Junior Administrative Assistant Interview Preparation Guide
Download PDF

69 Junior Administrative Assistant Questions and Answers:

1 :: Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa). How did you handle the situation? What obstacles or difficulties did you face? How did you deal with them?

First, the key is to state the differences in personality to give the interviewer some background. Second, you want to discuss how that was affecting the situation. Third, show how you were able to adapt to the way the person wanted to be communicated with to achieve your goals

2 :: Think about the changes you have seen and tell me how you handle change?

You can cite personal life changes, work place changes, career changes, technology change, industry change. The key is to discuss how seeing or experiencing that change has helped your development. For example, the recent changes in social media has broadened my horizons and helped me learn new forms of efficient marketing.

3 :: Explain yourself in one line?

When you respond, keep in mind the type of position you are interviewing for like Junior Administrative Assistant based job, the company culture, and the work environment. Your answer should help show the interviewer why you’re a match for the job and for the company.
Sample answers are:
☛ I’m a people person. I really enjoy meeting and working with a lot of different people.
☛ I’m a perfectionist. I pay attention to all the details, and like to be sure that everything is just right.
☛ I’m a creative thinker. I like to explore alternative solutions to problems and have an open mind about what will work best.
☛ I’m efficient and highly organized. This enables me to be as productive as possible on the job.
☛ I enjoy solving problems, troubleshooting issues, and coming up with solutions in a timely manner.

4 :: Why do you want to work for this company?

Again be honest. The interviewer will be able to sense very quickly if you're be disingenuous. Your answer should be base on your person reasons, career aspirations as well as research you've performed on the company. The most important thing you should do is make sure to relate your answer to your long-term career goals.

5 :: What motivates you at the work place?

Keep your answer simple, direct and positive. Some good answers may be the ability to achieve, recognition or challenging assignments.

6 :: Are you able to relocate if required?

Be completely honest and thoughtful with this one. You don't want to wake up one to find out that you're moving to a new city or state and it may be a major factor in your eligibility for employment. But again, if you don't want to move then the job probably isn't for you.

7 :: Basic 15 Interview Questions that Test Communication Skills As Junior Administrative Assistant:

For most jobs, communication skills As Junior Administrative Assistant are important. It's hard to work as a team if people aren't communicating well.

At some jobs, like customer service or sales, communication skills are an absolute essential.

These questions are meant to help gauge a candidate's ability to communicate.

1. How do you prefer to build rapport with others?

2. How would you go about simplifying a complex issue in order to explain it to a client or colleague?

3. How would you go about persuading someone to see things your way at work?

4. How would you go about explaining a complex idea/problem to a client who was already frustrated?

5. What would you do if you there was a breakdown in communication at work?

6. Talk about a successful presentation you gave and why you think it did well.

7. How would you explain a complicated technical problem to a colleague with less technical understanding?

8. Do you prefer written or verbal communication As Junior Administrative Assistant?

9. Describe a time when you had to be careful talking about sensitive information. How did you do it?

10. What would you do if you misunderstood an important communication on the job?

11. Talk about a time when you made a point that you knew your colleagues would be resistant to.

12. Is it more important to be a good listener or a good communicator As Junior Administrative Assistant?

13. Tell me about a time you had to relay bad news to a client or colleague.

14. Rate your communication skills on a scale of 1 to 10. Give examples of experiences that demonstrate the rating is accurate.

15. How have you handled working under someone you felt was not good at communicating?

8 :: What kind of car do you drive?

The only time this might matter is if the job requires a certain type of car because of the responsibilities. For example, if you need to load a lot of construction materials into your car, you'll probably need a truck.

9 :: How did you hear about the position As Junior Administrative Assistant?

Another seemingly innocuous interview question, this is actually a perfect opportunity to stand out and show your passion for and connection to the company and for job As Junior Administrative Assistant. For example, if you found out about the gig through a friend or professional contact, name drop that person, then share why you were so excited about it. If you discovered the company through an event or article, share that. Even if you found the listing through a random job board, share what, specifically, caught your eye about the role.

10 :: What do you see yourself doing within the first 30 days of this job?

Typically the first 30 days are designed for you to learn as much as possible As Junior Administrative Assistant. Work hard to get to know your teammates, how they work together, and how you can make the biggest impact.

11 :: What is your philosophy towards work?

This is typically a straightforward question that merits a straightforward answer. Do you have strong worth ethic? Will you do whatever it takes to make sure the job gets done? Just say so in your response. Keep it short, direct and positive.

12 :: How do you prioritize your work?

Depends on the situation... I like to label certain tasks as either A B or C...A being the one that requires immediate attention, and C which are tasks that aren't urgent but eventually need to get done... I like to focus my work As Junior Administrative Assistant on the things that need to get done, and done quickly... While balancing the other work alongside our first priorities.

13 :: What do you think about Teamwork?

I enjoy teamwork and am used to shift work. I think I would adapt well to the role. I am looking for new challenges As Junior Administrative Assistant and I know I would learn a lot as cabin crew, not just about people and places, but skills like first aid too, how can I help others with in my limits.

14 :: Tell me a difficult situation you have overcome in the workplace?

Conflict resolution, problem solving, communication and coping under pressure are transferable skills desired by many employers As Junior Administrative Assistant.
Answering this question right can help you demonstrate all of these traits.
☛ Use real-life examples from your previous roles that you are comfortable explaining
☛ Choose an example that demonstrates the role you played in resolving the situation clearly
☛ Remain professional at all times – you need to demonstrate that you can keep a cool head and know how to communicate with people

15 :: Do you work well within a team?

Some people are thrown when they are asked this Junior Administrative Assistant question when they are applying for a position to work alone. Every company works as a team, so you are a good team player, give an example of when you have worked well within a team.

16 :: What is your biggest weakness As Junior Administrative Assistant?

No one likes to answer this question because it requires a very delicate balance. You simply can’t lie and say you don’t have one; you can’t trick the interviewer by offering up a personal weakness As Junior Administrative Assistant that is really a strength (“Sometimes, I work too much and don’t maintain a work-life balance.”); and you shouldn’t be so honest that you throw yourself under the bus (“I’m not a morning person so I’m working on getting to the office on time.”)

17 :: What have you done to improve your skills over the past year As Junior Administrative Assistant?

You'll want to be prepare with some very specific examples of what you've done over the last year and what you're currently doing to improve your professional knowledge and skill set as well as anything else you're doing the shows self improvement.

18 :: How do you keep others informed on work issues?

Possible methods:
Talking to them, emailing them, sharing best practices in meetings

19 :: Explain what are your weaknesses As Junior Administrative Assistant?

Red flags: This is the peanut butter to the previous question’s jelly. Again, everyone should expect it, so it's a bad sign if someone seems totally unprepared, or gives a stock answer like, "I'm a perfectionist." Also, of course, candidates crazy enough to blurt out some horrible personality trait should go in the red flagged pile.

Good answer: Candidates should talk about a real weakness they've been working on improving. For instance, they're not good at public speaking, but they've been taking a course to help them improve. Or maybe they feel that they're easily distracted when working online, but have installed software that helps them stay on task. Answers like these show a desire for improvement, self awareness and discipline.

20 :: How long do you want to work for us if we hire you?

Here being specific is probably not the best approach. You may consider responding, “I hope a very long time.” Or “As long as we're both happy with my performance.”

21 :: Tell me about a difficult decision you've made in the last year As Junior Administrative Assistant?

We all have difficult decisions in our lives. Show how you were able to arrive at it and then how you decisively acted.

22 :: Describe some problems you encountered in your most recent position As Junior Administrative Assistant and how you resolved them?

Discuss your work experiences. The key is to show you're calm under pressure and can handle sensitive situations with a clear train of thought.

23 :: Who has been an inspiration for you?

Cite your role models (possible examples could be your parents, people successful in the industry, world leaders, etc)

24 :: Why should I hire you As Junior Administrative Assistant?

To close the deal on a job offer, you MUST be prepared with a concise summary of the top reasons to choose you. Even if your interviewer doesn’t ask one of these question in so many words, you should have an answer prepared and be looking for ways to communicate your top reasons throughout the interview process.

25 :: How meticulous are you with details?

Being detailed is important for many types of job roles. Typically you want to highlight how you've done that in previous roles. Example: "Being meticulous is important to me. In my last job, I had to count the money in the register as a cashier to make sure it matched to the receipts down to the last penny." This was to ensure there wasn't any "wrongdoing" at the company by any of the cashiers and I was always accurate in my reports.

26 :: What does "collaboration with teammates" mean to you?

Drinking at the water cooler together is not the best example. Think of how you can collaborate with teammates to generate new ideas, to create initiatives to impact the business' success for the better (specifically in the department that you're applying for). For example, if you're applying to marketing, collaboration could mean discussing new ways of social media advertising to reach an audience of over a million people to strengthen the brand awareness of the company.

27 :: What is the most important quality a supervisor should have?

The ability to inspire / lead a team towards one common vision.

28 :: What can you tell me about team work as part of the job As Junior Administrative Assistant?

There is usually a team of staff nurses working in cooperation with each other. A team of nurses has to get along well and coordinate their actions, usually by dividing their responsibilities into sectors or specific activities. They help each other perform tasks requiring more than one person.

29 :: What other companies are you interviewing with?

Companies ask this for a number of reasons, from wanting to see what the competition is for you to sniffing out whether you're serious about the industry. “Often the best approach is to mention that you are exploring a number of other similar options in the company's industry,”. It can be helpful to mention that a common characteristic of all the jobs you are applying to is the opportunity to apply some critical abilities and skills that you possess. For example, you might say 'I am applying for several positions with IT consulting firms where I can analyze client needs and translate them to development teams in order to find solutions to technology problems.'

30 :: How well do you multi-task?

Multi-tasking is an important part of most jobs. You want to show that you're good at it but not overwhelmed with it. So discuss just a few things you can multi-task well on - for example: "I'm good at multi tasking between work email and working on projects As Junior Administrative Assistant and the reason it because I'm good at prioritizing my work emails.