Operation Manager Interview Preparation Guide

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An operations manager is a senior-level employee who oversees the production of goods and/or providing of services.

An operations manager's aim is to ensure that the organization is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible and that the goods and/or services produced meet client or customer needs.

Operations Managers monitor the work of the different departments within a company, or of different companies and organizations. They are highly trained, highly qualified professionals with great and complex responsibilities.
Operations managers design policies, plan human and technical resources, manage day to day tasks. They are involved in almost all aspect of company operations at once, but their overall goal is to provide and support the most effective methods of operation.

The tasks are numerous, so give a few specific examples.
Example:
Preparing budgets for programs, arranging facilities and ensuring coordinated movement from site to site, making inventory control and logistics, being an employees' supervisor, conducting job interviews etc.

Some obvious examples include quick learning/thinking and problem solving agility, leadership and communication skills. Describe how you really have a background in these.
For example:
You have used your communication skills and leadership abilities to manage changes and to deal with all levels of personnel.

The operations manager's scope is broad, but he/she deals with office regulations, discipline and small scale conflicts as well.
It is often the operations manager's role to allay personal conflicts or grievances by being attentive and communicating effectively with individual employees.

Operations managers are required to communicate effectively inside and outside the organization. They often represent companies in conferences and meetings because they are highly qualified to present the details of expansion and growth, plans and prospects, and discuss any current projects.

The ideal answer would incorporate an example of how you have worked with a team you have managed to solve a problem.
Example:
I believe my team would say I respect their talents and provide open communication and clear direction, while also allowing them enough space to get their work done without constant check-ins. I have a vested interest in understanding what motivates each person to do his or her best work. For example, my company was working on revising a marketing campaign for a big client who was unhappy with the initial pitch meeting.

It is not enough just to mention that you were responsible for a particular task, employers want to know that you excelled at it. It is also not enough to merely recite your relevant areas of expertise, you will want to share examples of success stories from your work experience.

During this last year in my current position, the company was experiencing a problem with absenteeism and a large project was behind schedule. I decided that rather than blindly attempting to throw solutions out there, I should first find out what the problem really was: I asked the employees why it seemed morale was low and folks were taking off more time than usual. I found out that a lot of the workers felt disconnected from the company. We had grown quite a bit in a short time and the core group that had been with us from the beginning had enjoyed a true family atmosphere during the early years.