Feeling nervous about your interview?
Here is what will happen and what type of questions you can expect.
HR manager/interviewer will:
- Thank you for coming
- Outline and introduce themselves
- Explain a format of interview
COMPETENCY BASED INTERVIEW
CV REVIEW
EDUCATION
- Leaving Cert /BAC– what was most enjoyable subject and why?
- Qualifications?
CAREER HISTORY
- Previous relevant experience
- Current position and responsibilities
- Motivations for leaving current role?
- What are you looking for in this position?
- Describe characteristics of a good …
WORK STANDARDS
- How do you ensure you get the job done without neglecting what are sometimes considered the mundane tasks?
- Give an example when you had to work under time constraints/ pressure?
- Prioritise work – how?
- Tell me about a time when you made a mistake, how did you overcome it and what did you learn?
- Did you ever question the status quo and identify new ways/ develop new processes to make things more efficient?
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
- Tell me about a time that you went the extra mile to meet a customer’s need?
- What was the most difficult customer situation you had to deal with?
- When talking to a customer how do you get to the root of what they need?
COMPANY ABC KNOWLEDGE
- Why did you apply to Company ABC?
- What do you know about Company ABC?
TEAMWORK
- Tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team and you found it challenging?
- Tell me about a time when you volunteered your assistance to a colleague on a task that they were having difficulty with?
- Influence others – time when you won support from others.
- How do you keep people at all levels informed
- What do you think makes a team effective?
PC skills/ software used?
PERSONAL/ CAREER GOALS
- How would your colleagues describe you?
- Do you set goals for yourself and how do you go about achieving them?
- What do you consider your greatest achievement & why?
- What key skills can you bring to this role?
- Interest in training/ further education.
- Plans for next 5 years
QUESTIONS FOR SALES ROLES
- What sort of company do you want to see yourself at? What characteristics?
- What drives you in life?
- How do you assess a competitive situation?
- Can you document one of your deals that went terribly bad? Be totally honest.
- What was the most complex deal you had to win, what internal/external barriers did you need to overcome for success?
- How do you identify stoppers and supporters in a prospecting account? How do you overcome their resistance? Please give an example.
- Did you ever turn a customer’s “no” into “yes”? How did you do it?
- Can you give an example of a successful cross-selling effort? What were your main achievements?
- Have you ever had to build a business case for a pitch? How did you find/collect the numbers needed as input?
- Can you share your most important learnings at work to date?
- How do you identify areas for improvement and what do you do about them? Can you give me an example?
- Leave a voicemail in English, up to 60 seconds, showing how you manage a client crisis. Please call Mark at +44 771666 XX as if he was the Sales Operations Manager at TESCO UK who just informed you there is a complete stop of orders because the after sales service is not running properly anymore.
OTHER
- Salary Exp:
- Notice period?
- Do you have any holidays booked in the near future?
- References
- Any questions about the job?
- Any further information that we have not covered that you would like to bring to our attention?
After these questions HR manager/interviewer will outline next stage in interview process.
Best of luck!