Difficult Interview Questions and Winning Answers (part II)

[clueless]

^ yung sa friend ko, company A offered a senior consultant position, company B offered a project manager position. she verbally accepted company A's offer, binawi niya when she got company B's offer. she just said she got a better offer from another company so she had to change her decision. i think that is acceptable.

for your first scenario where her current employer asked her to stay, i also think it is a valid reason. sort of like your loyalty to your current employer plays apart in your decision to stay and retract your verbal acceptance.

sa 2nd scenario, not so sure how you can put that positively.

[desolate_cat]

I have a few more questions for our HR people here.

Is it generally better/cheaper for a company to hire the services of a headhunter than do recruitment themselves? Of course there are plenty of factors but I seem to notice there are a lot of headhunters posting jobs now than direct employers.

After I take an exam in some companies, they would email back saying they put me in active file. They did not say if I passed or failed. So what does this mean?

How come some companies would call you back after a very long time( 6 months or more ) after your first interview? I can understand if the company is a multinational firm, but even medium sized and small companies sometimes do this. Did they really expect the applicant to still be available?
If the position is not urgent then why did they ask me to show up for exam and interview? This is not meant to be judgemental, I am just puzzled by this. 

[clueless]

^ i think you're going off topic.

let's concentrate on giving possible answers to interview questions and not on interpreting a prospective employer's reactions to applications.

[yasminjoo]

ano po bang magandang sagot dito?

"What's your weakness?"

diyan talaga ako nahihirapan eh! huhu...

[clueless]

^ please backread. that was just discussed a few posts ago.

[fall2pieces]

What if the interviewer asks me why it took me a while to find a job after graduation? mga 8 months din kasi yun before i landed a job. super hirap maghanap nung time na yun eh. ano po kaya magandang isagot dito? thanks..

[blooming]

totoong sumagot - mahirap mahanap ng work. pero admittedly, di nga sya masyadong magandang answer. antay pa tayo ng ibang sagot. 

i'd think kasi na as a fresh grad, mas madali dapat humanap ng trabaho since wala ka pang standards. kung anong unang offer, normally yun ang kukunin mo.

[desolate_cat]

^ i think you're going off topic.

let's concentrate on giving possible answers to interview questions and not on interpreting a prospective employer's reactions to applications.

I know its off topic, but I can't ( or not allowed to ) create a new thread. I had wanted to ask HR people those questions so I just posted them here.

[yasminjoo]

hmmm...
nabasa ko 'to somewhere.
true ba 'to dito sa pinas or pang-U.S lang ang mga 'to?

10 illegal job interview questions

1: Where were you born?
2: What is your native language?
3: Are you married?
4: Do you have children?
5: Do you plan to get pregnant?
6: How old are you?
7: Do you observe Yom Kippur?
8: Do you have a disability or chronic illness?
9: Are you in the National Guard?
10: Do you smoke or use alcohol?

[clueless]

^ not all are applicable here in the Philippines. not sure if they are illegal here but some are discriminating questions kasi. we should not discriminate by age, gender, religion, race, etc that's why as much as possible, pati sa job requirements, hindi nakalagay yung mga ganong preferences. pero di pa siguro masyadong nasusunod dito.

^^ it remains that it is off topic. let us stick to the topic so we maximize the use of the 30-page limit also.

[resme]

2-not looking for a job before resigning
hr thinks that it's a sign of irresponsibility. you can leave a company anytime. so you can leave us anytime too, even if the reason is very trivial. 'baka iwan kami nito pag may problema sa work ah'

in my situation, i resigned first and now im currently searching for a job. i don't think that makes me irresponsible given my situation.
if given that question, i would answer it this way:
" i did resign before i look for a new opportunity because my previous position was critical, and filing for a leave to attend job interviews will be inappropriate since my workload will be shouldered by my superior who also has tons of duties to do."

sa previous job ko kasi, 2 lang kami sa office, ako and my superior, kaya nahihiya din ako na basta mag absent even half-day kasi mapa-pasa talaga lahat ng trabaho ko sa kanya, multi-tasking pa naman kami pareho.

you think papasa ba sagot ko?

[lady_butterfly]

When I applied here in current job my supervisor asked me questions like tell me about yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, why are you looking for a new job etc etc. But after I answered his questions with confidence he suddenly asked me "Why do you think I should not hire you?". I froze for a moment then I asked my self "did I heard him right?". Feeling ko kasi ginigisa nya ako sa sarili kong mantika...

Ano ba magandang sagot dito?

[fall2pieces]

What if the interviewer asks me why it took me a while to find a job after graduation? mga 8 months din kasi yun before i landed a job. super hirap maghanap nung time na yun eh. ano po kaya magandang isagot dito? thanks..

suggestions pa po?

[fall2pieces]

in my situation, i resigned first and now im currently searching for a job. i don't think that makes me irresponsible given my situation.
if given that question, i would answer it this way:
" i did resign before i look for a new opportunity because my previous position was critical, and filing for a leave to attend job interviews will be inappropriate since my workload will be shouldered by my superior who also has tons of duties to do."

sa previous job ko kasi, 2 lang kami sa office, ako and my superior, kaya nahihiya din ako na basta mag absent even half-day kasi mapa-pasa talaga lahat ng trabaho ko sa kanya, multi-tasking pa naman kami pareho.

you think papasa ba sagot ko?

same thing will happen din naman eh. mas mahihirapan pa nga sila if mag-resign ka right away coz it will take time before they can find a replacement. so mapapasa pa rin sa supervisor mo yung job mo at for a longer period of time pa compared sa ilang days lang na pag-leleave mo.
maybe you can say na you don't want to use your employer's time in looking for a job? don't know if it works though but for me it did.

[resme]

same thing will happen din naman eh. mas mahihirapan pa nga sila if mag-resign ka right away coz it will take time before they can find a replacement. so mapapasa pa rin sa supervisor mo yung job mo at for a longer period of time pa compared sa ilang days lang na pag-leleave mo.
maybe you can say na you don't want to use your employer's time in looking for a job? don't know if it works though but for me it did.

thanks sa comment as well as sa suggestion, i super appreciate it..

[ven]

"Why do you think I should not hire you?". I froze for a moment then I asked my self "did I heard him right?". Feeling ko kasi ginigisa nya ako sa sarili kong mantika...

Ano ba magandang sagot dito?

I'm an HR. I do interviews and I usually ask that question. my point of asking such is to know yung confidence level ng applicant. I had applicants who answered "there's no reason for you not to hire me ma'am". I simply ask them, "so does that mean there's no more area for improvement?"

So as you see, it's just a question of your weakness put in a different way. 

[clueless]

in a recent interview, i was asked this question - first time i encountered it:

what do you think makes you good at your job?

parang question on strengths din, just phrased differently.

my answer was something to do with my passion for my job, how i got into it, how i learned, what i went through to prove myself, etc. di ko nga alam kung tama yung sagot ko pero siguro naman oo because today i was told they're keen to take me on board and negotiations have started.

[babypowder99]

anong pwedeng isagot if ever 3 yrs ka ng di nagwork because nag business ka  pero nalugi and now plan mo ulit mag apply at maging isang employee ulit paano kaya yun 

[ven]

number one rule during interviews: BE HONEST.
do not focus too much in giving the bestest answer if it means taking authenticity of the answers for granted.

^tell them what really happened. Then you might want to just add yung realizations mo along the process, yung failure, lessons learned, and how it improved you as a person and as an employee. 

[yasminjoo]

pinapa-apply ako ng dati naming trainor sa callcenter.
bukas ang interview.

kahit na-train na ako dati,
kinakabahan pa rin ako kasi 2yrs na yun at nakalimutan ko na ata ang ibang questions nila.

ano bang usually questions sa callcenter and anong magandang sagot? thankz!