7. What is your experience in the back office field?
Answer:
This is quite an expected question in any interview. Answer it by telling about the types of projects you have handled, your job responsibilities and the qualities that help you discharge your duties effectively.
For e.g. You can say something like "I work for a computer security software products company as a coordinator for the sales team. I coordinate with various departments till the time the product is delivered and the payment is realized. For e.g. with the shipping team to get the products delivered, with the accounts team to process the payment. I also deal with the local logistics and creative team to get the promotion and marketing material delivered to various events like exhibitions, vendor training program etc, as per the requirement of the team.
I have an experience of coordinating all - the institutional sales, channel sales and individual sales in the domestic market.
This role needs me to possess excellent organization, time management and communication skills. Also, to deal with the colleagues from various departments, I need to possess extremely good interpersonal skills.
8. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Answer:
The strengths that you talk about should be relevant to the role. Take this question as "Why should we hire you?"
So, make a list of qualities required to succeed in the role you are interviewing for and compare it with the list of qualities you possess. These should be the strengths that you should offer to the interviewer as reasons to hire you.
Every position requires different qualities but some of the important qualities required by back office professionals are: Good organization, time management, coordination & communication skills, good know-how of the business, ability to work in a team, be dependable and excellent interpersonal skills.
As for the weaknesses, don't say that you don't have any. Every human being is bound to have some. Tell them some that won't have an impact on the business and also what are you doing to improve them.
9. How do you rate your computer skills?
Answer:
The computer technology is advancing everyday and everything is getting digitalized. The people working in back offices need to be really good with their computer skills.
Before you appear for the interview, find out the various tasks you would be required to perform and anticipate the software knowledge you need to possess. Based on this anticipation, talk about the software you currently use. Tell them about the various tasks you need to use them for and how exhaustively.
For e.g. In my current role as a sales coordinator, I need to maintain the information about various clients using MS Excel. Quite often, I also need to retrieve various type of details about different types of clients for analysis. This needs me to possess expert level knowledge of MS Excel.
Also, I need to draft various type of official letters like for various customers and government bodies. This needs me to possess good skills with MS Word as well.
There's a possibility that they use some customized software for some activities. You can ask about it and just say that you have an ability to learn the new software quickly and it won't be a problem.
10. Why are you interested in this position?
Answer:
The only reason for a company to hire you for a role is your skills. Do some homework and see how your skills match their requirements. This is the only reason they would be willing to buy. Also, talk about any specific reasons for which you are attracted to this company.
For e.g. I have three years of experience as an MIS executive and have done an advanced course in Microsoft Excel. I have excellent web research skills which is an important skill required for this job. I possess the required skills which make me interested in this position.
Also, I know that this is one of the best companies to work for.
Since there's a position and I possess the required skills, I'm interested in being a part of it.
11. Apart from your work responsibility have you done anything more in your current job?
Answer:
With this question, the interviewer would like to know how active you are at your workplace.
The want to see, if you volunteer to make any contributions other than your set of assigned responsibilities. These may not be very big initiatives but some efforts that you made outside your zone.
For e.g. To answer this you can say that, you initiated the 'Green and Clean Campaign' where you had a cleanliness drive and planted samplings around the office premises.
12. What are your hobbies?
Answer:
Be honest while answering this question. Your hobbies reflect your personality. Do not boast about anything, as the interviewer may ask you more questions based on your answer and he/she will know that you are lying.
Your hobbies could be reading books, browsing the internet, travelling, listening to music, etc.
Ensure that you have some examples ready to discuss in detail about your hobby.
