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By Tonya Wells – If you are one of the following individuals, this list will give you a solid list of Headhunter Recommended books that you should check out:
- Managers getting ready to conduct their first interview to hire an employee
- College students beginning the post-college career search
- Experienced professionals switching jobs mid-career
- People changing careers due to retirement from the military or retirement from a long-term career where this will be your ‘fun’ job.
About This Book List
This book list focuses on more general interview preparation books. If you’re looking for something more specific, I also have a list of books for those of you who are specifically preparing for technical interviews. You can find it here.
There is a lot of psychology and deep thought that go into the questions that interviewers ask. They are not random questions – rather, they are well thought-out and prepared questions that a good interviewer consistently asks all of his/her candidates to help determine the best candidate for the job.
The type of questions you receive or ask will depend greatly upon the type of interview being conducted and your industry niche.
Many of these books also explain how certain answers could be a red flag for the employer.
There are also books listed here that will help you better understand the different types of interviews employers conduct and what employers are looking for in each type.
Various books below also explain the hiring cycle and how to wow employers not only with your responses, but with your interview preparation and research about the company.
Several books also discuss in great detail the importance of how you convey yourself both from a personality perspective as well as how you carry yourself.
And finally, a couple of these books also discuss the different types of skill and personality tests as well as credit, drug, and background checks that are available, and why these are useful to the hiring process.
So, without further ado, here is the list!
Top 10 Best Books For Interview Questions and Answers and Tips
 | Job Interview Questions & Answers: Your Guide to Winning in Job InterviewsJob Interview Questions & Answers: Your Guide to Winning in Job Interviews by Liz Cassidy Available in Paperback and Kindle #19 in the Interviewing Category Review: This book is primarily geared towards job seekers, but is also a good read for interviewers as well if they are new hiring managers. In this book, Cassidy covers the following information: • The MAGIC of being prepared for your Job Interview • Get inside the head of your Interviewer - What are they really looking for? • Being ABSOLUTELY ready for any type of Interview Questions you might experience and what they mean • Managing your image to IMPRESS your Interviewer and put the best possible YOU forward. • A simple 2 minute introduction to POSITION YOU as ideal job candidate • POWERFUL answers for those difficult questions Interview Questions (that you know are coming) • Answering Behavioral Interview Questions EASILY to show that you are the best qualified for the job • COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS and answers • The impact of your SOCIAL MEDIA BRAND on the Interview Questions you will be asked. • How to respond to tricky CURVE BALL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS with ease • Valuable Interview Tips to gracefully handle A BAD INTERVIEWER (Yes, they are out there!) • Examples of Behavioral Interview Questions with your BEST answers • Detailed explanations of EXACTLY what your interviewer is looking for when they ask each question • How to AVOID 12 JOB INTERVIEW TRAPS and pitfalls and • BEST INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO ASK that show you are the best candidate they will ever get • How to do your own SMART DUE DILIGENCE to find make sure this company is RIGHT FOR YOU This book is succinct and doesn’t spend a lot of time with the author beating her own chest to convince you of how great and experienced she is, and then adding in more fluff in the middle about why you should buy another book she’s written. It gets to the point, and covers the topics above clearly and precisely. If you need to prepare for an interview quickly and don’t have a lot of time to spend reading a book about interviews, this is a great read at 98 pages. |
 | Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions, Second Edition by Matthew and Nanette DeLuca Available in Paperback and Kindle #28 in the Interviewing category Review: This is a great book for both interviewers and job candidates. Questions in this book are broken down into the following types of questions: • Personal Questions • Educational Questions • Experience Questions • Behavior Questions • Stress Questions • Dynamics of Questions • Illegal Questions • Questions the Candidate Should Ask There is also a good list for interviewers that discusses where employers can find good candidates. The authors also discuss the importance of small talk for job candidates in order to separate themselves from the influx of other potential job candidates. And, they discuss how employers can test the emotional intelligence of a candidate to predict how well they will interact with other employees. The DeLucas also discuss many of the things that candidates can say during an interview that can either be taken the wrong way or reveal too much personal information about themselves at this point in the game. And, they also discuss how to handle questions about requirements of the job that you might not have actual work experience in but have learned the necessary skills for the job. At 240 pages, this is a substantial book and well worth the money. |
 | How Would You Move Mount Fuji?: Microsoft's Cult of the Puzzle -- How the World's Smartest Companies Select the Most Creative Thinkers by William Poundstone Available in Hardback, Paperback, and Kindle #44 in Interviewing category Review: This is possibly one of the best books in this list for both interviewers and job candidates. One emerging trend in the hiring process is the utilization of Puzzle Interviews. Employers are using these questions to test job candidates’ intelligence, imagination, and problem solving abilities - all of which are skills that are needed in just about every job. Hiring managers will be able to incorporate puzzle interviews into their hiring process to help identify top talent, and job candidates will discover ways that they can tackle puzzle questions by beginning to think outside of the box. Leveraging companies such as Microsoft and companies on Wall Street, Poundstone gives many specific examples where these questions have actually been used in some of the nation’s top Fortune 500 companies. At 288 pages, this book is a good value at a price of $8.89 for Kindle or $10.76 for Paperback. |
 | What to Wear To Your Job Interview: How to Dress for Your Job Interview and What NOT to Wear if You Really Want the Job! (Ace Your Job Interview) by Tonya Wells Available on Kindle and other digital formats Ranked Top 100 Job Hunting Books on Amazon! Review: This book is for the job seeker. Your appearance can set you apart from other candidates if you are dressed to impress, and it can blow your chances at getting a second interview or a job offer if you look like a complete slob. This book will explain how what you look like affects your chances of getting hired. Citing sources such as Malcolm Gladwell’s ‘Blink’, Wells discusses how quickly hiring managers can assess whether or not a candidate should potentially be in their top 25 list after just a brief 5-second introduction. She discusses the proper interview dress code as well as specifically what both men and women should and should not wear to the interview. Also discussed in the book are different ways you can determine how much to either dress up or dress down for the interview and what you should make sure you take with you to the interview. Written in a witty, tongue-in-cheek style, Wells keeps her book humorous as well as informative. This book is approximately 100 pages, and is a good value for the money at $3.99. I would highly recommend this book to job seekers. |
 | Career Essentials: 3 in 1 by Dale Mayer (This contains Mr. Mayer’s three books Career Essentials: The Resume, Career Essentials: The Cover Letter, and Career Essentials: The Interview.) Available in Paperback and Kindle #55 in Interviewing category Review: If this is your first time ever interviewing someone or the first time you’ve had to look for a job and put together a resume, this trilogy of books is an excellent read. Book 1 explains in great detail the different type of resume formats, when they should be used, and what employers should be looking for given the type of resume they’re reading. It discusses key building blocks required in every resume, and how to handle problem areas such as periods of unemployment, being fired or laid off, and being over and under qualified for a job. Book 2 goes into the proper preparation of the cover letter, which is so often put together by candidates without nearly as much thought as they put into their resumes. The essential pieces that employers expect to see in a cover letter and the proper format are discussed, and common mistakes made in the preparation of cover letters (or CV - curriculum vitae) is also discussed. Other types of letters are also discussed such as the referral letter, cold contact letter, networking letter, prospecting letter, and follow-up letter. The rejection and acceptance letter are also discussed as well. And finally, in Book 3, employers new to the interview process will find complete discussions around all the different types and styles of interview, and the pros and cons of each style. What type of research a candidate is expected to have conducted prior to the interview is also addressed as well as the basics of how to dress for the interview. Various types of potential interview questions are also discussed, although this isn’t the book for you if all you are looking for are lists of questions and answers, as this section is very brief in this book. One thing which is discussed here that is not discussed in very many books is the 2nd and 3rd interview and the salary negotiation process. All in all, for a $9.49 Kindle purchase, there is a lot of information packed into this triology of books, so I put my stamp of recommendation upon it simply due to the value that you get for what you are purchasing. The Paperback version is a little more pricey, however, at $19.76. |
 | "Headhunter" Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever! by Skip Freeman Available in Paperback and Kindle #51 in the Job Hunting category #5 in the Resumes category Review: This is a great read for both hiring managers and job candidates, and it deals with what goes on behind the scenes with most recruiters and hiring managers, and how job candidates can avoid becoming one of the ‘excluded’. Headhunter Hiring Secrets deals with the fact that the entire hiring process is an ‘exclusionary tactic’. Recruiters and hiring managers can sometimes have thousands of potentially valid resumes that they have received, and their goal is to gradually exclude each one until they have a manageable number of candidates which they can interview. And, then the process starts all over again as they try their hardest to exclude each one until they are down to their top two or three candidates. If you’re a hiring manager dealing with untold numbers of resumes and have a difficult time weeding them out, then this book will give you some ideas that will help you more quickly weed out potential job candidates. And job candidates, this book will teach you how to NOT get weeded out. This is a solid book read - 348 pages. For the money, $4.95 Kindle or $13.45 in Paperback, you’re getting your money’s worth. Skip Freeman is a former executive who now owns his own executive search firm, and he’s walked the walk as both the hiring manager and recruiter. You won’t be lead astray and will come away much more knowledgeable about how to more quickly get through that stack of resumes to your top 10 and how to be in that top 10 stack if you’re a job seeker. |
 | High-Impact Interview Questions: 701 Behavior-Based Questions to Find the Right Person for Every Job by Victoria A. Hoevemeyer Available in Paperback and Kindle Review: This book was written by Hoevemeyer for hiring managers and recruiters. The questions in this book will teach you how to utilize competency-based behavioral interviewing methods to uncover a lot of very insightful knowledge about your job candidates. Behavior-based interview questions can be very time consuming and thought-provoking questions to have to develop. Hoevemeyer has done all the work for you, however, so that you can pick and choose the best questions for your situation. The questions in this book have been matched to 62 hot soft skills that every interviewer is searching for such as motivation, customer focus, initiative, adaptability, teamwork, and more. Use these skills to weed out the questions you don’t need to ask, and make sure that you ask the questions you need to ask in order to best assess your candidates. |
 | What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here! 44 Insider Secrets and Tips that Will Get You Hired by Cynthia Shapiro Available in Paperback and Kindle Review: This is a must-read for both hiring managers or recruiters and job seekers. For those who are doing the interviewing, here is a complete one-stop list of many of the top things that job seekers do that should be a red flag to you and make you seriously reconsider whether or not you want to hire the person you’re interviewing. For the job seeker, these are many of the top things you can do to completely blow your chances of getting called back for a second interview. So, what does Shapiro cover? Here are just a few snippets: • How your resume can eliminate you from getting selected for the interview • Trick questions that can get you eliminated from consideration • How your body language can betray your actual answer • Failure to follow up • How following up too much can cost you the job • Social media traps • How quitting your job because you are fed up can be the kiss of death to you • Age discrimination • How to use your intuition to better identify how well you’ve done • Making sure you don’t screw during those first few months after you’ve started your new job • How looking like you don’t belong can hurt you even after you’ve been hired • and much more... While not an all-inclusive list of absolutely everything candidates do to screw up their chances of getting hired, this is a pretty solid list. Candidates should read this book so that they will be more alert to how they look and respond to questions, and hiring managers should read this book because it will most definitely put them on higher alert to potential red flags during the interview process. This book is a good value at 304 pages of content for $9.99 on Kindle or $12.85 for paperback. You get lots of solid content, so it is definitely worth buying and adding to your collection of interview preparation books. |
 | Getting from College to Career Rev Ed: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World by Lindsey Pollak Available in Paperback and Kindle #23 in Job Hunting category Review: This book is for the college recruiter, hiring manager who typically hires candidates straight out of college, or for the candidate who is soon to have a diploma in their hot little hands and is currently looking for their first post-college gig. Recruiting and hiring college students is a completely different ball game than dealing with experienced hires. This book helps college students get ready to play in the big leagues whether it is to just snag that all important internship with a ‘real’ company or to get that first big corporate job. A lot of focus is put on how to polish up not only a resume but the applicant’s appearance since college students aren’t known for showing up to class in business suits every day. Pollak also discusses how critical it is to use your network to find opportunities as well as putting emphasis on preparing your resume and cover letter. She also discusses how outside activities and internships can affect your chances of getting both the interview and the job. And, she discusses how best to prepare for that all important first interview. Recruiters and hiring managers will gain a better understanding of all the different pressures and things that college students are having to work on the first time they prepare and go through the interview process (even if the recruiters and hiring managers were in that same position years ago and possibly forgot how stressful the situation can be). And, this book will help them to better appreciate those college candidates who are slightly more prepared than average as well. This is definitely a book that I recommend, particularly to college students who are preparing for their first interview. At 352 pages, you get a lot of information for the price of the book. The Kindle version is $10.67, and the Paperback version is $12.73. |
 | College Students Do This! Get Hired!: From Freshman to Ph. D. The Secrets, Tips, Techniques and Tricks you need to get the Full Time Job, Co-op, or Summer Internship position you want by Mark Lyden Available in Paperback Review: This book is a must-read for soon-to-be college graduates. This is a book written by a recruiter who has worked with companies of all sizes, and the book includes tips, techniques, and secrets that will help give you an edge over other college students who are in the interview process. Having a degree and a great GPA does not guarantee you your dream job after you graduate. The hiring process involves so much more than just your diploma and GPA. Hiring managers must also consider your personality and whether or not it is a fit, your internship experience (i.e. - do you actually have any real life experience that you are bringing to the job with you or just book smarts?), and they want to know how involved you were in extracurricular activities when you were in school. You will learn about the hiring process time line, what to expect, how to prepare, and things that you can specifically do to get ahead that most other students will not think to do. This book is a quick read at 112 pages, and might be a little bit pricey at $11.65 for a paperback book, but it does contain a lot of information that college students really need to make sure they know before they start the interview process. Therefore, I do recommend it to college students getting ready to graduate. |
