Admin Assistant Interview - IT Task (not sure what this involves)

Hesty

I have an interview on Friday at a school for the post of Admin Assistant. Before the formal interview takes place I have to perform an IT task. I'm a little nervous about this as I have no idea what this will involve.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what it might be so that I can do a little bit of practise work on my computer skills.

Thanks.

Alikay

I've had this at a couple of interviews and basically the task depends what sort of business it is. For example one job I went for was in a school, so I had to produce forms for assessment of work, input some info onto a mock up of the school's system and do a programme/flyer type thing for a school event. I failed miserably by attempting to do something on Excel when word or Powerpoint would've been better...but didn't like the sound of the job anyway:rotfl:

Another time I just had to produce some monthly statistics for a letting agency...pretty simple stuff. Another time I just had to do a simple data input exercise and a letter, mainly to check I was OK on grammar, spelling and accuracy. I think it's quite common to ask for a demo of someone's IT skills these days as they vary hugely even though 2 different candidates hold ECDL or similar.

viktory

The job description should give a good idea of what the role entails and therefore the task will be based on this. At a guess, I would suggest something based on Word, perhaps a letter to a parent or demonstrate your Excel or Access skills.

tiff

I went for a school admin job and had half an hour to write a letter to a parent re school dinner money arrears and also a poster for a school fete. I had to use the school logo which was located on a usb stick and then save the letter and poster to the usb.

I've worked in credit control so asked the parent to pay the arrears asap and in future meals would need to be paid for in advance. When I got feedback I was told the parents were obviously having problems so I should have invited them into the school office to discuss it. The poster was ok but I should have included a border and some clip art. Obviously I didnt get the job but it was my first interview in 10 years so good experience.

Savvy_Sue

tiff wrote: »

I went for a school admin job and had half an hour to write a letter to a parent re school dinner money arrears and also a poster for a school fete. I had to use the school logo which was located on a usb stick and then save the letter and poster to the usb.

I've worked in credit control so asked the parent to pay the arrears asap and in future meals would need to be paid for in advance. When I got feedback I was told the parents were obviously having problems so I should have invited them into the school office to discuss it. The poster was ok but I should have included a border and some clip art. Obviously I didnt get the job but it was my first interview in 10 years so good experience.

That sounds like reasonable tasks to me for that kind of job. Although the idea that one 'should' include a border and clip art on a school poster is down to personal taste IMO.

Where I work, I've asked people to type a letter from notes provided, and to enter figures into a spreadsheet. I've stated that the figures need to be checked, so you can't just copy them, you have to work out if they are correct, eg if I've said 2 books @ £5 each but put £12 as the total for books then there's clearly a problem!

Basic competence is all I've looked for, but it's surprising how many people apply for an admin job who can't type! Even more surprising is how we managed to shortlist them ...

heretolearn_2

Basic competence is all I've looked for, but it's surprising how many people apply for an admin job who can't type! Even more surprising is how we managed to shortlist them ...

I agree with that!

We've started giving everyone an IT test now, because you can't believe a thing you read on CVs about IT skills. It's usually just something basic related to the job. For admin roles, we normally ask them to open a blank letterhead doc from a specified folder, write a letter using the info provided, and then save it in a specified folder. It's a good way to check basic writing skills (spelling,grammar, can they write a business letter) and basic IT in being able to find your way round the folders. We get a lot of people who can do the letter but can't save it properly, for example.

Sometimes we've done a simple Excel test for admin people as well, as a lot of our data is kept in Excel. So I create an extract of a database (for example in a school this might be a list of child name, parent name and contact details) and then messed it up and got them to sort it out. So it might be 'put back into alphabetical order by child's surname, remove blank lines, sort out any odd formatting and fonts'. It's very basic but it shows very quickly if someone is actually used to working in Excel or not.

I don't think they'll ask you to do anything hard. It's not trying to trip you up or test you on intricate tasks. It's just 'can this person use a computer with a normal level of competence'. If you can open a document, do something with it, and save it, that's probably the essential parts of the test.

diavolina

heretolearn wrote: »

So it might be 'put back into alphabetical order by child's surname

Off topic but how do you actually do this - order something alphabetically in Excel? I use Excel daily at work and being able to do this quickly would be a massive help.

viktory

diavolina wrote: »

Off topic but how do you actually do this - order something alphabetically in Excel? I use Excel daily at work and being able to do this quickly would be a massive help.

Highlight the whole sheet and then click on (from memory, I am not at work at the moment) data sort. You are then given the option of which column field to sort, i.e., surname, DOB or whatever.,

Sambucus_Nigra

viktory wrote: »

Highlight the whole sheet and then click on (from memory, I am not at work at the moment) data sort. You are then given the option of which column field to sort, i.e., surname, DOB or whatever.,

Yes, but click 'header row' first or the column titles will disappear somewhere in the listing.....

Savvy_Sue

diavolina wrote: »

Off topic but how do you actually do this - order something alphabetically in Excel? I use Excel daily at work and being able to do this quickly would be a massive help.

Select the data, or the whole sheet, then I think it's Data, Sort.

If not, ask the Paperclip for help. Or the daft dog. Or whatever annoying icon pops up if you press Help.

If you want to sort sometimes by surname and sometimes by first name, you have to have them in separate cells.

treetrunks

Hi, we usually do a bit of copytyping and formatting into a word document. A data entry exercise and also some stuff with excel. Maybe set up a small spreadsheet, input some formulas and produce a graph. Never anything taxing and all the sort of things we would expect any candidate to do. Its also often a good sign of how people prepare and deal under pressure.