ECKLEBURG
2005-01-07 - 4:40 p.m.
When “The Incident” with my last job occurred, one of the benefits was a “career coach” to help my find a new job. A large part of it is a fairly large online tutorial that you are supposed to go through. I liked this part though – 10 of the most asked interview questions. The suggestion is that you have prepared responses to these so you sound all polished and shiny. Here are my responses, let me know what you think. My email address is (insert my real first and last name)@gmail.com, if you missed it. 10 Commonly Asked Interview Questions:
1. Why Did you leave your last job.
Unfortunately my previous employer is going through major restructuring and downsizing. This has meant the elimination of many positions, including my own. However, I am convinced that this is going to become a great event in my life because it is going to allow me to take my collective skills and experiences and expand them into something far greater in a new setting.
2. What are your strengths
I have a unique, multifaceted understanding of all aspects of the processes in which customers interact with a company -- from front-line customer relationships, to back-end operations and marketing strategy to IT and tool support.
I have strong analytical abilities that I have refined with my experience in process analysis/improvement and management of people and projects.
I excel in my communication skills -- both written and verbal, across a wide variety of roles and positions.
3. What are your weaknesses
One weakness I have is that I have to watch myself to make sure that I don't get so enwrapped in the theory and planning phase of a project that I delay the transition to the implementation phase. For example: when I was in Bangalore, India, one of the big issues I faced was that there were no training manuals or guides to use. I set up a project to create a training manual. But after the first week and a half, I realized that I was spending more time developing the perfect manual and not enough time working on the floor.
I ended up using a more skeletal version of the manual for the first wave of supervisors I trained and filling in the missing details verbally. This allowed me to both fulfill the needs of the first group of supervisors to get adequate training and work in downtime to get the materials up to standard for the successive waves of leaders.
4. What is your Management/work style.
I am known for being extremely honest, open, and upfront and so I tend to value working with people who do the same. While I am very capable of working independently, I also view life-long learning as an essential part of myself, and working in a team and with managers where there are opportunities to interact and learn and grow is very exciting to me. I also look for places where I can have fun while working.
5. What are your future career plans
I love to take complex problems and figure out solutions to them. It is a great feeling – the thrill of putting all the pieces of the puzzle together and making a real difference to my company and the lives of its customers. I would like to continue working down this path on a larger and larger scale. I also have a long term goal of leveraging my skills and experience internationally.
6. Why are you interested in our company.
This one obviously varies.
7. How did you get along with your last manager?
My last boss and I got along fabulously, and in fact we still meet over coffee. Partially, this was because we happened to have very similar personalities and interests, and we were able to achieve a great deal of success professionally. On a larger scale though, I am notorious for getting along well with my managers, even the ones who I share very few personal commonalities with. I have learned something from each of them, and still talk quite a few on a personal level.
8. How would your peers, subordinates, or last manager describe you?
My last manager repeatedly noted that I was very good at really digging into the inner workings of whatever tool or system or process I was working with and once I “got it” being able to manipulate and re-engineer it extremely well. When I had people working for me, I hard a reputation of running a tight ship and being painfully aware of what they were doing, but I was popular because I was exceedingly fair, open-minded, and up-front with people. I was also known for being passionate in my work and willing to take risks on creative unconventional strategies.
9. What are your salary requirements?
Until we have had more time to discuss the position and its responsibilities and the pay structure, and since I am not aware of how this industry’s positions are evaluated, I would prefer to defer talking about salary. I am sure that once we agree that we agree that this is a good fit all everybody, you will offer me a fair salary, given all of the parameters.
10. Tell me about yourself.
My name is ----, and I have been doing both people and project management for (insert name of Unfortunate Ex-Company here) for 8 years until they had a major restructuring and downsizing, in which my position was eliminated. I have an MBA, and I am a Seibel Certified Business Analyst. I also have English and Philosophy degrees, which have helped me become a very effective communicator at all levels of a business. I am an experienced business process re-engineer and have managed many projects through their end-to-end lifecycle. I also have had an extensive amount of success managing people and leading teams. I am looking for a role as a project/product manager or business analyst at a fabulous company.
