Some hiring managers go a little deeper and ask more telling questions.
JetBlue's VP of Talent Rachel McCarthy, who recently attended Marie Claire's Power Trip summit, a networking event sponsored by Dell, Intel, JetBlue, Shiseido, Tacori, and W Hotels, says there are two questions she asks every job candidate.
McCarthy says she learned these "rather unexpected" queries from the Harvard Business Review. They are: "Where don't you want to be and why?" and "What is a common misperception that people have of you and why?"
She says the first question shows whether a person can think on their feet and it helps drill down into what they are most passionate about. "This forces a candidate to think about what they love doing and what they don't want to do," she says.
Meanwhile, asking the second question is "a good way to see a person's level of self-awareness," says McCarthy. Recognizing areas for improvement and working on these items can make us all better employees and leaders, she explains.
"Now that I've given these away, I'm going to have to think of some others," she jokes.