Last Updated: June 18, 2014By Tags: ,

Over the years he’s conducted numerous job interviews and he’s coached hundreds of clients on how to prepare and succeed in interviews, and debriefed them after the fact.  Along the way he’s formed some strong opinions about questions he deems stupid. “Any negative questions are trap questions,” he insists. “If you answer them in a straightforward way you can dig a deep hole for yourself.” Beyond negative questions, he’s also compiled a list of queries that he calls “flat out dumb, stupid questions, or what I call ‘college entrance questions.’” The problem is that interviewers ask them of 42-year-old midcareer professionals.

1.  What don’t you like about your work?
Try saying, “I don’t love it when I’m hit with a lot of unexpected assignments when I’m already feeling deluged.” Then talk about how you’ve developed time-management and prioritization skills and how that’s helped you handle assignment overload. You’ve learned how to keep yourself from panicking and how to prevent multiple deadlines from distracting you. You’ve also learned that it’s important to get on top of new work as quickly as possible before it’s had a chance to stymie you.

For questions 2 – 10, read full article here