Most of us don’t have much experience in interviewing for jobs. We just don’t do it very often. Contrast that with the hiring managers who interview dozens of candidates. No wonder it’s a tense situation at best, and leads to some ‘gotcha’ type questions that can torpedo any chances by the candidate to get the job.

Here are some ‘gotcha’ questions I have heard:

What accomplishment are you most proud of at your last job? Candidate answer: “I was a whistle-blower at my last job and exposed some wrong doing, and got a couple of people fired.” Hmmm, nope, find another accomplishment and talk about that one. We admire whistle-blowers perhaps, but probably won’t go out of our way to hire one.

Where do you see yourself in 2 years? Candidate answer: “By then I’d like to be running my own business.” This might be factually correct and a dream of yours but few companies want to invest in your training and hiring when they know you are planning to leave. Think.

Do you have any questions of me about the job or the company? Candidate answer: “No, not at this time, I did not have time to do any research or look at your website, so I don’t know anything about your company.” Seriously? Always come prepared with a couple of pertinent questions about the company, its products or services. You would shocked at the number of candidates who do not even do this, making a gotcha question out of a normal interview question.

Over at US NEWS and WORLD REPORT today, I give a couple more gotcha questions and how you can handle them better.

What are the gotcha questions you have heard? There are lots of first time job seekers out there now, so any experiences would be helpful to many people.