Employment History Interview Question Part 2

Q8. ‘What will your last employer say about you if we ask for a reference?’

You may get asked this question even if your last employer has already filled in a reference. The interviewer wants to know about two things: first how well you got on in the last job and second, how you think other people see you. Talk up about your strong points in your answer, particularly those that will be useful in the job for which you are being interviewed. You can include negative points as long as they don’t detract from the overall positive image you are trying to create. You could say that your old boss might think that you

could be quite direct in your opinions sometimes but that you know he always valued your honest feedback. Or that your old supervisor might describe you as being the life and soul of the work team but that when there was a crisis you would be the first to volunteer to help out.

Q9. ‘What would your colleagues from your last job say about you if we asked them?’

This question is being asked to see how you fit into a team. How were you seen in your last job – as the joker, the quiet one, the innovator or the thinker? Describe how your colleagues would describe you at your best on a good day. You can leave out the reasons for any tensions in the group for this answer and just highlight your strengths. If there were some people with whom you did not get on, that is quite normal and you could say: ‘Not everyone was my best friend of course but on the whole I was a valued and respected member of the team and we worked well together.’ The interviewer just wants to know that you will not be having rows every day with your new team mates.

Q10. ‘What has been your greatest achievement in your working history?’

Some hard thinking before the interview is needed in order to answer this question. The example that you choose should convey some of the principal qualities needed in the job applied for and should be explained clearly and concisely. What characteristics did you demonstrate at the time? Pick an example that has close relevance to this job to show that the skills you were using are transferable to the post on offer. A useful way to make sure you don’t ramble is to structure your answer into three key points. The first point could cover
what the achievement was, the second could explain the circumstances or the background and the third point could explain why you feel that this represents the greatest achievement in your work to date.

Q11. ‘Can you tell me about a problem that you have had to deal with?’

The point of this question, as far as the employer is concerned, is to see how you would tackle obstacles at work. An ideal answer would involve you in thinking through a difficulty and solving it with the help of other people. If you can indicate some general lessons that you learned from the experience, so much the better. Please do not volunteer an answer that makes you look as though you could not deal with the problem. Make sure you choose something that shows your role to be positive, practical and ultimately successful. If you worked with other people to solve the problem, had to communicate clearly and learned something from the experience, so much the better. It could involve dealing with difficult customers, a mix-up of resources, rescuing an organisational mess, in fact anything where your role has had a major effect for the good.

Q12. ‘What would you do if you had a problem that you could not deal with – perhaps if you were faced with a difficult customer?’

This question is being asked to assess your ability to handle customers and provide them with the best care you can. Everybody has to ask for help at times during their working life. Your answer should show that you would not give up as soon as you were faced with a problem, such as an irate or awkward customer. The employer wants to see that you would be responsible and calm in your dealings with customers who are important stakeholders in any business. Explain that you would try to find out the exact nature of the problem troubling the person, while calming him or her down, if necessary. You need to apologise quickly in cases

like this. Apologising does not mean taking all of the blame – you can feel sorry that the customer feels upset and show empathy. It can really diffuse the tension. In many cases you would be able to sort out the problem yourself, but in particularly difficult or complex cases, sometimes the issue needs to be dealt with at a higher level. 

Tell the interviewer that you are aware that if this were the case you would need all the details in order to pass them on to whoever could sort out the problem. Apologising to the customer for the delay, you would tell him or her exactly when the problem would be attended to. You would then pass on the query to your supervisor or the person responsible.

Q13. ‘Which of all your jobs have you found the most interesting, and why?’

It is easy to hear a question like this and yet forget to answer the second part of the question. You need not only to have the most interesting of your jobs to talk about but also be ready to explain clearly exactly what was so interesting about it. This question may be asked if you have had a varied employment history. A wise answer would include work similar to the job on offer to show that you will be happy and involved in your work. Try to justify your choice by giving examples of your main achievements in the time spent there, or explaining the particularly interesting aspects.

Q14. ‘What are the most satisfying and the most frustrating aspects of your present/last job?’

You may be asked this question to find out what you like best and least about your most recent position. Think carefully before you phrase your answer. The most satisfying aspects of the job should be those most closely linked to the position that you are now applying for. A long list of frustrations can make you sound like a moaner. If there was some particularly difficult aspect of the job, try to say how you helped to improve it. If at the time you did not, or could not rectify it, can you think of remedies now that might work? Make sure the frustrations are not also present in the job you are applying for now. This is important as you will not be offered a job if something that annoys you turns out to be a large part of the job on offer.