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.
11. What don't you do very well?
I am a people person. I like to work with people. If I couldn't, it would be difficult.
12. How do you feel about multitasking at work?
Multitasking is a necessary part of an administration job, so say that you enjoy multitasking and the challenge of ensuring that multiple functions and jobs are completed accurately and on time is part of what motivates you in your work.
13. Are you able to use any relevant software packages?
If you have experience, mention the packages you have used. If not, get some training in the most important packages before your interview. Ask your recruitment consultant what are the best packages to learn.
14. Do you have a valid driver's license? Any tickets?
Yes, I possess Houston State Driver's license with no tickets
15. What is your greatest professional strength?
When you are asked about your strengths, you want to relate your response to skills and abilities that are relevant to your prospective position. Perhaps you are excellent at speaking and working with clients or keeping the office impeccably organized. Either of these can be highly prized in the right environment. Frame your strengths as an asset to your prospective employer.
16. How would you react if you felt you were being pushed too far at work?
If pushed too far you would consider speaking to your manager about workloads and expectations and try to resolve the situation.
17. Do you enjoy meeting new people and interacting with customers?
Meeting people and speaking to customers is often a vital part of being an administrator. Say that you enjoy talking to people and that interaction with other people is often what makes the work most interesting.
18. Why do you want to be an administrative assistant?
Most people try to get this job simply because it is convenient, offers routine duties and clean working environment. And a decent salary of course…
Well, we naturally apply for a job to earn money (nobody would work full time for free). But earning money should not resonate in your answer.
Oppositely, you should try to convince the hiring manager that you really want to have this job. Motivation is crucial for every administrative assistant, do not forget on it. If you want to get hired, you can't look like someone who takes this job as a last option only.
19. What is your reason for leaving your current/former employer?
ABC is a small company with limited opportunities for advancement. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my work there, I decided it was time to move on in order to advance.
20. What role do you think an administrator plays in the office dynamic?
Say that an administrator plays an important role in ensuring that diaries are properly managed and that all outgoing correspondence is well written and all incoming correspondence is read and delivered to the relevant managers quickly.
21. Are the timings of this job suitable to you? Can you work overtime and weekends?
Yes, these timings are perfect for me and I am readily available and willing to work overtime and on weekends.
22. Do you have any experience with multitasking, if yes the how did you handle it?
Administrative assistants are typically pretty busy people. A big pile of papers on a table of an assistant is a common picture we see, not only in the films. And obviously, there's "a mess" in their computer too :)
Interviewers are aware of it and try to find out if you are able to prioritize your tasks, or to work on different tasks simultaneously. Your goal is to convince them about your time management skills, an ability to organize work and recognize the most important tasks to take care of immediately.
I enjoy travelling. It will be my pleasure to travel for official work.
24. Tell us something about your previous experience as an administrative assistant?
There were several things that I had to fit into one work day including taking phone calls, directing visitors to the right departments, taking minutes of meetings, assisting in procurement of supplies and equipment and of course managing mail.
25. Can you work with MS Office? How would you rate your skills with it, on a scale from one to ten?
This question is much more difficult as it sounds. While interviewing people for office jobs, I saw many candidates get caught in the trap while answering this question. You know, all job applicants try to picture themselves in a best possible light. So when they should evaluate their own skills with MS Word or MS Excel (or another common office software), they give themselves 9 or even a perfect 10.
This would be all right, if they did deliver on their promises. What we did in interviews, and what many companies do until today, is letting the applicants to complete a practical task on computer, right after they answered this question. They had to execute few calculations in MS Excel, or typewrite something to MS word and format the text… We could see how fast they typed and what methods they used when working on a computer. And many who gave themselves 9 or 10, worked actually very poorly, or weren't even able to finish the task in time.
26. Are you at ease with complex phone systems and large call volumes?
One of the hallmark duties of an administrative assistant is answering a stream of telephone calls. You must remain courteous at all times and maintain a high level of efficiency. With these kind of administrative assistant interview questions and answers, the hiring manager wants to know that you are completely capable of this task.
27. How do you handle a particularly busy day and still manage to run a smooth office?
At times work can be quite demanding and 8 working hours seems too little. However, I have learned that if you prioritize your work, you can manage even the busiest day with a lot of ease.
28. Tell me a little more about your experience (education)?
Interviewers can read. They have seen your resume. They know pretty well what you did in the past. So why do they ask this question?
There is a reason, like for any other question. If there was no reason to ask it, they would not do so. They inquire about your education and experience to check two things:
► Your real level of experience. You know, it is pretty easy to compose a perfect resume. One can think up anything… But once you asked about details (they will most likely give you additional questions on your experience), it is pretty clear if the things on your resume are true or not.
► To see what matters for you and if you think positively about your past and future.
► Let's have a closer look at the second point. Many people see only negatives. When they talk about last job, they talk about problems they had with the boss, or claim that everyone was feckless in the company. However, this is a huge mistake! HR managers do not want to employ people who complain about everything. Such people only make problems
Administrative assistant interview questions will explore your ability to gather and manage information. Detail the types and volume of data you had to manage and how you ensured your information management was up to date and accurate.
30. How do you ensure to keep good qualification for this job as Office Support Assistant?
Your attitude is tested once again. Most people quit working on their skills, as soon as they get the first job. School has finished, and so has learning something new. Or not?
The one who is not progressing does not stays on the same place. He is actually moving backwards, when compared to other job applicants, as those new one and those who learn are passing him by! School of life never ends!
Office software, ways of effective communication, Outlook, internet, cooking good coffee. Things change and develop in time. One can not remain on the top of his job, if he does not constantly devote some time to learning and improving himself.
Yes. I have used all of these at the previous job as well as company's own oracle based enterprise software application
32. What do you think is the main responsibility of an administrative assistant in our company?
Some people think that a typical day of an administrative assistant consists in making coffee and typing data to the computer. Some job seekers have the same opinion.
However, if you want to succeed in an interview, you need to show that you are ready to do much more than cooking good coffee and answering phone calls. You need to convince them that you see your vital role in a team and believe to influence the productivity of the office. Actually, the main duty of an administrative assistant is to carry out every task assigned by the boss, but on the top of that, to come up with his own ideas of what to do.
Administrative assistant interview questions will focus on your ability to assess problems and come up with workable solutions. Explain how you got together all the necessary information in order to properly analyze the problem and considered the possible alternatives before deciding on a particular course of action.
34. This job is repetitive. What would motivate you to do it well every day?
Motivation is a crucial factor for every employer. If a recruiter has to choose between inexperienced, but motivated, job seeker and a bored professional assistant with ten years of experience, in most of the cases, he will hire the motivated fresher.
Repetition makes job boring for many of us. Therefor there is this question, to see if you can find motivation in a routine job. You should do one of the following things:
► Stress that you prefer routine jobs. Some of us do not like challenges and prefer to have routine roles and carry out the same tasks every day.
► Stress that good relationships on the workplace, or other factors, matter for you more than the variability of tasks in job.
► Alternatively, you can try to convince the employer that from your point of view, this job is not repetitive.
Administrative assistants have to work effectively as part of a team or group. Your answers should highlight your ability to build relationships with other group members and show how you contribute to team success.
