This is for a business post - no crude answers please!
2007-01-25 03:01:30 · 11 answers · asked by disco_stoo_1 2 in Business & Finance ➔ Careers & Employment
Asssuming they have the bare minimum skills you need, I would stick with open-ended questions - questions that force the candidate to think and to truly reveal elements of themselves. These questions often go to answering questions about maturity and the motivations of the individual vs. mundane questions about competence (e.g. can you type? can you file?).
Examples:
What don't you like about your current job?
What would be your ideal job?
Where do you think you can do to add value in our business? [Does the person understand your business and goals?]
Do you prefer a job where you interact with a team or do you prefer a job where you can work independently?
What is your greatest weakness?
Tell me about your greatest accomplishment.
Tell me about your worst work experience and how you dealt with situation.
How would you solve the following problem (give one that might have happened with the last secretary)...?
2007-01-25 03:28:13 · answer #1 · answered by gls_merch 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wow, I'm in recruiting and I haven't seen anyone call a job a "secretary" in a long time. Usually these are admin assistants. Typing skills seem to be on everyone's mind here, but what you want are computer skills. It's obvious that you'll ask about skills, but you should also give them a few hypothetical situations to see how they would handle something. We also try to find out what someone's goals are and if they plan to have an administrative career or are working toward something else, it can tell you a lot about them. You'll want to hear how they talk about their previous positions to get an idea of how good they really were.
2007-01-25 05:58:47 · answer #2 · answered by hrland 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How fast, and how accurate is their typing? Are they familiar with your particular computer systems and programs? What experience do they have that would be helpful in this position? What are their goals regarding the position—are they content to remain a secretary, or do they consider this a stepping-stone to bigger things? Are they good at taking charge of projects and seeing that they are completed accurately and on time, or do they require quite a bit of supervision? Why do they want this job? What makes them think that they would be a good fit in the company and position? What are their thoughts about the company (in other words, have they done their homework and learned something about your business)? Are they willing to go above and beyond, when necessary (working late occasionally, learning a new computer program, etc.)?
2007-01-25 03:13:54 · answer #3 · answered by Rayen 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Ask what they would do if they got asked by one employer to a very urgent job. Then were asked a few minutes later by a different employer to drop everything as they had something that needed doing now.
Of course the correct answer would be to liaise between the two employers for them to decide whose work the secretary should do first, and not for the secretary to choose one.
2007-01-25 03:53:51 · answer #4 · answered by molly 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ask them how they would deal with a difficult customer on the telephone.
Set them a small exercise in Word and one in Excel - time limited - e.g. copy typing and ask them to fix the mistakes in the letter - e.g. enter and total figures in excel using a formula.
Some people talk a good interview but aren't worth a damn when it comes to actually doing the job so exercises are good.
2007-01-25 03:15:35 · answer #5 · answered by MinaF 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Typing speed on PC/WP. Accuracy. Filing ability. Spelling ability. Time keeping. Reason why they want the job, what are they doing at the moment? Why the change? Ambition? Loyalty.
2007-01-25 03:11:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've been interviewed many times for that kind of position and actually for most of them I found very incompetent people who weren't able to figure out an appropriate question.
So,good luck to you because it's very easy for an interviewer to cut a bad figure!!!
Sorry for that,nothing personal with you but I'm just fed up with dealing with ignorant and stupid people from HR who think they're God.
2007-01-25 03:07:19 · answer #7 · answered by Brenno 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
no questions throw them in to the job for an hour and see how they handle it , a doctorate in rocket science doesn't make people adaptable , the one that gets the job is the one that deals with the situation best .
2007-01-25 03:08:17 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What can you give to this position that will make you the one I would employ over the other candidates.
2007-01-25 03:14:45 · answer #9 · answered by ANF 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
how fast can you type (they should already know how to type)?
do you get along with people reasonably well?
are you a hard worker?
what experience have you had in business?
You get the gist,
good question.
2007-01-25 03:11:48 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋