Executive Assistant interview questions and answers
This Executive Assistant interview profile brings together a snapshot of what to look for in candidates with a balanced sample of suitable interview questions. Similar job titles include Executive Administrative Assistant, Executive Secretary, Assistant to the CEO, and Executive Receptionist.
Are you a candidate?
Crush your interview with our guide
Make sure that you are interviewing the best Executive assistant candidates. Sign up for Workable's 15-day free trial to hire better, faster.
Executive Assistant Interview Questions
Executive Assistants are responsible for a variety of professional, and sometimes personal, low-level coordination for executives. Typically, experienced Executive Assistants command a high salary. But, if you’re working with a leaner budget, you can also hire a motivated, resourceful, and organized new graduate or someone with fewer years of experience.
One major responsibility of Executive Assistants is managing the schedules of their superiors. This extends to booking appointments and travel. Executive Assistants also frequently help executives with reports, presentations, and other correspondence and must have strong written communication skills and intermediate office software skills (Powerpoint, Excel). Your Executive Assistant will also act as your gatekeeper and personal representative. You should be able to trust them to screen calls and requests for meetings with a pleasant and professional demeanor. Finally, Executive Assistants have access to a great deal of sensitive information. Use these interview questions for an executive assistant as an opportunity to find out if they can maintain a high level of confidentiality.
These sample executive assistant interview questions questions are written to help you dig deeper into your candidate’s work process, problem-solving skills, interpersonal communication skills, and technical skills. The questions are open-ended and situational, written to help you differentiate hands-on experience from theoretical experience. The best candidates will have smart, spontaneous questions of their own to ask, and will have done their research on your company and industry.
Operational and Situational questions
- Talk about any work experience you have that is relevant for this role.
- Describe your typical workday as an Executive Assistant. How do you prioritize your tasks?
- Do you support more than one person? If so, how do you prioritize your tasks?
- What would you do if two people you support gave you conflicting directions?
- What kinds of reports and communications did you work on for your superior or CEO?
- Recall a time you worked on a challenging project with multiple people. What was the project? What was the outcome?
- Your CEO has given you sensitive information about a possible merger with another company. Another executive asks you what you know about these plans. How do you handle it?
- How would you rate your ability to maintain confidentiality?
- How would you rate your computer skills?
- What specific software programs do you feel are essential to your day-to-day work?
- Describe your experience with booking international and domestic travel.
- What process would you use to set up a meeting?
- Recall a time you disagreed with your colleagues about how to execute a project. How did you resolve it?
- How would you rate your ability to work with difficult personalities?
- How much do you know about this company and industry?