i am honest person essay

Essay on Honesty for Students and Children

 500+ words essay on honesty.

Honesty implies being truthful. Honesty means to develop a practice of speaking truth throughout life. A person who practices Honesty in his/her life, possess strong moral character. An Honest person shows good behavior, always follows rules and regulations, maintain discipline, speak the truth, and is punctual. An honest person is trustworthy as he always tends to speak the truth.

Honesty is the Best Policy

A major component for developing moral character is Honesty. Honesty helps in developing good attributes like kindness, discipline, truthfulness, moral integrity and more. Lying, cheating, lack of trust, steal, greed and other immoral attributes have no part in Honesty. Honest people are sincere, trustworthy and loyal, throughout their life. Honesty is valuable and it is the habit of utmost importance. There are famous quotes, said by a great personality like “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”. It holds good due to its ability to build, shape and motivate integral values in one’s life.

Benefits of Honesty

Honesty is always admirable in the family, civil society, friends and across the globe. A person with honesty is respected by all. For one to build the character of Honesty entirely depends on his/her family values and ethics and his/her surrounding environment. Parents showing honest behavior and character in front of their children create an impact on the children and we say “Honesty lies in their genes”. Honesty can also be developed practically which requires proper guidance, encouragement, patience, and dedication.

An honest person is always known for his/her honesty just like a sun is known for its eternal light and unlimited energy. It is a quality which helps a person to succeed in life and get much respect. It gives identification to the moral character of a person. Dishonest people may easily get trust and respect from other people. However, they lose that forever whenever they get caught.

Being dishonest is a sin in all the religions, however, people practice it for their short time benefits and selfishness. They never become morally strong and their life becomes miserable. An honest person moves freely in society and spread his/her fragrance in all directions. Being honest is never mean to bear the bad habits of others or bear ill-treated activities. Everyone has rights to reveal and take action against what is going wrong with him.

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Importance of Honesty in Life

Honesty plays an important role in everyone’s life and it is a character which is visible with open eyes like an open book. Having considered as an Honest person, by society is one of the best compliment one can dream of in his/her entire life. It is the real character a person earns in life by being sincere and dedicated towards it. Lack of honesty in society is doom. It is due to the lack of proper interpersonal relationship between parents-children and students-teachers. Honesty is a practice which is built slowly and patiently, firstly at home and then school. Hence home and school are the best places for a child to develop Honesty since his/her growing times.

Home and school are the places where a child learns moral ethics. Thus, the education system should ensure to include some essential habits and practices to keep a child close to morality. Children must be instructed right from the beginning and their childhood to practice honesty. Youths of any country are the future of that country so they should give better opportunities to develop moral character so that they can lead their country in a better way.

For all human problems, Honesty is the ultimate solution. Corruption and various problems are everywhere in society. It is because of the decreasing number of honest people. In today’s fast and competitive world, we have forgotten about moral and integral ethics. It is very important and necessary for us to rethink and remodel, that we bring the honesty back in society so that everything goes in a natural manner.

Moral ethics of a person is known through Honesty. In a society, if all the people seriously practice getting honest, then society will become an ideal society and free of all the corruptions and evils. There will be huge changes in the day-to-day life of everyone. It can happen very easily if all the parents and teachers understand their responsibilities towards the nation and teach their children and students about moral ethics.

People should realize the value of honesty in order to manage social and economic balance. Honesty is an essential requirement in modern time. It is one of the best habits which encourages an individual and make capable enough to solve and handle any difficult situation in his/her life. Honesty acts as a catalyst in strengthening our will power to face and fight any odds in life.

FAQs on  Essay on Honesty

Q.1. What are the basic principles that were followed by Gandhiji?

Ans: The six principles followed by Gandhiji were Truth, Non-Violence, Simplicity, Faith, Selflessness, and Respect for an Individual.

Q.2. Who gave the proverb, “Honesty is the Best Policy”? Ans: Benjamin Franklin one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, gave the proverb, “Honesty is the Best Policy”.

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How to Be a Good Person Essay

What does it mean to be a good person? The essay below aims to answer this question. It focuses on the qualities of a good person.

Introduction

What does it mean to be a good person, qualities of good person, works cited.

The term “good” has relative meanings depending on the person who is defining it. Several qualities can be used to define what constitutes a good person. However, there are certain basic qualities that are used to define a good person. They include honesty, trust, generosity, compassion, empathy, humility, and forgiveness (Gelven 24).

These qualities are important because they promote peaceful coexistence among people because they prevent misunderstandings and conflicts. A good person is fair and just to all and does not judge people. He or she is nice to everyone regardless of religion, race, social and economic class, health status, or physical state (Gelven 25).

A good person treats other people with respect, care, and compassion. Respect shows that an individual values and views the other person as a worthy human being who deserves respect. Compassion is a quality that enables people to identify with other people’s suffering (Gelven 27). It motivates people to offer help in order to alleviate the suffering of others. A good person has compassion for others and finds ways to help people who are suffering. Showing compassion for the suffering makes them happy.

It promotes empathy, understanding, and support. In addition, good people are forgiving. They do not hold grudges and let go of anger that might lead them to hurt others. They think positively and focus their thoughts on things that improve their relationships (Needleman 33). They avoid thinking about past mistakes or wrongs done by others. Instead, they think of how they can forgive and move on.

A good person is honest and trustworthy. This implies that they avoid all situations that might hurt the other person, such as telling lies, revealing secrets, and gossiping (Needleman 34). As such, their character or personality cannot be doubted because they do not harbor hidden intentions.

They act in open ways that reveal their true characters and personalities. On the other hand, good people are kind and respectful. They offer help voluntarily and work hard to improve the well-being of other people. In addition, they treat all people equally despite their social, physical, or sexual orientations. Good people do not discriminate, hate, deny people their rights, steal, lie, or engage in corrupt practices (Tuan 53).

Good people behave courageously and view the world as a fair and beautiful place to live in (Needleman 40). They view the world as a beautiful place that offers equal opportunities to everyone. Good people believe that humans have the freedom to either make the world a better or worse place to live in. They act and behave in ways that improve and make the world a better place.

For example, they conserve the environment by keeping it clean for future generations. A popular belief holds that people who conserve the environment are not good but just environmental enthusiasts. However, that notion is incorrect and untrue. People conserve the environment because of their goodness. They think not only about themselves but also about future generations (Tuan 53). They are not self-centered and mean but generous and caring.

Good people are characterized by certain qualities that include trust, honesty, compassion, understanding, forgiveness, respect, courage, and goodwill. They do not steal, lie, discriminate, or deny people their rights. They think about others’ welfare and advocate for actions that make the world a better place. They promote justice and fairness because they view everyone as a deserving and worthy human being.

Gelven, Michael. The Risk of Being: What it Means to be Good and Bad . New York: Penn State Press, 1997. Print.

Needleman, Jacob. Why Can’t We be good? New York: Penguin Group US, 2007. Print.

Tuan, Yi-Fu. Human Goodness . New York: University of Wisconsin Press, 2008. Print.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 28). How to Be a Good Person Essay. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-it-means-to-be-a-good-person/

"How to Be a Good Person Essay." IvyPanda , 28 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/what-it-means-to-be-a-good-person/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'How to Be a Good Person Essay'. 28 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "How to Be a Good Person Essay." October 28, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-it-means-to-be-a-good-person/.

1. IvyPanda . "How to Be a Good Person Essay." October 28, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-it-means-to-be-a-good-person/.

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IvyPanda . "How to Be a Good Person Essay." October 28, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/what-it-means-to-be-a-good-person/.

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“I am honest to myself and to others, I try to present myself and my reactions accurately to each person, and I take responsibility for my actions.”

Become Aware Of Your Strength

What is Honesty?

When you are honest, you speak the truth. More broadly, you present yourself in a genuine and sincere way, without pretense, and taking responsibility for your feelings and actions. You are a person of integrity — you are who you say you are — and you act consistently across the domains of your life rather than being one way in the community and a completely different way in your family. As a result, you believe you are being consistently true to yourself.

This strength involves accurately representing your internal states, intentions, and commitments, both publicly and privately. The strength of honesty is often linked to self-concordance- the extent to which your goals accurately represent your implicit interests and values. Honesty allows people to take responsibility for their feelings and behaviors, owning them, and reaping benefits by doing so.

Honesty is a strength within the virtue category of courage, one of six virtues that subcategorize the 24 strengths. Courage describes strengths that help you exercise your will and face adversity. The other strengths in Courage are bravery , honesty , perseverance , and zest .

Explore and Apply Your Strength

WHERE DOES HONESTY APPEAR IN YOUR CHARACTER STRENGTHS PROFILE?

Research findings on the benefits of the strength of honesty found honest people are typically viewed as trustworthy, which contributes to healthy, positive relationships. Honesty is also linked to improved accuracy of your goals, reflecting your true values and interests. Learn how to activate this strength and all of your other strengths with your personalized Total 24 Report.

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How to Write About Yourself in a College Essay | Examples

Published on September 21, 2021 by Kirsten Courault . Revised on May 31, 2023.

An insightful college admissions essay requires deep self-reflection, authenticity, and a balance between confidence and vulnerability. Your essay shouldn’t just be a resume of your experiences; colleges are looking for a story that demonstrates your most important values and qualities.

To write about your achievements and qualities without sounding arrogant, use specific stories to illustrate them. You can also write about challenges you’ve faced or mistakes you’ve made to show vulnerability and personal growth.

Table of contents

Start with self-reflection, how to write about challenges and mistakes, how to write about your achievements and qualities, how to write about a cliché experience, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about college application essays.

Before you start writing, spend some time reflecting to identify your values and qualities. You should do a comprehensive brainstorming session, but here are a few questions to get you started:

• What are three words your friends or family would use to describe you, and why would they choose them?
• Whom do you admire most and why?
• What are the top five things you are thankful for?
• What has inspired your hobbies or future goals?
• What are you most proud of? Ashamed of?

As you self-reflect, consider how your values and goals reflect your prospective university’s program and culture, and brainstorm stories that demonstrate the fit between the two.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Writing about difficult experiences can be an effective way to show authenticity and create an emotional connection to the reader, but choose carefully which details to share, and aim to demonstrate how the experience helped you learn and grow.

Be vulnerable

It’s not necessary to have a tragic story or a huge confession. But you should openly share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences to evoke an emotional response from the reader. Even a cliché or mundane topic can be made interesting with honest reflection. This honesty is a preface to self-reflection and insight in the essay’s conclusion.

Don’t overshare

With difficult topics, you shouldn’t focus too much on negative aspects. Instead, use your challenging circumstances as a brief introduction to how you responded positively.

Share what you have learned

It’s okay to include your failure or mistakes in your essay if you include a lesson learned. After telling a descriptive, honest story, you should explain what you learned and how you applied it to your life.

While it’s good to sell your strengths, you also don’t want to come across as arrogant. Instead of just stating your extracurricular activities, achievements, or personal qualities, aim to discreetly incorporate them into your story.

Brag indirectly

Mention your extracurricular activities or awards in passing, not outright, to avoid sounding like you’re bragging from a resume.

Use stories to prove your qualities

Even if you don’t have any impressive academic achievements or extracurriculars, you can still demonstrate your academic or personal character. But you should use personal examples to provide proof. In other words, show evidence of your character instead of just telling.

Many high school students write about common topics such as sports, volunteer work, or their family. Your essay topic doesn’t have to be groundbreaking, but do try to include unexpected personal details and your authentic voice to make your essay stand out .

To find an original angle, try these techniques:

• Focus on a specific moment, and describe the scene using your five senses.
• Mention objects that have special significance to you.
• Instead of following a common story arc, include a surprising twist or insight.

Your unique voice can shed new perspective on a common human experience while also revealing your personality. When read out loud, the essay should sound like you are talking.

If you want to know more about academic writing , effective communication , or parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

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First, spend time reflecting on your core values and character . You can start with these questions:

However, you should do a comprehensive brainstorming session to fully understand your values. Also consider how your values and goals match your prospective university’s program and culture. Then, brainstorm stories that illustrate the fit between the two.

When writing about yourself , including difficult experiences or failures can be a great way to show vulnerability and authenticity, but be careful not to overshare, and focus on showing how you matured from the experience.

Through specific stories, you can weave your achievements and qualities into your essay so that it doesn’t seem like you’re bragging from a resume.

Include specific, personal details and use your authentic voice to shed a new perspective on a common human experience.

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Sample Essay- "The Real Meaning of Honesty"

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(Sample Definition Essay)

I think it was my mother who taught me the meaning of honesty. Not because she actually was honest, but because she lied all the time. She felt that the easiest way out of any given situation was generally the best way out. And, for her, that generally meant telling a “little white lie.” As a young child I thought it was kind of cool. And, naturally, when I would come to her with a concern or question wondering what I should do, she generally advised me to lie.

“Mom, I told Theresa that I would go over to her house, but now I would rather go to Sue’s house to play.”

“Tell Theresa you’re sick,” she would advise. And generally I did. But I didn’t seem blessed with her lack of conscience. On many painful occasions Theresa would find out that I really went to Sue’s house without her. These occasions taught me that it is more painful to be caught in a lie than it is to tell the truth in the first place. I wondered how it was possible that my mother had never learned that lesson.

I started thinking of all the lies that I’d heard her tell. I remembered the time she told someone that her favorite restaurant had closed, because she didn’t want to see them there anymore. Or the time she told Dad that she loved the lawn-mower he gave her for her birthday. Or when she claimed that our phone lines had been down when she was trying to explain why she hadn’t been in touch with a friend of hers for weeks. And what bothered me even more were all the times she had incorporated me into her lies. Like the time she told my guidance counselor that I had to miss school for exploratory surgery, when she really needed me to babysit. And it even started to bother me when someone would call for her and she would ask me to tell them that she wasn’t there.

So, I started my own personal fight against her dishonesty. When I answered the phone and it was someone my mother didn’t want to talk to, I said, “Louise, mom is here, but she doesn’t want to talk to you.” The first time I did it, I think she grounded me, but I refused to apologize. I told her that I had decided that it was wrong to lie. And the next time it happened I did the same thing. Finally, she approached me and said, “I agree that lying is not the best thing to do, but we need to find a way to be honest without being rude.” She admitted that her methods weren’t right, and I admitted that mine were a bit too extreme.

Over the past few years, the two of us have worked together to be honest- and yet kind. Honesty should mean more than not lying. It should mean speaking the truth in kindness. Though I started by trying to teach my mom the importance of honesty, I ended up gaining a deeper understanding of the meaning of the term.

• What is the term that the speaker is trying to define?
• Did someone teach her the meaning of the term, or did she really learn from her own experience?
• Is the term defined here presented with more complex reasoning than a dictionary definition

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Integrity — Integrity and Honesty: the Situation That Has Changed My Mind

Integrity and Honesty: The Situation that Has Changed My Mind

• Categories: Honesty Integrity Personal Experience

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Words: 790 |

Published: Apr 17, 2023

Words: 790 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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How to write with honesty in the plain style

It’s a middle ground between an ornate high style and a low style that gravitates toward slang. write in it when you want your audience to comprehend..

I know how to tell you the truth in a sentence so dense and complicated and filled with jargon that you will not be able to comprehend. I also know — using my clearest and most engaging prose — how to tell you a vicious lie.

This dual reality — that seemingly virtuous plainness can be used for ill intent — lies at the heart of the ethics and practice of public writing.

The author who revealed this problem most persuasively was a scholar named Hugh Kenner, and he introduced it most cogently in an essay entitled “The Politics of the Plain Style.” Originally published in The New York Times Book Review in 1985, Kenner included it with 63 other essays in a book called “Mazes.”

When I began reading the essay, I thought it would confirm my longstanding bias that in a democracy, the plain style is most worthy, especially when used by public writers in the public interest.

A good case can be made for the civic virtues of the plain style, but Kenner, in a sophisticated argument, has persuaded me that some fleas, big fleas, come with the dog.

A disappointing truth is that an undecorated, straightforward writing style is a favorite of liars, including liars in high places. Make that liars, propagandists and conspiracy theorists. We have had enough of those in the 21st century to make citing examples unnecessary. And the last thing I would want to do is to republish pernicious texts, even for the purpose of condemning them.

When rank and file citizens receive messages written in the high style — full of abstractions, fancy effects, and abstractions — their BS detector tends to kick in. That nice term, often attributed to Ernest Hemingway, describes a form of skepticism that many of us need to sense when we are being fooled or lied to. So alerted, you can then dismiss me as a blowhard or a pointy-headed intellectual who works at the Poynter Institute!

If I tell it to you straight, you will look me in the eye and pat me on the back, a person of the people, one of you.

Literary styles and standards shift with the centuries, including the lines between fiction and nonfiction. Among the so-called liars cited by Kenner are famous authors such as Daniel Defoe and George Orwell. Both, he argues, wrote fiction that posed as nonfiction. The way they persuaded us that Robinson Crusoe actually lived or that Orwell actually shot an elephant or witnessed a hanging was to write it straight. That is, to make it sound truthful.

If public writers are to embrace a plain style in an honest way, they must understand what makes it work. Kenner argues:

• That the plain style is a style, even though it reads as plain, undecorated.
• That it is rarely mastered and expressed as literature, except by the likes of Jonathan Swift, H.L. Mencken and Orwell.
• That it is a contrivance, an artifice, something made up to create a particular effect.
• That it exists in ambiguity, being the perfect form of transmission for democratic practices, but also for fictions, fabrications and hoaxes.
• That it makes the writer sound truthful, even when he or she is not.

If you aspire to write in an honest plain style, what are its central components? Let’s give Kenner the floor:

Plain style is a populist style. … Homely diction (common language) is its hallmark, also one-two-three syntax (subject, verb, object), the show of candor and the artifice of seeming to be grounded outside language in what is called fact — the domain where a condemned man can be observed as he silently avoids a puddle and your prose will report the observation and no one will doubt it.

Kenner alludes here to Orwell’s essay in which he observes a hanging and watched the oddity of the condemned man not wanting to get his feet wet as he prepares to climb the steps to the gallows. “Such prose simulates the words anyone who was there and awake might later have spoken spontaneously. On a written page, as we’ve seen, the spontaneous can only be a contrivance.”

The plain style feigns a candid observer. Such is its great advantage for persuading. From behind its mask of calm candor, the writer with political intentions can appeal, in seeming disinterest, to people whose pride is their no-nonsense connoisseurship of fact. And such is the trickiness of language that he may find he must deceive them to enlighten them. Whether Orwell ever witnessed a hanging or not, we’re in no doubt what he means us to think of the custom.

Orwell has been a literary hero of mine from the time I read “Animal Farm” as a child. I jumped from his overt fiction, such as “1984,” to his essays on politics and language, paying only occasional attention to his nonfiction books and narrative essays. I always assumed that Orwell shot an elephant and that he witnessed a hanging, because, well, I wanted to believe it, and assumed a social contract between writer and reader, that if a writer of nonfiction writes a scene where two brothers are arguing in a restaurant, then it was not two sisters laughing in a discotheque.

As to whether Orwell wrote from experience in these cases, I can’t be sure, but he always admitted that he wrote from a political motive, through which he might justify what is sometimes called poetic license.

Writing to reach a “higher truth,” of course, is part of a literary and religious tradition that goes back centuries. When Christian authors of an earlier age wrote the life and death stories of the saints — hagiography — they cared less about the literal truth of the story than a kind of allegorical truth: That the martyrdom of St. Agnes of Rome was an echo of the suffering of Jesus on the cross, and, therefore, a pathway to eternal life.

I write this as a lifelong Catholic without disrespect or irony. Such writing was a form of propaganda and is where we get the word: a propagation of the faith.

Orwell’s faith was in democratic institutions, threatened in the 20th century by tyrannies of the right and the left — fascism and communism. Seeing British imperialism as a corruption, he felt a moral obligation to tell stories in which that system looked bad, including one where, as a member of the imperial police in Burma, he found himself having to kill an elephant, an act he came to regret. Using the plain style, Orwell makes his essay so real that I believe it. In my professional life, I have argued against this idea of the “higher truth,” which does not respect fact, knowing how slippery that fact can be. But Orwell knew whether he shot that elephant or not, so there is no equivocating.

By the onset of the digital age, a writer’s fabrications — even those made with good intent — are often easily exposed, leading to a loss of authority and credibility that can injure a worthy cause. With Holocaust deniers abounding, why would you fabricate a story about the Holocaust when there are still so many factual stories to tell?

There is a powerful lesson here for all public writers: That if I can imagine a powerful plot and compelling characters, I do not have to fabricate a story and sell it as nonfiction. I can write it as a novel and sell it as a screenplay! I have yet to hear an argument that “Sophie’s Choice” is unworthy because it was imagined rather than reported.

I am saying that all forms of writing and communication fall potentially under the rubric of public writing. That includes, fiction, poetry, film, even the music lyrics, labeled as such: “Tell it like it is,” says the song, “Don’t be afraid. Let your conscience be your guide.”

In the end, we need reports we can trust, and even in the age of disinformation and fake news, those are best delivered in the plain style — with honesty as its backbone. Writing in the plain style is a strategy; civic clarity and credibility are the effects.

Here are the lessons:

• When you are writing reports, when you want your audience to comprehend, write in the plain style — a kind of middle ground between an ornate high style and a low style that gravitates toward slang
• The plain style requires exacting work. Plain does not mean simple. Prefer the straightforward over the technical: shorter words, sentences, paragraphs at the points of greatest complexity.
• Keep subjects and verbs in the main clause together. Put the main clause first.
• More common words work better.
• Easy on the literary effects; use only the most transparent metaphors, nothing that stops the reader and calls attention to itself.
• Remember 1-2-3 syntax, subject/verb/object: “Public writers prefer the plain style.”

Want to read more about public writing? Check out Roy Peter Clark’s latest book, “ Tell It Like It Is: A Guide to Clear and Honest Writing ,” available April 11 from Little, Brown.

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11 Best Honesty Examples in a List (At School & Work)

Honesty is about telling the truth. It’s easy to be honest most of the time.

But sometimes it can be really hard. Usually, people tell small lies to preserve social relationships, protect others’ feelings. or their own self-image.

Nevertheless, being honest when it is tough shows our character. It shows people that you are someone who has integrity .

Below are some examples of honesty, both times when it’s hard and easy!

• Examples of Honesty

1. Admitting when you were Wrong

Honest people are willing to say that they were wrong about something. But this isn’t just an issue of honesty. It’s also an issue of having the strength to change and grow as a person.

Too often, people will realize they were wrong but they’ll be too stubborn to admit it. They will defend the indefensible just so they don’t look bad.

An honest person will say “you know what, I changed my mind!” This may be a little embarrassing at first, but in the long-run, people will respect you and trust that you tell the truth no matter what.

2. Choosing not to Cheat

Cheating is dishonest while following the rules is honest. Sometimes we get the opportunity to cheat (and might even know we can get away with it!) But an honest person will follow the rules no matter what because they know it’s the right thing to do.

By following the rules, you’ll make sure you don’t put yourself in a situation where you have to tell a lie. You can always say “yes, I followed the rules”.

It also means that when you win in games, you can be happy with yourself knowing you won because you are a talented person and not because you cheated.

3. Saying when you’ve had your Fair Share

An honest person will choose not to take more than their fair share.

You often see children trying to sneak extra bites of cake or more treats than they were allowed to have. This is an example of dishonesty.

But you also see honest people making sure everyone get their fair share. They don’t need someone to tell them not to take more than they’re entitled to.

For example, if you are sharing a meal with someone, you would make sure that the person you’re sharing with gets their half. If you’ve had your half, you can stop rather than continuing to eat and tell the person you’re sharing with: “the rest is yours!”

4. Speaking up when Something Upsets You

Sometimes honesty means having the courage to speak when you don’t have to. Many people are so polite or shy that they won’t speak up when they really should.

A classic example of this is when someone is doing something that is upsetting. They might be saying something offensive without realizing it or they might keep using your things.

You can speak up and say “this is how I feel about this situation”. This is honest. But many people will stay quiet or even pretend that they aren’t upset. They do this with good intentions (to be polite) but this doesn’t resolve the problem. We have an idiom for this: “you’re being walked over”.

5. Saying an Unpopular Truth

Throughout history, brave people have been honest about sharing the truth even if it was harmful to them.

One example is Galileo. He was oppressed for sharing his research. The authorities didn’t like what he was saying because it undermined their power.

This doesn’t mean that you should make things up. Be sure that the things you are saying are true and you really believe them. But by speaking up about the truth, you’re choosing to be true to who you really are, and you might even change the world like Galileo.

6. Showing Disappointment and Emotions

People who hide their emotions, even when asked how they feel, are often being dishonest so they don’t appear weak. But the reality is that everyone feels sad at times, and we should be okay with that!

We’re often taught to hide our disappointment, and sometimes that’s the right thing to do. At the end of a game that you lose, most people think you should be humble and happy for the winner.

But sometimes it’s brave to show your emotions. For example, if you’re feeling sad about something, you might need to share this with people who can talk about it with you so you can start feeling better.

7. Returning Something that Belongs to Others

If you have something that doesn’t belong to you, the right thing is to return it. In childhood, most people stole something small. The honest thing would be to give it back to the person it rightly belongs to.

This is another example of an instance where it’s hard to be honest. In this situation, being honest will probably hurt your reputation in the short-term. You’re admitting that you did something that reflects poorly on your character.

But you also need to remember that being honest when it hurts you actually says something big about your character. It shows that you have integrity.

8. Sharing Constructive Feedback

When we give people feedback, we need to be careful to be honest. The best example of this is when people ask us what the meal they cooked was like.

Our feedback might highlight some negative elements. But if we aren’t honest, then the person’s cooking will never improve!

A good balance between being polite and honest is to give constructive feedback. This is feedback that is carefully chosen so you’re not being rude. You’re giving help. You can say “maybe next time add a little more salt” instead of just saying “it was disgusting”.

9. Doing the Right Thing (When you Didn’t Have To)

An honest person chooses to do the right thing even when people aren’t watching.

For example, if you are in the store and knock something off the shelf and it breaks, you might be able to just walk away and pretend you didn’t do it.

But a person who is honest might take it to the customer service desk and let them know that you broke it (or at least put it back on the shelf, if it wasn’t broken!). Unfortunately, too many people in this world won’t do the right thing if they aren’t held accountable by others.

10. Correcting a Mistake that Benefited You

The best example for this is when the cashier gives you too much money in change at the supermarket.

Some people will choose to walk away with the extra money because they got away with something!

But honest people go back and let the cashier know that they were given too much change. They do the right thing not because it benefits them, but because they know it is moral and honest to do so.

11. Not Misrepresenting yourself on Social Media

Today, many people choose to present a fake and unrealistic version of their identity online. We might do this to try to make us look better to other people.

Some of us might consider this dishonest. At the very least, it’s not sharing the whole truth!

Sharing an unrealistic version of yourself can have many negative consequences. It can make other feel bad thinking you’re amazing and comparing themselves to you. But, when people really get to know you and realize you’re not the perfect thing you’ve portrayed, they will think you’re a liar!

So, an honest person would make sure they’re not trying to misrepresent themselves as a “perfect” or idealized version of themselves on social media.

Related Required Skills For Students And Employees

Here are some other skills you might need to be able to demonstrate as a successful employee or college student:

• Examples of Talents
• Examples of Integrity
• Proactive Examples
• Adaptable Examples
• Types of Skills
• Skills for Teachers
• Soft Skills for Teachers
• Examples of Patience
• Morals Examples
• Persistence Examples
• Passionate Examples

There are countless examples of honesty, but I think the above 11 are some of the best and most common that demonstrate you have great personal qualities . They show how sometimes being honest can be really hard. It’s sometimes easier to lie.

In our culture, telling little ‘ white lies ’ is seen as not a bad thing. Sometimes it preserves social relationships and prevents people from getting hurt. But, in other times, people lie just for their own advantage. And this, I think, is the worst example of dishonesty .

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

1 thought on “11 Best Honesty Examples in a List (At School & Work)”

Thank you for putting these ideas into words and then putting them out there into the public forum. This is such a constructive way to deal with the integrity failure all around us these days. In our heart of hearts we all understand the importance of integrity but only a few are courageous enough to push through the difficulties encountered in our false society. This article encourages us to do just that.

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Interview questions answered: What does honesty mean to you?

We live in the world of pretense . People build their image on social media, trying to look happier and more successful than they really are. It’s all about ego boasting . The game does not end online, however. Modern workplaces also lack honesty. People think too much what they can, and should say , and who is listening or monitoring their email conversation. And you can be sure that in 21st century there’s always someone listening… But can it be any different? And why do the hiring managers ask what does honesty mean to you in a job interview? We will try to find the answers on the following lines.

First of all, there are more dimensions to honesty when it comes to work. The most obvious one is communication . Feedback flows freely in all directions in a successful organization. Employees aren’t afraid to give, or receive criticism –in a constructive way, of course, because that’s the only way how they can improve in their jobs. And you can definitely focus on this dimension of honesty. In a broader sense , however, doing a job honestly simply means really taking care of your duties, not looking for shortcuts or for ways of gaining advantage of your employer. That’s a good one to mention as well.

Last but not least, honesty towards customers is extremely important, especially in sales . This is a grey area though, and tricky to discuss in the interviews, because–and let’s face it– vast majority of marketing and sales success is based on deceptive advertising … Without complicating it any further, let’s proceed to 7 sample answers to this intriguing question. I tried to include on my list a nice variety of answers, and hopefully at least one will resonate with the message you want to convey in the interviews.

7 sample answers to “What does honesty mean to you?” interview question

• It means to me being able to give and receive feedback at work . And I always try to give feedback, and encourage others to share their feedback on my work, because I understand that things look differently from perspective . What I try to say here is that we may think that we do everything well at work, looking at things from our limited perspective, whereas in fact we can improve on many areas , and just need someone to point it out for us. In my opinion, it is very important to be honest to our colleagues, not only in this sense but in every other one. Fostering honest relationships with your colleagues is one of the keys of enjoying your time at work.
• I’ve been always an honest and hard worker . You know how it goes with manual work, when one belongs to a team. If you do not want to work hard, you can hide somewhere , and let others take care of the majority of work. But that’s not my style really. I enjoy my job , and always try to give my 100% , honestly taking care of all my duties. Sure, some people may call me an idiot because of that, but I do not mind. I know that I’ve earned every dollar in my life with honest work , and nobody can take it away from me.
• Honesty? That’s something I’ve been missing in my last job . People played stupid games in the workplace, creating small teams within teams, intriguing against each other . I could not tell anymore who was telling the truth, and the real intentions of my colleagues. And I can tell you that I hated it . I hated such games and the atmosphere they created in the workplace. Without a doubt some other people enjoyed it, because some people thrive in conflicts . That’s not my case, however. I am seeking honest and friendly relationships with my colleagues, and couldn’t find them in my last job. It is actually one of the reasons why I am here with you …
• What does honesty mean to me? Speaking honestly, I am still trying to find the answer to this question. I am still pretty young, this is my first job application , and I do not have much experience in other field of life either. I can say, without a doubt, that honesty is important to me, and to the world, and that I hope that others will consider me an honest and authentic person . But what exactly it means in the context of the workplace or this job I am yet to understand. Perhaps I can learn it from more experienced colleagues.
• Honesty does not exist in sales . At least that’s the case in 95% of all campaigns, in my experience. You can never tell the people the entire truth. If you want to close a deal, you have to focus on the positives , the best features of the product, and how it will make their life better… Maybe there are less expensive alternatives on the market, and maybe this or that could be improved about the product. But you cannot say such things to the customer. At the end of the day, successful salesman can find the right balance between staying honest–to some extent at least, and at the same time saying the right things to motivate the customer to make the purchase . I believe to have this ability.
• To me, honesty simply means giving my 100% to every task , activity, interaction with another human being. Not trying to game the system, or to benefit from the hard work of others. Providing value , in whatever I do, and receiving a fair reward in return. Law of action and reaction cannot be broken . If you bring good things to the lives of other people, good things will come back to you. I’ve been following this principle for many years, and it has been working great so far. I plan to do the same in the job with you.
• What does honesty mean to me? Before anything else, it means to stick to my moral codex, to the rules of conduct I learned from my parents. Treating others with respect , trying to help people, staying authentic to myself . It also means not to care much about what others think about you, but rather about what is right to do and say in the given situation. I try to be an honest person, and an honest colleague, but I still see some room for improvement…

Not necessarily a reality, but something they try to achieve, and you should play along

Each bigger company has their “mission statement”, the values they try to promote in the workplace and outside of it. Honesty (and transparency) is on the list more often than not. But you do not need years of corporate experience to know that the values companies promote are often far from the reality. It doesn’t mean that they would not love to have such and such workplace. It just doesn’t work that way, for one reason or another. And it is similar story for your answer.

Perhaps you know that it doesn’t pay off being completely honest to your colleagues. Or even to the customers, especially when we talk about jobs in sales. While interviewing for the job, however, you should first and foremost try to show the right attitude . And that’s definitely being honest–at least to some extent, regardless of the job you try to get. So play along, praise honesty, elaborate on it, and get the job.

Lack of honesty can be the reason why you left your last job

In three out of five cases, you will face the following question in the interviews: “ Why did you leave your last job? “, or “Why do you consider leaving your present job?” If you do not know what to say, or prefer not to share the real reason (seeking better remuneration for example), you can always talk about lack of honesty in the workplace.

Colleagues played their little games , some were perhaps even blocking your work (purposely not delivering reports on time, for example), and you did not feel good in the workplace. You just didn’t belong there , since for you relationships matter, and you want to build relationship of trust with your colleagues. It wasn’t possible in that job, and hence you left, and are now seeking employment in a better company. Giving them such an answer, you can kill two birds with one stone . You answer their question about honesty, and at the same time explain your reasons for leaving your last job, which will help you avoid that dreaded question…

Ready to answer this one? I hope so! Do not forget to check also 7 sample answers to other tricky interview questions:

• What does leadership mean to you?
• What does integrity mean to you?
• What does loyalty mean to you?
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How Can You Tell If You Are a Good Person?

Four virtues are the key. which do you possess.

Posted October 14, 2016 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

There are many ways to define what it means to be a good person. One definition of “good” is that you follow the rules — you don’t break the law, commit crimes, lie, or cheat.

Another way to determine who is a good person is to ask others — friends, family members, coworkers — people who know you and can “vouch” for your good qualities and character.

Another, more abstract, way to define goodness is that, at the end of your days, you leave the world a better place — you have done good deeds, saved lives (or souls), raised good children, made others happy, and the list goes on.

An approach that we’ve used in our research on “good” leaders stems from the ancient Greek philosophers and emphasizes character. According to Aristotle, there are four cardinal virtues that determine a person of good character. So, an easy way to get on the path to “goodness” is to practice the four virtues.

Here are the four cardinal virtues, their definitions, and how you can tell if you are leading a virtuous life.

1. Prudence. Another term for prudence is “ wisdom ,” but it involves being objective and reflective when deciding on courses of action. Prudent individuals learn to avoid making bad decisions. They value and learn from others. To assess how prudent you are, consider this:

• Do you make life decisions by studying information, listening to the advice of trusted friends and relations, and “fact-checking?"
• Do you choose courses of action that are based on what you “ought” to do? For example, would your parents approve of your course of action?

2. Temperance. This virtue focuses on moderation — not being too extreme. It involves controlling your passions and not acting out.

• Do you manage your emotions, particularly the “dark” ones (i.e., anger , despair)?
• Do you avoid the lure of power, wealth, and do you have good perspective on your own accomplishments (i.e., not have an overinflated ego)?

3. Justice. This virtue deals with being fair and respecting others.

• Do you treat others fairly, giving them credit when credit is due?
• Do you respect the rights of others? Do you treat others as you would want to be treated?

4. Fortitude (or Courage). This involves having the courage to stand up for what you believe in — to do the right thing.

• Do you intervene when you see others being mistreated or abused?
• Do you have the courage to take responsibility for your own mistakes and failures?
• Do you have a moral compass that you follow and do you have the courage to do what that moral compass tells you to do?

Although our work involves trying to help leaders assess and build their character via the cardinal virtues, these are important for everyone, not just leaders. Moreover, parents should foster these virtues in themselves and in their children. Focusing on these virtues, checking your own behavior, and working to become more virtuous in all areas of life is the key to becoming a good person.

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Riggio, R.E., Zhu, W., Reina, C., & Maroosis, J. (2010). Virtue-based measurement of ethical leadership: The Leadership Virtues Questionnaire. Consulting Psychology Journal, 62(4), 235-250.

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D. , is the Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College.

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11 Honesty Examples in Work, School, and Life

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You’ve probably been there— gotten scammed by someone or done in by a selfish person only looking out for their own interest (to the point of lying to you). We’ve all been there. There’s nothing worse than realizing you’ve been deceived , you were conned, and people are dishonest. 

Experiencing dishonesty can provoke a real anger response, and suffering dishonesty by others can be downright humiliating. But is dishonesty simply a way of life in a dog-eat-dog kind of world? Are there still honesty examples out there?

Table of Contents

What Is Honesty and Why Is It So Important?

Honesty is when you act, speak, and think in a truthful way. So, to understand honesty, you have to understand the concept of truth . Lies are so easy to swallow sometimes, and the truth may seem to cost you, especially when you have to admit you’ve been wrong or that you are to blame. 

In daily life, truth is a guiding principle when you have been raised and instilled with integrity. In the Biblical sense, the truth will set you free . When you are truthful, you will say things exactly as they happened, even if that costs you.

When you have honesty, you will act in a way that is in line with your concept of truth , even if it is difficult or places you at a disadvantage. 

I can think of one instance where acting with honesty seemed to cost me, but it also saved me in the end. I had been driving a little faster than I should, and I got pulled over. Instead of making up an excuse, I owned up to having driven too fast, told the officer that I didn’t mean to, but I accepted that I deserved a ticket. 

While the officer began writing the speeding ticket, another motorist was stopped for driving well over the legal speed limit. This driver proceeded to tell the officers that he had not been speeding, that there were no speed limit signs, that their equipment was faulty, and that if it wasn’t that… his rental car had a faulty speedometer. 

The officer smiled, gave me my ticket, then turned to discuss matters with the argumentative and lying driver. When I looked at my ticket, it said: “ Thank you for your honesty —have a nice drive.” There was no fine indicated. 

Honesty and Your Moral Compass

My honesty had saved me. Have you ever experienced an instance where your honesty saved you? Being honest allows you to act without shame and keeps you on the right path in life . 

Your concept of what’s honest will depend greatly on your moral compass . If you were raised by criminals, chances are you will not have this guiding principle. Luckily, most of us are raised by normal parents, and with some luck, they have raised us with a concept of what’s right and wrong.  

Even if your parents weren’t ideal authority figures, we are all taught at school to respect authority and behave appropriately . We are honest, because if we’re not, there are consequences in our society.

Honesty Examples Explained

By looking at examples of honesty in action , we are encouraged, and we understand what it means to be honest in different situations. 

Here are a few examples of honesty in work, school, and life, so you can live without stress . 

Honesty Examples at Work

“People lie,” Dr Gregory House states repeatedly in the hit TV show House . Nowhere is this perhaps more apparent than at work. In a cut-throat environment, being dishonest can easily become a way of being and doing. Colleagues lie, clients deceive you, and bosses use half-truths to manipulate you. Where does honesty fit into all this? 

1. Keeping Your Secret 

In the world of work, we often hear secrets or have a colleague listen to you rant about your boss. Honesty comes into play when your colleague doesn’t reveal what you said to them with the aim of getting a promotion or currying favor. 

Instead of getting a leg up on you by sharing your secret with the boss, your colleague keeps mum and loses out on an opportunity because to get that promotion would mean betraying you. 

2. Authority Figures Owning Flaws

A clear example of honesty is when an authority figure at work owns up to failing or not being correct. Rather than lie and protect their reputation, your boss may own up to having issued a poor decision. 

A boss who admits to having acted in their own interest may show honesty by rectifying the situation. Eating their words, the person who acted selfishly may admit to it and take the necessary steps to rectify the situation, even though it may damage their reputation. 

3. Returning Extra Office Supplies

It may sound like such a silly matter, but real honesty is about never taking what isn’t yours. It doesn’t have to be your neighbor’s car or house; even taking something as insignificant as a few sheets of paper or a box of office pens can become an act of dishonesty. 

Years ago, my colleague resigned from teaching. She was in charge of the section’s stationery. This had placed her in a prime position to take as much stationery and supplies as she wanted. She also had three young kids of her own, so it would have been quite “understandable” if she had snuck out a few pens, reams of paper, or schoolbooks for her own kids. 

Yet, when she left, she handed over a complete stock list, including all the current items she had issued herself (including the same pens, stickers, and other stationery items as every other teacher). Despite having more fancy items in stock for the department heads, she only ever allowed herself to use the same stationery as other teachers. 

Her honesty was so memorable that people spoke of it, and she was offered a much better position at a private company as their head of stores. Being so honest as to not even take a paperclip, she was rewarded by a much better opportunity and career. 

4. Honesty Reaps Rewards

For those who have a low level of schooling, manual labor is often the only means of earning a living. One particular worker at a fruit farm proved that honesty could make a lifelong difference. He had been working at the local farm for two years, and he had shown himself to be a trustworthy worker to the farm owner. 

When the manager accused the worker of stealing, the farm owner decided to investigate and not simply take the manager at his word. Surprisingly, the owner found that it was the manager who had been stealing by selling gasoline on the side, and then charging it to the worker’s truck. 

As a result of having shown himself to be honest, the farm worker could stand on his character when he was falsely accused. The farm manager was fired, and the owner decided to take a risk by promoting the unschooled laborer to the position of manager. 

Honesty proved the worker’s character , and it ended up being more valuable than the best education. 

Honesty Examples in School 

School can be challenging to your concept of what is morally right. Favoritism, bullying, and status differences can all contribute to challenging your honesty . Stick it out for what’s right, and honesty will be the result. 

5. Choosing to Follow Rules

When you are young, you may have an urge to rebel against authority and not want to be told what to do. However, an honest person will do what is required of them according to the rules placed over them. 

In school, you may find that those around you are breaking rules just because they want to. While an honest person may also not always like what the rules are, they will still accept these rules as having a purpose. 

As a young child, I was taught that rules had to be obeyed . This belief shaped my moral compass, and even today, I don’t like breaking rules. I believe rules serve a purpose, and therefore, I choose to follow them. 

My honesty has saved me on more than one occasion from trouble. I think of the time I chose not to follow a school rule, and I ended up in detention for it. If I had followed my belief in honesty and not bunked class, I wouldn’t have been punished. 

6. Not Cheating in a Test or Task

Tests are scary, and you may also have found yourself hoping for a miracle to either give you all the answers or even try to wiggle out of a test. Using exam notes hidden on your body during the exams is a great big NO. 

I recall the incident years back when the class was writing a test, but one group of students kept asking to use the bathroom. While the teacher couldn’t prove anything out of sorts was going on, the students were cheating on the test. 

Finally, a student returned from the bathroom with a notebook filled with the question numbers and answers. The students had been creating their own memorandum of answers in the notebook. 

The act of honesty was committed by the single student who brought the cheating notebook to the teacher, thereby exposing the corrupt learners. Despite the student who brought the book to the teacher doing the right thing, the other students had cheated. 

Therefore, it takes personal strength to stand against your friends when they don’t want to do what’s right. Choosing not to cheat is a personal decision, and only you can make it. 

7.  Not Telling on Others

School is one of the places in life where we learn who we are. Often, people try to impress others by gossiping, and if you can learn in school not to fall into this trap, you will develop an honest character. 

I recall quite fondly the day a “friend” was busy gossiping about me at school. You may wonder why it was a fond recollection when being gossiped about is so painful. This particular gossip session backfired badly on the girl in question.

While she was busy talking about me (a few minor details with oodles of embellishment), one of the new girls suddenly asked her to keep quiet. 

The new girl quietly told her that it’s not right to talk about someone behind their back (even though I was sitting nearby), and that it showed the person doing the gossiping to be unsafe to those around them. “If they can talk with you, they can talk of you,” she said.

The girl then came over and we had lunch together. I made a new friend that day, and we’re still friends today. The gossip girl learned a valuable lesson in honesty that day . Being honest means not lying about others. 

8. Perseverance Instead of Taking the Easy Way Out

Tony had been at school with my brother. My brother was an average student , but he always did his homework diligently . Tony had never been very interested in work, but he was quite smart, and he usually managed to ace his tests, even though he never did homework. 

When the end of year assessments rolled around, my brother opened his school bag and noticed his essay that he had so neatly typed out was missing. Glancing over, he saw that Tony had handed in a neatly typed essay with the same unique font he had used. 

Tony had taken his essay!

However, my brother wasn’t a stirrer, and he quietly went to the teacher and pleaded to hand in the essay later that day as he didn’t have his there. Having never missed a deadline before, the teacher gave him time until that afternoon to complete the essay and hand it in. 

My brother decided to rewrite the essay about the exact scenario that had happened. His dishonest friend who handed in work that wasn’t his. The essay was written by hand , had several spelling errors that were hastily corrected and even a juice stain from the cafeteria. 

The following day, when the essays were returned, my brother scored his first A+, while Tony failed his assignment. Perseverance and honesty had given my brother a chance to succeed. 

Honesty Examples in Life

We should all live an honest life , right? The problem is that most of us struggle to keep sight of what honesty means, especially when life gets difficult. A quick white lie may seem like an easy way to get out of a sticky situation, but it could also lead to more problems. Most often, simply sticking to the truth and making honesty your way of life is the best and straightest way through life’s challenges.

9. Using Your Voice

I learned that being honest can make you friends , but it can also cost you “friends.” People don’t like it when you tell them straight. We’re taught not to say anything unless we say something nice. Being honest means speaking up when it’s right, not only when it’s nice, even if this leads to confrontation . 

When I started out my career in teaching, I was somewhat shy and felt quite out of my depth . My boss was a strict man who often acted quite dictatorial in his meetings. People were too scared to speak up and tell him when he was stepping out of line or if he asked for things they couldn’t do. 

During one particular meeting, he demanded that the staff perform duties that were really quite impossible. Everyone sat in a disgruntled silence . While we knew better than to say anything during his meeting, none of us felt that what was being asked was fair. 

I spoke up for the first time during that meeting. Remaining polite and professional, I told him that I believed it was an unfair request, and I also offered him my support for an alternative idea.

There was a shocked silence, he huffed for a second, then realizing that I had actually made a better suggestion than his initial plan, he asked the staff if they believed this second idea had merit. Heads nodded. 

By speaking up, telling the truth , and remaining honest about who I am, I managed to convince a difficult boss to give my idea some thought. Being honest isn’t the same as being rude. 

I have used this same approach in most aspects of life since then, and being honest, speaking up when things aren’t right, and acting in line with my belief in the truth have repeatedly helped me steer clear of serious issues. 

10. Honest Mistakes 

We all make mistakes . Sometimes, we make the most mistakes in our love lives. I had a relationship where I realized about three months into a head-over-heels romance that my partner had only partially separated from his wife. He was still seeing her and me at the same time. 

While I hadn’t been the cause of their marital issues, I was now part of it . Being an honest person, I didn’t feel right about it. It felt like I had walked into someone else’s shoes. It just didn’t fit. 

The romance was great, but I realized I had fallen in love too hastily. What I had believed to be a real relationship was, in fact, an infatuation that had all the potential to destroy me. Being honest with myself, I realized I had to leave. 

I explained to my partner that I didn’t feel the relationship had started on the right footing and that it was better to wait until his matters with his wife were sorted out. He agreed, but he didn’t return my calls for a few days.

I later found out that he had already had several one-nighters, and within a few days of our breakup, he was on his third rebound relationship. 

Though I had made an honest mistake , it was my honesty that got me out of a potentially terrible relationship. Clearly, the man I thought I loved wasn’t faithful and would have cheated on me eventually. 

11. Meeting Myself

Do you really know who you are ? Can you own up to the person you are and accept that person wholly? This is what meeting yourself is all about. Some call it shadow work , where you really dive into the aspects of yourself you don’t know about or try to ignore. Honesty is how you face your coping mechanisms and see which actually help you out. 

Recently, I attended a retreat with a meditation master, and we worked on how I saw myself and discovering my inner truth. This is where honesty can make all the difference . Honesty isn’t just something you think, learn, or do. It’s how you are . 

Honesty is what got me through years of therapy after an abusive relationship and my own childhood trauma. If you can’t be honest with yourself, how can you expect to live with honesty? 

Final Thoughts on Honesty Examples

Honesty is an integral part of your life. You should live with honesty in your work, school, and social life. When you have honesty, you live according to your truth , and you don’t hide behind pleasantries or half-truths just to try and make life easier. 

We should teach our children about honesty and how to apply it in their lives too. Can you imagine what the world would be like when all people live with honesty as their guide? If you want to learn more about honesty and how to trust others , consider this great read on affirmations to develop trust . 

Finally, if you want a simple way to reduce your stress and anxiety, then try writing these 35 mindfulness journaling prompts to live more in the present moment .

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I Am A Friendly Person (Essay Sample) 2023

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I Am A Friendly Person

How Can I Get Essay For Free and Is it realistic to expect a low-cost, High-Quality Essay from a Cheap Paper Writing Service ?

Most of my friends and family members recognize me as a kind, caring, and loving person. Mostly because I always do whatever I can when it comes to helping a friend, family member, or just any person. I believe that some people also think of me as not a flexible personality however I am really a pushover. I believe I can do anything for anybody only if they ask nicely. Yes, I am not perfect and I have made certain rules in life that I don’t exceed myself. This does not mean that most people should think of me as a person who cannot adapt to certain things. I am always open to change and welcome all inventions and innovations. I will always lend a hand to anyone in need. In this essay, I will explain why I think of myself as a loving, caring, and friendly person.

I Am A Friendly Person Sample Essay – 700 Word Long Essay

One thing my friends, family members, and even myself recognize about me is that I would always help a friend or relative in need. I always do whatever I can to make the other person comfortable. I don’t use words or commit actions that are offensive to people that surround me. I think these are the reasons why my fellow human beings have tagged me as a friendly person. I am very flexible in my thoughts and welcome all kinds of change and innovation in life. I can be stubborn sometimes, well we all do but overall I am never disrespectful to anyone around me. In this essay, I will explain why I think that I am a friendly person.

Making friends can be very difficult for some people, especially for introverts. They hate being in public and find many things wrong with people in general. However, as an extrovert, I enjoy going out, socializing, and talking to people to know more about them. I have never found it hard to interact with others, I am always looking forward to attending events where I can be with people whether they are friends or strangers. I am a friendly person because I love talking to people and knowing about their lives, I like helping people. I genuinely enjoy being surrounded by different people all the time and can’t stand loneliness for a longer period of time.

I have great pleasure talking with people and learning more about their lives. While some individuals are not interested in communicating with others, I actually love diverse conversations. I can strike conversations with strangers and I will feel happier in the process of making new friends. For me, great conversations are vital to having a happy life. As a result of these discourses, I feel like I am growing and evolving as a person. If I avoid talking to other people, I may have a very limited sense of what others are going through. Unlike other teenagers, I don’t like sitting all day playing computer games, watching TV, or using social media. I prefer chatting with people face to face where I can determine what they are going through. In my mind, there is a difference between learning by reading and learning by interacting. I appreciate and initiate dialogues that help me develop and enhance my skills of learning by interacting.

Besides great conversations, I am friendly because I enjoy helping people. By nature, I already like providing any kind of support to others whether it is emotional or physical. I am also a good listener and quick to lend a hand to my friends and family members. Furthermore, I extend the same practice to my friends and even strangers. I am the go-to person for organizing events and getting things done. At the same time, in my kind of work in the field of customer service, I practice goodwill all the time. I ask customers, co-workers, and my boss about their problems and offer solutions. I also give recommendations based on my own experience and what I learn from other people. I gain fulfillment in being able to give any form of assistance to other people. In other words, I am a friendly person who wants to improve the lives of people around me.

Finally, I am very flexible when it comes to accepting and welcoming new ideas and innovations. I am not a rigid person having rules in life that can be broken. I welcome all kinds of change and always adapt to my surroundings. I never say words or do actions that offend someone or hurt anyone’s feelings. Knowing people from different cultures and nations makes me happy. I know some people prefer to be alone and keep things to themselves but I can say I am different. When I am tired and feel drained, I reinvigorate myself by visiting family and friends. To be happy, I need to be with people.

Friendliness is my nature and my practice. I am friendly because I like to talk to people and make sure that they are doing well. Likewise, I love the feeling of being in the middle of an active lifestyle. The notice of interacting is a joyful rhythm to me. If there is one thing I like about being friendly, it is that I know that I am not alone. Because of my friendly nature, there is always some friend or family member around me to help me in my hard times. Life is always beautiful when you are friendly and welcoming to others around you.

Do You Think You Are A Friendly Person? 300 Word Short Essay Sample

Everyone wants to become a friendly person whom everyone likes and always wants to be around. Some people find it very hard and challenging to make new friends. The main reason behind this is that they are not as friendly as they should be. Friendly people are always surrounded by people who love and admire them. They know how to be positive in life which makes other people like them. My friends and family members also recognize me as a friendly person. I think it’s because I am always there for anyone who needs my help in anything. I am always happy to listen to people’s problems and give them solutions to their problems. In this short essay, I will discuss why I think that I am a friendly person.

Research papers have shown that people who welcome change, are good listeners, welcome change, and are always optimistic in life and friendly in nature. Most students believe that only being intelligent and physically active are key factors to be seen as a friendly person, which is not true. Being friendly is more related to your thinking and mentality towards other people. A friendly person can always have a conversation with anyone, any time. In the same way, one person who is friendly is always smiling, caring, and loving to other people around them.

Another thing about friendly people is that they are usually the givers and not takers. They just keep on giving love and care to others without caring about anything in return. I think I am a friendly person because I also have all the habits of friendly people that I mentioned above. My friends and family members always share their problems with me and value my advice. I listen to everyone and respect the opinion of all. I never try to harm people in any way and always look to spread positivity. I also have a habit of looking at the positive side of things and ignoring the negatives. I can even make friends with people on bus rides and air travel and some of them also keep in touch with me for a long time. These are all the reasons which make me a friendly and caring person.

Do you like these sample essays about I Am A Friendly Person? Reach out to Essay Basics to get a professionally written plagiarism-free and unique custom essay on any topic in less than 3 hours.

FAQ About I Am A Caring and Kind Person Essay Sample

How to describe a friendly person.

A friendly person is very loving, caring, and respectful. They are always ready to help and see the positive side in things.

Example Of A Friendly Person?

A friendly person would always do whatever he/she can in order to help the other person. They are always optimistic while living life and see the bright side of things.

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The Case for Marrying an Older Man

A woman’s life is all work and little rest. an age gap relationship can help..

In the summer, in the south of France, my husband and I like to play, rather badly, the lottery. We take long, scorching walks to the village — gratuitous beauty, gratuitous heat — kicking up dust and languid debates over how we’d spend such an influx. I purchase scratch-offs, jackpot tickets, scraping the former with euro coins in restaurants too fine for that. I never cash them in, nor do I check the winning numbers. For I already won something like the lotto, with its gifts and its curses, when he married me.

He is ten years older than I am. I chose him on purpose, not by chance. As far as life decisions go, on balance, I recommend it.

When I was 20 and a junior at Harvard College, a series of great ironies began to mock me. I could study all I wanted, prove myself as exceptional as I liked, and still my fiercest advantage remained so universal it deflated my other plans. My youth. The newness of my face and body. Compellingly effortless; cruelly fleeting. I shared it with the average, idle young woman shrugging down the street. The thought, when it descended on me, jolted my perspective, the way a falling leaf can make you look up: I could diligently craft an ideal existence, over years and years of sleepless nights and industry. Or I could just marry it early.

So naturally I began to lug a heavy suitcase of books each Saturday to the Harvard Business School to work on my Nabokov paper. In one cavernous, well-appointed room sat approximately 50 of the planet’s most suitable bachelors. I had high breasts, most of my eggs, plausible deniability when it came to purity, a flush ponytail, a pep in my step that had yet to run out. Apologies to Progress, but older men still desired those things.

I could not understand why my female classmates did not join me, given their intelligence. Each time I reconsidered the project, it struck me as more reasonable. Why ignore our youth when it amounted to a superpower? Why assume the burdens of womanhood, its too-quick-to-vanish upper hand, but not its brief benefits at least? Perhaps it came easier to avoid the topic wholesale than to accept that women really do have a tragically short window of power, and reason enough to take advantage of that fact while they can. As for me, I liked history, Victorian novels, knew of imminent female pitfalls from all the books I’d read: vampiric boyfriends; labor, at the office and in the hospital, expected simultaneously; a decline in status as we aged, like a looming eclipse. I’d have disliked being called calculating, but I had, like all women, a calculator in my head. I thought it silly to ignore its answers when they pointed to an unfairness for which we really ought to have been preparing.

I was competitive by nature, an English-literature student with all the corresponding major ambitions and minor prospects (Great American novel; email job). A little Bovarist , frantic for new places and ideas; to travel here, to travel there, to be in the room where things happened. I resented the callow boys in my class, who lusted after a particular, socially sanctioned type on campus: thin and sexless, emotionally detached and socially connected, the opposite of me. Restless one Saturday night, I slipped on a red dress and snuck into a graduate-school event, coiling an HDMI cord around my wrist as proof of some technical duty. I danced. I drank for free, until one of the organizers asked me to leave. I called and climbed into an Uber. Then I promptly climbed out of it. For there he was, emerging from the revolving doors. Brown eyes, curved lips, immaculate jacket. I went to him, asked him for a cigarette. A date, days later. A second one, where I discovered he was a person, potentially my favorite kind: funny, clear-eyed, brilliant, on intimate terms with the universe.

I used to love men like men love women — that is, not very well, and with a hunger driven only by my own inadequacies. Not him. In those early days, I spoke fondly of my family, stocked the fridge with his favorite pasta, folded his clothes more neatly than I ever have since. I wrote his mother a thank-you note for hosting me in his native France, something befitting a daughter-in-law. It worked; I meant it. After graduation and my fellowship at Oxford, I stayed in Europe for his career and married him at 23.

Of course I just fell in love. Romances have a setting; I had only intervened to place myself well. Mainly, I spotted the precise trouble of being a woman ahead of time, tried to surf it instead of letting it drown me on principle. I had grown bored of discussions of fair and unfair, equal or unequal , and preferred instead to consider a thing called ease.

The reception of a particular age-gap relationship depends on its obviousness. The greater and more visible the difference in years and status between a man and a woman, the more it strikes others as transactional. Transactional thinking in relationships is both as American as it gets and the least kosher subject in the American romantic lexicon. When a 50-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman walk down the street, the questions form themselves inside of you; they make you feel cynical and obscene: How good of a deal is that? Which party is getting the better one? Would I take it? He is older. Income rises with age, so we assume he has money, at least relative to her; at minimum, more connections and experience. She has supple skin. Energy. Sex. Maybe she gets a Birkin. Maybe he gets a baby long after his prime. The sight of their entwined hands throws a lucid light on the calculations each of us makes, in love, to varying degrees of denial. You could get married in the most romantic place in the world, like I did, and you would still have to sign a contract.

Twenty and 30 is not like 30 and 40; some freshness to my features back then, some clumsiness in my bearing, warped our decade, in the eyes of others, to an uncrossable gulf. Perhaps this explains the anger we felt directed at us at the start of our relationship. People seemed to take us very, very personally. I recall a hellish car ride with a friend of his who began to castigate me in the backseat, in tones so low that only I could hear him. He told me, You wanted a rich boyfriend. You chased and snuck into parties . He spared me the insult of gold digger, but he drew, with other words, the outline for it. Most offended were the single older women, my husband’s classmates. They discussed me in the bathroom at parties when I was in the stall. What does he see in her? What do they talk about? They were concerned about me. They wielded their concern like a bludgeon. They paraphrased without meaning to my favorite line from Nabokov’s Lolita : “You took advantage of my disadvantage,” suspecting me of some weakness he in turn mined. It did not disturb them, so much, to consider that all relationships were trades. The trouble was the trade I’d made struck them as a bad one.

The truth is you can fall in love with someone for all sorts of reasons, tiny transactions, pluses and minuses, whose sum is your affection for each other, your loyalty, your commitment. The way someone picks up your favorite croissant. Their habit of listening hard. What they do for you on your anniversary and your reciprocal gesture, wrapped thoughtfully. The serenity they inspire; your happiness, enlivening it. When someone says they feel unappreciated, what they really mean is you’re in debt to them.

When I think of same-age, same-stage relationships, what I tend to picture is a woman who is doing too much for too little.

I’m 27 now, and most women my age have “partners.” These days, girls become partners quite young. A partner is supposed to be a modern answer to the oppression of marriage, the terrible feeling of someone looming over you, head of a household to which you can only ever be the neck. Necks are vulnerable. The problem with a partner, however, is if you’re equal in all things, you compromise in all things. And men are too skilled at taking .

There is a boy out there who knows how to floss because my friend taught him. Now he kisses college girls with fresh breath. A boy married to my friend who doesn’t know how to pack his own suitcase. She “likes to do it for him.” A million boys who know how to touch a woman, who go to therapy because they were pushed, who learned fidelity, boundaries, decency, manners, to use a top sheet and act humanely beneath it, to call their mothers, match colors, bring flowers to a funeral and inhale, exhale in the face of rage, because some girl, some girl we know, some girl they probably don’t speak to and will never, ever credit, took the time to teach him. All while she was working, raising herself, clawing up the cliff-face of adulthood. Hauling him at her own expense.

I find a post on Reddit where five thousand men try to define “ a woman’s touch .” They describe raised flower beds, blankets, photographs of their loved ones, not hers, sprouting on the mantel overnight. Candles, coasters, side tables. Someone remembering to take lint out of the dryer. To give compliments. I wonder what these women are getting back. I imagine them like Cinderella’s mice, scurrying around, their sole proof of life their contributions to a more central character. On occasion I meet a nice couple, who grew up together. They know each other with a fraternalism tender and alien to me.  But I think of all my friends who failed at this, were failed at this, and I think, No, absolutely not, too risky . Riskier, sometimes, than an age gap.

My younger brother is in his early 20s, handsome, successful, but in many ways: an endearing disaster. By his age, I had long since wisened up. He leaves his clothes in the dryer, takes out a single shirt, steams it for three minutes. His towel on the floor, for someone else to retrieve. His lovely, same-age girlfriend is aching to fix these tendencies, among others. She is capable beyond words. Statistically, they will not end up together. He moved into his first place recently, and she, the girlfriend, supplied him with a long, detailed list of things he needed for his apartment: sheets, towels, hangers, a colander, which made me laugh. She picked out his couch. I will bet you anything she will fix his laundry habits, and if so, they will impress the next girl. If they break up, she will never see that couch again, and he will forget its story. I tell her when I visit because I like her, though I get in trouble for it: You shouldn’t do so much for him, not for someone who is not stuck with you, not for any boy, not even for my wonderful brother.

Too much work had left my husband, by 30, jaded and uninspired. He’d burned out — but I could reenchant things. I danced at restaurants when they played a song I liked. I turned grocery shopping into an adventure, pleased by what I provided. Ambitious, hungry, he needed someone smart enough to sustain his interest, but flexible enough in her habits to build them around his hours. I could. I do: read myself occupied, make myself free, materialize beside him when he calls for me. In exchange, I left a lucrative but deadening spreadsheet job to write full-time, without having to live like a writer. I learned to cook, a little, and decorate, somewhat poorly. Mostly I get to read, to walk central London and Miami and think in delicious circles, to work hard, when necessary, for free, and write stories for far less than minimum wage when I tally all the hours I take to write them.

At 20, I had felt daunted by the project of becoming my ideal self, couldn’t imagine doing it in tandem with someone, two raw lumps of clay trying to mold one another and only sullying things worse. I’d go on dates with boys my age and leave with the impression they were telling me not about themselves but some person who didn’t exist yet and on whom I was meant to bet regardless. My husband struck me instead as so finished, formed. Analyzable for compatibility. He bore the traces of other women who’d improved him, small but crucial basics like use a coaster ; listen, don’t give advice. Young egos mellow into patience and generosity.

My husband isn’t my partner. He’s my mentor, my lover, and, only in certain contexts, my friend. I’ll never forget it, how he showed me around our first place like he was introducing me to myself: This is the wine you’ll drink, where you’ll keep your clothes, we vacation here, this is the other language we’ll speak, you’ll learn it, and I did. Adulthood seemed a series of exhausting obligations. But his logistics ran so smoothly that he simply tacked mine on. I moved into his flat, onto his level, drag and drop, cleaner thrice a week, bills automatic. By opting out of partnership in my 20s, I granted myself a kind of compartmentalized, liberating selfishness none of my friends have managed. I am the work in progress, the party we worry about, a surprising dominance. When I searched for my first job, at 21, we combined our efforts, for my sake. He had wisdom to impart, contacts with whom he arranged coffees; we spent an afternoon, laughing, drawing up earnest lists of my pros and cons (highly sociable; sloppy math). Meanwhile, I took calls from a dear friend who had a boyfriend her age. Both savagely ambitious, hyperclose and entwined in each other’s projects. If each was a start-up , the other was the first hire, an intense dedication I found riveting. Yet every time she called me, I hung up with the distinct feeling that too much was happening at the same time: both learning to please a boss; to forge more adult relationships with their families; to pay bills and taxes and hang prints on the wall. Neither had any advice to give and certainly no stability. I pictured a three-legged race, two people tied together and hobbling toward every milestone.

I don’t fool myself. My marriage has its cons. There are only so many times one can say “thank you” — for splendid scenes, fine dinners — before the phrase starts to grate. I live in an apartment whose rent he pays and that shapes the freedom with which I can ever be angry with him. He doesn’t have to hold it over my head. It just floats there, complicating usual shorthands to explain dissatisfaction like, You aren’t being supportive lately . It’s a Frenchism to say, “Take a decision,” and from time to time I joke: from whom? Occasionally I find myself in some fabulous country at some fabulous party and I think what a long way I have traveled, like a lucky cloud, and it is frightening to think of oneself as vapor.

Mostly I worry that if he ever betrayed me and I had to move on, I would survive, but would find in my humor, preferences, the way I make coffee or the bed nothing that he did not teach, change, mold, recompose, stamp with his initials, the way Renaissance painters hid in their paintings their faces among a crowd. I wonder if when they looked at their paintings, they saw their own faces first. But this is the wrong question, if our aim is happiness. Like the other question on which I’m expected to dwell: Who is in charge, the man who drives or the woman who put him there so she could enjoy herself? I sit in the car, in the painting it would have taken me a corporate job and 20 years to paint alone, and my concern over who has the upper hand becomes as distant as the horizon, the one he and I made so wide for me.

To be a woman is to race against the clock, in several ways, until there is nothing left to be but run ragged.

We try to put it off, but it will hit us at some point: that we live in a world in which our power has a different shape from that of men, a different distribution of advantage, ours a funnel and theirs an expanding cone. A woman at 20 rarely has to earn her welcome; a boy at 20 will be turned away at the door. A woman at 30 may find a younger woman has taken her seat; a man at 30 will have invited her. I think back to the women in the bathroom, my husband’s classmates. What was my relationship if not an inconvertible sign of this unfairness? What was I doing, in marrying older, if not endorsing it? I had taken advantage of their disadvantage. I had preempted my own. After all, principled women are meant to defy unfairness, to show some integrity or denial, not plan around it, like I had. These were driven women, successful, beautiful, capable. I merely possessed the one thing they had already lost. In getting ahead of the problem, had I pushed them down? If I hadn’t, would it really have made any difference?

When we decided we wanted to be equal to men, we got on men’s time. We worked when they worked, retired when they retired, had to squeeze pregnancy, children, menopause somewhere impossibly in the margins. I have a friend, in her late 20s, who wears a mood ring; these days it is often red, flickering in the air like a siren when she explains her predicament to me. She has raised her fair share of same-age boyfriends. She has put her head down, worked laboriously alongside them, too. At last she is beginning to reap the dividends, earning the income to finally enjoy herself. But it is now, exactly at this precipice of freedom and pleasure, that a time problem comes closing in. If she would like to have children before 35, she must begin her next profession, motherhood, rather soon, compromising inevitably her original one. The same-age partner, equally unsettled in his career, will take only the minimum time off, she guesses, or else pay some cost which will come back to bite her. Everything unfailingly does. If she freezes her eggs to buy time, the decision and its logistics will burden her singly — and perhaps it will not work. Overlay the years a woman is supposed to establish herself in her career and her fertility window and it’s a perfect, miserable circle. By midlife women report feeling invisible, undervalued; it is a telling cliché, that after all this, some husbands leave for a younger girl. So when is her time, exactly? For leisure, ease, liberty? There is no brand of feminism which achieved female rest. If women’s problem in the ’50s was a paralyzing malaise, now it is that they are too active, too capable, never permitted a vacation they didn’t plan. It’s not that our efforts to have it all were fated for failure. They simply weren’t imaginative enough.

For me, my relationship, with its age gap, has alleviated this rush , permitted me to massage the clock, shift its hands to my benefit. Very soon, we will decide to have children, and I don’t panic over last gasps of fun, because I took so many big breaths of it early: on the holidays of someone who had worked a decade longer than I had, in beautiful places when I was young and beautiful, a symmetry I recommend. If such a thing as maternal energy exists, mine was never depleted. I spent the last nearly seven years supported more than I support and I am still not as old as my husband was when he met me. When I have a child, I will expect more help from him than I would if he were younger, for what does professional tenure earn you if not the right to set more limits on work demands — or, if not, to secure some child care, at the very least? When I return to work after maternal upheaval, he will aid me, as he’s always had, with his ability to put himself aside, as younger men are rarely able.

Above all, the great gift of my marriage is flexibility. A chance to live my life before I become responsible for someone else’s — a lover’s, or a child’s. A chance to write. A chance at a destiny that doesn’t adhere rigidly to the routines and timelines of men, but lends itself instead to roomy accommodation, to the very fluidity Betty Friedan dreamed of in 1963 in The Feminine Mystique , but we’ve largely forgotten: some career or style of life that “permits year-to-year variation — a full-time paid job in one community, part-time in another, exercise of the professional skill in serious volunteer work or a period of study during pregnancy or early motherhood when a full-time job is not feasible.” Some things are just not feasible in our current structures. Somewhere along the way we stopped admitting that, and all we did was make women feel like personal failures. I dream of new structures, a world in which women have entry-level jobs in their 30s; alternate avenues for promotion; corporate ladders with balconies on which they can stand still, have a smoke, take a break, make a baby, enjoy themselves, before they keep climbing. Perhaps men long for this in their own way. Actually I am sure of that.

Once, when we first fell in love, I put my head in his lap on a long car ride; I remember his hands on my face, the sun, the twisting turns of a mountain road, surprising and not surprising us like our romance, and his voice, telling me that it was his biggest regret that I was so young, he feared he would lose me. Last week, we looked back at old photos and agreed we’d given each other our respective best years. Sometimes real equality is not so obvious, sometimes it takes turns, sometimes it takes almost a decade to reveal itself.

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I've been a tech recruiter for 19 years for giants like Google. These are the 4 questions you should ask at the end of an interview.

• Dhritiparna Dhar, an HR expert, shares the top questions she values during job interviews.
• She values questions about team dynamics, work setup, and role growth.
• Inquiries about the company's challenges also show a candidate's curiosity and initiative.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dhritiparna Dhar , a human resources expert based in Bengaluru, India. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified her employment history.

I've worked in talent acquisition for close to 19 years. More specifically, I specialize in tech recruiting and have worked for Yahoo, Google, Dell, and Zendrive before I started my own recruiting agency last year.

When it comes to interviews, there are a number of things I prefer candidates don't ask until they are offered a role, like bringing up compensation and benefits or feedback about technical interviewing rounds. But there are things interviewers love to hear when we open up for questions.

Related stories

Here are four questions I would ask at the end of my interviews.

1. "Can you tell me about my future team?"

One question that is really important to me is when a candidate inquires about their future colleagues. Right now, we are in an increasingly social world and all candidates have access to platforms that can help them do their homework on the company. It is always nice to hear people ask questions about which team they'll join and how many peers they will have. If they are interviewing to be a manager, it is good practice to ask if they are the only manager, how many team members will fall under them, and what their career backgrounds are.

2. "Is the opportunity remote or hybrid?"

I always like hearing a candidate ask whether their role is in person, hybrid, or remote, followed by what culture looks like in each scenario. I love people who prioritize collaboration because it is very difficult to thrive in most companies only as a strong individual contributor.

In the last four years, I have found that companies are also more understanding toward working remotely, given that many people have relocated since the pandemic. Such questions are now welcome and it is good to be transparent, and there are ways of showing interest in collaboration regardless of the answer.

3. "What is the growth story of this particular role?"

Asking this question helps candidates come across as very aspirational because they are already looking into how and when they can grow in that particular role. It gives the interviewer a good perspective to understand the candidate's mindset and what their goals are as an individual: are they looking to mentor a team, climb the career ladder, work on challenging projects? It also gives the hiring manager an opportunity to clearly explain how they nurture and grow talent.

4. "What are the biggest challenges the team, department, or company faces now?"

This is a good question because it shows the hiring manager that the candidate is curious and wants to know more about the organizational or departmental challenges they would be getting into. This information is rarely part of the job description or company website, and it is always fair to ask for more clarity. For startups, this could be funding-related challenges; for tech companies, it could be shifting to new software.

Are you a hiring manager with tips to share? Email this reporter: [email protected]

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