NZCS example interview questions

Leadership

• Tell us about a leadership role you have had in a work situation.  (If you cannot think of a work example, use a situation from your personal or social life.)  What were the challenges that this role presented to you?  How did you deal with these?  What was the outcome?
• Describe the process you use when delegating a responsibility to one of your staff.  Give an example from your recent experience.  What was the outcome for you, your staff member and the business?

Integrity

• Describe a situation that required you to compromise one of your basic principles.  What was the situation?  What principle did you compromise?  Why did you compromise?  How did you feel about it?
• Give us an example of a time when you were let down by someone else not meeting their commitment to you.  What did you learn from this experience?  What would you do next time?

Communication

• Give an example of a presentation you have made recently which pleased you.  What made it successful?  What tools or aides did you use to help get your message across?
• Tell us about a situation where you had a complex concept to explain to a number of people with varying levels of understanding.  How did you ensure that everyone understood the concept that you were explaining?

Innovation

• What tangible improvements have you personally made to the way in which the business operates?  How did you sell the benefits of the changes to the rest of the business?
• Give an example of a time where you came up with a solution to a problem that was completely different.  Why was it different?  What was the result?

Customer Focus

• Give an example of a time when you believe you exceeded a customer’s expectation.  How did you achieve this?  What was the result?
• Give a specific example of a time when you could not meet a customer’s request.  How did you manage the situation?  What was the outcome?

Teamwork

• Tell us about a situation where a team you were in was not working well or to its full potential.  What was your role in the team?  What was the cause of the problem?  What did you do to try to fix the problem?
• Describe the role you naturally play in a team?  How has this contributed to the success of the team?  How have you encouraged others to work as a team?

Conscientiousness

• An urgent matter arises at work 30 minutes before you are scheduled to finish, which will require you to stay behind to attend to.  What will you do?