In the starting phase of the hiring process, an HR or interviewer will ask the candidate some basic and journal questions related to the respective domain for what the candidate has applied. The interview’s main purpose is to check the candidate’s knowledge, skill, confidence, and interest in the role. And especially to check whether all the things mentioned in his/her resume is correct or not.

As being a candidate for the job profile, one can often expect to speak with HR professionals before going to the company or for the interview with employees within the department for which they are applying. Anyone must be fully prepared for their HR interview. Often, a company uses their HR department to screen candidates and decide which candidates are most qualified to move forward in the interview process.

But there is a huge difference in the interviews if it conducted by the HR professionals or direct hiring manager. While your hiring manager will only ask questions specific to the role you have applied, the HR professional is interested in gaining broader insights regarding culture fit and whether you demonstrate its values.

Here are some questions that are generally asked by an HR to the candidate:

• Tell me something about yourself.
• What do you understand by the term Human Resource?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yourself as a leader, and why?
• Difference between resignation and termination?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses? 
• What is inhouse training and outhouse training?
• What are your biggest achievements to date?
• What do you know about our organization?
• Why should we hire you?
• Do you have any queries?

What are the HR Interview Questions?

Your interview is your chance to make a good first impression, and we all know that the first impression is the last. So, explain the value of your skills and experience and find out more about the company. For human resources professionals, interviews are especially important because they must showcase their interpersonal and communication skills. As for being an HR, you must be greatly confident and clear about your thoughts.

Most of the time, the interview is your first encounter with the organization, and that is the main time to mark your good impression on the organization or the recruiter. Human resources are one of the important and crucial cells for the organization, and they tend to be strict and observant in the interviews. So, while giving an HR interview, one should be well prepared, confident, and calm. As we all know that practice makes a man perfect. Therefore, it is the best thing if you prepare for your interview well in time and practice the questions which can be asked in the HR interview. 

HR Interview Questions and Answers

An HR department is an essential and critical component of any business regardless of the organization’s size. It focuses on maximizing employee productivity and protecting the company from any issues that may arise from the workforce of any employee. HR responsibilities include compensation and benefits, training, recruitment, firing, and keeping up to date with any laws that may affect the company and its employees. Therefore, the interview for this department is especially important and a little bit difficult, which cannot be cracked very easily. But that can be cracked if you are well prepared. So, here are some question, which should be practiced and learned before giving any HR interview:

Ques 1. How are you today?

Ans. The answer to this question sets the environment for your interview. Make sure you make it positive for yourself with a pleasant smile on your face. In case you have had any inconveniences during the day, you could mention it only if you can bring a positive note out of it, or else do not mention it.

Ques 2. Tell me about yourself?

Ans. This question is the most common HR interview question. Focus on answering it with confidence and positivity because the interviewer does not know you and would judge you according to what you declare about yourself. 

Ques 3. What are your key strengths?

Ans. This is an important HR interview question for every fresher. Every interviewer wants to hear qualities from you that suit the role you are being hired for. Make sure you emphasize all your qualities and skills that give you an edge over the others to being hired for that role. Remember not to mention anything that you do not possess, as it will become disastrous in case you are unable to prove your claim. It better not to list out your qualities but to put it more in a connected manner, which will also justify your claims with reasons.

Ques 4. What are your weaknesses?

Ans. This question is basically to cross-verify you. It would be suicidal in case you counter-claim your strengths here, or, declare any weakness that is a vital part of the role you are being hired for. However, you cannot stay quiet or declare that you have no weaknesses. The best route you can take is to put forth a weakness not related to the job as well as give information as to what you are doing to come over it.

Ques 5. What are your greatest achievements?

Ans. The interviewer wants to know what you are capable of. Start by mentioning the achievements that are the most recent and closest to the job role applied for.

Ques 6. What is the difference between a team and a group?

Ans. A group comprises of members of various skills and interests. A team is more of people having similar skills and a common objective that they are focused on achieving.

Ques 7. What is the difference between hard work and smart work?

Ans. Hard work involves a lot of effort to attain some goal. Smart work, on the other hand, would take less effort to achieve the same task. But both go hand in hand as many new areas require hard work, and areas which are tried and tested can be handled smartly.

Ques 8. On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate yourself as a leader, and why?

Ans. I rate my leadership skills an 8 out of 10. There is much to learn, but I have always been a strong leader. I was the head boy/girl during my school days, and in college, I was a Senior Wing NCC Cadet. I have completed my C-certificate and have earned lots of badges in several NCC camps. I led the Senior Boys/Girls contingent at the Republic Day Camp in 2012 as well.

Ques 9. What do you know about our organization?

Ans. Prepare for the company question in advance. It is one of the most asked questions. Try to include these points about the organization in your answer: 

• What do they sell, or how do they make money?
• Who is their typical customer?
• Approximately how many employees do they have?
• When were they founded?
• Who are some of their biggest competitors, and do they do anything to differentiate themselves?
• Do they have a mission statement on the company website? What is it?

These are just a few examples. You can research other areas of the company too. You just need a couple of facts you can respond with when they ask this question. Just show them you read about them and know the company you are interviewing with. That is the goal.

Ques 10. Why should we hire you?

Ans. Sir/Ma’am, I have all the requisite qualifications and skills. I can do the work that the profile requires me to do. Besides, I can deliver exceptional results. I can blend into mixed cultures and fit in beautifully, which will make me a great addition to the team. This might be excellent for my future and the growth of this esteemed organization as well.

HR Interview Questions and Answers for Freshers

A job interview, especially if it is a fresher interview and more so if it is your first job interview, can be scary. HR interviews are known to test the best about a candidate. As the employers are pretty much experienced, so being a fresher, you should be ready with some of the questions and answers with you.

So, while you lose yourself under the pile of worries, if they conduct a stress interview, we have compiled some common HR interview questions with answers to guide you on. While we do not claim that you will be asked all these or only these questions during your fresher interview, knowing them and perfecting them will do you a good world. Here are some questions to prepare for the interview:

Ques 1. Tell me about yourself

Ans. This is by far the most common HR interview question and one whose answer must be on your tongue. You are asked about yourself, and you cannot fail at answering it. This question usually sets the mood and the tone of the interview, so you must prepare your answer accordingly.

Ques 2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Ans. Talking about your strengths during a job interview is fine, but addressing your weaknesses might seem daunting. After all, it is almost like an unwritten rule that you should put your best self forward during an interview.

Ques 3. How you feel about working late or during the weekends?

Ans 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 will not do you any good. If you are cool with the timings, you do not need to think twice and say it works for you. But even if it does not, avoid a flat-out NO. Instead, frame your answer smartly. Instead of telling the interviewer, you are not okay with it, say why you are not okay with it. Give your reasons and talk about how you would like to work here and contribute in so many ways to the company. The company needs to see your value beyond your availability for night shifts or weekend shifts.

Ques 4. Have you faced any challenging situation? How did you handle it?

Ans. When such a tricky interview question corners you, you need to stay calm and composed and think back to a time when you had to make a tough decision. No one expects or asks you to talk about a situation that will be equivalent to India, deciding on how to tackle the threat and friendship of China.

Ques 5. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

Ans. Sit back, think! What is your broader career goal? Do you intend to stick to this field? Think along these lines as you gear to answer this HR interview question. No one is expecting you to know exactly what you will be doing in five years. However, having an idea will tell the interviewer you have thought along these lines.

Ques 6. Why should I hire you?

Ans. This interview question is a perfect opportunity for you to tell the interviewer how you are better and more suitable for the job than any other candidate. Considering that there is always a shortage of good jobs, there will be many people applying for the same job as you. And of those, there will be many with similar qualifications and educational background. As such, you need to tell the interviewer how you stand out.

Ques 7. What are your hobbies and interests?

Ans. Talking about your hobbies and interests is a great way to open communication paths in a job interview. While you can go out and be completely honest about your hobbies, even if they do not resound with the job profile, there are certain hobbies you should keep to yourself.

Ques 8. What do you know about our company?

Ans. It is one of the most important interview questions that is usually asked by a hiring manager at the beginning of the conversation to understand how much you are aware of the organization where you wish to work. Therefore, the best way to ace this interview question is to do proper research about the company, read online about the company’s latest updates, understand its business, and above all, read the job description thoroughly.

Ques 9. How much salary are you expecting?

 Ans. If your focus is solely on acing the HR interview, then this is a topic you might not have dwelled on. However, it is important to have a fair idea of what salary to expect before you sit. You can check out sites like Glassdoor to get some idea of the average salary in the industry. You can ask your friends and seniors on what to expect and then come up with your number. If you know your worth and think you deserve something, you should stick to it and not settle down for less. This includes sticking to how much salary you get. 

Ques 10. Do you have any questions for me?

Ans. Say yes! Do not tell the interviewer that you do not have any questions and end the interview on that note. Asking questions is an integral part of a job interview and can make or break your hold on the position.

HR Interview Questions for Freshers

Here are some questions that can be asked from freshers while giving HR interview:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Why should we hire you?
• What are your strengths?
• What are your weaknesses?
• What are your long-term goals? What are your short-term goals?
• How well do you handle stress/pressure?
• What are your hobbies?
• When can you start?
• Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
• What is your dream job?

HR Interview Questions and Answers for Experienced Candidates 

As being an experienced person or candidate, you got the upper hand from the freshers, but still, the fight does not stop here. You must still complete the interview. So, here is some question that can be asked by the interviewer:

Ques 1. Why do you think we should take you to this job?

Ans. Analyze the requirements of the job profile well before you go for the interview. Relate your skills, experience, and qualification with the reasons why they should consider you for this position.

Ques 2. What is the motivating factor for you at work?

Ans. You can say that competition and new challenges motivate you at work.

Ques 3. Why do you want to leave your present job?

Ans. The reasons for switching the job could be numerous. The best answer to offer for this question is to say, “for better prospects.”

Ques4. What is your greatest achievement?

Ans. Find an answer to this question from the recent past and focus on the qualities that were required to achieve it.

Ques 5. What qualities would you look for if you were recruiting someone for this position?

The purpose of this question is to estimate your understanding of the position. Make sure that you have analyzed the requirements of the role before appearing for the interview. Focus your answer on the skills, personal qualities, and experience you would seek in a person for this position.

Ques 6. You seem to be working with the same company for a long time. – Why?

Ans. Staying with the same company for too long may be considered as a lack of ambition in the candidate. You can put this negative thought to rest by telling the interviewer how you were adding value to yourself being in the same company. Discuss some different kinds of assignments you handled and their importance to the company.

Ques 7. Do you seem to have switched many jobs-why?

Ans. Too much job-hopping gives the impression that the candidate is unstable and unreliable. If you have switched jobs very often, you can say that you did it to broaden your experience.

Ques 8. Would you like to work in a team or on your own?

Ans. The agenda behind this question is to assess if you are a team player or a solo performer.

Ques 9. Did you think of changing your present job earlier? If yes, what do you think made you stay back?

Ans. You might have thought about leaving your present job earlier but later decided to continue. To answer this question, you need to recollect the reason you wanted to change the job and your thought process, which made you decide to continue.

Ques 10. If you face a problem with your performance, what would you do?

Ans. Through this question, the interviewer wants to find out if you can see problems with your performance or not. Tell him that you will analyze the problem and its reasons and work on each one of them.

HR Interview Questions of TCS

TATA Consultancy Services Limited is an Indian multinational information technology service and consulting company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is a subsidiary of Tata Group and operates in 149 locations across 46 countries. TCS is the second-largest Indian company by market capitalization. 

There are some common questions that they ask for HR candidates in the interview:

• Introduce Yourself?
• Why should I take you to TCS?
• What is your weakness?
• Are you a team player?
• Why should we hire you?
• Tell me about your dream job?
• What is more important to you: the money or the work?
• If you are rejected today, then what will you do?
• Who is the founder of TCS?
• What is the name of the award TCS recently received?

HR Interview Questions in Wipro

Wipro is a multinational IT services company providing IT services, infrastructure, networks company. The Wipro initiative was initiated on 29th December 1945. At the time, the company was named as Western India vegetable Products limited. This name was later abbreviated as Wipro. The company has crossed many hurdles since then and now is in an authoritative position. As per the count in March 2014, the total no of workers in the company range 146,000 and is providing its services to more than 900 largest worldwide. The market capitalization of Wipro is about $ 20.8 billion.

As you can understand, it is such a great organization. The recruitment procedure is standard. Thus, one needs to prepare well. Here are the most common Wipro HR interview questions for preparation:

• Introduce yourself. Listen, tell something which is not in your cv in 18 seconds?
• What are your greatest strengths?
• What are your greatest weaknesses?
• Why do you want to work at our company?
• Out of all the candidates that we have interviewed, why should we choose you only?
• Tell us about the skills which are required for this position?
• Can you work under pressure?
• Are You Comfortable Working in a Team?
• In what areas do you need to improve your skills?
• Where do you see yourself five years from now?

HR Interview Questions in Accenture

At Accenture, hiring is an ongoing process. One of the world’s largest consulting firms constantly seeks out the best people and talent, regardless of gender, race, religion, orientation, or nationality. If you are applying for a job at Accenture, it is important to remember that you are not in the driver’s seat until you clear the HR interview.

The HR interview at Accenture is as crucial as the technical interview, and it is important to accord it due importance. While other interviews gauge your skills and accomplishments, the HR interview is conducted to check your background, judge your personality, strengths, weaknesses, capability to handle the role, and determine whether you’re the right fit for the job and the company.

Here are the most common Accenture HR interview questions for preparation:

• Tell me about yourself.
• Tell us about your achievements?
• Why are you leaving your current job?
• Are you happy with your career and growth till now?
• What do you like/dislike about your current job?
• Do you have any questions for me?
• What do you know about the company?
• How do you handle criticism at work?
• Tell us about your work/leadership style?
• How would you handle a problem with your performance?

HR Interview Questions in Infosys

Infosys is an Indian multinational company that provides solutions in the IT field and Business Consulting, software engineering, and many outsourcing companies. The company is headquartered in Bengaluru (Bangalore) and was founded in the year 1981 by N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora as a joint venture. The company has been a leader in outsourcing and services since then. The company became a big name with the passing time, and now it is one of the leading companies in India. If measured in terms of revenue, the company is the 3rd largest IT company in India. The company has a tough and stiff recruitment process. 

Thus, for the help aspirants here are some good Infosys HR interview questions:

• Tell me about yourself?
• What are your greatest strengths?
• Do you have any blind spots?
• Why should I hire you?
• Why did you leave your last job?
• Where do you see yourself five years from now?
• Describe your management style?
• How would you be an asset to our organization?
• Are you a team player?
• Do you have any questions for me?

HR Interview Questions for MBA

Being a Postgraduate candidate, you have an upper hand form the graduates,’ but still, it is not extremely easy to crack HR interview. As MBA pass out, students have a higher chance of getting the job than the other streams.

But some common questions are asked by the MBA passed candidates in HR interview: 

• What Is Human Resource Management?
• What Is Performance Management?
• Tell Something About the It Payroll Status?
• What Kind of Person Would You Refuse to Work With?
• What Is the Difference Between Recruitment and Selection?
• What Are the Responsibilities of HR Generalist?
• What Is Your Philosophy Towards Work?
• Have You Ever Had to Fire Anyone? How Did You Feel About That?
• How Long Would You Expect to Work for Us If Hired?
• If You Were Hiring A Person for This Job, What Would You Look For?

HR Interview Questions to ask

As an experienced professional applying for any middle or senior level HR positions, you must be dreading the interview round, one of the most important steps to crack during the entire selection process. Handling tricky HR interview questions, specially designed and developed for experienced professionals, requires a certain level of preparation to skillfully navigate the interview. Here is some question you should prepare before going to the interview:

• What is the one thing that you enjoy most about working in HR?
• As an HR manager, what will be your strategy to drive results?
• What makes you interested in the HR manager profile?
• List your strengths and weaknesses as an HR professional?
• How do you differentiate Personnel Management from HRM (human resource management)?
• Explain the difference between salary and incentive?
• What do you think are some of the essential qualities that a successful HR person should have?
• Describe a difficult HR situation you had with previous employer/manager and your approach to handling the same?
• Give three areas that you feel need the most improvement, based on your understanding of common HR practices?
• What is your expected salary?

Basic HR Interview Questions

Here are some basic questions which are asked in almost every interview. So, one should go to the interview with the preparation of all these questions:

Tell me about yourself?

Why are you applying for this job? 

• What are your strengths and weaknesses? 
• What are your biggest achievements to date?
• What do you know about our organization?
• Why should we hire you?
• Do you have any queries?
• What are your salary expectations?
• What are your hobbies?
• Would you like to work overtime or odd hours?
• Why did you leave your last job?

Top 10 HR Interview Questions

No matter how ready you are for that job you want to get, there is one thing that always takes you out of the comfort zone: the HR interview. You start sweating by the mere thought of being judged by people who do not know you. They expect you to show your personality during a 10-minute meeting, but you are afraid you will choke under all that pressure.

Do not worry; that will not happen. Remember: you are who you are. You deserve that job, and you should let everyone know that. Therefore, for helping you out a little bit, here are some questions to prepare before going to an HR interview:

• Describe yourself
• What is the most difficult challenge you had to face, and how did you handle it?
• Why are you looking for a new job?
• How capable are you to handle the pressure?
• What do you think about our company?
• What is your greatest weakness?
• Which are your best qualities
• What is the salary you expect?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
• Do you have any questions for us?

HR Interview Questions for Internship

As students prepare for their internship interview, they should be ready to address the key skills and accomplishments that they have listed on their resume. They should be able to highlight the experience listed on their resume and tell stories that illustrate their strengths and let the organization know what they have to offer them as a potential new employee.

In an interview, it is best to start and end strong. It only takes 60 seconds to make a positive first impression, so starting strong is crucial to having a successful interview. At the end of an interview, a candidate’s best bet to make themselves memorable by leaving on a strong note. So, here are some questions for the internship interview:

• Tell me a little bit about yourself.
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What accomplishments are you most proud of?
• Do you work better under pressure or with time to plan and organize?
• Why are you interested in this internship?
• Why should we consider you for this internship?
• What do you do when your schedule is interrupted? Give an example of how you handle this.
• Give an example of how you set goals and achieve them.
• What do you know about this industry/company?
• What three words would you choose to best describe yourself?