Career Advice

Former recruitment agency experts answer employment questions, candidly suggesting how to negotiate your salary, find a really good job, handle phone interviews, and more.

Sage advice like this is priceless.

Leadership Interview Question

Q: Recently interviewer asked me to give an example of where I demonstrated my leadership qualities. She was not impressed with my answer. What would be a good way to handle this question?

A: Impressing an interviewer means that you can do the job and are a good fit with the company. Using this as a guideline, ask yourself if you know what kind of leadership skills and style this particular company values.

Do they like consensus-building, team oriented, participative managers? Are they looking for visionary inspirational leadership? Do they want someone who is hands-on or a big picture strategic level thinker?

Research the employer ahead of time and also try to listen carefully for clues from the interviewer and ask your own questions during the interview so you can get a picture of what they are looking for specifically. With this you can then prepare an appropriate answer by thinking of good examples of how you demonstrated leadership in the past that would fit well with their requirements and style.