Job interview questions

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve recently gone to two separate interviews for an Account Clerk position (I know I’m a bit overqualified, but I’m not well-connected, and I really could use the money right now). In the first place, a high school, the interviewer tossed out a question concerning a hypothetical situation…a teacher hasn’t filled out a form for a field trip and the bus is already here, something like that. The interviewer at the second place (also a high school) gave a few simple accounting questions, but also asked what I would do in certain situation. I remember “student’s check for books bounces” and “facutly member complains about not receiving a shipment”.

I answered these as best as I could. Unfortunately, since I’ve never been in a position where I’d have to deal with those kind of problems (my newspaper job was the only place I’ve ever had to deal directly with complaints), I’m not sure if my answers were appropriate.

What is the interviewer looking for? None of the job-prep courses I took ever addressed this specific issue. I’ve thought of several possibilities:

  • Flexibility, i.e. the ability to respond to unusual situations or problems.
  • Initiative. See if I’m willing to take charge and tackle the occasional problem that’s not spelled out in the job description.
  • Obeying rules. This one seems likely, as this is a state job I’m applying for, and the government is always a stickler about obeying rules and following procedures to the letter.
  • Familiarity with the position. Not necessarily experience, but enough know-how that I can actually handle whatever comes up.
  • Familiarity with power structures. Know who’s responsible for what and what is and isn’t my department.
  • Just simple competence; testing to see whether I can answer an on-the-spot question without flubbing.

Note that this is essentially an entry-level position, so I probably won’t be called upon much to sieze the initiative or go the extra mile.

I have two more interviews coming up soon, so any insight would be tremendously appreciated.

2

When you find out, let me know! I’m looking for a new job as well. I’m afraid I’m amongst the last of the old school customer service types. You know what I mean: I actually WANT to help you! I actually WANT to solve your problem. I never use the phrase “That’s not my job/department”. I don’t mind filling in for someone as long as I am either physically and/or mentally capable of doing so.

3

I’d say all of the above - you’ve just experienced the fun and joy of behavioral event interviewing. They are mainly looking to see how you handled the situation, or would handle it if it’s one you’ve never been through - it’d be hard to tell you exactly what they are looking for, as that is dependent upon the job, the company, the interviewer, etc. As an example, I was one of two finalists for my current job - I got it because my responses to the “events” showed I knew a number of ways to address the problem, and I could choose among the best. The other person had only one approach, and lacked flexibility. In some cases, I might be the winner - and other interviews she might.

I hope my vague, almost non-answer has been of help. :slight_smile:

4

They are looking more for what your thought process and problem solving skills are rather than a right or wrong answer to the questions posed. I used to do alot of interviewing, and when I asked scenario type questions, what I was looking for was someone not afraid to give me their idea of what they would do. Many times people would say, “Well, I guess I would find a supervisor to tell me how to proceed”, which was not what I needed. But if someone said, “First I would do X, Y and Z, and if that still didn’t work, I would contact a supervisor for help”.
That is a better answer because it shows the person’s experience level and initiative, but also shows that person is not afraid to ask for help when they need it.

Good luck in the job search!!

5

HelloKitty - Ah, yes, that sounds like the ticket.

Just for the record, the specific field in demand seems to be public education, as all the calls I’ve gotten have been from schools. Of course, working at a public school on almost any level involves dealing with many different kinds of people (I learned a lot from my job in the college library), and it’s almost a guarantee that many problems won’t have a single, fixed solution.

May or may be a great help, but at least I know better than to ever say “It depends on what the policy is.” Okay, thanks!

6

I’m with Hello Kitty on this one. I’m about to embark on the process of finding myself a new graphic artist for my staff. I tend to practice behavioral interviewing when searching for replacements. It does give me a much better idea about how candidates handle certain things – and more insight to candidates’ personalities than when asking typical yes or no questions.

Example: I could ask a question like, “can you troubleshoot your computer when it crashes?” Which will give me a yes or no answer. Typically, people will tell me what they think I want to hear, which would be a yes answer, with this example. Of course you’ll say that: you want the job I have to offer.

This doesn’t help me decide if I want to hire you at all. It’s better to phrase the question like, “Give me an example of a time your computer crashed on deadline, and explain how you handled it.” Now I know if the person’s first instinct is to run into my office for help, or if they show enough intiative to try and figure out the problem on their own – or have enough sense to ask someone who is an expert to help them. (With this particular example: I am NOT the resident expert.)

BTW, the answer “I’d do X, Y, and Z, then come ask you for help…” is not acceptable to me. I am not the first-line-of-defense resource for my staff. It’s a team and they help each other. I’m more like a last-resort solution. We talk about the team atmosphere ad nauseum during interviews. I’m looking for someone who picks up on that and doesn’t run to the boss (me) every time there’s a question or a problem. I’m looking for a team player who will utilize the resources I’ve made available to them, first… before running to me to solve everything for them. So I ask questions like this to find out if candidates really know what being a team player means, or if they just give corporate lip service and say what they think I want to hear.

The “depends on…” answers are good ones, IMHO. Because that’s true: sometimes you can’t answer the question well without all the facts. Admitting that in an interview is difficult. Admitting weaknesses in an interview is difficult. I tend to respect candidates more, who are not afraid to say, “I don’t know, but I’d find out what the policy is and handle it without bugging you every ten minutes, all day long.”

One last example: this is a desktop publishing department, which means lots of very creative, free-thinking, artist/writer types crammed into a tiny space. We get lots of prima donna types, who believe they are Van Gogh or something. I always ask, “At every level of the company, there are opportunities to be the leader. You might lead a project, or lead a mini-team, or eventually become the Team Leader. What type of leader are you: authoritative or persuasive?”

This is a trick question. Generally a true leader will use both approaches, depending on what is appropriate to the situation. Most people choose “persuasive,” because it sounds less prima donna. If the candidate answers with one or the other, then I follow up with, “Give me an example of how you used persuasiveness to meet your goals with the team you were leading.”

My interview process is torture! :smiley: If you can get through it… you’re tough enough to work with my team…

7

Dogzilla, you seem very hip on the art of interviewing and being interviewed. Do you know any good books on the topic? (I read * Sweaty Palms* and thought it was very good.)

8

I used to do that sort of thing all the time when I interviewed people for jobs.

What I was looking for (bending your situation/questions to my situation/questions)

  1. Can the person think on their feet, and come up with a reasonable solution (ie the solution to the problem w/the teacher/bus situation is not shoot out the bus’ tires so as to gain time to get necessary authroizations).

  2. Gauge how the person processes situations - if they get into a rant about how people ‘never take responsability for their actions, those teachers know the regs and then and then…’ (yes, I’ve had folks answer essentially this way).

  3. Gauge also people’s way of assessing a problem - do they see it as ‘problematic people needing adjustment’ or ‘we need to all work cooperatively within the structure, to achieve the common goal’.

  4. And points given for creative, practical and efficient results.