Job Interview Question & Answer Guide Part 4
Welcome back to the C Suite, staff! It is your favorite exec, BowtiedCEO.
I have decided to launch a guide that will go through the Top 20 standard interview questions. This will be a comprehensive guide that analyzes each of these interview questions in a five part series, plus an introduction on basic interview techniques and things to know.
Over the next few months, I will post 20 interview questions in 5 parts and outline:
Why they are asked by the interviewer
What the interviewer is trying to gauge from the question
Ways to answer each
Sample answers to each question
In Part 3 of the guide I have discussed questions 11 through 15 of the classic interview questions that most hiring managers will ask. In each of these questions are the background as to why a hiring manager would ask the question, what they want to hear, what you should say depending on the situation AND sample answers that will make any hiring manager want to offer you a job.
The questions in this portion of the guide are:
16) What type of management style do you prefer?
17) What is your experience with [software]
18) How do you handle working in a matrixed environment?
19) What are your thoughts on teamwork and collaboration?
20) What are your thoughts on continuous learning and development?
To get the full guide, you can purchase it here: Job Interview Q&A Guide
16) What type of management style do you prefer?
The best approach here is to answer that you do not like to be micromanaged and that they are supportive when needed. There isn’t a manager on this earth who enjoys micromanaging people. Even the ones who micromanage their staff absolutely hate it. It is just a habit they cannot break.
Here is a good answer for this question:
I prefer a manager who does not micromanage because I perform better when they have confidence in me. A manager who micromanages signals to their staff that they do not have confidence in them.
I also prefer a supportive manager. I am a mature employee and generally do not need much support, but when needed a supportive manager can create better efficiencies.
17) What is your experience with [software]
This is a very common question for most people. Any software experience that gets asked about, you need to able to speak to it intelligently with specific examples. If you cannot describe functionality in an intelligent way, you will fail this question.
Here are a few examples
I have 5 years experience using SAP/S4 running from creating and approving journal entries, to financial reporting. I have also used AO reporting out of Excel as well as using Fiori to build reports and extract data.
Here is another:
18) How do you handle working in a matrixed environment?
Let’s begin with what a matrixed organization is. A matrixed organization is when you report to one person, but indirectly report to many people. As an example, if you are an analyst in corporate finance you report to a manager in finance, but you may also do work for the manager of accounts payable and the manager of FP&A.
If you build reports using something like Qlik or Tableau, you directly report to a manager of some sort but your customer may out rank you.
It boils down to you having a lot of bosses or working with many stakeholders outside of your department.
These types of environments are quite common now. Very rarely do you not engage with multiple stakeholders who out rank you.
So how do you answer this question?
I essentially answered it above. You will break down all of your “bosses” by title and what you do for them.
As an example you can say:
All of my work gets reviewed by my manager, but most of the stakeholders I work with and produce work for are leaders in Marketing, Finance, and Operations. Each one of them has different criteria for what they want and I aim to tailor each request to their specific needs.
19) What are your thoughts on teamwork and collaboration?
With this question, the interviewer is trying to see if you can work with others effectively. Answering this question comes down to two parts:
State how you feel about teamwork. Obviously it should be positive.
Use the STAR method to describe a time when you worked with a team successfully.
Remember to give a scenario that has a large impact and has a positive result.
Below are a few example answers:
Teamwork and collaboration are critical to the success of any project or company operations. Everyone has strengths and when a team can complement each other's strengths, that's when they are the most effective.
Recently, I was a subject matter expert and lead for the FP&A workstream of an ERP build and implementation. In order to be successful, I had to collaborate with many stakeholders including HR, IT, vendor representatives and consultants. I was lucky to have a great team and we were able to complete the build of the FP&A module and deploy it on schedule.
Here is another example:
I am a strong believer in teamwork and collaboration. I am always willing to work with others to achieve common goals. I am also a good listener and I am able to build relationships with people from different backgrounds.
I was working on a project with a team of engineers to design a new product. We had a lot of different ideas, and we had to work together to come up with a solution that met all of our requirements. We had to communicate effectively, compromise, and be willing to listen to each other's ideas. In the end, we were able to design a product that was both innovative and practical.
20) What are your thoughts on continuous learning and development?
This is going to be an easy question for you to answer if you are always trying to learn and grow. If not, this may be naturally tougher for you to answer, but I have an answer template below that you can use.
For those who are eager to learn more or have licenses that require continued professional education (nurses, CPA, etc) this will be an easy question to answer. You will want to answer this question the same way that was outlined in the question above.
To refresh memory, that outline is:
State how you feel about teamwork. Obviously it should be positive.
Use the STAR method to describe a time when you gained a new skill.
Remember to give a scenario that has an impact and has a positive result.
Here is an example:
I have a natural urge to learn more. I constantly want to obtain more knowledge and skills because it benefits myself, but also the company or team I work with.
While working at [company] we noticed that our clients wanted more corporate tax consultations, which many of our staff did not have knowledge in. I saw an opportunity to help our clients and generate more revenue so I took 60 hours of CPE credits in tax compliance and became knowledgeable in corporate tax codes. This allowed us to offer this service to our clients and we improved client satisfaction by 20% and aded another revenue stream. It generated $2 million in billings in the first full year it was implemented.
Here is another:
I believe that continuous learning and development is essential for professional success in today's rapidly changing world. The world is becoming more complex and interconnected, and the skills and knowledge that we need to succeed are constantly evolving.
I was working on a project to analyze data from a customer survey. The data was in a very large and complex format, and I was struggling to find a way to make sense of it. I decided to learn Python, and I was able to use it to write a program that automatically analyzed the data and generated reports. This saved me a lot of time and effort, and it allowed me to produce much better results.
This was the final installment of the interview guide. If you want the full guide, click here