports and invoices regularly.

My job was to receive these emails and transpose the data into our accounting software in order for payment to be made.

As I was interested in automation I knew that a lot of repetitive type data entry tasks could be automated. But I wasn’t sure how. So before I approached my managers with my idea I did some research into various solutions.

Once I found how it could be done I pitched the idea to my managers who were totally on board. We hired an IT contractor who automated the entire process within a week.

The end result was instead of spending 20 hours a week on expense reports and invoices I spent just the 1 hour doing quality checks of the tool, leaving me an additional 19 hours a week to spend on other value adding tasks for the firm”

5 more example answers…

Question Banks

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
32 Test Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
34 Change Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
Business Analyst Job Interview Question & Example Answers
PMO Analyst Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
33 Team Leader Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
Quality Assurance Analyst Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)

27 Scrum Master Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

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Scrum is the new black.

The first implementation of scrum took place way back in 1993 so it is not a particularly new project management framework but it sure is popular at the moment.

At its core scrum is a framework that fosters collaboration and giving a team (usually of developers) the tools and free-reign to self-organise while working on tasks.

Right in the middle of this self-organising team is the Scrum Master. It is the Scrum Master’s job to act as a facilitator and blocker remover for the members of the team.

Scrum Master roles can be quite high paying so there are usually many candidates for any open positions. Getting a job as a Scrum Master is therefore quite tough, and the process can be fairly intense.

This article today is going to look at the Scrum Master job application, and in particular the interview process.

First we will look at some SM specific tips that you can use when in the interview. Then we are going to dive into the best method for answering interview questions (and also how not to answer interview questions!) Then finally we are going to round off by looking at some of the more popular Scrum Master interview questions that you can be asked and see some example answers.

Scrum Master Interview Tips

Lean heavily on your experience – Follow the B-STAR process (discussed further below) and refer back to your previous role regularly. Show the interviewer that you are very well acquainted with the subject matter at hand.

Name drop the processes, systems and tools you have used – If you are telling a story about a sprint or a project you worked on name drop the software you used (MS Projects, JIRA, etc.). If you are explaining how you did stakeholder management discuss how you utilised a RACI Matrix. Basically pepper your answers with Scrum Master vernacular. Make sure it comes across naturally though.

Tailor your answers to the organisation – Learn all you can about the organisation that is interviewing you. You particularly want to know:

  • What are their current, past and future projects?
  • What is the level of their PMO, what processes/methodologies do they use, what are they looking to use going forward?
  • What software and tools do they use day-to-day?

When answering your questions try to showcase your experience that you have in the above areas. For example if you learn that they have completed numerous waterfall projects automating business processes but are looking to move into an Agile delivery then you talk about how you have experience with Agile and in automating business processes.

How Best To Answer Scrum Master Interview Questions

Unless the question you are asked is a straight ‘up or down / yes or no’ style question then you are going to need to learn to describe, expand and elaborate on your answers. The best way of doing this is to follow the B-STAR technique for answering interview questions.

Answers using this method follow the below structure:

B – Belief – What are your thoughts and feelings with regard to the subject matter? – As a Scrum Master you should have your own set of philosophies and processes that you tailor to each situation.

S – Situation – What was going on? Briefly explain the scenario that was taking place. – Try not to spend too much time describing the situation. The bulk of your answer needs to be about you and what you did so keep the situation simple to understand and even simpler to describe.

T – Task – What was your role in the action? Most of the time it is best that you are taking an active rather than passive role in the encounter – You are going for a Scrum Master role (presumably) so the situation you describe should have you in a leadership role in delivery.

A – Activity (or action) – What did you do? Detail the steps you took and why you took them. – This should take up the bulk of your time answering the question.

R – Result – How did everything end up? Try to use figures if possible (e.g. we cut costs by $3m, customer satisfaction scores increased 25%, failures reduced to zero, ice cream parties increased ten-fold).

Remember though that the B-STAR technique is descriptive not prescriptive. You do not need to follow this flow strictly, go with what is best for your answers and that will allow you to put your point across and show your experience the best.

What You Should Not Do When Answering Questions

Do not avoid the question.

Do not describe a failure (unless specifically asked).

Do not downplay the situation.

Do not overhype the situation.

Do not say you have no experience with the subject matter.

Do not reject the premise of the question.

Do not have a passive role in the situation.

Do not give a one-sentence answer.

Do not overly describe the scenario and miss the action.

Scrum master Interview Questions

What is Scrum? (describe in layman’s terms) / what are the different roles within Scrum?

What are the responsibilities of the Scrum Team?

What are the differences between Agile and Scrum / what is meant by Agile

What is meant by Sprint in Scrum?

What are Scrum artefacts?

What are the three pillars of scrum?

What are the Scrum values? / What do you mean by Sprint in Scrum?

Who is a Scrum Master? And what does he/she do?

What do you mean by user stories in Scrum? What are the advantages of using them?

What are Some drawbacks to using Scrum? / What are some risks in Scrum? How are they handled?

What are the key skills of a Scrum Master?

How can conflict be dealt with within the Scrum Team?

What is a product owner?

How to deal with Score Creep?

How can you coordinate between multiple teams?

What are the Scrum values?

How would you deal with a difficult stakeholder?

How can a Scrum Master contribute to the sprint planning process?

Should the Scrum team be involved in the product discovery process? If so, how?

What is the structure of a good user story?

What is the Scrum Master’s role during the Daily Scrum?

What would you do if a team member is unable to complete a task for a sprint? / How would you motivate team members? / What would you do if the project is running behind schedule?

How would you deal with a difficult stakeholder?

What is your experience in this industry?

Do you have any questions for us?

Interview Question: What are you good at? – Answer Tips

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Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank

Other interview questions that are similar

What would you consider your strengths to be?
Are there any areas of the role that you perform better in than others?
What part of the job description do you see yourself excelling in?
Where do you see your skills fitting in with the wider team?
What separates you from the other candidates?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

This isn’t a trick. This question isn’t one of those where the interviewer is asking one thing but is actually looking for something else.

This is as straight a question as you can be asked.

The interviewer wants to know what you are good at. What skills do you have. What areas of the role will you excel in.

Your CV will only give half the picture. The interviewer wants to hear straight from you what skills you bring to the table. From your answer the interviewer will be assessing whether your skills are what they need in the organisation.

The best approach to answering this question

While this is a straightforward question, you should still take care with how you answer it.

I find that most candidates fire straight into what they think their best attributes are with no regard for the role or the company.

This is a mistake. When you answer this question (and all questions in an interview) you should always be mindful of what the interviewer wants to hear.

Take time to re-read the job description before you go for your interview. This will tell you exactly what the company is looking for from the candidates. This is what you will say you are good at; when the question is asked.

Sure it is a bit deceitful. But hey, that’s how the game is played.

Be sure to talk about a few things. You do not want the interviewer to think you are a one trick pony.

The best answers will highlight a few things that you are good at while emphasising one skill that you really excel in: all the while tying back what you are saying to your experience. That is what separates good and great answers. Everyone can say that they are great at leadership, but not everyone can back up this self-reported greatness with experience.

As mentioned it is best to get your answers directly from the job description, here are some things to look out for:

Skills / Strengths for Job Interviews

Strengths you can use in a job interview (buzzwords):

It is important for this question and other similar questions (like the dreaded “What are your 3 biggest strengths”) that you don’t just read off the skill and move on. You should mention the skill and go into a little more detail as to why you are so good at it. Take a look at the examples at the end of this post to see how.

How NOT to answer this question

Don’t be too humble. Sure it is difficult for some people to ‘big themselves up’. But this is not the time for false modesty. If you are ever going to show off your skills to someone this is the time and the place

Don’t say you are good at everything. If you say you are great at everything then it starts to become less believable. Limit your answer to 2 to 4 strengths.

Don’t say you are hard working. Such a cliché answer. You want to separate yourself from the rest of the candidates. Your future employer will expect all of the candidates to be hardworking you need to show something that differentiates you and shows the interviewer why you are right fit for the role.

Some other popular responses that you will want to avoid:

  • Honest
  • Punctual
  • Trustworthy
  • Reliable

Obviously these are all good traits to possess however as mentioned all of these things are expected of any employee and will not make you stand out – which is what you want in an interview.

What are you good at?

Example answer 1

“As you can see from my CV I am an experienced project manager and I do believe I am very good at my role. I am a very good planner, I am quick to adapt to changing business environments but I believe my best attribute is my communication skills.

Being a project manager is all about being able to communicate effectively and to all different types of stakeholders – something I learned recently when we released a new software upgrade and I was communicating with front-line customer service colleagues all the way up to the CEO of the whole group! – It is this experience and others that have moulded me in to the skilled communicator I am today“

Example answer 2

“I’m not usually one to toot my own horn but when in an interview I suppose it is a must. I have a few attributes that I am particularly skilled in. I am hardworking – but I guess everyone says that – I am also an extremely quick study as you can see from my qualifications. But my greatest strength that I bring to the table is my experience in the sector. I have been working in this industry for over 10 years and have worked in a multitude of departments across all areas of the supply chain. There is not much about this trade that I do not know.

So you ask what am I good at, I am good at knowing where everything fits together, why certain processes are the way they are, who the best suppliers are in the area, etc. The knowledge that you can only gain from doing. I will be the person on the team that everyone comes to when they need more information about their work.“

Other Interview Question and Answers

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
28 Teacher Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
27 Scrum Master Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
35 Project Coordinator Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
32 Test Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
34 Change Manager Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
33 Team Leader Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
Quality Assurance Analyst Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)
PMO Analyst Interview Questions (And Sample Answers)

Interview Question: How Do You Assess And Monitor Risk Within A Project? – Answer Tips

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Question forms part of

Project Manager Question & Answer Sheet

Other interview questions that are similar

What do you know about risk management?
What steps do you take to understand the risks within your project?
What can happen if a project does not monitor its risks?
Do you know what a RAID log is?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

Bread and butter project based question this one is.

This is a question you will find in a lot of junior or graduate positions. Once you move into a more intermediate or senior project management role you can expect a lot fewer textbook questions like this. However do be prepared for the question anyway as it could be the case that the interviewer asks the question with a slight twist (e.g. “Tell me about a time risk was not adequately scoped…”).

So what is the interviewer looking for exactly here? Basically do you know your stuff. Do you understand the principles of project management and can you explain that back to the interviewer to show that you appreciate the importance of Risk Assessment and Monitoring within a project.

As simple as that.

The best approach to answering this question

As mentioned this is a fairly textbook question and should prove no issue if you have the required knowledge or qualifications. If you do not have any formal education in project management it might be worth reading the PMBOK prior to your interview just to get yourself accustomed to some of the terminology.

While this is a ‘textbook question’ that does not mean you should give a ‘textbook answer’. The best answers will expand on the textbook answer by providing your insights and backing up your answer with relevant examples from your experience.

How NOT to answer this question

Do not say you have no experience. This question is not asking you to explain your history with projects and how you have assessed and monitored risk in the past. This question can be answered easily in the hypothetical. Even if you have no experience in the subject matter at hand talk about how you would approach risk in a future project.

Do not say you do not manage risk. Whenever an interviewer asks you “How do you…”, it is never a good idea to say you don’t do what they were asking about. The interviewer is clearly asking the question in that manner as it is expected for you do what is being asked. In this instance managing risk is a fundamental part of the project management process and saying that you do not think about risk during a project will not be taken well by the interviewer.

How Do You Assess And Monitor Risk Within A Project? – Example answer

“Managing risk is one of the most important tasks that I undertake as a project manager. It is crucial to success that risks are appropriately identified, assessed and monitored throughout the project lifecycle.

In order to achieve this one of the first project artefacts that I create when forming a new project is the RAID log. Within this log I record all potential risks to the project (as identified by the project team and stakeholders).

Within the log risks are assessed as to the likelihood and severity and an appropriate plan is put in place, usually looking to reduce or eliminate the risk or to mitigate the impacts should the risk crystallise.

Within the log I include a date for review. When this date comes around the item is re-examined to determine if all the underlying logic still holds true.

I have found that the on-going monitoring of the risks is the most difficult to get people engaged with. It is easy to explain the need for the initial session but slightly more persuading is needed to get people involved in continually updating the risks.“

Other Interview Question and Answers

79 Civil Service Interview Questions (And Example Answers)
94 Project Manager Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

29 Teacher Interview Questions (And Example Answers)

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Getting a job as a teacher is a bit different to any other job. The people you work with the most will not be there. You basically have to talk to a grown-up about how good you are at talking to little kids.

It might even be better if the interview was held by the kids themselves.

Actually strike that that’s a terrible idea!

Interviews are stressful occasions, you need to put yourself out there and hope that the other person thinks that you are a competent enough person to trust with the role.

In order to reduce the stress you need to ensure that you come prepared. You are dressed the part, you arrived on time and you have checked yourself out in the mirror beforehand (make sure there’s nothing stuck in your teeth!).

But the most important thing you can do to prepare is to practice interview questions beforehand.

And that is what we are going to look at today. We are going to go through some of the most popular Teacher Interview Questions.

Take your time and think about how you would answer these questions in an interview setting and make some notes if necessary. Hopefully in doing this you will nail your next interview.

Teacher Interview Tips

Lean heavily on your experience – Follow the B-STAR process (discussed further below) and refer back to your previous time in the classroom regularly. Show the interviewer that you are very well acquainted with the subject matter at hand.

Name drop the processes, systems and tools you have used – If you use any learning aids in the classroom make sure you namedrop them (particularly if you know the institution is also using – or has used – the same tool).

Tailor your answers to the school – Learn all you can about the organisation that is interviewing you. Each institution is different and offers different learning experiences to their students (classroom size, extra-curricular activities, etc.)

How Best To Answer Teacher Interview Questions

Unless the question you are asked is a straight ‘up or down / yes or no’ style question then you are going to need to learn to describe, expand and elaborate on your answers. The best way of doing this is to follow the B-STAR technique for answering interview questions.

Answers using this method follow the below structure:

B – Belief – What are your thoughts and feelings with regard to the subject matter? – As a Teacher you should have your own set of philosophies and an overall ‘teaching style’ that you tailor to each situation.

S – Situation – What was going on? Briefly explain the scenario that was taking place. – Try not to spend too much time describing the situation. The bulk of your answer needs to be about you and what you did so keep the situation simple to understand and even simpler to describe.

T – Task – What was your role in the action? Most of the time it is best that you are taking an active rather than passive role in the encounter – You are going for a Teaching role (presumably) so the situation you describe should have you at the head of the classroom if possible.

A – Activity (or action) – What did you do? Detail the steps you took and why you took them. – This should take up the bulk of your time answering the question.

R – Results – How did everything end up? Try to use figures if possible (e.g. student pass rates rose 10%).

Remember though that the B-STAR technique is descriptive not prescriptive. You do not need to follow this flow strictly, go with what is best for your answers and that will allow you to put your point across and show your experience the best.

What You Should Not Do When Answering Questions

Do not badmouth a previous institution

Do not avoid the question.

Do not describe a failure (unless specifically asked).

Do not downplay the situation.

Do not overhype the situation.

Do not say you have no experience with the subject matter.

Do not reject the premise of the question.

Do not have a passive role in the situation.

Do not give a one-sentence answer.

Do not overly describe the scenario and miss the action.

General Teacher Interview Questions

Why do you want to work in our school? / why do you want to teach? (often asked together)

What makes you an effective teacher? / Why should we hire you?

How would you contribute to making our school a safe environment for children? / Tell us how you dealt with a safeguarding issue in school

What are the current issues in education?

How do you build relationships and communicate with parents/carers? / How do you engage with students’ parents or guardians?

What would you do if there was a pupil in your class who was refusing to complete their work? / Can you tell us about a time when a pupil has refused to cooperate with you?

Can you tell us about a time you’ve faced challenges at work and how you’ve overcome them?

How would you handle bullying in your class?

How do you assess and record children’s progress?

Why did you choose to teach this particular age range?

What do you think makes a successful school?

How do you feel about parent helpers in the classroom?

How would you meet the needs of more academically able children in the class?

What strategies do you use to support children with special educational needs?

If a child doesn’t show signs of improvement after all your planning, monitoring, assessing and so on, what do you do next?

What do you think is the best way to motivate pupils?

How would you like to see your career develop?

Tell me about a lesson that didn’t go well and what you did about it

What behaviour management strategies do you tend to employ in the classroom?

What role do you believe technology has in the classroom?

What is your teaching philosophy?

What has been your greatest success as a teacher?


Do you have any questions for us?

Primary School Teacher Interview Questions

What are your favourite and least favourite subjects to teach, and why? How do you ensure that you teach your least favourite subject well?

How would you develop children’s communication and language skills?

What are the important things to consider when setting up your inside space?

Secondary School Teacher Questions

In your opinion, what is the most important aspect of your subject, and how do you make sure that you teach this well?

What have you gained by studying your main subject at university?

How do you see your subject developing over the next three years?

Interview Question: What are your weaknesses? – Answer Tips

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Question forms part of

Civil Service Question Bank

Other interview questions that are similar

What areas do you find you struggle in?
Are there any aspects of the role that you find more difficult than others?
What 3 things are you bad at?

What the interviewer is looking for by asking this question

This is a very popular question in an interview. I have found that it doesn’t matter what job you are going for or what stage of your career you are in, this question can appear at any time.

Which is unfortunate (for us as job seekers) because it is such a tricky question to gauge what it is exactly the interviewer is looking for by asking this question.

The interviewer could be looking for one of two things:

  1. Are you the type of person who is capable of introspection to find weaknesses. Are you also the type of person who – when they identify weaknesses in themselves – takes steps toward improving in these areas.
  2. Actual, genuine areas of weakness. The interviewer might have genuine interest in your areas of weakness. It could be that they require people strong in X and you saying that it is your weakness will rule you out.

We are not mind readers so it is hard for us to know what exactly the interviewer is looking for, but a good rule of thumb would be if the job you are looking to apply for is in a career based position where you would be expected to grow and mature as a professional with the organisation then strong bet the interviewer is looking for number 1 above.

On the other hand if you are applying for a contract position or a limited time position where you are being tasked with coming in and performing X function and then leaving the organisation, then you can safely assume they are looking for number 2 above. You should keep this in mind when formulating your answer.

The best approach to answering this question

This is not a “Tell me about a time” question, or a skill question. It is an opinion based question. The interviewer wants to hear your thoughts around your strengths/weaknesses to understand if you would make a good fit to their organisation.

With that in mind the best approach to this question is to be honest…but not too honest. Tell the interviewer your weaknesses…within reason.

No-one is great at everything and even if you are there will be some areas that you are greater in than others. The others are your weaknesses.

The best answers will approach this question by giving a frank assessment of your weakness AND discussing what steps you are taking (or will take) to overcome this weakness and become a better worker.

Talk about your weakness and how it impacts your life and work, but then detail the steps that you are taking to overcome this weakness. Try to make your answer about a weakness that can be improved and isn’t purely subjective (e.g. “I can’t use X system” vs “I don’t get on well with people”).

How NOT to answer this question

Don’t say you have no weaknesses. For a starter it is just plain not true, everyone has weaknesses. Further it will not endear you to the interviewer, they will think you are cocky and arrogant. Or even worse it shows that you are naïve and failed to prepare for the interview.

Don’t give a false weakness that is actually a strength. “Oh my biggest weakness is that I work too hard, *wink*”. Come off it. The interviewer is smarter than that. They are asking the question to see if you can determine your own weaknesses. If you truly work too hard then talk about how you have a problem setting boundaries with colleagues and saying NO to additional responsibilities outside your job role.

Don’t share a massive weakness. This question is really tricky, because you want to give a weakness and show how you are overcoming it, but at the same time you don’t want that weakness to actually cost you the job. Keep your weaknesses small but relatable, i.e. don’t say you can’t use Microsoft Office when applying for an office job (plus also learn how to use Word!)

What are your weaknesses? – Example Answers

Weakness Example Answer 1

“I have never worked with <insert tool or software> before and I see that it plays an integral role in your organisation. I have worked with <insert other tool> before and from what I hear it lacks a number of features present in <tool>. I look forward to the opportunity to use this new tool as I hear great things about it, I have also found a crash course online that I would look to take to get up to speed as quickly as possible…should I be offered the job”

Weakness Example Answer 2

“My memory is my biggest weakness. Quite frankly it sucks. I will be told something in the morning and will have completely forgotten having had the conversation by the afternoon. It held me back a lot in school were it seemed like a lot of exam preparation was just cramming as much info into your head as possible prior to an exam. I have found a good system though that works for me. I write lots of notes and set myself lots of reminders. I am not sure if you can see since we’re on video but I have been taking notes throughout this meeting as well!”

Weakness Example Answer 3

“I think my biggest weakness is my potential to get distracted. I’ve found that when I have just one task on my plate that I procrastinate a lot and it often ends up either incomplete or rushed and not finished satisfactorily. I have had good success recently with this by ensuring that I always have multiple tasks on the go at once. That way I can procrastinate on one by completing the other. It is not a perfect solution so I also perform exercises designed to improve focus and concentration at home.”

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