Payless ShoeSource Interview Preparation Guide

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If you want to show your fun side, discuss your extracurricular activities. If you want to show your ambition, discuss the work / school projects you do in your spare time.

There may be several good answers. Some include: you're able to set realistic, yet aggressive goals that push you and you're able to achieve them, you go the extra mile on all projects, client satisfaction is high, your boss is elated at your performance on all projects, etc.

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 At Payless ShoeSource on the things that need to get done, and done quickly... While balancing the other work alongside our first priorities.

The first thing you should do is discuss experience you have the interviewer is unfamiliar with. Once that is detailed, tell the person conducting the interview that you are able to learn new tasks and information in a reasonable period of time and possess a strong work ethic. However, only state this if you can live up to these expectations.

Brainteaser questions At Payless ShoeSource have become popular for interviews in recent years, as word has gotten out that top tech companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and IBM have used this type of question at one time or another.

Companies like Google aren't using these questions so much any more, but many companies, are, and it may be good to prepare for them At Payless ShoeSource. The key to these isn't so much getting the exact answer, as it is showing how you would come up with an answer.

Here's a sample of 12 of the best and most difficult.

1. How many street lights are there in New York City?

2. How many gas stations are there in the United States?

3. How many golf balls can fit in a school bus?

4. How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?

5. Why are manhole covers round?

6. How many times a day does a clock's hands overlap?

7. How would you test a calculator?

8. Describe the internet to someone who just woke up from a 30-year coma.

9. How much does the Starbucks in Times Square bring in, in annual revenue?

10. You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reduced so that your density is the same as usual. The blades start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?

11. What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow? ;)

12. How many golf balls are there in Florida?

Be open to sharing hobbies and activities that you enjoy. Make sure you're genuine about it and don't list off things you don't really like because if they ask you a follow up question it'll be harder for you to answer.

The hiring manager requests this of you because she wants to know more about your individual personality. This list can reveal a lot to her about who you are and how you might fit into the workplace. Your answer also gives the manager an indication of your self-perception, which is a good indicator of the type of employee you will be.

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

This is one of the most common questions you will be asked. Give an answer relevant to the skills and qualities relevant to the position you are applying to. The interviewer is trying to find if your strengths match the job. For example, if you are applying for a job At Payless ShoeSource where accuracy is an important issue, one of your strengths could be that you have an eye for detail. It may useful to find different words to describe similar attributes and qualities in order to avoid repetition.

Discuss the academic program, the extracurricular program(s), the school spirit, the quality of your peers, and the professors.

With anything comes sacrifice. The questions is how much of it are you willing to sacrifice with regards to work life balance, stress, etc?

Behavioral interviews At Payless ShoeSource where popularized by industrial psychologists in the 1970s, and have been used at big companies like AT&T. The idea behind them is that past responses to situations are the best predictor of how candidates will respond in the future.


1. Tell me about a time you faced a conflict while working as part of a team.

2. Talk about a goal you set for yourself. What did you do to make sure you met the goal?

3. Give an example of a time when you had to work with someone with a very different personality from yours.

4. Talk about an instance where you wish you’d handled a situation differently with a team member.

5. What’s the most difficult problem you have had to solve At Payless ShoeSource?

6. Give an example of how you handled a situation where you needed information from a colleague who wasn’t responsive.

7. Talk about a time when you had problems building a relationship with a key team member. What did you do?

8. Tell me about an instance when it was important to make a great impression on a client. What did you do?

9. Tell me about a situation where you had to work with a difficult client.

10. Tell me about a situation where you disappointed a client, and how you tried to fix it.

11. Talk about a time when you had to strategize to meet all your obligations.

12. Talk about a time when you failed at something. How did you react?

13. Talk about a time you took on a leadership role.

14. Tell me about a long-term project you oversaw. How did you keep it focused and on schedule?

15. Talk about a time when you were under a lot of stress. What caused it, and how did you manage?

16. Do you prefer to work alone or with others At Payless ShoeSource?

17. Tell me about a time when you were overwhelmed by the amount of work on your agenda. How did you handle it?

While your CV will say a lot about your work history At Payless ShoeSource, the interviewer will most likely look for greater detail with questions such as this. Be positive about previous experience, highlighting your own strengths.

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

Prioritize based on business importance. Set clear timelines for each so that you know which ones to knock out first. Get your teammates to help if necessary.

Review every deadline you need to meet. Prioritize your projects by deadline and factor in how important each project is. Record your deadlines on a digital calendar or spreadsheet.

First prioritize the important activities that impact the business most. Then discuss the issue of having too many initiatives with the boss so that it can be offloaded. Work harder to get the initiatives done.

If the job calls for shifts that vary, be ready to do that for your work. If you aren't open to that, then explain why and see if they can adjust it for you.

Try to avoid any pin point , like never say “I did not like my manager or I did not like environment or I did not like team” Never use negative terminology. Try to keep focus on every thing was good At Payless ShoeSource , I just wanted to make change for proper growth.

In this question the interviewer is basically looking for a real life example of how you used creativity to solve a problem.

This question is often meant to trick candidates since acknowledgment of blind spots would indicate they were aware of them. Also, do not disclose bad habits or other personal concerns. Let the interviewer find out about your personal flaws through the course of the interview without directly stating these flaws.

What bores you? What fails to challenge you? What fails to excite you?

The company is looking to see if you can handle pressure well. Share with them an example where you were able to stay calm during a pressure filled situation (perhaps it was a deadline, or there was an emergency with a customer occurring). Discuss the situation, your reaction and steps you took to resolve it and the outcome.

Everyone has failed, so don't play dumb or claim you've never messed up At Payless ShoeSource. Think of a time when a work-related situation didn't turn out quite as you had hoped. An interviewer is interested in seeing how you took responsibility for your failure, what you learned from it, and how you would prevent similar failures from happening again.

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, has come into vogue as a good trait to hire for.

EQ is the ability to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior, to recognize other people's emotions and your own, and to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately.

EQ is considered essential to help teams function well. Here are some of the top questions for help you get an idea of how candidates perceive their emotions and those of others.

1. If you started a company today, what would its top values be?

2. Who inspires you? Why?

3. How could you create more balance in your life?

4. What makes you angry?

5. How do you have fun?

6. How good are you at asking for help?

7. How did you deal with a bad day?

8. What's something you're really proud of? Why?

9. Tell me about a time when your mood altered your performance (positively or negatively).

10. Has there ever been a time when you felt you needed to change your behavior at work? How did you do it?

11. Did you create friendships that lasted while working at a previous job?

The #1 rule of answering this question is doing your research on what you should be paid by using site like Global Guideline. You’ll likely come up with a range, and we recommend stating the highest number in that range that applies, based on your experience, education, and skills. Then, make sure the hiring manager knows that you're flexible. You're communicating that you know your skills are valuable, but that you want the job and are willing to negotiate.

Be sure to paint a clear picture of your career vision that demonstrates your aspirations and goals that are realistic. This could emphasize increased responsibility, the ability to manage people and so forth

This answer depends on whether or not the job has a lot of repetitive tasks with no variation. If it does, then you would need to be okay with the idea of doing the same task over and over again. If you feel you can offer more than repetitive work, then describe how you would be able to do so.

Use your knowledge of the job description to demonstrate how you are a suitable match for the role.

If you can't think of one, you need to get a mentor QUICKLY! Mentors can come in the form of peers, family members, co-workers, management / leaders at a company and so on.