hi all,

i have been a supervisor for more than three years and i will be applying for an ASSISTANT MANAGER POST next week. Any tips? Usual questions? I'm really nervous and excited. Hope someone out there could help and enlighten me.

thanks

Hi! First step is to try and identify what the differences will be between your current job and the Assistant Manager role - what new skills will you need and what strengths that you already have must you be able to demonstrate?

Many organisations use interview questions that try to draw out examples of when you demonstrated good use of your capabilities - for example - "tell me when you delegated something to a member of your team, how did it work out?"

Hopefully you will have a job description for both the new Manager role and your own position. If so, identify the key differences and areas of responsibility and behaviours etc and then get one or two examples for each. Try and establish positive scenarios where you have previously demonstrated the skills, competencies or behaviours for the new role, or what you might do should a scenario arise you haven't had experience of.

What else can you bring to the role? Think about things you might like to change, improve or introduce within the team and department. What might have a positive impact, improved results, and costs savings. Perhaps they are not already being done, or might look to achieve what the business is already trying to embrace. Use your own knowledge and experience of your last 3 years in understanding the business and team, as well as your current Manager's experience, what problems did, do they face, what successes have they had and why.

Finally, why do you want the role? Think about the changes the new role will have on you. The challenges, demands and change in relationships both with the team and senior management, how will you manage this change for you and the team? What do you hope to achieve. Good luck.

I am sure it will go well! It's always exciting and nerve wracking to go for interviews!

I am going to suggest you check out this thread for some excellent advise.

Here is mine quoted:


BDI questions are the most common interview process in my experience for lower/middle management.

The concept with BDI is that they can base your future performance on your past performance. This means that all of the questions they would ask would deal with situations in the past, not hypothetical. Because it is based on fact it is a much more powerful questioning style for employers to use, but it is also more difficult for students/people without previous experience because it is sometimes difficult to find examples where you used a skill and the result was reasonably positive.

An example of a BDI question would be "Tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done." or "Describe a situation when..."

What I do to prep for an interview is think of a half dozen situations that I feel really exemplified some management aspects. Normally I can use or adjust one of those situations to answer a question. While you want to make sure you never flat out LIE in a BDI interview it is often easy to adjust a situation to provide a more accurate answer. Often I will take two situations and describe it like one as an answer. You do not want to spend alot of time preparing an answer but don't ramble either. Don't be intimidated by silence either, I love using silence when interviewing someone to see how they handle the unknown and stress.

Another bit of advice I would recommend is to turn the tables slightly. At the end of the interview when they ask if you have any questions take advantage of this. One of my favorite questions is "Do you think there is anything I should know about the position that we haven't already discussed?", it is amazing the amount of information this question has given me. Including "You should know we fired the last 3 people in this position because they were not meeting KPI's within 3 months"

The last bit I will impart is to always be prepared for the "what is your biggest weakness?" question. This question often comes in different forms but is normally in there.

Don't do something super lame and say "I am a workaholic who loves this company at the expense of all else". What I normally indicate is a positive but in a negative light.

Often I have said that I expect low performers to become strong performers much quicker than possible. I indicate that because I hold everyone to such a high level this is something I have to work on.

It's a good answer because its true (least in my case) and it puts in you in a win/win situation. The interview won't go "ohh we have only low performers"

You want to pick something though that suits your own situation and what they are looking for. In the last interview I was at I flat out told my interview that I "wasn't looking for a company or manager that would placate me. If I had a problem with my manager I would tell them and I expect the same in return. Some people could consider me occasionaly rude due to this".

That statement could come off very harsh in some situations but it worked well in the one I was going for and I got offered the job. (didn't take it but still good).

I notice I didn't really include many examples of questions for you. Think of something you would like to brag about though (never be modest) and you can definetly find a way to make that an answer to question.

I snooped around a bit and think these are good questions to be prepared for;

•Describe a time when you have had to deal with a disgruntled customer.
•Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a decision your supervisor
made.
•Tell me about a period of time when you had to deal with a lot of stress.
•Tell me about a time when you had to work as part of a team. What was the
project, how many members on the team and what was the outcome?
•Describe the supervisor that you enjoyed working with. Provide examples
of why you enjoyed this relationship.
•Describe the supervisor you least liked working with. Provide examples of
why you did not enjoy this relationship.
•Tell me about a time when you had to juggle a number of things at the same time


Hope this helps a bit,

Justin Dechaine

Three people answered my call. I am really grateful!!!!

I heard from a friend that the interview from a supervisor to an assistant manager has a lot of questions on the effective way of dealing with the account clients, that, i am afraid is one of the areas that i've had very little exposure too. i spent my last three years in cust service dealing mainly with customers, my agents and my managers but never directly with the client.