Provisional Blog

Trust is essential when building a healthy and productive work environment.  Whether you’re leading an entire department or work hand in hand with a just a few coworkers it’s important to build trusting relationships.

Here are several tips to help trust both with coworkers and your superiors:

• Follow through on commitments.  The easiest way to lose someone’s trust and confidence is to let them down.  Make sure you meet your commitments and don’t set deadlines you can’t meet.
• Be honest and share information completely. Be straightforward and honest with everyone and expect the same in return.
• Stand up for what you believe in.  If you feel strongly about an issue, make sure you voice your opinion–but be sure you can share some evidence to support your view.
• Be open to the ideas of others. Don’t dismiss an idea simply because it doesn’t align with what you had in mind.  Take everyone’s feedback into consideration before making a final decisions and let other’s be heard.
• Learn from your mistakes.  Mistakes will happen, and when they do, own up to them.  Taking responsibility and developing a process to ensure the same mistake isn’t repeated is a great way to build trust.

By fostering a workplace of trust, you’ll discover that employees are more engaged, productive and efficient.  You’ll also discover that work ethics improve and turnover will drastically decrease.

Imagine this situation:

You’re in the middle of interviewing for an amazing new job at one of the top companies in Spokane. You’ve nailed every single question asked and then you get a curveball:

“If you were an animal, what animal would you be?”

You think to yourself, what in the world does this have to do with an accounting job?  

This type of interview question is designed to stump you. The interviewer wants to see how you react and how quickly you can think on your feet.  So how would you respond?

Here’s what to do and what NOT to do in this kind of situation:

• Don’t let the question rattle you. Simply smile and take a deep breath.
• Ask for a moment to give it some thought. A moment of silence or a pause in the conversation is better than blurting out a ridiculous answer.
• If you don’t know what the interviewer is fishing for in your answer, then ask for clarification or for an example. Many times by discussing the question in this way, an answer will come to you.
• If you still can’t think of a good answer, simply ask the interviewer to come back to that question.
• Also, don’t worry about being brilliant or witty. Just be yourself and give an honest response. There is rarely a wrong answer to these kinds of questions.
Here are some examples of other unexpected job interview questions that may come your way:
• If you could have dinner with anyone from history, living or dead, who would it be and why?
• Who do you admire the most and why?
• If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?

Also, while you can’t prepare for every off-the-wall question, make sure you ARE prepared for the basic questions, such as:

• Tell me about yourself?
• Where do you see yourself in one year? Five years?
• Tell me about a time when you successfully handled a complicated situation?
• What are your strengths? Weaknesses?
• What do you consider your biggest career achievement?
• Why should we hire you?
• Why do you want this job?

As Spokane’s leading staffing and recruiting agency, Provisional knows what employers are looking for during job interviews.  If you’re searching for work and need help preparing for an interview, please contact Provisional today. We can help.