1. What is your greatest professional weakness?
Your prospective employer wants to know how you respond to setbacks. This reveals a lot about your drive and ability to learn from your mistakes. When you encounter administrative assistant interview questions and answers like this, it is imperative to keep your reply positive. Focus more on how you overcame the setback or issues. Furthermore, show how it made you a more effective professional.
2. Do you work well in a team environment?
Depending on the size of your prospective employer, you make have to work with another or multiple administrative assistants. Together, you will manage the necessary administrative tasks to make the enterprise as effective as possible. Give an example of how you were able to delegate and focus as an integral part of a team. Keep the anecdote short, but make your point.
3. Tell us why do you want to leave your current job?
For a long time I really enjoyed working for my current employee and I have felt that I learnt a lot from the role and also from my manager. However, the job is limited and doesn't provide me with much room to grow (you can expand this for what ever reason fits your circumstances). I feel that this position will give me the opportunity to expand my skill set and also move forward in my career.
4. Tell us are you good at solving problems?
Not all administrators need to be excellent problem solvers so if you are not the best, be honest and say so. You could say that you are not good at solving problems but you understand the skills of your colleagues well and will always be able to persuade somebody to assist.
5. Do you have any skills such as shorthand/touch typing?
Ideally you will be able to touch type well, so say yes to this. Shorthand is a dying art and fewer people are learning how to do this well. If you have the opportunity to learn it, then do so, because some managers like their administrators to be able to take down shorthand.
6. What do you believe to be your biggest strength?
I am very well organized in my head which I can translate perfectly in actions. This strength alone has helped me secure a permanent position as an administrative assistant after going through training for just three months.
7. What are your accomplishments?
When I accepted the position at ABC Company, there was no centralized filing system. Trying to find important documents was nearly impossible. I identified the problems with the current filing system, and put in place a new, more efficient system so that document retrieval became faster and easier.
8. How do you cope with busy, stressful periods?
Answer that by staying organised and keeping a strict diary you find that stress does not become a real issue. As soon as you identify a possible delay due to high work volumes you raise this with your manager to see if the work can either be reallocated or given priority.
9. How do you deal with authority?
Say that you deal with authority as you deal with customers - with integrity, professionalism and politeness.
10. What are your salary requirements with us?
At this point, salary is not an issue for me. I'm more concerned with the position and the opportunity to learn.
