Questions from your CV
Most questions about your experience come from two documents: your CV and the job description. Read them the way an interviewer will, and much of the interview becomes predictable.
Generate my questionsHow interviewers read your CV
Interviewers usually prepare with your CV beside the job description. They look for the experience that matches what the role needs most, claims they want to test, and changes or gaps they want to understand.
That makes many questions predictable. A line that matches a key requirement tends to come back as “Tell me about…”, and anything impressive but vague tends to be followed by “How exactly did you…?”
Predict them in four steps
- List the role’s top needs.
From the job description, pick the four or five requirements that are listed first, repeated, or described in the most detail.
- Match each need to a line on your CV.
Find the experience that best shows each one. A need with no matching line is a likely question too, so prepare an answer for the gap.
- Turn each line into questions.
Ask what an interviewer would want to know: what you did personally, how you did it, what was difficult and what changed as a result.
- Check the rest of your CV.
Note anything that invites a question whatever the role: a career change, a short job, a gap, or a claim with a number in it.
From a CV line to a question
These invented CV lines show the kind of questions each one invites. Run the same check on your own CV.
“Led the migration of our customer database to a new platform.”
Likely questions: How did you plan it so customers were not affected? What went wrong, and what did you do about it? What would you do differently? “Led” invites questions about the people as well as the technology.
“Grew society membership by 40% in one year.”
Likely questions: What did you change? How do you know the growth came from that? What did not work? Be ready to explain any number you put on your CV.
“Customer adviser, six months.”
Likely questions: Why did you move on? What did you learn there? A short role often prompts a question, so have a brief, honest answer ready.
“Skills: Excel, SQL, stakeholder management.”
Likely question: Tell me about a time you used it. Listed skills are usually tested with a request for an example, so prepare one for each skill the role asks for.
Or let DontBlank draft them
Upload your CV as a PDF and, if you have one, paste in the job description. DontBlank writes five questions that connect the two and saves them together as an interview you can come back to. Without a job description, the questions are based on your CV alone.
Then answer each one out loud. Your feedback covers filler words, pace and pauses, with coaching that knows the role, so it can point out relevant experience you left out. You need to sign in to generate questions, and your CV is saved to your account for next time.
Practise, don’t script
Predicted questions are most useful as rehearsal, not as a script. The real interviewer will word things their own way, so prepare a handful of examples that each cover several needs and practise telling them aloud in different ways. If an example works for three of your predicted questions, it will probably work for the one you did not predict.
Common questions
Do I need a job description?
No, but it helps. With only your CV, the questions focus on your experience. With both, they focus on where your experience meets what the role asks for.
Will the interviewer ask exactly these questions?
Probably not word for word. Predicted questions show you which parts of your experience are likely to come up; the interviewer will phrase them their own way.
Can I practise questions that are not from my CV?
Yes. You can practise common questions or type in any question you like, and get the same feedback on your answer.
Practise for your role.
Add your CV and the job description to get five questions written for you, then answer them out loud.