The first step towards getting into any company is facing the interview. An interview consists of questions asked on your personal and professional background that helps in judging your overall competency and eligibility for getting through the interview positively and grabbing the job. Talking about administrative assistants, the duties and responsibilities have changed extensively compared to what they used to be several years back. Today, they are assigned with numerous administrative and clerical duties to run an office efficiently and professionally. Some important tasks carried out by an administrative assistant include scheduling meetings and planning appointments, organizing paper work and maintaining electronic files like presentations and spreadsheets, managing databases and generating reports, managing information through telephone, fax and mail, and handling travel and guest arrangements. Thus, for being a successful administrative assistant, you have to possess both interpersonal communication skills and technical office application skills. To help you with facing the interview with confidence, we present you some frequently asked administrative assistant questions in the following text. Check out their answers to see what you are likely to expect in such interviews.
Administrative Assistant Interview Questions & Answers
Illustrate your organizational as well as managerial abilities.
Display lots of confidence in you while answering this question. Talk about your ability to work under pressurized environments, meeting deadlines, multitasking, and processing and re-organizing planning structures to assure successful accomplishment of the tasks assigned to you.
How do you handle pressure at work?
Irrespective of the field you are working in and the job title you are handling, every position demands employees to undergo a lot of pressure to extract the maximum benefits from minimum resources. Hence, while answering this question, bear in mind the working of the organization and the kind of staff members it holds. In case you have had previous working experience in the same field, let your recruiter know how you have handled pressure while completing projects and various other works.
Enhance your written communication and technology skills.
While describing your personal abilities, mention about your proficiency in using modern-day internet and communication technologies. Talk about your comfortability on common computer languages for cracking codes to your recruiter. Besides, revealing about your excellent communication skills will surely be an advantage of staying ahead of other candidates, as your employer would be looking for an applicant who can deal with different kinds of clients to suit their varied needs.
If this position requires you to handle money, are you ready to accept the responsibility?
In case you have never handled money in your previous job, mention it clearly to your recruiter. However, do not reveal to him that you are incapable of handling this responsibility. Think patiently and thoroughly before you prompt the answer to this question. Agree to this responsibility only if you are confident enough, since money handling is a delicate matter.
Why do you think you are suitable for this position?
The recruiter puts this question to you to check your confidence and security regarding your personal and professional self. Indicate all the positive qualities you possess that can help you become a good and successful administrative assistant. Also, highlight some of your weaknesses, but make sure that they have nothing to do with your profile. With truth and honesty, you can pass through this interview, otherwise, you are likely to get caught and kicked out.
Others
General Questions
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It is important for our Administrative Assistant fit well into our team. Tell me about yourself.
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What according to you are your strengths and weaknesses?
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How has your previous experience and background prepared you to be an Administrative Assistant? What have you done to improve these skills and/or performance?
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Describe your typical workday communicating with different departments, executives, people and customers.
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Has your ability to maintain confidentiality ever been judged?
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What makes you a good administrative or executive assistant?
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What do you think the 5 most important qualities are in order to be successful as an administrative assistant? Which one are you most weak in?
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What exactly did you do for your previous employer?
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Why did you decide to apply to this company?
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What are your salary expectations?
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How do you organize your daily schedule?
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What do you believe your superiors would say regarding your administrative strengths?
Technical Questions
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As an Administrative Assistant, you will work very closely with the senior manager. What do you value in a manager?
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Computer skills are required to be a successful Administrative Assistant. Describe your level of skill with personal computers.
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As our Administrative Assistant, you will be in contact with international clients and offices. How many languages do you speak other than English? Please indicate your fluency in each language.
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What is your typing speed?
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How do you research organizations and individuals prior to meetings?
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As an Administrative Assistant, you will often need to exercise diplomacy and tact. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a situation that required this type of discretion and tact.
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How would you organize and complete work from three different bosses?
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When you've worked on multiple projects, how did you prioritize?
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How often have you prepared spreadsheets, data graphs or items using these applications?
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Describe the office applications that you used? What type of documentation did you prepare?
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What types of faxing applications, copier, printer and scanner have you most recently used?
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What messaging system and calendar programs did you use?
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Describe the company proprietary/specific software base application that you use for monitoring work tasks?
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Give us an example of problem solving in your administrative assistant job.
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What do you do if you’re doing a report and you see errors in the data?
After you practice answering these questions, you will definitely sail through the administrative assistant interview with flying colors. Wishing you luck for the interview and your new job!
