Hopeless job interview

DebbieTheRabbit

Hi
I've got a job interview tomorrow for a collections advisor in the call centre for a retail company.

I've been working in debt collection for the past five years and I know I can do the job, the trouble is I hate interviews. It's not about who is best for the job it's who can give the best bull pre-rehearsed answers.

I've been trying to think of some answers for the inevitable "tell me about a time when you've...." questions. The trouble is after six years and thousands of calls, I can't remember any of them! I've spent the past few days trying to come up with something but am getting nowhere.

Can anyone help me out?

[Deleted User]

DebbieTheRabbit wrote: »

Hi
I've got a job interview tomorrow for a collections advisor in the call centre for a retail company.

It's not about who is best for the job it's who can give the best bull pre-rehearsed answers.

Nah hit them with your success rates!

Anyway a recruitment agent said recently one of the biggies was people going to an interview for a job that involved team work and saying they hate working as part of a team! !!!!!! :cool: I can only imagine they wanted to commit interview suicide. They had a list of all the things not to say to their client, I was heavily coached for STAR but when I got there it involved basic questions which included a dumb one like if you were a cookie, what type would you be. That said the job sounded very hard and was one where if you couldn't do it, you were not going to be around long.

Recent questions I can think of where along the lines of tell me when you've used your initiative - is the customer always right? Might you talk about getting the best result for customer and company? Why you want job?

Perhaps it will help if nobody else wants the job? I work in the lowest of the low that is telesales appointment setting, though I haven't gone a day without getting results - there wasn't a queue for the job by any means so I don't kid myself. (though it pays over £8 an hour and colleagues are actually pretty decent, I can't get the energy to do more then a couple of weeks which is probably all the role requires) good luck I'm jealous I'd like your type of job everywhere I've seen Credit Controller/collections advisor I know I've interviewed for Customer Services in past and so it would be a hard convert!

In another recent interview, I only answered two questions during an open day senario as I think first impressions still massively count as well. Smile and the world shall smile with you. Interviews get better when you become older then those conducting them! Ha ha

Doshwaster

DebbieTheRabbit wrote: »

Hi
I've got a job interview tomorrow for a collections advisor in the call centre for a retail company.

I've been working in debt collection for the past five years and I know I can do the job, the trouble is I hate interviews. It's not about who is best for the job it's who can give the best bull pre-rehearsed answers.

I've been trying to think of some answers for the inevitable "tell me about a time when you've...." questions. The trouble is after six years and thousands of calls, I can't remember any of them! I've spent the past few days trying to come up with something but am getting nowhere.

Can anyone help me out?

When I interview people I hate hearing the BS pre-rehearsed answers though many interviewers don't help by asking the usual BS questions.

You wouldn't have got the interview if they didn't think you could do the job. For me, I want to see some personality and find out if the person would fit in well with the team.

The most important thing is to relax. The best interviews are when you forget that it's actually an interview and just turns into a chat.

Brookside88

Not so much about answering questions but when they ask if you have any questions you ask "do you have any concerns about my ability to perform in the role?"

This forces them to picture you in the role. If they do raise any concerns then you have an opportunity to reassure them and if they don't have any concerns then you smile and say "great"

100% success rate for me

pinkshoes

You don't need to rehearse. Something will pop into your head once the adrenaline gets going,

Interviews are as much about you assessing whether they are a good company to work for as well as them assessing if you are suitable.

Just be yourself, and make sure you have read up on the company and know what they do etc...

sangie595

Many years ago a wise person told me that since I had been shortlisted I had already met every required criteria do the job, and that the only purpose of an interview was to see how much you could screw it up. So don't screw it up!

ACG

Make up some stories. They cant check them anyway.
They just want to hear about how you would treat tough enquiries.

DebbieTheRabbit

Thank you everyone for your replies!
I just panic and my mind goes blank, it doesn't help that I've got literally no self confidence.

elsien

You need to look at the job criteria because that will be the basis of the questioning.

So if there is an expectation that you can manage difficult conversations, then you must have already done hundreds of those. Think of one where you were being ranted or cried at, you were able to turn it round, calm someone down, and reach a solution without the person complaining about you. For example.

The trick is to have a couple of relevant ones in mind. Then you don't sound over rehearsed but your mind doesn't go blank while you mentally scramble around zillions of calls.

Savvy_Sue

The other thing is to practice beforehand. All the better if you can do it with someone, but almost as good in front of a mirror.

I find that if I've heard the words coming out of my mouth beforehand, they are more likely to come out at the right time.

Of course, this hasn't stopped me committing interview suicide. "Why do you want to work for XYZ?" "Well, I need a school hours job and you're offering one." Fortunately I heard this come out and managed to retrieve it ... but I wish I'd practised more beforehand!

Ja7188

Do some research on the company (not just the job itself) - a lot of other applicants probably won't do this so this may well give you an advantage.

Personal opinion, but I think rehearsing answers to what you think they might ask you isn't the best idea - if they ask you something slightly different to a question for which you've rehearsed an answer, and you find yourself reeling off the rehearsed answer, you could be deemed to have missed the point of the question...

Good luck!