Interview Practice Flashcards
Tell me about yourself.
I am currently a Year 2 Banking and Finance student in Ngee Ann Polytechnic and have a strong background in excel, Financial Accountancy, and Financial Planning. I do also have corporate experience and it has enhanced my meticule and communication skills.
In terms of leadership roles, I was voted class chairperson twice in a row by my classmates and teachers. Another would be attaining the sergeant ranking in SJB and was entrusted to lead and mentor the newbies, which was a huge responsibility knowing they would be the CCA’s future.
I am currently in the competitive team of my CCA, Squash, and am training to represent Ngee Ann Polytechnic in November.
During my recent semester break, I worked in The American Club as a HR Administrator. There, I did work effectively and efficiently, and even taught my colleagues on the methods to reduce the time spent on working on those works. An example of this would be (new tab for each profile)
And I really gained quite the knowledge during the time that I have spent in NP and it made me a holistic person. Although it was not an easy journey, I did gain a substantial amount of knowledge relating to my diploma that is itching to be exercised and incurred a lot of valuable lessons like standing up for myself and to solve problems immediately and not run away from them.
Why are you the best candidate for this job?
It was as if the job was meant for me.
With no experience needed as this is an entry level position, I do have corporate experience, which cuts back on time needed to be familiar with its ethics and dynamics, and also have an educational background for this job.
During my time in my job as an HR Administrator, I have further honed and understood their importance of communication skills, meticule and adaptability for work to be efficient and effective.
For communication, it is needed in an example when my supervisor would instruct me on what to do. If he does not relay his instructions properly, the work I produced would be different from his expectations. It would also be my fault on my part for not repeating what he asked me to do and also do further clarifications with him.
For being meticulous would be not needing to revisit the work done unnecessarily when it could be avoided.
Lastly, for adaptability, it would be adapting to my supervisor’s change in plans for my work or maybe a suggestion that I came up with that could either replace or integrate with my supervisor’s idea for the work.
What are your most relevant qualifications for this position?
1.
I specialise in the banking and finance sector in which I am proficient in Financial Accounting, Excel, Economics and Financial Planning. Which is what I believe the job requires of.
2.
I have corporate experience. Being familiar with the working environment and dynamics are paramount as it is face paced, meaning there is little time for adjusting. Hence, with corporate experience, adaptation will not be a problem for me.
- I am always up for mutual learning without the burden of hierarchy. During my time there, I was able to do a task given to me in 7 hours instead of 15-20 hours due to being taught excel in school. My colleagues were then curious as to how I got the job done and were willing to learn from someone younger and not a full-time employee. For that I am eternally grateful as it was a nurturing place for an armature like me.
Describe your current or most recent job role.
My most recent role was my 1 month contract role of being a HR Administrator in The American Club.
Despite being a finance student, HR is unfamiliar and I saw this as an opportunity to gain experience and dip my toes into another industry.
As an admin, I did not have the chance of doing the technical side of it with things like work permits. But curiosity got the best of me and I would assist and ask my colleagues on the terms and the workings behind their work during my free time.
But when it comes to the job given to me, I would always try to get it done efficiently.
Example:
Excel
Did the work within 7 hours instead of 15-20 hours
Proficient in Excel as it was taught in school
Filtering, Conditioning, Vlookup, Hlookup.
Why did you choose this career?
I chose this career because I see the role as a way of developing my career within this industry and hoping to make a contribution, even as an amateur.
Applying knowledge from school or the respective learning mediums is an understatement when it comes to working, but making a contribution that can have a positive effect on the industry is a rarity, and I would like to see myself be part of a revolutionary discovery or change, with the immense potential growth that comes with it.
If I were to be part of the ongoing project that the company is working on, I believe that I would be the fresh pairs of eyes and bring in new perspectives to the project, and let the it achieve maximum results and be a valuable asset to the company.
Why are you looking for a new position?
The reason I am looking for a new position is because I have just obtained my diploma in Banking and Finance, and I would like to utilise my break before university to gain experience in this industry which I very much plan to stay in.
I see working this job would enable me to network with industry experts and other professionals of its sorts.
I would also be able to apply my knowledge and take on more challenges of different magnitudes without feeling pressured and/or limited by the school’s grading system for me to flourish.
Why are you interested in this position?
I am interested in this position as my knowledge for the banking and finance industry is ready for the practical side of it.
I would also love to take on more challenges to push me to my limit, as challenges faced in school and work are vastly different which also means the application method of knowledge taught in school will differ from how it is applied at work.
Lastly, I would also very much like to network with industry experts or professionals within the industry to see their insights and gain valuable advice from them.
What are your greatest strengths?
One of my greatest strengths would be my meticulous attention. When an assignment is given to me, I would do my best to ensure that it meets my manager’s expectations or the expectations of the person who gave it to me.
I would also enquire with the person till I understand mostly on what is to be expected, it could be at the start, progressively or both.
One example would be when I was given a much more taxing task during my recent position, I was asked to put in from a document and organise a lot of information in an excel sheet. I had to add in multiple different pieces of information for different employees, estimating about 300 employees, and every of it had specific arrangements and codings. After my manager had briefed me on what to do, I was still a bit weary. So I made the changes of 10 employees first and clarified with him if this was his expectation, and he said yes. For the rest of the assignment, I continued to communicate with him. At one point, I realised that a few of the employees that were supposed to be added inside the excel sheet were not in the document given and I quickly alerted the manager on this and he praised my meticulousness and told me to add in the information left out.
What is your greatest weakness?
My weakness is also my strength, and that would be being meticulous. With me being meticulous, I would tend to focus too much on the details and needing to know every aspect of it. If I don’t understand that aspect, I would have a tendency of not being able to progress.
I realised that this would be a hindrance to my work and decided to talk to my manager about it. Thankfully, he was an open and approachable manager that was kind and caring. After talking to him about my progress in my work, I have learnt from him that not everything has an explanation or even if it has, it might be classified information and he or anyone would not be able to share it with me.
From then on, I did my work on a more superficial level and it did not mean that I was nonchalant about it, but rather I took steps to improve on myself to not be bothered about not knowing every aspect of the assignment. Till this day, I’m still improving and I am close to not being bothered about needing to know the details of every step.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
My goal right now is to work in a company where I can take on challenges, familiarise myself with the industry and to also network.
Progressing on, I would like to take on more managerial roles and be part of an improvement or innovation that would positively impact in this industry.
At the cutting edge, I want to work for an organisation where I can build a career and be of a contribution to the company and maybe the industry.
How much do you think you’re worth?
Currently, I am currently a fresh graduate looking for a job that would help me gain experience and knowledge within this industry. But I do trust that you would offer me a competitive market salary.
What is Your 30/60/90 Day Plan?
Examples:
1.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Of course, I’d like to get started as soon as possible. Meeting with my manager to get a deeper understanding of the short term and long term priorities and challenges. Getting to know all the key players and learning everything I can. I’m confident that I would be able to hit the ground running given my previous experience.
- I know how important the first 90 days are and I’m eager to get started. During the first 30 days, I know I’ll spend a good amount of time building relationships, learning, and analysing. Right from the beginning, I would also be looking for opportunities for quick wins.
I’d be looking to set some ambitious goals and get the whole team motivated to achieve them. I’d also be eager to establish strong relationships with all of my colleagues on the management team, and find ways to collaborate and share best practices.
(not my answers)
(please edit)
Tell me about your greatest career accomplishment.
I am a fresh graduate so I do not have any career accomplishments, but in school I did receive awards like the Edusave Eagles award and National Youth Achievement Award. The Edusave Eagles awards students’ leadership qualities, service to community and schools, excellence in non-academic activities and good conduct. The National Youth Achievement Award recognises the development or display of personal qualities of self-reliance, perseverance and a sense of responsibility to themselves, to society and to the nation.
Tell me about a recent team project. What was your role?
or
Give me an example of when you had to work on a team with someone difficult.
I do not have a definitive role as what everyone does is split into the topics that would be contained in the slides. During that time, we were met with a challenge and that it was one of my groupmates not doing anything at all. He expected us to spoon feed him answers, and had to specifically tell him what to do.
No one was willing to confront him about it. Even though I had a good team leader, he was soft spoken and timid. So when that situation arose, he just let that teammate slide and said that he would absorb the part of his role. So I did it, as he would get our marks while not doing anything.
I first asked him whether he had any family problems and he did not reply. But what my other classmates saw on his social media platforms was that he was constantly clubbing and skipping school to play games. So then I asked him about why he didn’t attend the meeting and not contributing and so on. His reply was that he had no idea that there were meetings or needed to do anything as he was not tagged to the message. The thing was that the group was purely for project and had no spamming, and the timing of the meetings and tasks to do where all collated in one message just slightly above when scrolled.
From then on, I tagged him on the important messages and even took an additional step by personally texting him the details on the timing to meet up, what he is supposed to do, etc. In the end, he managed to do his delegated tasks and our group got an A for the project.
(Addition):
Reiterated to him the importance of the project and relaxed when he knew my intention was not to attack him
Tell me about a time that you took the lead on a difficult project.
This actually happened quite recently when we took on our module project on corporate finance and had no idea how to draft Project Brief for this module. (hierarchy and calculation)We had to submit a project brief in two weeks that would be graded and unchangeable. This put great stress on our team as we were still foreign to this module, even after researching on the internet and the teacher rarely replied. The internet gave vague answers and used a lot of jargon that was only understood by industry experts. This actually demotivated the group and we had no progress in making the brief at all.
Knowing the need and urgency that we need to complete the Project Brief no matter our challenges. I met the team after class and told them to text friends who are in the same diploma as us that did this project,so that we could take them as reference. A few of my team members raised concerns about not knowing seniors in this diploma and I suggested to them to ask their family members that would have corporate experience to help teach in a simpler way of understanding.
For me, I collected as many Project Briefs from my friends as possible and I also asked my parents who had corporate and finance experience, and were thankfully clearing their leave so I could bombard them with questions.
During our meeting, we shared our discoveries, brainstormed ideas and we managed to kickstart the Project Brief. We managed to finish all of it within one seating which was pretty amazing, considering we had no idea what to do at the start.
In the process of it, we educated each other on our deeper understanding of the topics. If one understanding differs from another, we would politely state our opinions without insulting or making each other feel lesser of ourselves. We would also have civil debates on why it should be done this way, in which I would be the mediator when it gets too heated. In the end, my teacher said that ours was the epitome of what project briefs should contain and was awarded an A for it.
