Interview Questions

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Hi all,

I had an interview and some tests yesterday which I have just got the rejection email back for, I'm not massively disappointed as I also did a maths test which I completely bombed in. I also think my lack of real world technical experience let me down. I need to work on my maths so I'm gonna get hold of a few maths textbooks and just brush up on that in the near future.

What I wanted to get some feedback from you guys on was some of the interview questions. I was asked a few questions, which I wouldn't say completely threw me but because I don't really ever need to deal with upper management and directors in my office, I'm not really sure what the protocal would be.

Question 1: If I was in the middle of a job at a users desk and a Director came over to me and said he had a problem and needed assistance immediately, how would I resolve the situation?

I kind of mumbled I would ask him to explain the problem then if it was something I could resolve quickly, tell him I would fix the problem after dealing with this user. I don't know if it really sounded professional.

Question 2: How would you deal with a user is being unhelpful and refusing to listen to your advice?

I said I need to be assertive and not lose my cool and explain how to resolve the problem, but then kind of went blank.

Any suggestion or examples of how people would deal with those questions would be helpful. It would be good to get some ideas of how to deal with these questions in the workplace.

Thanks guys

 

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When responding to interview questions, the best responses can come from the STAR concept.

Situation - Describe the situation that you were in

Task - Describe what you needed to accomplish

Action - Describe the action you took/skills you used and be sure to keep the focus on you rather than ‘we did this’
Focus on skills and attributes, what went well and what you learnt.

Results - What happened? What were the results How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What did you learn?
Describe outcome, in positive terms, quantified where possible

For example, explain how you have mentored 1st line staff?

S - I was working on a help desk as a 2nd Line Support and we work with four 1st Line staff each coaching and mentoring them.

T - We needed to ensure that the 1st line staff could administer and configure some specialised security software for VIP customers.

A - Arranged one on one mentoring advising them off all the different aspects involved with the security software. When the 2nd Line recieved an install of the security software, we spoke to the User, but 1st Line did the actual work with us mentoring them.

R - The 1st Line staff where capable within 24 hours to deal with the VIP customers and recieved a 100% phone resolution on these types of issues.

Hope that helps.