Interview Questions to Hire Administrative Assistant

Many organizations in various industries need administrative assistants to support all departments and manage the office. So, when hiring an administrative assistant, you need to look at their skills, experience, and personality.

Simple? Well, an experienced recruiter or hiring manager would say it’s much more challenging than it sounds.

Then you need to evaluate the candidates through the interview process. Since it’s an important role, you must have interview questions that cover both technical and soft skills.

What are the best questions you can use during the interview process?

Preferably you want to set questions that include company culture, skills, experience, and working style.

STAR Interview Questions

You can include the STAR interview technique for a set of behavioral questions. Candidates will then need to use real-life examples to answer the questions. When using this technique, keep an eye for those who can define a specific situation clearly that is relevant to your question. They can also describe their role before, explain the method they took to handle the situation, and narrate the result.

Related article: Administrative Assistant job description

General Interview Questions

• What interests you about the position?
• What are the reasons you choose to work with us?
• How do you organize, plan and prioritize your work?
• What do you like about being an administrative assistant?
• Are you familiar with any software and office equipment? What are they?
• To succeed in this position, what skills do you think you should have?

Administrative and Behavioral Questions

• What would you do during your first week on the job?
• You received a task with incomplete information. How would you handle this situation?
• What is your strategy to ensure you meet the organization’s standards?
• Tell me about a time when your idea or suggestion improved a process. What impact did it have on the organization?
• How do you handle a stressful situation at work?
• What method would you use to handle a situation where you needed to be discreet?

Conclusion

Because the role of an excellent administrative assistant is so wide-ranging, you need to be on the lookout for candidates with many skills. This means that when you’re going to interview candidates for the role, you need to have questions that include both hard and soft skills.

But, once you’ve found the right candidate that is a qualified, competent, and eager administrative assistant, all your efforts will be paid off.

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