Office Clerk interview questions and answers
Use these sample Office Clerk interview questions to identify candidates who can effectively perform administrative tasks. Feel free to modify the questions to suit your specific job duties.
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Office Clerk Interview Questions
Office Clerks play an important part in ensuring a company’s daily operations run smoothly. They keep organized records, prepare reports and perform basic bookkeeping tasks.
Your potential hires should have the will to take on a variety of duties with the attitude that no job is too small. Experience with office equipment like printers and scanners is essential. If necessary, consider adding a computer skills assessment in your hiring process to test candidates’ typing and data entry abilities, along with their knowledge of MS Word and MS Excel.
Opt for people who are motivated, understand your company’s needs and are genuinely interested in joining your team. Your ideal candidates are reliable and seek ways to improve daily tasks. They have also good communication skills and feel comfortable acting as the point of contact for clients and other employees.
Operational and Situational questions
- Five minutes before a training session, you realize that you forgot to print 1,000 pages of educational material. How would you handle this situation?
- How would you choose which emails to address first on a Monday morning?
- If you’re planning to be out of the office for a week, what instructions would you give to your coworkers to ensure they can deal with an emergency?
- How would you create a spreadsheet to keep track of office expenses? What information would you include and how regularly would you update it?
- What would you do if you lost an important document?
Role-specific questions
- How do you ensure accurate data entry?
- Do you use any calendar management tools? How do you use them to organize your daily and weekly schedules?
- What kinds of reports have you created in your past positions? What did you use those reports for?
- How do you keep organized filing systems?
- What do you name computer files to ensure your coworkers can easily find what they’re looking for? List two to three examples.
- What is your experience with handling cash transactions and invoices?
Behavioral questions
- Have you ever had to take on a task you were not familiar with because of an emergency at the office? What was it and what did you do?
- Some of this work can be repetitive. What would help you stay motivated?
- What are the goals you set for yourself at work? What do you need to achieve them?
- What’s your favorite part about this job? What is your least favorite?
- Have you ever had to deal with a difficult coworker? If so, how did you handle the relationship?
- Have you ever suggested a way to save time or money? If so, what was your suggestion and how did you come up with it?
- How do you communicate with supervisors, coworkers and subordinates in high-stress situations?