Organizational skills are not only essential in the workplace, but are a part of our everyday life. In this article we will take a look at some questions that are asked frequently during an interview.
The whole idea of conducting an interview is to gauge the potential of the applicants. Often, there are situations when many applicants apply for the same position. It is the job of the human resource department of an organization to choose the most talented and deserving candidates. Employers want to know how an employee would organize his workflow in the organization. To know this, they ask candidates behavioral based questions which help the interviewer gauge their organizational skills at workplace.
Organizational Skills – FAQs
Tell us something about yourself.
This is one question that is a part of every interview process. Some candidates think of this as an ice-breaker question, while some think that it sets the tone for the rest of the interview. This gives you the opportunity to introduce yourself, your interests, your past experiences. It is generally advisable to keep your answer as concise and informative as possible. The ideal answer to this question should highlight your strengths with illustrations. Telling the interviewer that you are a “team player” and “self-starter” without backing it up with illustrations would make it sound like a “dead-cliche”.
Why should we hire you?
This question is asked by employers, as they want to know how the company would benefit from you. Essentially, the interviewer is conveying to you that he wants to hear what kind of expertise will you bring to the organization. You need to highlight your personality traits and experience and relate it to what the company is looking for.
Tell us about your strengths and weaknesses.
It is very important to present your strengths in the right manner, so that the interviewer gets a real idea about your personality. If you have certain weakness, do let the interviewer know about it while telling them the steps you have taken to get rid of it.
Why are you looking forward to work with this organization?
This should be answered with utmost caution as most HR managers are capable of looking through candidates to know the real motive behind the employee joining the organization. Most of the candidates answer this question by saying, “It is great to work with a reputed company like you”, or “My friends are your employees and they recommended this company to me.” These answers may be honest enough but it is not what the interviewers want to hear. Rather you should describe the benefits that you can derive from the company and skills and expertise you will bring to the company. Also, you should avoid portraying your previous company negatively as it can seriously impact your prospects. The interviewer might think that you are yet to move over the bitterness and are someone who blames others for every situation.
How do you prioritize your work?
Interviewers want to gauge how efficient you are in giving priority to an important task as compared to a task that can be carried forward. Interviewers may also give you a hypothetical situation to determine whether you can think clearly and quickly.
What steps do you take while planning a project?
You should be able to tell the interviewer about the plan of action that you follow whenever you are in-charge of planning a project. Although you don’t need to get into the details, you can simply take the interviewer through an overview of how you plan to do things.
How do you react to situations when you have to make last minute changes?
This is essentially a test of your flexibility as a planner and the interviewer wants to get an insight into the way you accommodate changes. You need to explain how you will make changes to the current project to include suggestions by other individuals.
If the project that you are handling doesn’t bring in desired results, how do you handle that situation?
Interviewers want to know how good you are at handling situations which have started in the wrong way or which are not going the way as expected. You need to present an analysis of how you will take corrective actions to solve the problems and ensure that the project is completed successfully.
Organizational skills apply to every area of our life and are extremely essential at the workplace. They are one of the most important skills that help an individual to be a good employee. In an organization, there are various projects that need to be completed, but there is always a priority level that is assigned to these projects so that the most important of the projects is completed first. It is essential that you develop good organizational skills and present yourself in the right way in an interview.