MightyRecruiterAssistants are often an integral part of company culture. They are responsible for many of the basic tasks that are necessary for a business to operate from one day to the next. You need someone you can depend upon each and every day, so take the time during the interview to really get to know your prospective new assistant. It can pay off handsomely to use some of these office assistant sample interview questions in order to see if a candidate has the potential to be a valuable part of your organization.
What Types of Software Are You Familiar With?
This kind of information may be able to be gathered from an applicant’s resume. However, in the event that it is not there, you should ask about it. Chances are that your assistant will need to know how to use Microsoft Office, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. If your company utilizes a specific kind of software, then you should also ask about that. Using software is a skill that can easily be learned, but it is worth seeing if a candidate already possesses a talent.
What Talents Do You Believe Make a Successful Assistant?
Some office assistant sample interview questions should be asked to see if the applicant has a comprehensive understanding of what will be expected of him or her. They can talk about excellent time management skills, written and verbal communication, drafting emails, cleanliness and virtually anything else. Whatever the interviewee’s answer is, you can follow up with a question asking him or her to describe a time when they displayed that talent.
How Would You Maintain Cleanliness Around the Office?
Part of assistants’ responsibilities will consist of cleaning up around the office. They may be tasked with taking the waste baskets out to the dumpster and ensuring that their desk is kept clean at all times. However, in addition to physical cleanliness, you need to be sure you are hiring someone who will be capable of making sure all the office tasks get taken care of. That includes taking and transferring calls, scheduling meetings and coordinating events. By asking office assistant sample interview questions like this, you will see if a candidate already has ideas about how he or she would be an asset to the company. An applicant may have experience as an assistant and already knows how to go about these tasks, or he or she may just have ideas that sound innovative and unique.
Discuss a Time When You Demonstrated Time Management Skills
If you simply ask a candidate if he or she has time management skills, then you are likely going to get, ïYesï as an answer. It is much more productive to ask the interviewee to describe a time when he or she had to have time management skills or about a time when he or she had to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously. This forces the candidate to respond with a story related to handling numerous responsibilities and succeeding. You may also get applicants who are unable to answer this question, and this could be considered a red flag.
More Office Assistant Interview Questions
Every company is different and there may be some office assistant sample interview questions that will be more prevalent. Here are some more you can consider asking: – What kind of schedule would be best for you? – Are you able to work nights and weekends? – What is your greatest strength? – What is your biggest weakness? – What type of office equipment have you used in the past? – What steps have you taken to add to your skillset? – What do you believe makes you the perfect fit for this job? – What types of documents have you written in the past? – Is there anything you did at past work that saved time, enhanced revenues or decreased costs? – Talk about a time when you were under a lot of stress. How did you handle it? – Do you work well with others? – Which responsibilities are you most comfortable performing? These are just some of the office assistant sample interview questions you should think about asking. Naturally, if there is something you really need to know about a candidate before hiring him or her on, then by all means, ask those as well. These questions should give you a sense of an applicant’s experiences and eliminate candidate who simply do not have the skills to succeed in the job. You can greatly improve your hiring process by checking out some of the additional tools Mighty Recruiter possesses.