Interview Tips

allllec

allllec

allllec

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2006
Posts
4,261
Right, so Orange rang me for a phone interview at 10 this morning after going to bed at 8am! they really caught me out and no doubt i sounded like a complete tool and didn't get it this time.

Yes its my own unorganised fault but i have never really though about interviews ( i suppose I've just thought I'd use a bit of ad lib and get away with it ) but that's clearly not going to work..

Now i need help formulating answers to such questions as:

Give an example of when you've defused an angry customer, or dealt with a high rate / upset person?

i can't think of anything to be honest, but i suppose there isn't much harm on making up some tiny details to a question like this, but how do actually put it forward to the interviewer.



that's the one that stumped me and i had to "eerr, ahh, err" it so i must have sounded like a tool. but if people can help me work out an answer to that i could probably work out how to answer other questions.

ta

alec
 
If you don't have that in past experience, just make it up.
Say something like a customer wanted to return something after the XX day policy we had in the company, and, of course, we wouldn't let him. So he got really annoyed and I managed to talk him into contacting the manufacturer, which calmed him down a bit.
Or some rubbish like that :)
 
If you have worked in retail in the past you could say

"Customer was angry at waiting in the queue, as at the time the shop was under staffed, then when it was there turn to be served, what they wanted was not currently in stock etc, so to defuse the situation as i could see they were angry i offered them a 10% discount on what ever they bought there and then or you took there name down and when the product did come back in stock, set it aside and gave them a 10% discount for the trouble"

Something like that, but not sure if you've worked in retail, otherwise its easy to answer those questions because customers get annoyed very easily! :D
 
Yeah i dont have any past retail experience which is a bummer, however i can probably adapt answers like that into something i have done :)


my last job was working in a warehouse picking and packing orders so i cant take much from that, although the teamwork aspect went down ok i feel.

a bit of being nice and gentleman like the woman doing the interview typed down fairly positive stuff for most my answers, was just the defusing a high rate customer one which got me.

I cant believe i pooped that up! :(

anyway keep the answers rolling :cool:

ta

alec
 
blighter said:
Not where I work and while I'm there :cool:
Click to expand...

I work in an Ice cream shop and the minute i run out of vanilla ice cream, i might aswell hang myself because of the abuse i get. :p
 
It's probably worth getting yourself down to a library and reading a couple of books on interviews. I read through two in one evening last week (one was pretty short though.) They'll teach you what to do and just as importantly what not to do or say.

Never, ever, ever go through an interview unprepared. Any half decent interviewer will spot it a mile off and reject you. They will know they caught you off guard this time - that was probably the whole point - and allow for that, but they will still know if you've prepared or not.

You *must* know what you're talking about and be able to give examples. If you don't prepare and someone else does, then guess who's going to get the job....

For example:
Instead of "errr, ummm" etc, say something like "Due to the nature of my previous/current role, that's not something I've encountered, If I could just have a moment to think about it I'll attempt to explain what I would do in that situation." Give yourself 20-30 seconds thinking time, then answer. Obviously just change the wording to suit....

Or alternatively you could make it up, but be warned they could ask your boss if it's true or not, and lying about it could cost you the job.
 
Gigi said:
The shop can only hold so much ice cream so when we run out.... we run out.
Click to expand...

So surely then the shop needs to re-examine its storage and layout so it can store more to meet customer demands? You're losing sales to competitors otherwise.....
 
fonzee said:
BS my friend. use the BS!!!

best. thing. ever.
Click to expand...
Depends entirely on the question... some questions can be answered in this style, but not all. And if you get caught out - incredibly easy to do if you're not a convincing liar - then the chances are you're not going to get the job.
 
You can always say you dont have any experience of this in a work place and give an example of you calming down an angry person in day to day life.

Thats what i did and they were fine with it.
 
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