101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions [Paperback]

Ron Fry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1995

Tough interview questions are inevitable in today's competitive job market. How will you handle the curveballs that are headed your way? Ron Fry's 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions has helped more than 500,000 job seekers pinpoint what employers are really asking with every question, and more importantly: what they want to hear in response. Now in its 5th edition, this no-nonsense guide will prepare you to leverage the trickiest questions to your advantage. Learn how to deal gracefully with complicated case interviews, various personality types, and even potentially illegal questions - all while avoiding common mistakes. Get the expert answers employers are looking for!

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Two more sources for job hunters. Both are useful, affordable guides to the interview process with different focuses. Fry's emphasis on one aspect of the procedure, the one-on-one interview (i.e., the selection rather than the screening), in a question-and-answer format offers a fresh, active approach to a timely subject. After two introductory chapters of guidelines, the author identifies the toughest themes of a successful encounter and provides proven responses in clear, readable text. In a revision of his comprehensive classic Sweaty Palms ( LJ 7/78), Medley updates his how-to handbook of job interviewing techniques, emphasizing skills and strategic planning. Although still verbose, the guide, however, gives full explanations of a wide coverage of tips from preparation and salary negotiation to issues of sex in the workplace and the handling of questions of discrimination. Most helpful are summary checklists at the end of each chapter for easy scanning and four appendixes, including more than 200 commonly asked questions and questions to ask of the interviewer. For career collections.
- Marilyn Rosenthal, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Ron Fry is an acknowledged authority, seminar leader, and frequent speaker on a wide variety of job-search topics at schools and associations nationwide. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Career Pr Inc; 3rd edition (December 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564142000
• ISBN-13: 978-1564142009
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 4.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,017,508 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ron Fry has written more than 40 books, including the best-selling 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions and 101 Smart Questions to Ask on Your Interview. He is a frequent speaker and seminar leader on a variety of job-search and hiring topics and the founder and president of Career Press. He lives in New Jersey with his family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

168 of 176 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overcome the Communications Stall In Job Interviewing, June 26, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions (Paperback)

Our company's research has shown that poor communications cause more stalled progress in organizations than any other issue. One of the primary areas where this occurs is in hiring. Most people end up giving an incomplete and misleading impression of how they would do in a new job. Most interviewers fail to ask and pursue questions in ways that will overcome this problem. Mr. Fry's book helps surmount both problems so that the right person gets the right job for her or him, and the company involved.

One of the great strengths of this book is that it has an organized process for a job seeker to prepare for interviews. As Mr. Fry puts it, "Interviewing is 50 percent preparation." There are pages of questions to be answered as background before considering the questions that interviewers are likely to inquire about. This preparation makes developing those answers much easier, and improves the quality of the responses as well. But beyond that, the preparation will also help the job seeker do some thoughtful self-examination for determining where your strengths, interests, and background fit.

The author does a nice job of explaining that the key question is: "Who are you?" in terms of your potential ability to do the job.

Mr. Fry encourages honesty, and shows ways that interviewers will try to check on that quality in you. On the other hand, he also encourages you to give responses that will play well with the interviewer (spinning as it were). I suspect that a more straightforward approach would be more appealing to most interviewers.

For example, one sample question is to describe the latest book you have read. Rather than describe some wholly inappropriate book, he encourages an answer with a business-related book like Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits . . . . I think a better response would be to say, "Why don't I describe a book I read that relates to this position?" Then if the interviewer doesn't object, start talking about one that seems relevant. Otherwise, you can give the impression of being someone who only reads business books, which is probably not true.

A similar issue comes up with the question: "How long have you been looking?" The author suggests saying a short period of time, even if it has been long. I think a better and more honest answer would be to describe how long you have been looking for the specific position you are interviewing for, and explain why it may have been a while. For example, you may be very choosy, or perhaps there are few positions of the sort you really want. That would make a person more credible to me as an interviewer.

The advice is very good in one sense -- it places equal emphasis on good answers and on bad ones. So you will know what can hurt you. You will also learn about the different types of interviews, and what can help and hurt you in each one.

I found almost every question that I have ever used as an interviewer over the last 30 years in this book, so you should be well prepared for most interviews by following this book. Your self-confidence should also be higher because you are unlikely to be caught unprepared by a question.

Just be sure that the job you are looking for and take is one that excites you both for what the organization stands for and what you will be doing. Otherwise, you will simply be selling yourself short to get a paycheck. Don't do that!

Good luck in finding that ideal position!

68 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is how Microsoft interviews, November 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions (Paperback)

I personally recommend this book. When I interviewed with Microsoft several years ago, I was astonished at how IDENTICAL their interviewing process was with that described in this book. After reading the book, I was not surprised at ANY of the questions that were thrown at me. And I could tell exactly when the interviewer was trying to "drill down" to catch me off-guard. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is interviewing for the first time, or for anybody who has had a job for a decade or more and is just now venturing out again. Interviewing tactics have changed radically since a decade ago.

36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why not?, June 10, 2002

By 

L. Dann "adhdmom" (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions (Paperback)

This book can rehabilitate you and may indeed place you where you'd like to be. I have been on both sides of the interview process over many years and it's amazing, in retrospect, that I've managed to work or have any decent employees. From the most basic preparation, (something I've never done- except to fret over my outfit,) to practicing, seems like a no brainer- I speak for myself.

EVERYBODY knows you're not suppossed to dis a past employer, right? I've known that for years, and I just did it last week. I knew when I was doing it, that it was wrong; but I couldn't dig my way into a more positive response. In fact, that's why I bought the book. Fry takes you around those stumbling blocks with a variety of approaches, even with regard to keeping a flow in the facts that you are putting forth.

Of course, you have to do the work. As with every manual, it isn't a novel, it's behavior, and practice, not how well, (again, in my case,) you `understand' it.

You can't go wrong with the material here. It's sound, it's been tested and it's completely common sensical- it just doesn't come by osmosis. Do it, it helps. Good luck.