Some job interviewers ask tough questions to trip you up or to get you to reveal information you may be trying to conceal. Others want to get a better sense of your thought process or see how you respond under pressure。
Whatever the reason, you’ll want to be prepared。
In her book “301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview Questions,” Vicky Oliver says in order to prevail, you need to “trounce your competition。”
“You could be competing against someone with three times your experience, or conversely, against someone who can do the job at half your salary level,” she says。
One of the best ways to stand out: have the smartest answers to the toughest questions。
有些工作面试官会提出尖锐的问题，鸡蛋里挑骨头，或者想要从你口中套出你可能试图隐藏的信息。另外的面试官则是想要更好地了解你的思维过程或看你如何应对压力。
不管原因是什么，你都要做好准备。薇姬·奥利弗(Vicky Oliver)在她所写的《尖钻面试问题的301个机智回答：》一书中说，为了获胜，你需要“打败你的竞争对手。”
“你的竞争对手可能有你三倍多的经验，或相反，他的工作能力也许只够得上你工资水平的一半。”她说。
脱颖而出的最好方法之一：用最聪明的回答去应对最棘手的问题。
1. Q: You have changed careers before. Why should I let you experiment on my nickel?
A: 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。
1.问：你曾经换过工作，我们为什么要冒这种做你的垫脚石的风险?
答：正因为我换过不同工作，所以我成为了更好的员工。在不同的工作转换之间我学到了不同的技能，这些技能帮助我更加创造性地解决问题。
2. Q: What if you work here for five years and don’t get promoted? Many of our employees don’t. Won’t you find it frustrating?
A: I consider myself ambitious, but I’m also practical. As long as I am continuing to learn and grow within my position, I’ll be a happy camper. Different companies promote people at different rates, and I’m pretty confident that working for you will keep me motivated and mentally stimulated for several years to come。
2.问： 如果你在这里工作五年还没有升职，我们许多的员工都是这样的，你会不会感到沮丧?
答：我认为自己怀揣雄心壮志，但我也很实际。只要我可以在岗位上继续学习和成长，我就会是一个快乐的人。不同的公司提拔员工的速率不同，我确信在贵公司工作会使我在未来的几年内都保持积极性和工作激情。
3. Q: If you knew that things at your company were rocky, why didn’t you get out of the company sooner?
A: I was working so hard to keep my job while everyone around me was being cut that I didn’t have any time left over to look for another job. With all of the mergers that have been happening in our field, layoffs are a way of life. At least I gave it my best shot!
3.问：你一早就知道自己所在的公司坚持不了多久了，为什么没有早点脱身?
答：当时我周围的很多人都被裁员了，我十分努力地上班来保住这份工作，以至于没有任何时间去寻找另一份工作。我们这一领域处处都发生着兼并的现象，裁员已经成为了一种生活方式。至少我为之尽力了!
4. Q: From your resume, it looks like you were fired twice. How did that make you feel?
A: After I recuperated from the shock both times, it made me feel stronger. It’s true that I was fired twice, but I managed to bounce back both times and land jobs that gave me more responsibility, paid me more money, and were at better firms。
The morale here is very high. I’ve been exposed to the “seamy underbelly” of this business, but I’m still passionate about working in it。
4.问：从你的简历里我看到你曾经两次被辞退，对此你有什么感觉?
答：在从这两次打击中恢复以后，我感觉自己更加强壮了。的确，我两次被解雇，但是我两次都设法恢复了，并且都进入了更好的公司，得到了薪水更高、需要承担更多责任的工作。
贵公司的士气非常高。我曾经接触过这个行业的“丑恶”，但我对于工作的热情有增无减。
5. Q: You majored in philosophy. How did that prepare you for this career?
A: Philosophy didn’t prepare me for a career in architecture at all. But it did force me to become philosophical about my prospects. After two years of trying to figure out what to do with my life, I visited Chicago one weekend, and was absolutely spell bound by the gorgeous architecture all around me。
I came home, applied to architecture schools all over the country, and was accepted by one of the best. I’ve never looked back…this is definitely the career that I was meant to be in。
5.问：你的专业是哲学，那么你哲学对你的职业生涯有什么样的帮助?
答：哲学本身并没有对我的建筑事业起到帮助，但却是哲学使我对自己的未来冷静规划。我用了两年，试图弄清楚自己要怎样生活，有一次周末我参观了芝加哥，于是我被身边华丽的建筑迷倒了。
我回到家，就开始在全国各地申请建筑学校，最终被最好的的建筑学校之一录取了。我从来不会回头后悔……我肯定建筑就是我注定的职业。
6. Q: What do you view as your risks and disadvantages with the position we are interviewing you for?
A: I think that with the home office located halfway across the globe, there is a very small risk that one might not have the chance to interact with the key decision makers as often as might be ideal. On the other hand, teleconferencing, email, faxing, and having a 24/7 work ethic will go a long way towards bridging the gap。
6.问：你认为你做这份工作的风险和劣势是什么?
答：我认为公司总部位于全球的中心，决定了失去与关键决策者随时联系的机会的风险是非常小的。但是另一方面，在电话会议，电子邮件，传真，还有随时遵守职业道德等方面，公司还有很长的一段路要走。
7. Q: We love women at this company, but our clients are from [xyz country] and so we were thinking of hiring a man for this particular job。
A: Why is that, exactly? It seems to me that I am probably more qualified to handle this position than anyone, man or woman。
My father’s career as a diplomat took our family around the world seven times, and I even spent my junior year abroad in the Far East. I would need far less training than an American man who grew up here and has never worked outside our borders。
7.问：我们公司很欢迎女性员工，但是由于这份工作比较特别，客户来自某国，所以恐怕需要一位男士来胜任。
答：这是为什么呢?我似乎比其他任何男士或者女士都适合这份工作。
我父亲的职业是外交官，因此我们家曾七次环游世界各地，我甚至在远东地区读了大三。我所需要的培训远远少于土生土长的，从来没有在国境之外工作过的美国男士。
8. Q: Can you describe your dream job?
A: This is my dream job and that’s why I approached you about it in the first place. I am excited about the prospect of helping your promotion agency upgrade and fine tune your loyalty programs。
8.问：能请你描述一下你理想的工作吗?
答：这就是我理想的工作，也是我来应聘的原因。我想帮助贵公司促进机构升级并调整忠诚度计划，我为这样的前景感兴奋。
9. Q: What would you do if you really wanted to hire a woman under you, and you knew the perfect candidate, but your boss really wanted to hire a man for the job?
A: I’d recommend that we perform an on-site “test,” by hiring both candidates on a freelance basis for two weeks each。
9.问：如果你想选择一位女性下属，并已经有了最佳人选，但你的老板却希望是一位男性来做那份工作，你会怎么做?
答：我会提议做一次在线“测试”，同时雇佣两位候选人来做两星期的自由工作。
10. Q: What if you worked with someone who managed to take credit for all your great ideas. How would you handle it?
A: First, I would try to credit her publicly with the ideas that were hers. Sometimes, by being generous with credit, it spurs the other person to “return the favor。”
If that doesn’t solve it, I’d try to work out an arrangement where we each agreed to present the ideas that were our own to our bosses. If that doesn’t work, I would openly discuss the situation with her。
However, if the person taking credit for my ideas was my boss, I would tread cautiously. To some extent, I believe that my job is to make my superiors shine. If I were being rewarded for my ideas with raises and promotions, I would be happy。
10.问：如果你的同事宣称你所有的好点子都是他/她想出来的，你会如何处理?
答：首先，我会尝试公开称赞她的想法。有时慷慨的赞美会促使对方“做出回报”。
如果这样不能解决，我会尝试达成一致，使他同意只对老板说出自己的想法。如果这样没有用，我会公开和她讨论这种情况。
然而，如果这个人是我的老板，我将谨慎行事。我认为在某种程度上，我的工作就是让我的上司光彩。如果以加薪或晋升作为我的想法的奖励，我会很满意。
11. Q: How many hours a week do you usually work, and why?
A: I work pretty long hours most of the time. With the extra time, I try to find ways to “add value” to each assignment, both my own and the firm’s. When our clients read our reports, I want them to think that no one else could have possibly written them, except for our company。
11.问：你每周通常工作多少小时，为什么?
答：我大多数时候都工作很长时间。在额外的时间里，我试着寻找给自己和公司的任务“增加价值”的方法。我想让客户看到我们的报告就会认为除了我们公司，没有其他人能写出。
12. Q: Does a company need B players? Or is it better off only having A players on staff, and why?
A: I believe that a company needs both A and B players. When you’re pitching new business, you want the A players on the front line. But behind the A players, you need the B players who can hammer out the details of the projects and stick with them on a day-to-day basis. Having too many A players on the team leads to ego clashes and a disorganized, anarchical way of doing business。
12.问：一个公司需不需要二线工作者?员工中都是一线工作者是否足够?为什么?
答：我相信一个公司既需要一线工作者也需要二线工作者。当新业务开始时，你会希望一线工作者在前线冲锋陷阵。但在他们身后，你需要二线工作者来敲定项目的细节，并坚持在平时注意维持。团队中的一线工作者太多会导致自我冲突和混乱，工作则会陷入无政府主义的状态。
13. Q: Are you better at “managing up” or “managing down”?
A: 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。
13.问：你比较擅长“向上管理”还是“向下管理”?
答：如果你不擅长“向上管理”，那就没有机会“向下管理”，幸运的是，我很擅长“自我管理”，我从来没有完不成工作的经历。
14.Q: Would you rather get permission from your boss before undertaking a brand-new project, or be given enough rope to “hang yourself”?
A: 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。
14.问：你比较希望在做新项目前得到领导的“允许”，还是完全靠自己来管理?
答：在我工作的第一个星期，我会问一下我的老板她希望我如何处理项目。如果她表示，她想要手下是一个全权负责的人，我就会接管一切。如果她说她想让我先把想法告知她，我会照做。我认为真正的挑战是适应工作环境，而我是很灵活的。
15. Q: Please give an example of the most difficult political situation that you’ve dealt with on a job。
A: 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。
15.问：请举出一个你处理过的最棘手的行政状况。
答：当时我受雇于一位即将离职的女士，她让我在一些任务中做她的“替罪羊”。我只是在我的女上司离开当天把这些任务全部推掉了。经理打电话给我的时候，我只是建议他们直接询问我的女上司。这样，我才从我的上司和她的领导之间的纠缠中脱身。
16. Q: Is it more important to be lucky or skillful?
A: I think that it’s more important to be lucky, although being very skilled can help to create more opportunities. Certainly, [at my former job, my boss'] confidence in me inspired the decision makers at our firm to trust that I could do the job. But clearly, I also happened to be in the right place at the right time。
16.问：你认为运气和能力哪个比较重要?
答：我认为技术娴熟会帮我创造更多的机会，但还是运气更加重要。在以前的一份工作中，我的老板对我充满信心，这激励了我们公司的决策者，使他们相信也我可以胜任那份工作。但很明显，我也是在正确的时间恰好处在正确的位置。
17. Q: Have you ever been so firm that people would describe you as “stubborn” or “inflexible”?
A: When women are firm, they are sometimes pinned with these unattractive labels. I am not shy or mousy, so probably one or two people I’ve worked with might have thought that I was “inflexible” on a given assignment. But this adjective never came out about me on any kind of a performance review, and neither did the word “stubborn。” I believe that, all in all, I’ve managed to be firm and flexible。
17.问：你是否曾经十分执着，以至于人们把你形容成”固执“，”死板“的人?
答：坚定的女性有时会被打上没有吸引力的标签。我不害羞也不胆怯，所以可能会有一两个和我一起工作的人认为我在某些任务上有些“死板”，但这个形容词从来没有在任何类型的绩效考核时被提出过，更不要提“顽固”这个词了。我认为大体上来说，我做到了既坚定又灵活。
18. Q: When do you think you’ll peak in your career?
A: I come from a long line of healthy, hardy, mentally active types, and so I confess that I never even think about “peaking” in my career. That having been said, I do think it’s important to have some self-knowledge, and to recognize when one is past one’s prime。
18.问：你认为你的职业生涯何时会达到顶峰?
答：一直以来我都属于健康、顽强、思维活跃的一类人，所以我承认我从来没有考虑过自己的职业生涯中会出现“顶峰”。人们常说起这一点，我也认为自知之明并认识到自己的全盛期已经过去确实是十分重要的。
