Job interview questions about soft skills also can be used for Table Topics questions at Toastmasters club meetings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table Topics is the impromptu speaking section of a Toastmasters club meeting. That is where members without roles in running the meeting participate by providing one-to-two-minute answers to questions. Table Topics is discussed in a brief article by Greg Lewis on pages 26 and 27 of the January 2022 Toastmaster Magazine titled The two sides of Table Topics.

 

Where can you find good ideas for questions to ask? One obvious way is to just Google the phrase “Table Topics Questions”, perhaps adding filetype:pdf. In a previous post on November 21, 2022 I discussed how Conversation Starters also can be used for Table Topics questions. And on November 12, 2022 I blogged about how Writing prompts can also be used for Table Topics questions.

 

Still another source is questions used for job interviews. In your local public library system you likely can find several books with questions and answers. Three examples are: Ronald W. Fry’s  2016 book, 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions, Matthew DeLuca’s 1997 book, Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions, and Peter Veruki’s 1999 book, The 250 Job Interview Questions You’ll Most Likely Be Asked and the answers that will get you hired. Ten questions from Peter Veruki’s book are:

 

What’s your dream job?  

Give an example of how you saw a project through, despite obstacles.

How do you regroup when things haven’t gone as planned?

What personal skill or life habit have you struggled to improve?

What’s the most creative or innovative project you’ve worked on?

Describe an improvement you personally initiated.

What’s your most productive or ideal work setting?

Do you prefer continuity in structure or frequent change in your daily work?

Tell me what you learned from a recent book.

What things impress you in colleagues?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How about Google searches? It is helpful to also add the jargon phrase, “soft skills.” That sounds like it might describe activities like pillow fights (shown above). But soft skills (also known as core or common skills) are those common to all professions – like public speaking, problem solving, teamwork, critical thinking, etc. There is a long post by Juste Semetaite at the Toggl blog on November 4, 2022 titled 100 Soft Skills Assessment and Interview Questions.

 

The job interview silhouettes came from Openclipart, and the pillow fight came from the Library of Congress.