15 Toughest Interview Questions (and Answers!)

Good interview questions, better answers

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1. Why do you want to work in this industry?

Bad answer:
“I love to shop. Even as a kid, I spent hours flipping through catalogues.”

Don’t just say you like it. Anyone can do that. Focus instead on your history with that particular industry, and if you can, tell a success story.

Good answer:
“I’ve always loved shopping, but my interest in retail marketing really started when I worked at a neighborhood boutique. I knew our clothes were amazing, but that we weren’t marketing them properly. So I worked with management to come up with a marketing strategy that increased our sales by 25% in a year. It was great to be able to contribute positively to an industry I feel so passionate about, and to help promote a product I really believed in.”

2. Tell us about yourself.

Bad answer:
“I graduated four years ago from the University of Michigan, with a Bachelor’s in Biology – but I decided that wasn’t the right path for me. So I switched gears and got my first job, working in sales for a startup. Then I went on to work in marketing for a law firm. After that, I took a few months off to travel. Finally, I came back and worked in marketing again. And now, here I am, looking for a more challenging marketing role.”

Instead of giving a chronological work history, focus on your strengths and how they pertain to the role. If possible, illustrate with examples.

Good answer:
“I’m really energetic, and a great communicator. Working in sales for two years helped me build confidence, and taught me the importance of customer loyalty. I’ve also got a track record of success. In my last role, I launched a company newsletter, which helped us build on our existing relationships and create new ones. Because of this, we ended up seeing a revenue increase of 10% over two years. I’m also really interested in how companies can use web tools to better market themselves, and would be committed to building on your existing platform.”

3. What do you think of your previous boss?

Bad answer:
“He was completely incompetent, and a nightmare to work with, which is why I’ve moved on”

Remember: if you get the job, the person interviewing you will some day be your previous boss. The last thing they want is to hire someone who they know is going to badmouth them some day. Instead of trashing your former employer, stay positive, and focus on what you learned from him (no matter how awful he really was).

Good answer:
“My last boss taught me the importance of time management – he didn’t pull any punches, and was extremely deadline-driven. His no-nonsense attitude pushed me to work harder, and to meet deadlines I never even thought were possible.”

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Recent Grads: Wait on Buying that New Car

Make the right choice on your first car

This guest post was written by Go Banking Rates, bringing you informative personal finance content and helpful tools, as well as the best interest rates on financial services nationwide.

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Graduating from college is such an exciting time. You're finally done with slaving over books and ready to slave over a cubicle desk instead. You won't have to rely on your parents for money anymore because you'll be making your own and you can finally upgrade to a better apartment, a brand new car and overall sweeter lifestyle.

Or so we all believe at first. Before you go about making plans for this new phase in your life, think about whether you can really afford it all. How substantial is that entry level salary really? How much debt have you accumulated over the past four (or more) years? Not to burst your bubble, but you might want to readjust your new spending plan, especially when it comes to financing anything--like your next car.

The True Cost of an Auto Loan

Let's say you've graduated and it's time to upgrade your ride. You have $10,000 set aside in your savings account specifically for this purpose, which is a pretty decent chunk of change. You could buy a nice pre-owned vehicle for that amount, or you could use it as a down payment on a loan for an even nicer new car. So which is the better option: Should you save your money and buy used or are there advantages to financing?

First, you have to consider that taking on an auto loan means you are going to be paying quite a bit more for the car than it's actually worth. For example, you use your $10,000 as a down payment and finance a $20,000 car. You are borrowing the additional $10,000--we can even assume you have good credit and get an interest rate of 6% APR--and your loan term is 48 months or 4 years.

That means your monthly payment will be about $235. This also means you're going to pay your lender a total of $21,280 for a $20k car. Is a slightly better vehicle worth shelling out an extra $1,280 for? Some people believe it is because it will help you build credit in the process. Well, that's true, but...

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3 Golden Keys to Job Hunting for New Grads

Principles college grads should live by

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So you just graduated college finally and are looking for your first real entry-level job. How should you go about your job hunt? Just sit home and click away at the “submit resume” button all day? Stop what you’re doing! Find out what are the real keys to job hunting as a new grad in this economy and improve your chances out there!

1. Consistency

 Ever hear the phrase “looking for a job is a job itself”? That holds true for many people. If you want to be successful in your job search, you must have a certain job hunt process you go through every day and you must carry it out, every day consistently. Now for college grads this shouldn’t be anything new; studying in college showed you that consistency brought results. Were you more confident going into a test studying at the last minute, or reviewing content every week? Here’s a little example below of a job hunt process:

• You wake up and apply for jobs online you see posted (job boards, job aggregators, corporate sites)
• Spend a few hours reading articles on how to brush up your job interview skills, how to improve your resume. Maybe even do a mock interview with your family or friend.
• Later you spend an hour or so trying to figure out who you can network with (who do my friends know? Who does my family know? What about online networking sites like LinkedIn, who should I contact locally?).

This is just a small example, and by no means should you manage your time particularly like this – but what’s important is the fact that these are steps. You must be consistent and keep at what you are doing. If you don’t stay consistent during your job hunt, what happens is you see no results.

For example, say you start networking on Monday and apply to jobs, and then don’t follow up on networking the next few days and focus just on your resume. A week passes by, and you totally forgot about replying back to the people you networked with. Those people may now think you’re unorganized and already you lose any value you could present to them as an acquaintance. You have to stay consistent with what you do as a job seeker; show those people you’re on top of things and are eager to find work.

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"Related Experience" = Key for Landing a Job for New Grads

How to show an employer how much of a strong job candidate you are

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If you still have some time to go before you graduate, you have a perfect opportunity to make things easy on yourself when it comes time to look for your first "real" job. Just get some experience related to what you want to do when you graduate. This is a "no-brainer". Just do it. Nothing (not even a 4.0 GPA) will be more valuable to you as you start looking for that first professional position than some real-for-sure, hands-on, related experience. Even if you have to work for free, do it if you can . . . it'll pay off in the end. Here's how to do it.

Where Can I Get Related Experience?

• Internships and Co-op Experience - If you can get into an internship or co-op position related to what you want to do after you graduate, do it. Don't even think about it . . . just do it! If your school has a career center, they often can help you find these positions. If not, start looking on your own. Target companies in your field and apply to them for summer work. Don't expect to run the place and don't expect to make a pile of money. Do expect to gain some valuable experience worth its weight in gold on your resume when you graduate.


• Part-time Jobs - If you work part-time to support yourself in school, try to find jobs that are related to your field. For example, if your major is finance, try to find a part-time job as a bank teller. No, you might not make as much money as you would make in tips waiting tables at a classy restaurant, but if you can get by financially, do it. And even if you have to wait tables, maybe you can try to get involved in areas related to your career goal. For example, if your major is advertising or public relations, maybe you can offer to help with the restaurant's advertising and promotional efforts. If your major is computer science, maybe you can write a custom program that helps your boss run his business.

• Professors - Is your major chemistry? Volunteer to be a lab assistant to your chemistry professor. Yes, you're going to spend a lot of time washing laboratory glassware but you may get to watch or participate in some experiments or research along the way, too. And putting this experience on your resume shows that you like working in a lab, otherwise why would you have volunteered to work there when you didn't have to?

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College Graduates More Likely to Say 'I Do'

Education and marriage...linked?

Reprinted with permission from parentdish.

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Looks like the "MRS" Degree is making a comeback.

For the first time in decades, young adults with college degrees are more likely to walk down the aisle by age 30 than their peers without further education, a new Pew Research Center study reports.

This is a reversal of longtime trends, the study's experts say, as the struggling economy pushes weddings to all-time lows. As a whole, more younger adults are postponing marriage while they struggle to find work, and those lacking college degrees are seeing sharper declines in marriage.

"There's a double whammy going on for the people who aren't college-educated," Richard Fry, senior research associate at the Pew Research Center who wrote the report, tells CNN.com. "They are facing difficult employment, and they are less likely to enter into marriage and receive the economic benefits marriage provides."

Two decades ago, Fry tells CNN, those without college degrees were more likely to get married than folks with college degrees. Marriage allowed those without college degrees to offset lower salaries.

But now, according to the study, there has been a significant shift. About 62 percent of college-educated 30-year-olds are married or had been married, compared with 60 percent of those without a bachelor's degree, the study finds. A decade ago, 75 percent of young adults who didn't finish college were married, compared to 69 percent of their college-educated counterparts.

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