Position Name: Director of Operations
Interviewer
Candidate Name
Interview Date
Introductory Questions
– Interviewer(s) share name, role, tenure, and hand business cards for thank you messages – Share a brief overview of the company
– Give Candidate the Job Description, highlight Job Purpose, Schedule/Travel, Major Challenges & Key Decisions, and Physical Requirements
Walk us through your professional background.
What are your short and long-term professional goals?
What do you know about our organization?
Transitional & Verification Questions
– Clarify any unclear information from resume or application
– Verify availability for work hours and schedule, start date, and other important details
What interests you about this role?
What interests you about working for us?
What accomplishment on your resume are you most proud of?
Are you able to perform the essential functions of this position with or without reasonable accommodation?
Will you now or at any point in the future require visa sponsorship to work for us?
Technical Questions
– Ask job related questions, based on skills and competencies needed for the role
– Ask open ended questions that allow candidates to tell a story about a specific example
– Ask 5-10 questions based on the role and how much time you have (~3-4 minutes per question)
– Listen for recent examples, details, consistency, the candidate’s role in the story, and teamwork
– Take notes and ask clarifying questions as follow-ups
How would you describe your proficiency level in [Excel as an example]?
List your top 3 technical skills.
Can you tell me in general terms how your technical skills meet the requirements of this position? In which specific areas do you need to come up to speed?
What specific areas (related to the position) do you consider yourself the most knowledgeable? What areas have you had less experience or do not feel as comfortable with?
Behavioral / Situational Questions
– Ask job related questions, based on skills and competencies needed for the role
– Ask open ended questions that allow candidates to tell a story about a specific example
– Ask 5-10 questions based on the role and how much time you have (~3-4 minutes per question)
– Listen for recent examples, details, consistency, the candidate’s role in the story, and teamwork
– Take notes and ask clarifying questions as follow-ups. Follow up questions may include:
- Tell us more about the action you took and the outcome.
- What did you say at that point?
- How did you react to that situation?
- Explain your role in more detail.
- Tell me in detail what steps you took.
- And what was the result?
- Describe the obstacles you faced in getting it done.
- What other options did you consider?
- Why do you think you reacted as you did?
- How do you think others felt about your actions at the time?
- Were you satisfied with the outcome of your actions?
- If the same or a similar situation presented itself, what would you do differently?
Coaching & Mentoring
What strategies would you use to motivate your team?
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What advice would you give to a college student who is interested in your industry or field?
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How would you differentiate coaching from managing?
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What does coaching mean to you? Describe a recent example that demonstrates how you engaged in a coaching discussion.
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What is your approach to coaching? Give me an example of a coaching situation you have been involved in.
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Describe when a coaching opportunity was successful/not successful. What made it successful/not successful?
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Tell me about a recent time you had to coach an employee to perform a task.
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What are the top qualities of a good coach?
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Compassion
Have you ever been misunderstood by your co-workers? What steps did you take to help your co-workers understand your intentions and what was the outcome?
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How do you balance being empathetic towards a frustrated client while simultaneously keeping the company’s goals and objectives first?
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What is the difference between empathy and compassion in your opinion? How have you demonstrated each in your past work?
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Tell me about a time that you made a decision you knew was in the best interest of the business, its customers, or your team – but it was inconvenient and caused more work for you and your team.
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Tell about a time when you put the needs of others ahead of your own at work.
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Describe a time when you were facing a challenging circumstance, personally or professionally, and you relied on the help of others.
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Tell me about a time when you helped a friend of co-worker through a challenging time in their life.
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How would you react to a co-worker who was making insensitive comments about a fellow colleague who was a minority (race, gender, etc.,)?
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What practices do you implement to become culturally competent and inclusive in the workplace?
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Conflict Management
Tell me about a difficulty you encountered in working with another department. What did you do to improve the situation?
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Give me an example of a time when you confronted a negative attitude successfully.
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Tell me about a situation when you had to “stand up” for a decision you made even though it made you unpopular.
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Tell me about a time when you successfully challenged another’s idea.
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Describe a time when you communicated something unpleasant or difficult to your manager. How did you assert yourself?
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Critical Thinking
Tell me about a recent situation when you were given job instructions and you were unable to comprehend the instructions. How did you go about completing the task?
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When a decision is needed, what process do you use to come to the right response?
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Tell me about a recent time when you approached a job or task in a completely different way than it had been done in the past.
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Describe for me a recent time when you needed to make a job-related decision but did not have all of the information you needed. How did you go about completing the task?
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Decision Making
Describe a decision you had to make when you were really torn between the alternatives. How did you finally decide? What was the outcome?
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Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision that impacted multiple people. How did you communicate that decision and how was it received?
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It can be difficult to use good judgment when everyone else seems to disagree with your approach. Give me an example of a time when you had to go against the wishes of a group to get something accomplished. What did you do? How did you explain your reasoning? What was the result?
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Do you tend to make decisions quickly and instinctively or more slowly and methodically? Tell me about a time when your method did not achieve the results you expected. What happened and what did you do?
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What do you find most challenging about making a hard decision?
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At times, we may need to interact with a peer who struggles making decisions. Give me an example of a time when this has happened and how you approached it.
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Walk me through the last big decision you made. What were the circumstances? What were the alternatives? What was the consequence of your decision?
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Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity
What practices do you implement to become culturally competent and inclusive in the workplace?
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How would you contribute to fostering a healthy diversity, equity, and inclusion culture within our company? What initiatives would you implement?
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Tell me about a time that you had to choose to ignore or react to insensitive comments about race, gender, religion, nationality, gender identity/expression, or sexual orientation in the workplace. What was the situation and how did you respond?
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Share a situation when you became aware of your personal beliefs and values at play while making a group decision.
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Give us an example about how a business process or effort was more successful because of the different points of views held by members of the team.
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Share how you have fostered an inclusive and welcoming work environment for employees, customers, vendors, and the public.
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What have you done to foster diversity, inclusion, and equity within your team?
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Tell us about a recent effort you made to learn and understand a different culture than your own?
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What does unconscious bias mean to you?
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Emotional Intelligence
What do you do when you think someone is not listening to you? Give me an example of a time when that happened.
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How do you determine what information and when it is time to update upper management?
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What sort of impression do you think you have made with your executive-level management team? Why do you say that?
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Describe a time when you needed to react to an emergency situation. How did you respond? What was the result?
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Describe a situation when it was more difficult for you to maintain self-control.
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What has been the most difficult criticism for you to receive?
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Leadership
How are you more self-aware now than earlier in your career? Are there certain tools you use to help in your leadership self-awareness?
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Describe a situation where your actions/words were instrumental in achieving the desired action.
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Tell me about a time when you had to inspire or energize an unmotivated individual or group. How did you do it and what was the result?
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Give me an example of a piece of constructive feedback you received about your leadership style. How did you respond?
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Have you had a leadership mentor? If so, describe him or her. What have you carried with you from this exposure?
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Does a situation come to mind where you had to step in and take charge? Describe your role and how you influenced the outcome
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What makes you an effective leader? Why do you think people want to work for you?
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What strategies do you use to communicate a new directive/initiative?
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Managing Others
Have you ever had to discipline or counsel an employee? What was the nature of the discipline? What steps did you take? How did you prepare yourself?
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What is your approach in addressing performance issues of a staff member?
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Describe a situation where you have applied progressive discipline. What actions and steps were involved? What was the outcome?
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Describe when a coaching for improvement situation was successful.
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Give me an example, from your past work experiences, about a time when you had an underperforming employee reporting to you. How did you address the situation? Did the employee’s performance improve? If not, what did you do next?
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What are the key elements to providing effective feedback? Give an example of how you have used these successfully.
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What is your approach in giving difficult feedback? Give me an example of a time when that worked well/didn’t work well.
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Describe a situation where you needed to motivate a difficult employee? What was the outcome?
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Describe your approach to hiring staff. What elements comprise this process?
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What policies and practices have you put in place to help structure the talent aspects of the organization?
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Tell me about a recent workplace encounter or project that best demonstrates your management style.
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Describe a recent situation where you needed to reassign job duties or projects due to the employee’s inability to get the job done. What was the situation and how did you handle it?
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What is your greatest personal struggle in supervising others? Give me an example of a time when you overcame one of your struggled and resolved a problem.
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Tell me about an employee whose skills have increased because of your supervision.
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Describe your management style. Tell me about a situation that exemplifies your management style.
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What approach have you taken to provide performance feedback to staff? Tell me about the most difficult feedback session you had and you planned for it.
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If you could change one managerial decision you made during the past two years, what would that be?
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To get the most from your staff, describe the amount of structure, direction, and freedom you give?
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What have you done to develop a successor for your position?
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Give me an example of how you’ve provided developmental tasks and assignments that linked directly to a person’s development needs. How did you select the tasks? Which tasks or assignments did you proactively identify for the purpose of development?
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Describe a situation where you needed to manage in a very different way. What was the outcome? Did you make the right decision?
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As you have grown in your career, how has your management style changed?
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Think of two current or former direct reports. How did you need to manage them differently? How effective was your approach with each? Which one had the best outcome?
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Tell me about a time when you had a reporting employee who performed very well. Describe how you handled this on a day-to-day basis.
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Process Management
What process have you developed and/or initiated in your recent position?
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Do you believe there are times it may be appropriate to disregard a process? If so, when?
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Give an example of when you recommended a change in process and someone disagreed. How did you handle the resistance?
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Relationship Building
How does one go about building rapport quickly and maintaining successful business relationships? Give examples of how you made these work for you.
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Tell us about a customer relationship that was challenging to establish and maintain. How did you resolve the situation?
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Describe a time when you removed a business obstacle for yourself or your team through deliberate relationship building efforts.
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Give a specific example of a time when you had to address an angry customer. What was the problem and what was the outcome? How would you asses your role in diffusing the situation?
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Tell us about a time when you built rapport quickly with someone under difficult conditions.
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Results Orientation
What results have you achieved that you are most proud of?
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How do you measure your work results?
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What does it mean to you to be results-oriented?
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How have you emphasized the achievement of your organization’s goals and core values?
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Describe for me a recent time when you anticipated obstacles and were prepared with a contingency plan.
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Give me a specific example that demonstrates your reputation for success and quality performance.
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Tell me about two recent instances that showcase your drive for stellar results.
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Tell me about a recent time when you stopped working on a goal or project. Walk me through the project or goal and explain the work you put into the project. What was the outcome?
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Describe a time you came up with a process or procedure to solve a problem.
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Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the “call-of-duty” to get the job done. How were your efforts recognized?
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Tell me about the last successful project you led.
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Safety
How do you ensure your work is performed in a safe manner?
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Tell me about a time when you had to compromise a safety procedure to expedite a task you had to complete. What was the outcome?
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Tell me about a time when you saw a safety hazard at work? What did you do?
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What do you understand about the word ‘safety’?
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Strategic Thinking
Describe a decision you had to make that had a significant financial impact on the organization.
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What is the most strategic program you have implemented during the past 12 months?
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How do you use data in your strategic planning?
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What are two strategic forces impacting your industry? How do you address these in your role?
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What sources of information do you typically use in reaching a decision at work?
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How do you go about identifying opportunities and roadblocks in your department’s key strategies?
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With regards to your current company, what are two to three unique business differentiators that shape (fill in the blank, i.e. marketing, HR, engineering, finance)?
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What do you see as the three most significant issues facing our industry in the future? What do you recommend we do to ready ourselves for these issues?
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Describe an effective organizational process that you were a part of implementing. What results have you seen?
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How have you influenced the need for change among the organization’s business systems?
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Tell me about a decision you made that negatively affected another person or department. What did you do?
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Describe a time you were part of a team that was developing a strategy. What steps did you take to develop that strategy?
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Talk about a time you were implementing a strategy and had to revise it or change direction.
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Talk about a time when your attempt to be strategic got you in trouble.
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Teamwork/Team Building
Tell me about a time you worked on a project with a team that resulted in a successful outcome, what contributed to the success of the project?
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Please give me an example of how you have contributed to the culture of previous teams.
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When it comes to group dynamics, what do you believe hinders teamwork the most?
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What role do you enjoy playing when working on a team?
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What do you believe makes a team successful?
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How would you describe a successful team? What is the #1 thing that makes a team truly thrive?
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Describe a time your team was behind on a project and didn’t seem as though other shared your sense of urgency. What strategies did you implement to try and bring the project up to speed?
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You’re leading a team on a highly time-sensitive project when suddenly, a colleague challenges the direction of the strategy you’re proposing. How do you address this challenge while keeping up with the timeline?
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What do you think are the top fundamental values to building a strong team and why? How do you build these values into a team?
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Describe your most recent conflict within a team setting because of a miscommunication and how you were able to solve it.
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Tell me about a time where you had to work on a project with a colleague who was not proficient in the required skillsets. How did you accommodate the project tasks accordingly?
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Tell us about a time when someone wasn’t pulling their weight on a team. What was the situation and how did you manage through it?
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Do you prefer to work by yourself or with a team? Which is more interesting to you and why?
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Adaptability
Tell me about a time when you had to deal with changes in organizational direction that impacted your work. How did you respond?
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What is one of the most challenging changes you have faced at work? How did it impact you? What was the outcome?
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What is the most difficult or frustrating part of constant change for you? How have you coped with it?
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Tell me about a time when you faced a significant challenge working with people from a different department? What actions did you take?
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How would you rate yourself in terms of being flexible in your style? Can you give an example of when you were flexible and when you were not? What was different about the circumstances?
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Tell me about a situation where you were under a great deal of pressure because of numerous demands competing for your time and attention. How did you resolve the situation?
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Collaboration
What collaboration tools do you find the most helpful for working on team projects and why? How do you use these tools?
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Describe a high-pressure work situation and how you handled it. Tell me what happened, who was involved and what you did in terms of problem solving.
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When circumstances are more difficult (i.e. tight deadline, lay off, labor negotiations, pulling a team together quickly)? Walk me through an example of how you worked with others to solve those difficult circumstances.
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Give me an example of when you were able to successfully communicate with another person in your department even though that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa).
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Describe an example where you enlisted active participation of others to solve a problem.
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Tell me about a time when you worked with people outside your work group to get information or ideas. What did you do? What was the outcome or result?
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Tell me about an experience when people outside your work group asked for your help in solving a problem or meeting an objective. What did you do? What was the result?
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Communication
Describe your most recent conflict within a team setting because of a miscommunication and how you were able to solve it.
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Describe a recent time when you heard through the grapevine information which was untrue or classified. What was the situation and how did you handle it?
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Describe an example of when you have been called upon to present in front of a group. How did you prepare? Was the presentation a success? How could you tell?
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Give me an example of the types of writing that is required of you in your current position. How do you go about beginning the writing process?
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How do you ensure that your writing is clear and informative? Give me a specific example.
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Tell me about a recent time when an e-mail or verbal conversation was misinterpreted by your team or employees. What was the situation and the outcome?
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Describe a recent time when you needed to withhold information from your team or direct reports. What was the situation and how did you handle it?
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Give me an example of a time when circumstances changed the way you needed to communicate to others. What did you do and how did you do it?
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To get our points across, we sometimes need to use differing approaches when talking with different types of people. Talk to me about a time when you have done that successfully.
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Tell me about a time when you had to give instructions to another person who was having difficulty understanding. What did you do?
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Do you tend to take an observer/listener role or be an active participant in meetings? Tell me about a time when your preferred style worked well and a time when it didn’t.
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Customer Focused
When a customer irritates you, how do you react? Tell me about a time that happened.
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Describe for me a recent time when a customer request could not be satisfied. What was the situation and how did you handle it?
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Have you ever had to go the extra mile to satisfy a customer? Tell me what you did and what was the result?
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Tell me about a recent time when you put the customer’s needs ahead of the company’s needs. What was the situation and how did you handle it?
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Give me an example of a time when a customer really tried your patience. How did you handle it?
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What does the term “internal customer service” mean to you? Tell me about a time you demonstrated excellent internal customer service.
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How do you go about understanding the expectations of your customer—internal and external? Walk me through an example with an actual customer.
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Describe a time when you successfully handled a customer complaint.
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Candidate’s Questions
– Be sure to leave time for their questions, generally 1-3
– Paint a positive but honest view of the pros and cons of the work and culture
Notes
Closing Questions
– Describe where you are in the process, next steps, and when they can expect to hear back
– Ask if they have any final remarks
What is one thing I should know about you that I haven’t asked?
What could you bring to this position that other candidates could not?
What do you hope to find in our organization that you don’t have now?
What is the best thing a previous employer did that you wish everyone did?
Interviewer Assessment
Enter your overall assessment about the candidate’s knowledge, skills, abilities, and fit for this position.
Would you recommend this candidate advance in the process?