1) After applying, I got a phone call for an intial 30 minute interview where they asked basic background questions E.g.
- Why did you apply to Scotia?
- What do you know about the company?
- What are your salary expectations? (they were offering $37,500 for the position)
- What are your immediate goals?
- Where do you see yourself/plan to be in 5 years?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses? If we were to contact your last employer, what do you think they would say were your weaknesses or strengths?)
After that they asked if they could schedule a a behavioural interview over the phone (1 hour long), as well as complete a Salesforce questionaire (they email you a hyperlink for it).
The HR lady was quite nice and courteous - she didn't rush or sound condescending at all, in fact she told me to take my time, which was nice.
2) For the second phone interview she did ask if I had time to review and do some more research on the company (and I did). The remainder/most of the interview was on behaviorual questions related to customer service and sale's roles.
If you have never done behavioural questions before, the basic idea is that you should give them an example of how you handled a situation they are asking about, from one of your previous work/volunteer experiences. For example, they will ask questions like
- You have a client in your office and another one waiting outside at the same time, how would you handle this situation?
- Give me an example of a time you went above and beyond the duties and responsibilities of your job?
- Some people can never be pleased, so give me an example of how you handled an irate customer in such a situation?
- Tell me about a time you had to overcome major objection in an team/or from your boss, to get your idea across?
- Give me an example of a time you went above and beyond to satisy a client?
- Give me an example of time you figured out what your customer really wanted when they weren't explaining it clearly?
- Tell me about a time you made a process or business improvement?
- Tell me about a time you set a goal for yourself and how you went about achieving it?
- Give me an example of a time when you had to lead a team, or how you managed to make a team work together successfully?
Just remember that no matter which question they are ask you about - give them an example from a previous job or volunteer experience, not an example with your friends or girlfriend. Answer the questions in a BAR format (Background of the situation, what Action you took and what the Result was).
If you pass this stage and the questionaire, they will set you up for an inperson interview and send you the results of the personality test that you did.
3) The in person interview was very similar to the second phone internview. It was conducted by a branch Manager (mine had another branch manager present as well) and were mostly behavioural questions again, with more of a focus on what would you do in a branch setting. Both the interviewers were very nice, and quite human (although I have heard this isn't necessarily the case)
They asked questions on Ethics, salary expectations, willingness to to do overtime etc. Some of the ones I can remember are
- If you meet your targets for the year and your co-workers haven't - would you share the sale with them?
- If you suspect that a client in your office is attempting to commit fraud, what would you do - process the application and get the sale....or ?
- Are you willing to study, complete courses as necessary?
- What are your immediate goals?
I remember that the questions were deliberately more tricky, so be a little careful. They might ask you to chose between company profitability and doing the right thing - I would suggest picking the latter.
They interviewers may be nice, but they are still smart people.
Ultimately, if they ask you for references at the end of the interview - thats a good sign you have probably bagged the job.
Best of luck and remember to stay calm.
