4 crap** questions during a job interview and how to answer

You’re peacefully reading your favorite gazette on the couch, and you see a job offer for an Office Manager and it’s only a few minutes by car from home. You decide to send your application. A few days later, one calls you to set an interview. On the big day, you put on your most beautiful outfit and get on your old Mini and head towards the interview. You’re extremely confident and you can feel that this job is for you. 

During the interview, everything works out for the best, until the recruiter asks you a rather twisted question, well a crappy question. How to respond to this question without losing all your confidence? Can you mess up the interview, just because of one hesitant response to a question? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Many recruiters try to test you out and observe your reaction to rather twisted questions. This is the reason why, it’s important to identify such questions and know how to answer these. Here are 4 crap** questions, which are often asked and how to answer them, so that you get your dream job. 

Talk to me about yourself

Talk to be about yourself. You have so much to say. But is it really necessary that you talk about the first time you got drunk, went on summer camp or how you cheated on an exam and passed with honors? Actually, this question is a trap. This isn’t an invitation to talk about all the incredible things you have managed to accomplish in your personal and professional life. The recruiter also doesn’t care much for your Cocker Spaniel’s life or your grandmother’s cooking recipes. 

Actually, don’t treat this question as “talk to me about yourself” but “why should we choose YOU for this job”. To answer this, remain focused on the company in which you’re applying. The relevance of the company and how you, the future potential Office Manager, can provide solutions to various problems, through your past experiences. You need to create connections between these experiences and the company’s requirements!  

What is your biggest weakness/flaw?

A great classic when it comes to dicey questions. Useless responding that you never reach a meeting, with less than 30 minutes of delay or that you can’t stand working with other people: for the position of Office Manager, it’s going to be complicated. 

The secret to answer such a question, is talking about things which you don’t do yet, but you would like to do, rather than talk about the things you don’t do properly. Surely, a training may be of interest to you, a qualification you would love to obtain or even a language you would like to learn. Perhaps, all these things could turn you into the best candidate for the job. By answering in such a way, you accept a few potential improvement areas, while showing the recruiter, your desire to progress. 

Why are you leaving your current job?

If you were already working as an Office Manager, you definitely need to prepare for this question. You must avoid responses like “I hated my boss’s nasty face” or “I wasn’t paid enough”. The rule here is, never speak about your previous job in a negative manner. Even if your boss was a jerk. You should rather talk about opportunities available in the job you’ve applied to and how these aspects weren’t present in your last job. Show how this new job could help you evolve and make you progress more than before and highlight your thirst for new experience. Don’t talk about your past but where you see yourself in a few years. 

How do you handle a stressful and a difficult situation?

If you’re already an Office Manager, it’s almost certain that you came across difficult, stressful and even chaotic situations. The recruiter would like to know how you react to such situations, as this kind of situation plausibly occurs rather often in his very own company. So here, you could take the example of a tough situation that you had to handle. The secret is to choose an example where you weren’t responsible for the mess that led to a difficult situation, but rather the fireman who was in charge of extinguishing the fire. Talk about your strengths which made you tackle this difficult moment, how you finally managed finding a solution and made everyone smile again. You need to show that you are able to fight against stress and mostly you’re able to find solutions to the various problems you may come across (which in the end, is part of an Office Manager’s everyday life).

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