Interview a secretary

The secretary has a very strong position in any organization. When someone first walks into your business, the first person they see will be your secretary or administrator, and the way they are treated would go a long way in shaping the impression of your business in the eyes of visitors. p5>

Therefore, it cannot be wrongly claimed that secretaries / administrators are the image makers of your business. They must be able to dress well, speak well and even speak well; they also need to be people who can keep information confidential and be punctual at work every day. When interviewing for a secretary or secretary position, consider the following factors:

• level of experience -: you must know what the candidate knows about the profession of administrator or secretary and if she has already held a similar position.
• Skills -: Another thing to watch out for is the candidate’s skills such as communication and typing.
• Ability to work with superiors -. Administrators / Secretaries will mainly have senior managers to work with. You would like to know if this person can work well with his superiors.
• Inter-agency communication skills -: You can also determine if this person can deal with different personalities that they are likely to meet every day.
• Punctuality-: Anyone else can take time off work, but not an administrator. The position she is in is so important that she needs to be at work all the time, and you need to know if this person is capable of doing it.
• Multiple admission skills: The secretary’s workload is generally high. She has to dial, answer calls, entertain guests and do a lot of things at the same time. The ability to multitask is a very important skill that every secretary should have.

How to prepare for your secretary / administrator interview

• Choose an interview location … The place should be quiet and not distracting.
• Determine the time of the interview … How long will the interview last.
• Select the interview panel … If you have a human resources manager, he should be part of the interview panel. You should also include some of the people the admin will work with in the organization.
• Print a copy of each candidate’s biography and pass it on to interview team members so they can learn a thing or two about the candidate and a few questions to ask before the interview.
• Prepare your questions in advance and determine who will ask each one.

Some of the questions you should ask during the interview: –

35 questions you can ask potential secretaries / administrators

1. Do you have any experience in calendar maintenance and meeting planning? If so, how do you plan the meeting?
2. What should you keep in mind when planning a meeting?
3. What calendar management software are you familiar with?
4. What is confidential information?
5. If the information / file is marked as confidential, how would you treat it?
6. Tell us what you know about storage systems.
7. How do you keep the records?
8. How would you handle recording on a computer?
9. What is formal and informal writing?
10. What would you include in an official letter that you don’t bother to receive in an unofficial letter?
11. Do you have samples of official letters that you have written in the past?
12. What types of business communication systems are there?
13. What software or application do you use to ensure correct spelling?
14. Give the secretary a letter with a few errors and ask her to edit the letter in a few minutes.
15. What problems do you encounter when trying to submit a written message?
16. What steps do you take to make sure your files are easy to find, especially when you’re away?
17. Why do you want to quit your current job?
18. What suggestions or tips for improvement do you have based on our current secretarial procedures?
19. If you had multiple priorities that needed simultaneous processing, how would you choose which one to process first?
20. Describe multitasking?
21. Do you think you are capable of multitasking?
22. What if you find that your workload is too heavy, what would you do?
23. How would you deal with tight deadlines?
24. Tell me about a time when you would have to deal with a very tight deadline because not enough time.
25. What types of software and computer applications are you familiar with?
26. What is your printing speed?
27. What should the secretary do at a management meeting?
28. How do you deal with difficult people on the phone?
29. Has a visitor or customer ever been rude to you? If so, how did you feel and how did you deal with it?
30. How do you deal with angry customers?
31. Are you really quick or do you prefer to take your time so you don’t make mistakes instead?
32. What is proofreading?
33. What to look for when replaying?
34. Do you like working with other people or do you prefer to work alone?
35. What is the minimum amount you can take if you offer this job?

These are the main questions you should ask candidates for secretary / administrator interviews. You can also consider going one step further by giving the candidate hands-on tasks, such as writing a letter or answering a phone call.

You should also observe how the candidate dresses and dresses; secretaries should be well dressed, polite and always well behaved. Since this person will also be dealing with a lot of sensitive information, you might want to look at the candidate’s history and ask for recommendations in order to be safe.