Saturday, October 13, 2007

Interview questions

So say I’m interviewing someone to replace me at my last job, and I get to ask them ten questions to determine whether or not both they and the company would benefit from him or her taking my position. My most recent position was a salesperson at a small new and used computer store which also did repair and upgrades. So, what would I ask him or her?

  1. How do you handle stressful situations?
  2. If your boss was doing something blatantly illegal, how would you handle that situation?
  3. A customer comes in asking if you can reduce the price on a particular item, along with an ad from a competitor advertising the same product at a much lower price. You happen to know that this product is priced at 10 times the cost to the company. What would you do?
  4. A customer comes in asking you to pirate software, and then becomes irate when you refuse. What would you say to him or her to diffuse the situation?
  5. Can you define the difference between a virus and spyware?
  6. Can you list three of the more common ways to infect a PC with spyware, and a way to prevent it?
  7. How would you explain to a customer that even though we charge a certain number of hours for a specific repair, that does not mean that their computer would be ready for pickup in that number of hours (for example, we charge two hours of labor for a format and reload, although it actually takes six to eight hours to complete)?
  8. How flexible is your schedule? How long beforehand would you need to know if you were needed to work late?
  9. Can you point out and then briefly describe the function of the following hardware: Hard drive, RAM, NIC, modem, CD ROM, motherboard, video card?
  10. How would you explain to a customer the difference between their programs and their data, as well as the fact that their data can be backed up, but not their programs?

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