Fork Lift Driver

☛ What is your management style? What is your training/mentoring style?

☛ Are you a big-picture manager or a micro-manager? Do you have trouble delegating authority?

☛ What methods do you use to communicate to your staffers?

☛ Have you led projects, task forces, committees, or a change management program?

☛ Have you been involved in a high-stakes conflict?

☛ What would you do your first week or month on the job?

☛ What qualities are responsible for your success?

☛ Some of your colleagues also applied for this supervisory job and might resent you if we select you to supervise them. How would you deal with that? Or the staff might resent an outsider brought in to supervise them. How would you deal with

☛ that?

☛ How do you reward good performers and deal with poor performers or problem performers?

☛ How would you deal with an employee who wasn’t measuring up? You would have to make some tough calls here in the future on disciplinary problems.

☛ Are you up to the task?

☛ What would you do if one of your employees wasn’t measuring up? We are going to have to make some tough calls here in the future on disciplinary problems. Are you up to the task?

☛ How have you helped your organization implement the President’s Management Agenda? Which metrics have you helped your organization improve and how?

☛ Have you, for example, helped your organization improve its ratings on the Office of Management and Budget’s Program Rating Tool (PART), or improved your agency’s internal controls, information security, or financial reporting?

☛ What have you done to improve efficiency within your organization? Have you, for example, automated processes or moved any responsibilities to a shared service provider?

☛ Describe your experience responding to reviews from the Inspector General, the Government Accountability Office, the Office of Management and Budget, watchdog groups, or the media?

☛ How much experience do you have operating a forklift? What types of forklifts are you certified to operate?

☛ In what types of industrial environments have you operated a forklift?

☛ What shifts have you worked? Can you work second or third shift?

☛ Why did you leave your last job/why do you want to leave your current job?

☛ What do you like and dislike about being a forklift operator?

☛ What, in your opinion, are the most important qualities in a forklift operator?

☛ What will you do if we hire you for this position?

☛ What motivates you to do a good job?

☛ Do you prefer to work in a small, medium or large warehouse/distribution center environment? Why?

☛ What do you see as your best characteristics? Your worst?

☛ How would your current or last supervisor answer the above question?

☛ How will your best characteristic help you perform in this position?

☛ Where do you see yourself in your career/job in one year? In three years? Ten years?

☛ How many accidents have you been in while operating a forklift in the past year?

☛ Of those, how many can you honestly say were your fault? What could you have done differently to avoid the accident?

☛ Did the accident result in any lost productivity or revenue for your employer (that you know of)?

☛ What are the good characteristics of a leader?

☛ Does a good leader need power or authority?

☛ When have you placed yourself in a leadership position (even if you didn’t get the “title”)? Why did you do so/feel you had to?

☛ What makes a job move from OK/good to great?

☛ What kind of work situations make you feel stressed?

☛ How do you handle this stress on the job?

☛ No one likes everyone. What kind of co-workers do you find yourself having trouble with?

☛ Even though you may not like a co-worker, you still need to work with him/her. How do you handle working with someone whom you don’t like/grates on you?

☛ Have you found any ways to make the job of forklift operator easier or more productive?

☛ Tell me about yourself

☛ Why do you want to work here? What are you expecting from this job? What do you know about this organization?

☛ Tell me about your current job. Why do you want to leave your current job?

☛ How do you deal with stress?

☛ Why should we hire you rather than other applicants? What makes you stand out?

☛ What do you offer?

☛ What are your weaknesses? What area should you work on to become more effective?

☛ Identify a mistake you made and how you dealt with it. What have you learned from your mistakes?

☛ What are your strengths? What is the greatest asset you will bring to this job?

☛ What achievements are you most proud of? What was the most difficult, toughest academic or work project you completed?

☛ Tell me about an obstacle you recently conquered?

☛ When have you taken the initiative and gone the extra mile? Describe a professional situation that required you to use initiative or creative thinking to solve theproblem.

☛ Tell me how you improved your employer’s operations?

☛ In the future, we are going to be doing a lot of X. Would you be comfortable with that? (Hint: Reading your target organization’s strategic plan might help you identify new approaches that your target organization will be emphasizing.)

☛ Are you good at multi-tasking? Give an example. What would you do if you were working to meet a tight deadline and a manager instructed you to quickly complete another project?

☛ What makes a good boss and a bad boss? What did you like least about your past job or bosses? What management style do you work best under?

☛ How do you deal with difficult people? What would you do if someone on your team wasn’t pulling their weight? How do you deal with conflict? Describe a conflict that you recently resolved.

☛ When have you effectively convinced a manager to adopt a different approach?

☛ How do you respond to criticism?

☛ Do you work well in teams? How would you build a team? Do you work better in teams or independently?

☛ How do you describe yourself? Use [anywhere from one-to-five] words to describe yourself.

☛ Is this job glamorous enough for you?

☛ What would your boss and your colleagues say about you?

☛ What is the last book you read?

☛ What skills would you use here from your previous job?

☛ Are you tough enough to [pick one of these: supervise others, say “no” to clients when necessary, negotiate contracts]?

This could be a very simple question if you are prepared for it. You just have to talk about the strengths that you know would be of value to the company.

DO:

☛ Make the most of this question. This question gives you the control to guide the interview to where you want it so take advantage.

☛ Emphasize the strengths you have that are crucial to the position

☛ Find out from the job description and from company research, the kind of strengths the company invests in.

DON’T:

☛ Do not be too modest or claim to be what you are not

☛ Do not try to mention things you cannot illustrate with a brief example

☛ Do not mention the strengths that aren’t relevant to the job at hand

☛ Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?

☛ What is your experience in warehouse work and as a FLT driver?

☛ When did you past your FLT test?

☛ What is a pre-check on the FLT for?

☛ How do you know how much weight you can carry on the FLT?

☛ How do you let other workers know you are approaching them in the warehouse?

☛ What do you need to check for when unloading a truck using a FLT?

☛ How do you ensure you know where all the goods are in the warehouse?

☛ What would you do if you had a spillage?

☛ Why are delivery notes so important?

☛ How would you handle an angry delivery driver who was trying to rush you?

☛ Do you have any questions for me?