In a secretarial job interview, you are asked, are you a risk taker?

Question

In interviewing for a secretarial/receptionist position and the interviewer asks if you're a risk taker, what is the answer they are seeking?

Answer 1

Kitchen secretary is always a risky job.

Answer 2

In my opinion the best way to answer a question like this is...

"It depends on the situation. If my boss prefers me to be conservative and just do as he asks then I won't take risks, however if my boss wants me to be a go getter then I can be a risk taker. I try to be flexible and try to get a quick understanding of what my boss expects from me, then I strive to deliver it."

I interview lots of people and hire lots of people, this is the kind of answer I like to hear. Keep in mind, if you give this answer be prepared to live it when you get the job. Saying things to get a job will do you no good if you can't deliver once you are hired. I have hired may who lied during the interview and I was force to fire them later when they could not keep their promises of performance.

Answer 3

Strange question to be asked for a secretarial job, but I'd probably just say something like it depends on the level of risk.

Answer 4

The employer is using "Behavioral Interviewing". What is a behavioral interview? Behavioral based interviewing is interviewing based on discovering how the interviewee acted in specific employment-related situations. The logic is that how you behaved in the past will predict how you will behave in the future i.e. past performance predicts future performance. The list website has a good article about it.

http://jobsearch.about.com/cs/interviews/a/behavioral.htm

Answer 5

This is another way of asking if you have initiative.

The best way to answer this is with an example of a risk you took and how it paid off. Also, have a story ready on how a risk did NOT pay off, and how you made the best of it and recovered from it (don't lead with that one! Keep it ready if they ask)