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Interview Questions
KellyConnect wants to help you successfully advance your career
objectives. We’ve spent more than 50 years interviewing and being
interviewed and have compiled a list of some of the most common
interview questions and effective, appropriate responses. Be prepared,
be yourself and make sure you’re ready to answer some tough questions.
"Tell me about yourself..."
Be prepared to talk
for two minutes about yourself. Be logical. Start anywhere, such as
high school, college or your first professional position. The
interviewer is trying to evaluate your communication skills and linear
thinking. You may try to score a point or two by describing a major
personal attribute.
"Why are you leaving your current position?"
This
is a very critical question. Don’t bad mouth your previous employer or
co-workers or sound too opportunistic. It’s fine to mention major
problems, a buy-out or a shutdown. You may want to state that after
long personal consideration, your chance to make a contribution is very
low due to extensive company-wide changes.
"What do you consider your most significant accomplishment?"
A
good answer to this question can get you the job. Prepare
extensively—discuss hard work, long hours, pressure and important
company issues at stake. You may want to tell a two minute detailed
story, discussing personal involvement.
"Why do you believe you are qualified for this position?"
Pick
two or three main factors about the job and about yourself that are
most relevant. Discuss for two minutes, including specific details. You
may mention a technical skill, a management skill and/or a personal
success story.
"Have you ever accomplished something you didn’t think you could?"
The
interviewer is trying to determine your goal orientation, work ethic,
personal commitment and integrity. Prepare a good example where you
overcame difficulties and succeeded. Prove that you’re not a quitter.
"What do you like/dislike most about your current or last position?"
The
interviewer is trying to determine compatibility with the open
position. Be careful; don’t say you dislike overtime, like management,
or get too detailed. It’s safe to say that you like challenges,
pressure situations, opportunities to grow, or that you dislike
bureaucracy and frustrating situations.
"How do you handle pressure? Do you like or dislike these situations?"
High
achievers tend to perform well in high-pressure situations. Conversely,
these questions could imply that the open position is pressure-packed
and out of control. Know what you’re getting into. If you do perform
well under stress, provide a good, detailed example. Be descriptive.
"The sign of a good employee is the ability to take initiative. Can you describe a situation where you did this?"
The
proactive, results-oriented person doesn’t have to be told what to do.
To convince the interviewer you possess this trait, give a series of
short examples describing your self-motivation. Discuss one example
in-depth, describing the extra effort, your strong work ethic and your
creative, resourceful side.
"What was the worst/most embarrassing situation of your
career? How would you have done things differently with 20/20
hindsight?"
Your interviewer wants to know how
introspective you are, and to see if you can learn from your mistakes.
Don’t be afraid to talk candidly about your failures, especially if you
learned something significant from them.
"How have you grown or changed over the past few years?"
Maturation,
increased technical skills and increased self-confidence are important
developmental aspects. To discuss these effectively is indicative of a
well-balanced, intelligent individual. Overcoming personal obstacles or
recognizing manageable weaknesses can help identify you as an
approachable and desirable employee.
"What do you consider your most significant strength?"
Know
your key five or six strengths—the ones most compatible with the job
opening. Discuss each with specific examples. Don’t include your
management or interpersonal skills unless you can describe specific
examples of good management, or how your relationship skills have been
critical to your success.
"Deadlines, frustrations, difficult people and silly rules
can make a job difficult. How do you handle these types of situations?"
Most
companies, unfortunately, face these problems daily. If you can’t deal
with petty problems, you’ll be seen as uncooperative. How you overcome
these are important. Diplomacy, perseverance and common sense will
prevail in difficult circumstances.
"One of our biggest problems is… What has been your experience with this? How would you deal with it?"
Think
on your feet. Ask questions to get more details and break the problem
into subsections. It is highly likely that you will have had some
experience dealing with the subsections. Answer these and summarize the
total. If you can’t answer directly, state how you would go about
solving the problem. Be specific and show your organizational and
analytical skills.
"How has your technical ability been important in accomplishing results?"
A
potential employee needs a strong level of technical competence. Most
strong managers have good technical backgrounds. Describe specific
examples of your technical abilities, and how you resolved a technical
issue.
"How would you handle a situation with tight deadlines, low employee morale and inadequate resources?"
Your
interviewer is looking for strong management skills. You need to be
creative and describe your toughest management task, even if it doesn’t
meet all the criteria. Most situations don’t. Organizational and
interpersonal skills, handling pressure and good handling of this
question are indicative of effective management skills.
"Are you satisfied with your career to date? What would you change if you could?"
Be
honest. The interviewer wants to know if you’ll be happy. Are you
willing to make some sacrifices to get your career on the right track?
Your degree of motivation is an important selection factor.
"What are your career goals? Where do you see yourself five or ten years from now?"
Be
realistic! Pie-in-the-sky goals label you as immature. One or two
management jumps in 3-5 years is a reasonable goal. If your track
record indicates you’re in line for senior management in 10 years, then
mention it. If you’ve had a rocky road, be introspective.
"Why should we hire you for this position? What kinds of contributions would you make?"
This
is a good chance to summarize. By now, you should know the key
problems. Restate and show how you would address them. Don’t be
arrogant—instead demonstrate a thoughtful, organized and strong
attitude.
"Describe what outstanding customer service means to you,
and give an example of when you’ve provided outstanding customer
service."
The interviewer is trying to determine your
customer service orientation. Be prepared to describe your thoughts on
the importance of customer service and give an example of action(s) you
have taken to meet or exceed customer needs. If you do not have
previous call center experience, use other relevant examples of
customer service experience.
"Tell me about a time when you helped a customer solve a difficult problem."
An
effective call center agent has the ability to understand customer
needs and identify the correct process or solution to address the
issue. Give a specific example of how you resolved a customer issue. It
may be helpful to describe what led up to the situation, how you
reacted to the problem, what the solution was and if the customer
satisfied with the result.
"What would you do if you had been working on a project for
several days and then you were suddenly asked to work on something
different?"
Change is the only constant in today’s business
environment. This question is designed to determine how willing you are
to change according to the Call Center’s needs. In this case it would
be helpful if you were able to describe a similar work situation that
you encountered, and how you reacted to the change.
"Describe a time when you went the "extra mile" to support your team."
A
call center is a team-oriented environment where you often rely on
other team members or departments to resolve customer issues and meet
performance goals. Give a specific example of a job where you went
"above and beyond" to support your team.
"Describe a job you’ve had where you were required to complete a training program before being assigned to work."
Call
centers generally require a new employee to go through training to
learn the company’s products, services, and processes. The interviewer
is trying to assess your level of commitment to the completion of a
training program. In your response, describe a training program you’ve
completed, how long the training program was, and what challenges (if
any) you faced in completing the training.
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