Question — What is a good response to the interview question, "What do you think your greatest accomplishment has been?" Do you answer professionally or personally?
Answer — It all depends on what your greatest accomplishment was. I have a friend who won an Olympic gold medal a few years back — a rather lofty accomplishment for anyone. But it certainly is not a professional accomplishment if she is trying to land a job as a pharmaceutical saleswoman. So would citing it work?
I believe it would because it rings of self-determination, discipline, goal-setting and working under extreme pressure.
In answering such a question, I would first identify what you believe has been your greatest accomplishment, professionally or personally. Then match that accomplishment to your career goal.
Question — How do you recover from stupid interviewers who stick to questions they have written down and are so open-ended you have no idea what they want? For example, a panel of three people asking questions like:
— "What is it like to work in a group?"
— "Tell us about a time when you successfully analyzed a situation and found a solution."
— "Read these graphs and give us your impressions."
It was awful. No one even smiled. If I never hear from these people again, it will be too soon.
Answer — I hate to be the one to tell you, but these are not stupid interviewers or stupid interview questions. They are very carefully chosen to discover just how well you would fit into their organization. The questions are designed to investigate your ability to work with a team, solve problems and assimilate data.
This is an interview style for the "now" workplace, and no matter who you are or what you're searching for, you would do well to prepare answers for these kinds of questions.
Marvin Walberg is a job search consultant and the author of "About Getting Hired: the Job Search." Send questions to P.O. Box 130757, Birmingham, AL 35213, or e-mail mwalberg@.bellsouth.net.