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Questions to Expect: Attention to detail

Published: Mar 10, 2009

 Interviewing       
The quality search

Interviewers, inevitably, seek the ideal candidate. To become this perfect hire, put yourself in the mind of the interviewer. Take a good look at yourself. What does this person look like? How does this person dress, and carry him or herself? Which qualities does this interviewee demonstrate in his or her answers? Increasingly, interviewers will ask behavioral questions -- questions that seek to understand you through the prism of your past behavior and accomplishments. Here's a look at some questions you might receive. These questions are designed to assess your organizational skills and attention to detail.

Organization and attention to detail

In order to plan for the future, you've got to be organized enough to have the present situation under control. In an interview situation, organizational ability can be implied in the way you dress, groom yourself, and handle the papers you bring with you. (Even something tiny, like forgetting a notepad and having to ask your interviewer for note paper, can peg you, unfairly, as a slacker.) It can also be demonstrated in the way you carefully structure your answers by revealing your careful attention to process when describing past experiences.

Mastery of even the smallest details is a crucial part of any job. If a person can't master the smaller details, no matter what the position, they'll have trouble advancing in the industry. As mentioned, your resume and cover letter are good places to start demonstrating an attention to detail. There is no reason why these documents shouldn't be perfect. You don't want your career to be put on hold because you tripped over a misspelling in a cover letter.

  1. How important are details to you? Why or why not?

  2. What does it mean to you to be organized?

  3. What role do you think organization plays or should play in this position?

  4. How important has organization been to your past positions?

  5. Are you naturally an organized person? If not, what steps do you take to organize yourself?
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