This is part of a series of questions you might ask me in an interview, along with my answers. Check out more of them here.
What is your biggest weakness?
One of the things that I’ve been noticing is that I can be a little bit of a “work, don’t think” kind of guy. What I mean by this is that I’ll often focus so much on work that I’m doing that, even though I become quite good at that thing, I don’t think too much about the things surrounding it.
An example of this was when I played cello in the Wichita Youth Symphony. I sat first chair in the two lower orchestras but the conversation of other students often centered around classical pieces, what kind of wood their instrument was made of, etc.
I was clueless when it came to that stuff. I couldn’t tell you what brand my cello was and I often couldn’t even tell you what the name of the pieces we were playing for our concerts were. I focused on playing well, and that was what I cared about.
That’s been a huge focus of mine in the last several months. Increasing my observation skills and better understanding the things surrounding the work I do.
What made you decide to apply for this role and what do you hope to gain from it?
[For ease purposes we’ll say that this role is a sales role]
I think this stems back to my passion for people. So often people think of sales as this cut-throat industry where everyone’s trying to pull one over on someone. In reality though, what I love about the nature of sales is that you are giving more value than you are receiving.
Especially in a company like yours where I believe so much in the mission, I whole-heartedly believe that I would be helping others gain more value than they’re giving, and that’s an incredible feeling.
So, in summary, my answer is three-fold. 1. I’m able to provide value for others. 2. I’m able to create value for your company. 3. The feeling of helping others find solutions to their problems is a feeling that is incredible, and there’s simply nothing like it.
How would you approach a superior with a question, concern or criticism? Give an example of doing this and how it turned out.
Best practice is to not overthink it. This is something that fits into the “simple but not easy” category. Understanding supervisors to be human has been a huge step for me. Going into these situations with a humble and questioning attitude works wonders.
The job I probably had the most experience with this kind of thing was when I worked construction. I often worked one-on-one with my boss, the owner of the company. There would be times that he was cutting something and I would be holding it and I would realize that he was off a foot on his measurement. I didn’t tell him “HAH! I caught you messing up. Here’s what you did wrong.”
Going in with a humble attitude allows you to ask questions instead of making accusations. Using the cutting analogy, I would ask something like “was that measurement 56 or 65?” This allowed him to still be fully in charge of the situation and I wasn’t overstepping his authority. I was just asking a clarifying question to make sure we were getting exactly what we want. I wasn’t always right either.
Sometimes I would think he was off on something when he was actually right on. By having a humble approach you don’t completely ruin your reputation by calling out your supervisor on something that is your misunderstanding.