Credit Card Officer Interview Preparation Guide

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Do your homework before you go to any interview. Whether it's being the VP of marketing or the mailroom clerk, you should know about the company or business you're going to work for. Has this company been in the news lately? Who are the people in the company you should know about? Do the background work, it will make you stand out as someone who comes prepared, and is genuinely interested in the company and the job.

This is your chance to shine. You're being asked to explain why you are a great employee, so don't hold back and stay do stay positive. You could be someone who thrives under pressure, a great motivator, an amazing problem solver or someone with extraordinary attention to detail. If your greatest strength, however, is to drink anyone under the table or get a top score on Mario Kart, keep it to yourself. The interviewer is looking for work-related strengths.

I have been asked this a lot, in various incarnations. The first time I just drew a blank and said, "I don't know." That went over badly, but it was right at the start of my career when I had little to no experience. Since then I've realized that my genuine answer is "Neither, I'd rather be respected." You don't want to be feared because fear is no way to motivate a team. You may got the job done but at what cost? Similarly, if you're everyone's best friend you'll find it difficult to make tough decisions or hit deadlines. But when you're respected, you don't have to be a complete bastard or a lame duck to get the job done.

It’s usually good to pair these questions, but the important one is the biggest failure. The best applicant is usually someone who will admit that they made a disaster out of something (they’re fairly honest and willing to admit errors) and that they learned from it, an incredibly important trait.

Never say this job. Never say another specific job. Both answers are very bad – the first one sends the warning flags flying and the second one says that the person’s not really interested in sticking around. Instead, stick to specific traits – name aspects of what would be your dream job. Some of them should match what the company has available, but it’s actually best if they don’t all perfectly match.

This is a question that is mostly looking to see if you have empathy for others. Take it dead seriously when answering – it should not have been an easy choice or an easy experience, but one that you handled and survived. Do not bash the person you fired, either – be as clinical as possible with the reasons.

You should definitely have a good, solid answer ready for this question, since the debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio is a key, if not the primary, financial ratio considered in evaluating a company's ability to handle its debt financing obligations. The D/E ratio indicates a company’s total debt in relation to its total equity, and it reveals what percentage of a company's financing is being provided by debt and what percentage by equity. Your answer should show you understand the ratio and know that, generally speaking, ratios lower than 1.0 indicate a more financially sound firm, while ratios higher than 1.0 indicate an increasing level of credit risk.

Unless you work in HR, the word ‘competencies’ is probably enough to make you go to sleep. If you work in HR, it will probably be enough to make you spring out of bed. Given that HR play a key role in the interview process, you need to familiarise yourself with it either way.

“Most clients are trying to drill down to a set of competency-based questions that they can measure objectively against,” says one head of HR at a large bank. “Look at the company’s values and extrapolate from those values what their core competencies might be. For example, if a value is ‘client service,’ the competencies might be strong team focus, thinking outside the box, or being a self-starter.”

Obviously, it’s great if you can answer “no,” but it’s usually not a deal breaker if the answer is “yes.” In fact, a “yes” answer can be turned into a positive – it’s a great way to show that you’ve made mistakes and learned valuable lessons from them. Be honest here, no matter what, but don’t spend time bashing the people that let you go. Only discuss them with respect, even if you’re angry about what happened.

This question mostly looks for honesty and for the realization that most conflicts have two sides to a story. It also opens the door for people with poor character to start bashing their previous employer, something which leaves a bad taste in most interviewers’ mouths. The best way to answer usually involves telling the story, but showing within it that there are two sides to that story and that you’ve learned from the experience to try to see the other person’s perspective.

This is a “homework” question, too, but it also gives some clues as to the perspective the person brings to the table. The best preparation you can do is to read the job description and repeat it to yourself in your own words so that you can do this smoothly at the interview.

No. Well, unless you're talking about murderers, racists, rapists, thieves or other dastardly characters, you can work with anyone. Otherwise you could be flagged as someone who's picky and difficult if you say, "I can't work with anyone who's a Bronco's fan. Sorry."

The answer to this one is not money, even if it is. You should be motivated by life's noble pursuits. You want recognition for a job well done. You want to become better at your job. You want to help others or be a leader in your field.

This should be directly related to the last question. Any research you've done on the company should have led you to the conclusion that you'd want to work there. After all, you're at the interview, right? Put some thought into this answer before you have your interview, mention your career goals and highlight forward-thinking goals and career plans.

This is a great “deer in the headlights look” question, as most people simply don’t have an answer. The best way to handle this question is simply to always spend some time working on your skills in whatever way you can. Write open source code. Participate in Toastmasters. Take a class. If you put effort into improving yourself every year, you’ll not only have a strong resume, but this question will be a non-issue.

This is something of a “junk” question, but it is useful in some regards as it filters for people with initiative. A person who answers something along the lines of “I’m going to be successful in this position that I’m interviewing for!” is either not incredibly motivated to improve themselves or isn’t being totally honest. I’d rather have an answer that involves either promotion or some level of enterpreneurship – strong organizations thrive on self-starters. The only problem for potential interviewees is that some companies – weak ones, usually – don’t want self-starters and are particularly afraid of people who dream of becoming entrepreneurs. Talking about promotion is thus usually the safest bet if you’re not familiar with the culture, but I personally love it when people interviewing talk about entrepreneurship – that means they’re the type that will be intense about succeeding.

This is a good way to hint that you're in demand, without sounding like you're whoring yourself all over town. So, be honest and mention a few other companies but don't go into detail. The fact that you're seriously looking and keeping your options open is what the interviewer is driving at.

Of course, you have a list as long as your arm. But you can't say that, it shows you as being negative and difficult to work with. The best way to answer this one is to think for a while and then say something like "I've always got on just fine with my co-workers actually."

Again, another nasty question. If you say yes, you're a corporate whore who doesn't care about family. If you say no, you're disloyal to the company. I'm afraid that you'll probably have to say yes to this one though, because you're trying to be the perfect employee at this point, and perfect employees don't cut out early for Jimmy's baseball game.

Most people think this is some sort of filter, but it’s rarely used that way. This is actually an honesty question. No one on earth will like every aspect of every potential job – it’s just not in us. Location? Working hours? People? The company’s too big? The company’s too small? Honesty really works here – I’d prefer to hear a genuine reason for discomfort (particularly one that comes from real observation of the company) than a platitude that isn’t really a discomfort at all. A good way to answer is something like “I’ve never worked in a company this large before” or “I’ve heard some strange things about the corporate culture” or “The idea of working for a startup at such an early stage makes me nervous.”