Ask business owners, it takes a lot of effort and energy to supervise, manage and oversee the day-to-day office operations. This challenging task is performed by the Office managers, who are responsible to:
- Perform the administrative functions
- Manage the office supplies and stationery items
- Sort, arrange and order the business files
- Supports the office staff so that they are able to perform their functions smoothly and
- Prepare office budgets
Being in a supervisory position, an office manager gets a lucrative salary and incentives. It is however necessary to prepare sincerely for the interview session by reading lots of frequently asked interview questions.
21 Best Interview Questions To Study
1. What Do You Mean By The Concept Of Prudence? Explain The Concept With A Practical Application.
Being an office manager you will certainly be involved in basic commerce-related activities, such as accounting, budgeting, or maybe an audit. Thus, there will always be questions that will check your knowledge in relation to basic accounting concepts and principles.
Sample Answer
Sir, as per the accounting concept of Prudence, it is necessary for business organizations to recognize the expected losses, that they anticipate incurring in the near future. The recognition shall be made by setting aside a portion of profits and creating a provision for the same. Its practical application is Provision for Bad and Doubtful debts, wherein a company reduces its profits by the amount, it anticipates will not be recovered by its debtors.
2. What Is Your Understanding Of The Term Financial Statements?
This question tests your knowledge and understanding of the basic accounting concepts and statements.
Sample Answer
Sir, financial statements refers to three types of statements, which are:
- Balance Sheet: This statement represents a summary of the assets and liabilities of a company on a particular date.
- Profit and Loss Account: This statement represents all the incomes and expenses of the company on the credit and debit sides respectively.
- Cash Flow Statement: This statement accounts for all the cash inflows and outflows that happen in the normal course of business. It segregates and divides the cash flows into three different categories, which are:
- Cash flow from Investing activities
- Cash flow from Operating activities
- Cash flow from Financing activities
3. We Believe Managers Must Show “Quality” In Their Business Operations. How Do You Interpret The Term “Quality”?
This is a word-based interview question, in which you are required to interpret the term “quality”. There could be several interpretations of this term, however, an interviewer wants to know your version.
Sample Answer
Sir, “quality” is an ambiguous term and can have different meanings attached to it. However, in my view, business operations will be termed as “quality” tasks when these meet the established benchmarks and standards defined by the company. Moreover, these tasks must be able to satisfy the customers of the company and provide them with the necessary utilities.
4. Desribe A Situation When You Showed Commitment At Your Workplace.
This is a situation-based interview question in which you are required to share a real situation, which you experienced while working previously for other organizations.
Sample Answer
Sir, commitment and dedication is necessary employee trait. I am lucky to have them in me. I would like to corroborate this by narrating an incident that happened to me during my previous employment. It was Christmas time, and we suddenly got a new project that was supposed to be completed before the new year. This required all of us to stay back in the office and work for around four additional hours every day. I never went back from my commitment and delivered what was expected from me.
5. As An Office Manager You Will be Required To Perform Repititive Tasks That Might Be Boring For You To Perform On A Daily Basis. How Do You Cope With This Monotony?
This is a common interview question that requires you to state the strategies, which you adapt to beat the monotony of discipline.
Sample Answer
Sir, a daily routine can be cumbersome and can crush in its dullness and tedium. This happens towards the end of the week, when an employee is not able to concentrate effectively and refrain from performing even the regular business tasks. This does happen with me, and in order to cope with it, I prefer to:
- Take short breaks and listen to music
- Play some fun games with my colleagues during the lunch break
- Motivate myself by engaging in encouraging dialogues
6. Office Managers Do Not Deal With The Customers Of The Company. Comment On This Statement.
This is a negative statement, which is false. As an office manager, you will be required to greet, welcome, and make the visiting customers feel comfortable. Answer this question positively.
Sample Answer
Sir, I completely disagree with this statement. As per my work experience of 3 years, office managers are required to greet the customers of the company and even show a high level of hospitality so they feel comfortable and enjoy their visit.
7. What Is Your Ethical Team Culture?
Nowadays business organizations prefer to work in a team culture, wherein employees are divided and segregated on the basis of their skill set, education levels, and nature of tasks. Through this question, an interviewer wants to know what are the various qualities or attributes that you expect your team members to have.
Sample Answer
Sir, in my opinion, the team members must be dedicated to achieving their goals and objectives. Moreover, the employees must not engage in any sort of teasing or harassment politics, along with maintaining a high level of productivity. The team members must be supportive and at the same time encouraging.
8. Describe About A Time When Your Office Budget Did Not Get Necessary Approvals.
This is a tricky interview question that requires you to give details about a business task that had flaws and errors.
Sample Answer
Sir, it is not possible every time to deliver a perfect result, no matter how hard you try. This happened with me during my previous tenure when I prepared an office budget but failed to consider enough historical data. I was specifically told to take into consideration the historical data of the past 5 years, but I went for only 2 past years. Thus, my work was rejected due to a lack of accuracy and logic.
9. Name Three Best Software That Are Used Widely In The Industry For Efficient Office Management.
This question checks how tech-savvy you are and how much do you know about the trending software used in your field.
Sample Answer
Sure sir, These are:
- Trello
- LibreOffice
- TaskWorld
10. Office Managers Operate In A Challenging Business Environment. How Do You Manage Your Failures?
It is common for the interviewers to enquire about your techniques and strategies using which you are able to manage your work-related failures. This is an important interview question, because of the common notion that after sustaining a failure, employees tend to lose confidence and deliver sub-standard performances at their workplace.
11. Describe Your Best Boss and Worst Boss.
Employees migrate from one business organization to another, in search of better employment opportunities, salary, benefits, work-life balance, etc. This makes us encounter a wide variety of bosses and managers. It is true that not all of them are able to make an entry into our good books, and some are just put into the category of bad bosses. An interviewer through this question wants to know what is the primary reason or basis using which you categorize your good and bad bosses.
12. What Is Your Dream Job?
We all dream, and some even want to work alongside Mr. Elon Musk or maybe as an assistant manager of their favorite football team. These are dreams, we agree, but unfit to be shared in response to this question. An ideal answer to this question will always relate to the company in question and will list out all the practical improvements and possible expectations.
13. Office Manager Is A Generalist Position and You Will Be Required To Work Under Various Fields. How Do You Manage Your Work Related Stress?
Stress management is a common expectation of business organizations. Being an office manager, you will certainly handle and operate several tasks that would range from basic accounting to file sorting to customer handling. When performed on a daily basis, this can certainly augment your stress levels. As an ideal response to this question, share the strategies and techniques using which you can alleviate your work-related stress.
14. What Are Your Salary Expectations?
This is a non-technical interview question, yet has the capacity to ruin your selection chances. You are always advised to share a salary figure that is based on some exhaustive market research. It is recommended to ascertain a mean salary that is offered in your industry to the professionals performing tasks similar to you. Your salary quote must be similar to the mean salary determined.
15. How Do You Prefer To Work – Team or Alone?
This is a tricky interview question, that requires you to make a choice between the two options. Make sure you are able to justify your selection using ample logic and rationales. Preferably, considering the present market scenario, you should always choose teamwork as your first choice of working.
16. As An Office Manager, You Will Perform Several Tasks In A Single Day. How Do You Prioritize?
The office manager is perceived as an all arounder and you will be certainly be kept busy, during the entire working day, loaded with different tasks. In order to complete these tasks in a time-bound manner, it is necessary that you arrange them on a strategic basis, such as difficulty level, time consumption, yield, etc. Share your appropriate strategy and justify your selection with logic.
17. What Are Your Strenghts As An Office Manager?
This is a common interview question that marks its appearance in almost all the interview sessions held across the world. The best way to prepare an answer for this question is by conducting deep scrutiny of your personality and noting down at least three of your closest strengths. While doing so, make sure that you have read and understood the job description issued by your employer.
18. Motivation Is A Necessary Element To Give Our Best. What Motivates You To Work?
We all are motivated by a few elements that stimulate and push us to work hard at our workplace. These factors are personal in nature and are largely influenced by our personal situations and circumstances. For some it is money, and for others, it is a desire for recognition. There is no perfect reply to this question, as it is largely influenced by human preferences, behavior, and approach. Thus, make sure you are giving an original reply.
19. When Can You Start Working For Our Office?
This is a simple question that requires you to share the date on or after which you can start working for the company. This question does not guarantee your selection, and hence one must refrain from interpreting it that way.
20. Why You Chose Us?
This question checks your level of seriousness and commitment towards the company. Prepare this question by browsing the official website of the company. Note down all the major facts, achievements, and accomplishments of the company from the website and add your personal interests to it. This will give you a perfect answer to this question.
21. Do You Have Any Questions For Us?
Be it the job profile of an office manager, or be it of an engineer or maybe a digital marketer, every interview session concludes with this interview question. This is the last question of every interview, through which an interviewer wants to know about your doubts and apprehensions. It is necessary to always attempt this question and ask a few relevant counter-questions from your interviewer. For better understanding, please refer to the model questions mentioned below:
Model Questions
- What are the various incentives and allowances that are offered to the office managers for working overtime?
- What is the promotional policy of the company?
- Is it the policy of the company to give paid leaves to its employees, especially in situations of medical emergencies?
Download the list of questions in .PDF format, to practice with them later, or to use them on your interview template (for Office Manager interviews):
References
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42001-021-00138-4
- http://sk.sagepub.com/cases/emotional-intelligence-job-candidates-inventory-interview-questions
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Sandeep Bhandari is the founder of PrepMyCareer.com website.
I am a full-time professional blogger, a digital marketer, and a trainer. I love anything related to the Web, and I try to learn new technologies every day.
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