Book Review – 201 Best Questions to Ask At Your Job Interview

It is not often that a job interview book is extremely specialized. Most of the time these books are designed to be a one stop source for job interview information, complete with a variety of different tips for job seekers looking to break into the professional world.

“201 Best Questions to Ask At Your Job Interview” by John Kador doesn’t fit that mold. As the name implies, the book is solely about asking questions at your job interview, including tips and strategies for generating these questions and, of course, 201 questions you can ask.

Book Contents

• 201 questions to ask at your job interview.
• Memorable bad questions and memorable great questions.
• Information on how to select questions.
• Why these questions are beneficial.
• How to research the company in order to find the best questions.

Book Benefits

If you need question ideas, this book is works extremely well. Not only are many of the questions going to impress the interviewer, but the thought process that goes behind each question is sound. Though you may not come up with a great question from the specific examples posted, the mindset that you will have from understanding why the questions work should be enough to give you an edge.

Book Weaknesses

Though there are some benefits to this interview book, there are also a number of weaknesses. Obviously content is a key weakness. Most people only ask between 5 to 10 questions at their job interview. Having 201 question examples is nice, but not necessary. That is also the extent of the content, so you will have to come up with other questions from elsewhere. Similarly, the usefulness of some of the questions are debatable. Asking a hiring manager “What is your mission statement?” during an interview is only going to show the employer that you did not thoroughly research the company beforehand. Kador had it as a recommended question.

Overall Impressions

It’s hard to fault a book for providing what it says it will provide. It’s called “201 Best Questions to Ask At Your Job Interview,” and that’s what you receive. Yet it is the opinion of Everyday Interview Tips that any book that promises 201 great questions should be absolutely sure that all of the questions are going to be beneficial, and may examples Kador provides are debatable. Similarly, a lot of great interview books can supply you the same information and provide other content as well. If you truly just want interview question ideas, “201 Best Questions to Ask At Your Job Interview” is fine. If you want more, you should look elsewhere.

Book Review – Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions

It is no secret that the best way to prepare for a job interview is to practice answering interview questions. Indeed, the more interview questions you have an answer for, the more likely you are to confidently supply the employer with a response that leads to your employment.

Still, how do you know what questions will be asked? You could make them up from the top of your head, but it is far easier to simply find a list of common job interview questions and practice answers for them. One such list can be found in a book known as “Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions” by Matthew Deluca.

Book Contents

• How to Answer Personal Questions
• How to Answer Educational Questions
• How to Answer Experience Questions
• How to Answer Questions About Behavior
• How to Answer Illegal Questions

Book Benefits

Every applicant can and should benefit from knowing common interview questions and how to answer them. “Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions” supplies those questions, and gives a run down on strategies for answering each type of question (educational questions, experience questions, etc.). These are useful to all job applicants. “Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions” also gives you background information on why the question was asked in the first place (including how it was designed to trick you), allowing you to respond accordingly.

Book Weaknesses

This is not a bad book, but it does have a number of weaknesses. First of all, many of the questions in the book are irrelevant in today’s job world, so while it may be offering 201 questions, not all of them are going to be relevant. Secondly, the book is lacking in additional job interview information. Interviews are not just about the questions, and it is the opinion of this author that any interview book should give a great deals of additional interview tips in additional to questions. Otherwise you will have to buy more than one book to learn all of the ins and outs of job interviews.

Overall Impressions

“Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions” is exactly what it sounds like – a book with interview questions and answers. There is nothing wrong with that. Still it does feel like there should be a bit more to it. Questions and answers are great, but if the questions do not occur during the job interview, then the book becomes retroactively obsolete. It’s not a bad book by any means, but there may be better places to go to get questions for your interview.

Additional Links:

• Common Interview Questions and Answers