HR Consultant Interview Preparation Guide

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Find your specific niche – if you are a career professional, what type of client truly speaks to you? Collect those clients and treasure them.

It is difficult to break some habits. This question will help the interviewer understand your weaknesses or areas of improvement from your colleagues’ point of view. The question makes the candidates really think about the perception their colleagues could carry about them.

Within five years, I would like to become the very best accountant your company has on staff. I want to work toward becoming the expert that others rely upon. And in doing so, I feel I'll be fully prepared to take on any greater responsibilities which might be presented in the long term. For example, here is what I'm presently doing to prepare myself…

You are eager to look good but don’t make the common mistake of exaggerating your current position. Mentioning some of the routine tasks in your day adds realism to your description and show that you don’t neglect important details such as paperwork. Put yourself in the interviewer’s place as your answer. When you’ve been doing a job for years it becomes second nature to you, and you must be aware of all the tasks you undertake. You should spend a few days making notes of your activities at work to regain an outsider’s perspective. Try to show that you make good use of your time, that you plan before you begin your work and that you review your achievements at the end of it.

Start by explaining what you'd need to do to get ramped up. What information would you need? What parts of the company would you need to familiarize yourself with? What other employees would you want to sit down with? Next, choose a couple of areas where you think you can make meaningful contributions right away. (e.g., “I think a great starter project would be diving into your email marketing campaigns and setting up a tracking system for them.”) Sure, if you get the job, you (or your new employer) might decide there’s a better starting place, but having an answer prepared will show the interviewer where you can add immediate impact—and that you’re excited to get started.

Of the many interview questions and their answers, this one might seem like the trickiest, especially if you desperately want the job. However, agreeing to it when you are not okay with working round the clock and during the weekends won’t do you any good.

If you are cool with the timings, then you don’t need to think twice and say it works for you. But even if it doesn’t, avoid a flat out NO. Instead, frame your answer smartly.

Very direct and very scary!

This is one of the trickiest yet the simplest of all the interview questions with answers that we have talked about so far. How?

Well, for one, you are only human and the interviewer knows that. If you say you don’t lie, then that will be the biggest lie and make you come across as someone who cannot be entirely trusted. So, unless and until you are intending on pulling off something very cheeky, it will be best to stick to the truth.

Talk about an instance when you lied and make sure it is not about a major lie but an innocent, white lie.

The most rewarding experience that I’ve had was when I initially became an HR Business Partner. I was assigned to support a team that held negative perceptions of the HR practice, in general, and the role of the HR Business Partner, specifically. I was tasked with changing those perceptions.

It was all about watching, listening, and learning in order to determine where I could deliver real value to the team. They were embarking on a major business transformation initiative, and felt that HR would be of absolutely no help to them.

Transformation is my love and after many months of inserting myself into situations and decisions I was able to gain enough trust to permit me to deliver a number of programs that were relevant, timely, and of interest to the leaders I supported. Those programs were hugely successful and, as a result, I achieved my goal of changing the perception of the leaders.

My next job will be to move to a role where I can apply my coaching and counselling skills, ideally as a Life/Career or Transition coach. The industries I’ll target will be not-for-profit or health care.

I truly enjoy helping individuals find their passion and/or resolve various challenges they’re facing, whether those challenges are on a personal or professional level.

This has brought some responses like ‘My salary expectations’. This is a good way to understand what the other person really stands for,” said Gundecha. The usual question – “Why should we hire you?” – puts the interviewee in selling mode. More often, the question evokes standard, sugar-coated answers. Flipping the question can bring out the real self