Interview 'question you'd like to ask us' how can I say this properly?!

t0rt0ise

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I disagree, I have been doing my line of work for too long but at any one time every organisation I have worked for feels it is suffering a particular "issue".

When I ask the question I dont really expect them to give me a generic, "what are the challenges in project management" in general, because every organisation faces those. Their answer to the question however is much more "now" or what they believe is a quirk of theirs.

So recently a lot of companies have been flirting with a new methodology of running projects and a few companies I've spoken to have discussed the teething problems of how you switch from one methodology to the other and how you educate your stakeholders on the differences.

Its a topic I understand well and its an issue I have come across before and therefore I am able to show I can bring insight and experience to an issue that to date I've not been directly asked about in interview to date.

Sometimes their answer can be a more generic thing like "difficulty in securing resources" and they've asked you earlier about how you approach the issue of resource managers saying no one is available but then I personally make a bit of a joke about the fact that it now makes more sense why they asked that particular question before and reitterate the fact I've dealt with the resource managers from hell before and successfully delivered to time, quality and budget despite them.

Well then your advice is for a very particular type of work and not fit for a general response to anyone else at an interview. That question is certainly often asked by the interviewers in the sort of jobs I apply for and if I were to ask they'd think I was daft.

InsideInsurance

Even in more "routine" jobs the question still stands true.... I did 10 years of call centre-esque work before moving into what I do now and with inbound work the "challenges" could vary from tough cross/ up sell targets, high call volumes, strict KPIs on call lengths, strict adherence to compliance, particularly irate customers etc etc... asking the question further helped identify what key skills they want and so you knew what elements of your experience/ skills/ acheivements to highlight.

So when I went to work for an outsourcing company they said the toughest challenge was doing the "offer of the day" conversion rates and so I was able to point out that in a previous role I worked on the Exec complaints team and despite evidently dealing with very disgruntled customers I still managed to significantly exceed the conversion rate targets that the order line staff had to meet.

In_the_red

Interview went very well and not as intense as I imagined. I got really, really good feedback so if I don't hear back on Tuesday that I have it I'm still glad as I got experience and confidence in his reactions to my answers.

MoneySavingUser

In_the_red wrote: »

Interview went very well and not as intense as I imagined. I got really, really good feedback so if I don't hear back on Tuesday that I have it I'm still glad as I got experience and confidence in his reactions to my answers.

good news

smileylondongal

What a lovely confidence boost. Fingers crossed for you!