TOP 100 the most popular interview questions
TOP 100 are the most popular interview questions in the UN and UN agencies as well as international NGOs.
| Tell me about that last time you were faced with professional or ethical dilemma at work (in the recent past). |
|||||||||
| ร What was the specific situation? | |||||||||
| ร How did you feel? | |||||||||
| ร How did you resolve the dilemma? | |||||||||
| When have you been asked to โbend the rulesโ by a colleague or client? | |||||||||
| ร How did you manage the situation? | |||||||||
| ร What pressures were you under? | |||||||||
| ร What factors did you have to consider? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you have had to choose between admitting a mistake and maintaining credibility to a superior or client. | |||||||||
| ร What did you do? | |||||||||
| ร How did you decide what to do? | |||||||||
| ร How does your approach compare to colleagues (others) who have faced this situation? | |||||||||
| ร What would you differently next time? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time you have observed others working in an unprofessional or unethical manner. | |||||||||
| ร What was unprofessional or unethical about their behavior? | |||||||||
| ร What did you specifically do about their behavior? | |||||||||
| ร What were the implications of taking action? | |||||||||
| ร How did you deal with the possible consequences? | |||||||||
| In most organizations there are rules, regulations and principles that have to be adhered to and some that can be interpreted more flexibly. Give me an example of a time where you have interpreted the rules with more flexibility. |
|||||||||
| ร What was the specific situation? โ ๏ธ Discover how to get a Job in the UN in 2024 even with no experience. Read our NEW Recruitment Guide to the UN with REAL test samples! UN Recruitment Guide ๐๐ผ | |||||||||
| ร What made the situation ambiguous? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do well in handling the situation? | |||||||||
| ร What else could you have done? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when you have had to defend an organizationโs decision to others who did not agree with the viewpoint. | |||||||||
| ร What was the specific situation? | |||||||||
| ร Why did you defend the decision? | |||||||||
| ร What did you say or do that was particularly effective? | |||||||||
| ร In hindsight, what would you have done differently? | |||||||||
| Professionalism | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when it has been important for you to appear knowledgeable about your area of specialty. | |||||||||
| ร Why was it so important? | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about establishing credibility? | |||||||||
| ร When has your approach been less successful? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently? | |||||||||
| Give me an example when you have experienced a setback. | |||||||||
| ร Describe what happened. | |||||||||
| ร How did you react to the problem? | |||||||||
| ร To what extent did others see how you were feeling? ๐ Unlock the secrets to a successful UN career and stand out from the crowd with our expert guidance. Launch Your UN Career with Our Comprehensive Guide: "UN Guide to Career Success". |
|||||||||
| How do you define success in your current role/previous work? | |||||||||
| ร Can you give me an example of when this has occurred? | |||||||||
| ร What specifically do you wish to achieve? | |||||||||
| ร How do you know when you have achieved success? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when you have set yourself an ambitious target. | |||||||||
| ร What made it so ambitious? | |||||||||
| ร How did it compare with other targets you had set yourself? | |||||||||
| ร How well did you do? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you worked especially hard in your current role/work? | |||||||||
| ร Which aspect of the situation motivated you to work hard? | |||||||||
| ร Which feedback did you have on your performance? | |||||||||
| ร What kinds of professional concerns motivate you? | |||||||||
| Cultural Awareness | |||||||||
| What experience have you had with working with people from diverse backgrounds? | |||||||||
| ร Describe a specific situation where you have had to relate to others from a different background from yours? | |||||||||
| ร How could you improve how you interact with people from different backgrounds? | |||||||||
| Describe an occasion when you found it difficult to work with someone from a different background. | |||||||||
| ร What caused the problems? | |||||||||
| ร How did you respond? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of a situation where you have pursued a course of action, which had to take into account the sensitivities of external (different) parties. |
|||||||||
| ร What were the issues? | |||||||||
| ร What did you specifically do to handle these? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| What opportunity have you had to examine your own biases and behaviors when dealing with people? | |||||||||
| ร What observations have you made? | |||||||||
| ร Describe an example of when you have attempted to avoid a stereotypical response. | |||||||||
| ร What feedback did you get from the person/people? | |||||||||
| ร How could you be more effective in this area? | |||||||||
| When you are liaising with colleagues or others from different cultures, what sorts of issues do you need to take into account? | |||||||||
| ร When did this knowledge help you get your job done more efficiently? | |||||||||
| ร When did you overlook something? | |||||||||
| ร How did you handle this? | |||||||||
| Communication | |||||||||
| How would other people describe your communication skills? | |||||||||
| ร What development areas have been highlighted for you (e.g., speaking skills, listening skills?) | |||||||||
| ร Compared to others, how would you rate yourself as a communicator? Why? | |||||||||
| ร What could you do to become better at communicating with others? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when you had to explain something difficult to someone who did not have your background/ knowledge? | |||||||||
| ร What did you consider when explaining the concept? | |||||||||
| ร What was the most difficult aspect about giving the explanation? | |||||||||
| ร How did you ensure that they understood? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when it was important to involve someone in a conversation. | |||||||||
| ร Why was it important to involve them? | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about involving them? | |||||||||
| What kind of correspondence have you had to prepare in the past? | |||||||||
| ร What experience have you had in writing formal communication? | |||||||||
| ร How effective is your writing technique? | |||||||||
| ร How could you improve the quality of your writing? | |||||||||
| What experience have you had speaking formally in front of the others? | |||||||||
| ร Describe a talk or presentation, which you have given recently? | |||||||||
| ร How did you tailor the discussion to suit the audience? | |||||||||
| ร How did the audience react? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback did you receive? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you have chosen not to disclose information to others. | |||||||||
| ร What was the situation? | |||||||||
| ร When are you less likely to share information with others? | |||||||||
| ร What are the main issues you consider when deciding whether to share information with others? | |||||||||
| What do you see as being the key to successfully putting an argument across orally? โ ๏ธ Discover how to get a Job in the UN in 2024 even with no experience. Read our NEW Recruitment Guide to the UN with REAL test samples! UN Recruitment Guide ๐๐ผ |
|||||||||
| Give me an example of a situation when it was important for you to communicate a strategy or organizational objective clearly to others. |
|||||||||
| ร Why was it important? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do to prepare your communication? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do that was particularly effective? | |||||||||
| ร What factors did you feel were important to address? | |||||||||
| ร How did you make sure you were understood? | |||||||||
| Teamwork | |||||||||
| Tell me about the last time you worked as part of a team? | |||||||||
| ร What was the purpose of the team? | |||||||||
| ร What did you like about working in the group? | |||||||||
| ร What did you dislike? | |||||||||
| ร How did you get the team members to cooperate? | |||||||||
| When have your personal objectives been at odds with those of the team? | |||||||||
| ร How did you react? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| ร How do you balance competing personal and team goals? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you worked in a really effective team. | |||||||||
| ร What made the team so effective? | |||||||||
| ร What was your particular contribution to the team? | |||||||||
| ร How did your colleagues relate to you? | |||||||||
| Give me an example when you had to support others in the team? | |||||||||
| ร Why did they need support? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do to support them? | |||||||||
| ร How did that change things? | |||||||||
| Describe an occasion when you had difficulties working with a team. | |||||||||
| ร What caused the problems? | |||||||||
| ร How did you respond? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| Give me a specific example of when you have encouraged a cooperative approach in a team. | |||||||||
| ร What did you do that was particularly effective? | |||||||||
| ร What were the disadvantages of this approach? | |||||||||
| ร What did not work so well? | |||||||||
| ร How did you ensure that you made the best use of peopleโs ideas? | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about making decisions in that group situation? | |||||||||
| How well do you work with people? Do you prefer working alone or in teams? โ ๏ธ ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐๐ญ ๐ ๐ฃ๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐๐! ๐๐๐ http://book.uncareer.net |
|||||||||
| Have you ever been in a group project where there were difficulties? How were these issues resolved? | |||||||||
| Planning and Organizing | |||||||||
| Tell me how you personally organize yourself when you have a lot of work. | |||||||||
| ร Where do you start? | |||||||||
| ร On what basis do you make your decisions? | |||||||||
| ร What do you do to ensure that it all gets done? | |||||||||
| Describe an occasion when you had to prepare in advance for a meeting or project? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do? | |||||||||
| ร How much time did you have to prepare? | |||||||||
| ร What could you have prepared better? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when you had to work to an important deadline. | |||||||||
| ร What did you do to ensure that the deadline was met? | |||||||||
| ร How would you organize you activities differently next time? | |||||||||
| Describe the last time you missed a deadline. | |||||||||
| ร Why did this happen? | |||||||||
| ร How responsible were you for this? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do to try to overcome this problem? | |||||||||
| Tell me about the last project plan you had to produce (piece of work or event you had to organize). | |||||||||
| ร What did you do specifically that was effective? | |||||||||
| ร How did you prepare or plan for it? | |||||||||
| ร What timescales did you set? | |||||||||
| ร What could you have done to be more effective in your planning? | |||||||||
| Describe a recent situation where you had to set clearly defined objectives. | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about setting you objectives? | |||||||||
| ร What areas do you think you need to work on in terms of your objective setting? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see as being the key to setting realistic objectives? | |||||||||
| Using a recent example, describe how you have developed actions for achieving an objective. | |||||||||
| ร How useful were your actions when it came to achieving your objectives? | |||||||||
| ร What would you like to improve on in terms of your action planning? | |||||||||
| ร What do you think are the key things to remember when developing action plans? | |||||||||
| Accountability โ ๏ธ ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐๐ญ ๐ ๐ฃ๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐๐! ๐๐๐ http://book.uncareer.net |
|||||||||
| Give me an example of when it has been particularly important for you to produce high-quality work. | |||||||||
| ร Why did the work have to be of such high standard? | |||||||||
| ร How did you ensure that these standards were met? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do to improve the quality of your work? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when time pressures prevented you from spending a lot of time on a task. | |||||||||
| ร What implications did this have for the quality of your work? | |||||||||
| ร How did you ensure that the task was done properly? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently in the future? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you did not meet your usual standards of work. | |||||||||
| ร What altered you to do this? | |||||||||
| ร How did you overcome this problem? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you failed to complete a task on time. | |||||||||
| ร Why was this? | |||||||||
| ร What steps had you taken to avoid this? | |||||||||
| ร What lessons did you learn? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you delegated a task to another person. | |||||||||
| ร How did you enable them to carry out the work? | |||||||||
| ร How did you follow up with them? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when it was particularly important for you to take responsibility for your actions. | |||||||||
| ร What had you done that you had to take responsibility for your actions? | |||||||||
| ร Why was taken responsibility so important? | |||||||||
| ร How did you make this known to others? | |||||||||
| Client Orientation | |||||||||
| How much experience have you had with clients? | |||||||||
| ร What do you like about dealing with them? | |||||||||
| ร What do you dislike? | |||||||||
| ร How do you look after their interests? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when you have put a client first? | |||||||||
| ร What sacrifices did you have to make? | |||||||||
| ร What impact did this have on your other activities? | |||||||||
| ร How was this seen by others? | |||||||||
| Tell me about the last time a client made an excessive or unreasonable demand on you. | |||||||||
| ร What made them so demanding? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do to assist them? | |||||||||
| ร What pressure did this put you under? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you were unable to help out a client as much as they wanted. | |||||||||
| ร Why was this? | |||||||||
| ร What did they say about their reaction? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback did you have about the situation? | |||||||||
| ร What would you have done differently? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when it has been important to keep clients (people) informed of progress. | |||||||||
| ร How do you think you could improve your approach to informing clients? | |||||||||
| ร When are you less likely to follow up with clients? | |||||||||
| ร How do you manage the expectations of the client? ๐ Unlock the secrets to a successful UN career and stand out from the crowd with our expert guidance. Launch Your UN Career with Our Comprehensive Guide: "UN Guide to Career Success". | |||||||||
| When have you considered the perspective of clients when making a decision? | |||||||||
| ร Why was this important? | |||||||||
| ร What did you specifically consider? | |||||||||
| Creativity | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you came up with a new idea at work. | |||||||||
| ร Why was this important? | |||||||||
| ร What risks did you consider? | |||||||||
| ร How did you get other people interested in the idea? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| Creative ideas may initially seem good but in practice be unusable. How often do you find this? | |||||||||
| ร Tell me about one such situation. | |||||||||
| ร How did you decide that the idea was not practical? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome of the situation? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of a time when you used a less conventional approach to your work. | |||||||||
| ร Why was this necessary? | |||||||||
| ร Why do you consider your approach to be different? | |||||||||
| ร How well did it work? | |||||||||
| In what situations are you least creative? | |||||||||
| ร What stops you from being innovative? | |||||||||
| ร How do you manage these situations? | |||||||||
| ร What would help you to handle these situations more effectively? | |||||||||
| Describe a situation when you produced an imaginative solution to a problem at work. | |||||||||
| ร How did you generate the solution? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback did you receive? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you questioned a way of working. | |||||||||
| ร Why did you question it? | |||||||||
| ร What alternative did you suggest? | |||||||||
| ร To what extent were your ideas used? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you took a risk with pursuing a new approach or idea. | |||||||||
| ร What was risky about pursuing the approach/idea? | |||||||||
| ร How did you handle the situation? | |||||||||
| ร How far did the new approach/idea progress? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a recent time when you went about instituting improvement and change. | |||||||||
| ร How was it decided that an improvement was needed? | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about making the change(s)? | |||||||||
| ร What resistance was there to the change(s)? | |||||||||
| ร What effect did the changes have? | |||||||||
| Which is more important: creativity or efficiency? Why? | |||||||||
| Technological Awareness | |||||||||
| How do you keep up with advances in technology? | |||||||||
| ร How much time do you spend doing this? | |||||||||
| ร What are the limitations of technology in your work? | |||||||||
| Which technical issues are the most challenging for you? | |||||||||
| ร What are your strengths in using technology? | |||||||||
| ร What are your weaknesses? | |||||||||
| ร How important is using technology in your profesion? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when your technological awareness helped you to solve a problem. | |||||||||
| ร What brought the issue to light? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do? | |||||||||
| What have you done to acquire knowledge about technology? | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about developing your knowledge? | |||||||||
| ร What opportunities have you had in this area? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when technology breakdown had an impact on your delivery. | |||||||||
| ร What did you do? | |||||||||
| ร What were the implications? | |||||||||
| ร What did you learn from the episode? | |||||||||
| Commitment to Continuous Learning | |||||||||
| What type of specialist knowledge have you needed to be aware of in your previous jobs/education? | |||||||||
| ร How are you gone about keeping your technical knowledge up to date in the past? | |||||||||
| ร In what areas of technical knowledge do you want to become more competent? | |||||||||
| Which areas in your profession/occupation are the most challenging for you? | |||||||||
| ร What are your strengths and weaknesses in your specialty area? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback have you received about your specialist knowledge? | |||||||||
| ร How have you gone about developing these areas? | |||||||||
| Describe an occasion when colleagues (others) sought your advice or experience. | |||||||||
| ร What had you done to be an authority? | |||||||||
| ร How accurate was your advice? | |||||||||
| ร What have you done since to acquire extra knowledge? | |||||||||
| ร To what extent could you answer all their questions? | |||||||||
| ร How did you know that the information you gave was up to date? | |||||||||
| How do you keep up with advances in your field? | |||||||||
| ร How important is it for you to keep up to date professionally? | |||||||||
| ร How much time do you spend doing this? | |||||||||
| ร Which specialist or technical magazines or journals do you read? | |||||||||
| ร What other methods do you use to keep up to date? | |||||||||
| Describe an occasion when you felt that your level of technical knowledge was insufficient. | |||||||||
| ร What made you think this? | |||||||||
| ร What action did you take? | |||||||||
| ร What are your current strengths in terms of your specialist knowledge? | |||||||||
| ร What are your current weaknesses in terms of your specialist knowledge? | |||||||||
| How have you contributed to the learning of others? | |||||||||
| ร Tell me about a specific time when you have coached or trained a colleague in something new to them. | |||||||||
| ร How did you make yourself available to them? | |||||||||
| ร What ongoing support did you provide? | |||||||||
| Describe an example of when you had to acquire additional technical knowledge. | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about acquiring this extra knowledge? | |||||||||
| ร In what aspects were you least knowledgeable? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback have you had on the breadth and depth of your technical knowledge? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see as being the key to acquiring relevant technical knowledge? | |||||||||
| Management Competencies | |||||||||
| Vision | |||||||||
| Tell me about a recent time when you had to take a broad view of your own work. | |||||||||
| ร Why was this necessary? | |||||||||
| ร How useful was the approach? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| It is not always easy to step back from day-to-day operations to consider the bigger picture when making decisions. Give me an example of when you have found it difficult to consider the bigger picture when making a decision. |
|||||||||
| ร Why was this? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently in a similar situation? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a situation when you took global trends into account in a strategy or plan. | |||||||||
| ร How successfully did you integrate these global trends with the work of your organization? | |||||||||
| ร How could you have been more effective at taking account of global trends? | |||||||||
| ร What advice would you give to someone who had difficulty taking a global perspective at work? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you have found it difficult to compel others to follow a strategic direction. | |||||||||
| ร How did you try and get others on board? | |||||||||
| ร Why was this difficult? | |||||||||
| ร What did you specifically do? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| Describe an example of when you have taken strategic implications into consideration as part of your decision-making. | |||||||||
| ร What did you do specifically that was effective? | |||||||||
| ร How accurate was your view of the big picture? | |||||||||
| ร What risks did you identify? | |||||||||
| ร How could you have taken a more strategic perspective? | |||||||||
| ร In what situations do you take a less strategic perspective to your work? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you have taken into account the wider implications of an issue in your decision-making. | |||||||||
| ร Was there anything that you did not anticipate that would have been useful in hindsight? | |||||||||
| ร When are you least likely to take into account the wider implications of issues? | |||||||||
| Describe a specific example of a time when you had to coordinate the work of other people. | |||||||||
| ร What were you trying to achieve? | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about organizing the work? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you needed to take action to increase team motivation. | |||||||||
| ร Why was this necessary? | |||||||||
| ร What action did you take? | |||||||||
| ร How well did this work? | |||||||||
| ร What else could you have done? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a particular situation where you had to lead by example. | |||||||||
| ร What messages did you want your team to pick up? Why? | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about it? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| ร What could you have done better? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a situation when you found it difficult to manage the work of a team. | |||||||||
| ร What made it difficult? | |||||||||
| ร How did you try to overcome these difficulties? | |||||||||
| ร How could you improve upon this? | |||||||||
| Leadership โ ๏ธ ๐๐ก๐๐ง๐ ๐ ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฐ: ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐๐๐๐ก๐ง๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐๐ญ ๐ ๐ฃ๐จ๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐๐! ๐๐๐ http://book.uncareer.net |
|||||||||
| What opportunities have you had to take the lead in a team? | |||||||||
| ร Which of these were the most challenging? | |||||||||
| ร Why was that? | |||||||||
| Describe how you have gone about resolving conflict between others in the past, using a specific example. | |||||||||
| ร How successful were you? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently in hindsight? | |||||||||
| ร In what situations are you less comfortable about resolving conflict between others? | |||||||||
| ร What advice would you give to an inexperienced colleague faced with a conflict situation that needed resolving? | |||||||||
| For most of us the occasion arises when we must take an unpopular stand or decision. Give me an example of when you had to take an unpopular stand. |
|||||||||
| ร How did you present you point of view? | |||||||||
| ร What were the objections? | |||||||||
| ร How hard did you push your viewpoint? | |||||||||
| ร With hindsight, how would you approach this differently? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a situation when you have had to keep a team focused on objectives. | |||||||||
| ร What skills did you need to achieve your objective? | |||||||||
| ร What sort of strategies did you develop to achieve the objective? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback have you had on your ability to keep teams on track? | |||||||||
| ร In what situations have you been less effective at keeping others on track? | |||||||||
| Describe an example where you have had to take charge and organize resources in your work. | |||||||||
| ร How successful were you? | |||||||||
| ร In what situations do you feel less comfortable taking charge? | |||||||||
| ร What do you think you need to work on in order to be more effective at taking charge? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see to be the key issues to manage when taking charge of others? | |||||||||
| Describe an example of how you typically interact with staff at different levels of an organization. | |||||||||
| ร In what past situations have you been effective at building relationships with others? | |||||||||
| ร On what occasions have you been less effective? | |||||||||
| ร What have you gained through your interactions with these people? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see as being the key to successfully relating to people at different levels within an organization? | |||||||||
| Tell me about how you have set goals for a team member in the past. | |||||||||
| ร How did you communicate them? | |||||||||
| ร How challenging were the goals? | |||||||||
| ร What involvement did the team member have? | |||||||||
| ร How did you monitor them? | |||||||||
| Describe a specific example of when you have involved others when making decisions. | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about making decisions in that group situation? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do that was particularly effective? | |||||||||
| ร What were the advantages of this approach? | |||||||||
| ร What did not work so well? | |||||||||
| ร How did you ensure that you made the best use of peopleโs contributions? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of when you have solicited the contributions of others in your team. | |||||||||
| ร What was the specific situation? | |||||||||
| ร What reasons did you have for soliciting the contributions? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback have you had on the way you consult with others? | |||||||||
| ร In what situations are you less likely to consult widely with others? | |||||||||
| How would you describe your leadership skills? | |||||||||
| Empowering Others | |||||||||
| Describe a time when you successfully empowered someone to carry out a task. | |||||||||
| ร How did you enable them to carry out the work? | |||||||||
| ร How did you follow this instruction up? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| Thinking of a specific example, how do you normally go about providing others with the power and authority to accomplish a task? |
|||||||||
| ร What feedback have you had on how successful you were in your empowering? | |||||||||
| ร When have you been least effective at empowering others in the past? | |||||||||
| ร What sort of accountability did you expect from them? | |||||||||
| Thinking of a specific example, how do you typically go about delegating tasks to others? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do that was particularly effective in your approach to delegating? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently if you had the chance? | |||||||||
| ร How do you think you could improve your delegating approach? | |||||||||
| How do you typically reward team members for their efforts? | |||||||||
| ร Give me a specific example of when it has been particularly important to reward a team member. | |||||||||
| ร Why was this important? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do that was effective? | |||||||||
| ร How did you deal with the possible consequences? | |||||||||
| ร When are you less able to reward the efforts of others? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when, in hindsight, you could see that you provided more detailed direction on an assignment than was necessary for the person involved. |
|||||||||
| ร What kind of direction did you provide? | |||||||||
| ร How did this affect the person? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| ร What do you consider when deciding whether to give a person detailed direction versus independence with an assignment? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when a member of your team made a mistake. | |||||||||
| ร What did you do when you found out? | |||||||||
| ร What was the message you conveyed to him or her? | |||||||||
| ร What were the short-term and long-term consequences for the team member? | |||||||||
| What opportunities have you had to identify development opportunities for others. | |||||||||
| ร Thinking of a specific example, what action did you take? | |||||||||
| ร What was your role in the process? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| Describe an example of how you have utilized the skills of others in the past. | |||||||||
| ร How has your ability to match peopleโs skills with tasks been appraised in the past? | |||||||||
| ร In what situations have you been less effective at matching responsibilities to people? | |||||||||
| ร How do your skills in this area compare with a colleague in a similar role? | |||||||||
| Managing Performance | |||||||||
| Tell me about a situation where you have had to manage the performance of a team or individual through a particular assignment. |
|||||||||
| ร What were your objectives? | |||||||||
| ร How did you manage through the assignment? | |||||||||
| ร What was the result? | |||||||||
| Describe a development plan that you have set for a team member. | |||||||||
| ร How did you set the development plan? | |||||||||
| ร What did you do that was effective? | |||||||||
| ร What could have been done differently? | |||||||||
| ร What advice would you give to other managers/supervisors about setting development plans? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a project in which you had to monitor peopleโs performance. | |||||||||
| ร How helpful were the controls you set in place for monitoring the progress of others? | |||||||||
| ร What would you do differently if you were placed in a similar situation again? | |||||||||
| ร When are you least likely to build checkpoints into your project plans? | |||||||||
| ร What do you think are the key features of an effective approach to monitoring progress towards an objective? | |||||||||
| How do you assess the capabilities of people (e.g., direct reports, applicants)? | |||||||||
| ร What methods do you use? | |||||||||
| ร How effective are you? | |||||||||
| ร How do you compare to your colleagues at assessing peopleโs behavior? | |||||||||
| What opportunities have you had to assess other peopleโs performance? | |||||||||
| ร How often do you assess individual performance? | |||||||||
| ร What form does this take? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback do you provide? | |||||||||
| ร What advice would you give to others assessing the performance of individuals? | |||||||||
| Describe a time when others have been surprised about your reaction/approach to a management issue? | |||||||||
| ร Why was your reaction different from normal? | |||||||||
| ร How aware were people of your intentions? | |||||||||
| ร How predictable are you in your management approach compared to your peers? | |||||||||
| When have you chosen to keep sensitive information to yourself? | |||||||||
| ร What made you decide to do this? | |||||||||
| ร Why did you not choose to be open with the information? | |||||||||
| ร How important is openness at work? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a person with whom you worked that you found difficult to trust? | |||||||||
| ร Why did you not trust them? | |||||||||
| ร How did you deal with them? | |||||||||
| ร How trusting are you compared with your colleagues? | |||||||||
| Tell me about the last time that you had to trust a new team member to do a task? | |||||||||
| ร How did you feel about it? | |||||||||
| ร What happened? | |||||||||
| ร What advice would you give to other managers/supervisors in this situation? | |||||||||
| Building Trust | |||||||||
| Give me an example of how you have developed an maintained trust in the past. | |||||||||
| ร How effective were you at building and maintaining trust in your example? | |||||||||
| ร How could you be more effective at building and maintaining trust? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see as being the crucial issues to manage in order to get others to place their trust in you? | |||||||||
| ร How trusting are you of other people? | |||||||||
| Tell me about when you have had to identify the key cause of a problem. | |||||||||
| ร How did you work out the cause? | |||||||||
| ร How did you solve the problem? | |||||||||
| ร What lessons did you learn? | |||||||||
| ร What sort of information did this involve? | |||||||||
| ร How did you analyze it? | |||||||||
| ร What did you learn from the analysis? | |||||||||
| Give me a recent example of when you came up with different solutions to a problem. | |||||||||
| ร What suggestions did you come up with? | |||||||||
| ร What did others think of your ideas? | |||||||||
| ร How well did they work in practice? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you made the wrong decision when solving a major problem. | |||||||||
| ร How did you go about it? | |||||||||
| ร Why did you make the wrong decision? | |||||||||
| ร What will you do differently next time? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of the type of information sources you typically use in an attempt to get to the bottom of issues. | |||||||||
| ร How did you know when you had enough information? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback have you had on your use of available information sources? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see as being the most important thing to remember when gathering information to solve problems? | |||||||||
| Judgement/ Decision-making | |||||||||
| Describe to me a complex problem, which you recently solved. | |||||||||
| ร What made it so challenging? | |||||||||
| ร How did you handle it? | |||||||||
| ร What implications did you consider? | |||||||||
| ร What was the outcome? | |||||||||
| Describe the process that you typically use to make a final decision. | |||||||||
| ร Tell me about an example of how you have applied this process in the past. | |||||||||
| ร How successful was your decision? | |||||||||
| ร In what situations are you unlikely to take a structured approach to your decision-making? | |||||||||
| ร How would you describe your decision-making approach in relation to your peers? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see as being the key to effective decision-making? | |||||||||
| Tell me about a time when you found it particularly tough to make a decision? | |||||||||
| ร What were the circumstances? | |||||||||
| ร How did you handle the decision? | |||||||||
| ร In what sort of situations do you find it harder to make decisions? | |||||||||
| ร How have you coped with these in the past? | |||||||||
| Give me an example of the type of questions you have asked in order to establish the facts about a past situation or problem. | |||||||||
| ร How effective was your fact-finding? | |||||||||
| ร What do you see as being the area you need to develop in terms of your fact-finding skills? | |||||||||
| Describe the last time that you had to analyze a large amount of information to solve a problem. | |||||||||
| ร What feedback did you get on the accuracy of your analysis? | |||||||||
| ร How did you incorporate data in your decision? | |||||||||
| ร In what type of situations are you likely to make decisions on the basis of intuition our gut feeling? | |||||||||
| ร What type of information do you have most difficulty analyzing? | |||||||||
| Describe a situation where you have had to consider a variety of alternatives in your decision-making. | |||||||||
| ร What factors did you take into account? | |||||||||
| ร What feedback did you receive on the success of your decision? | |||||||||
| ร What would you have done differently in hindsight? | |||||||||
| ร How do you think you could improve your decision-making approach? | |||||||||
In case you have any questions please check the FAQ about UN recruitment or feedback me at feedback@uncareer.net or
Steven White, CEO of Uncareer.net
TOP 100 the most popular interview questions
If you're gearing up for an interview with the United Nations, a UN agency, or an international NGO, being well-prepared to tackle some of the most common interview questions .
Real UN test samples for UN Security Officer FS-4, FS-5, FS-6
Below are sample scenarios and questions for the YPP written test to give you an idea of what to expect in 2024.