Day Girl

Employers ask this question when they aren't sure about someone's sales potential. We used this question as an interviewer; she would hold up a pen and say "Sell me this pen." Successful interviewees should pick up the pen and start, "So I understand that you are interested in buying a pen. What are you looking for?" Then get creative and talk about aspects of the pen like the strong, smooth line of the pen and the range of colors.

When the person doing the confiding has shared the fact that she was doing something unethical - and if I felt that I might be able to stop her behavior by telling someone else about it.

I was hired by a woman who was on her way out. She asked me to be her "fall guy" on a number of assignments. I just learned to drop the assignments off with my boss on the day that they were due, and when the managers would ring me up, I would recommend that they simply follow up with her. This kept me out of hot water with my boss and with her superiors.

I'm sensitive to internal politics and respect authority figures. But I also do my best to never become embroiled in office politics. At my level, I consider this to be a wise course of action. I like people and can pretty much work with anyone. So I concentrate on doing my job, listening to directions, surpassing expectations, and leaving the internal political battles to the politicians.

It's good if you have tons of idea, but you should speak only about those which were implemented. Prepare this story in advance. But do not speak about the ideas that brought your previous company to a failure.

Do not ask about the salary, perks, place of posting, etc.

Ask something about the company to show your interest or about the feedback to analyze and improve your strengths and combatyour shortcomings.

One thing I learned from these ad agencies is that print and TV are only mediums. The real thing that we offer clients is our ideas. And a strong, solid award-winning idea will work just as beautifully in TV as in print.

So while I may have fewer TV spots on my reel as other candidates, hopefully you'll agree that my ideas are stronger than theirs. Hire me for my ideas, and when you do, I promise you that they will translate seamlessly into TV.

If you aren't good at "managing up," you rarely get the opportunity to "manage down." Fortunately, I've always been quite good at self-management. I've never had a deadline that I didn't meet.

It's easy to seem positive and confident when everything is going well. With this question, the employer wants to know how you measure up when things get challenging. Talk about a conflict or setback at work, how you dealt with it professionally, and what you learned from it.

The key things to get across are that you can think on your feet to problem-solve, remain calm and good-natured in the face of a challenge, and that you can think strategically and act decisively.

Don't say: Someone got in my face, so I punched him, or my boss was a jerk, so I quit.

No one is ideal, so be honest about your weak points. Also stress how your combat them. This will show how you evaluate yourself.

As a career-changer, I believe that I'm a better employee because I've gained a lot of diverse skills from moving around. These skills help me solve problems creatively.

I used to work for a boss who managed four offices making his time ultra-limited ... he eventually called me one day, and begged me to review their work "unofficially." But there had been a long history in my office of people who would "act like the boss," sans any official title, only to be "beheaded" a few months later for overstepping their bounds.

I told my supervisor that if he wanted me to be "acting boss" in his absence, he needed to let people know officially, and that giving me a new title wouldn't hurt either.

This seems like an easy question - you know what you're good at right? But don't take this question strictly at face value. Read the job description carefully, and describe an ability of yours that would lend itself to being particularly successful on the job. Just make sure that they're true strengths. You don't want to claim to be good at something you don't actually know how to do. Think up a relatable anecdote in advance that demonstrates how you have used these strengths on the job.

Don't say: There's too many to count. Really, I'm great at everything.

During my first week on the job, I would ask my boss how she would prefer me to handle projects. If she indicated that she wanted a take-charge person under her, I would take the ropes. If she told me she wanted me to run ideas by her first, I would comply. I think the real challenge is being able to adapt to your work environment, and I'm flexible.

Yes, I did very well at my internship, and I had originally assumed that I would come on staff once I graduated from college. However, BB&L drastically cut back the number of new hires they were planning. As fate would have it, they will not be hiring any of the interns they had last summer.

I love working at BB&L, and I brought some references with me today to show you that my job performance there was stellar. Still, in some ways, I consider this new turn of events to be a lucky break for me, believe it or not.

I'd recommend that we perform an on-site "test," by hiring both candidates on a freelance basis for two weeks each.

For each of these, tell a story about your leadership experience that follows the STAR format: situation, task, action, result. Before your interview, prepare at least five "short stories" that are around 60 to 90 seconds in length, says Miller. These stories should use the STAR format to expound on your past experience.

I sincerely believe that being a great writer requires one major skill beyond being able to string sentences together, and that quality is empathy. I think that, rather than looking at my skin color, your company needs to consider whether or not I can empathize with our target market, and the answer is certainly yes.

I am extremely impatient. I expect my employees to prove themselves on the very first assignment. If they fail, my tendency is to stop delegating to them and start doing everything myself.

To compensate for my own weakness, however, I have started to really prep my people on exactly what will be expected of them.