Question

You are the Human Resources Manager at the Bahrain office of a well reputed real estate firm ‘Homes are Us’ specialized in creating, selling, and maintaining the high-end residential spaces. The company’s headquarters is in Bahrain, with other offices in Saudi Arabia, Oman & Kuwait and employs around 100 professionals. The sales team comprises of a Sales Manager, 4 Sales Executives and 4 supporting staffs at every office. Company plans to hire an additional Sales Executive for the Bahrain Sales team. As part of the managerial decision-making process, you are required to conduct a job analysis for the following job position of a Sales Executive.

a) Why would you conduct an interview for a job applicant as a part of the selection process? (50 - 100 Words) (1 Mark) (ILO: A1)

b) Provide a brief description of the category of the interview question given in the table below. Provide an example of each category of the questions that you would ask to the sales executive job applicant during an interview. (200 - 250 Words) (ILO: A1, B3, C2)

No.

Types of interview

Questions

Description

An example of a question

1

Situational question

2

behavioural questions

Answer 1

a) Job interview is a type of communication between the prospective candidate to be hired by the representative of the employer. The employer's representative asked the prospective candidate various questions to judge his capability for the post he was going to be hired. An interview also helps the recruiter to make a selection of the best candidates, amongst the different candidates, who have applied for that vacant job position. By conducting an interview, the recruiter's task becomes quite easy to make the major decision of hiring.

b)

1. Description Question- In this type of question the interviewer tries to verify the candidate's educational qualification, experiences, skill sets, industrial rules and practices. The interviewer tries to find out whether the candidate has really acquired the qualifications that have been mentioned in his credentials, whether he actually possess the experience that he is claiming to have and also the candidate's detailed knowledge about the prospective work for which, he is going to be hired. In this round there is generally detailed question and the interviewee has to answer those in a detailed way, so that the interviewer could have a clear picture of the background,  theoretical and practical background.

An example of a question- How do you initiate a sales deal, make it happen and then close the deal?

2. Situational question-  In this type of questions a hypothetical situation is created and the interviewee is asked about ways that he/she would have reacted in that given situation. It is total to judge the interviewee's contingency approach and their presence of mind and patience, when they are subjected to difficult conditions. It also helps to understand the candidate's ability to access the situation's gravity and to react accordingly.

An example of a question- What type of hindrance do you think will come in your way, if you agree to work in my company and what are the ways by which you can solve those problems?

3. Behavioral questions- These were the types of questions asked about handling some tricky or problematic situations in the past. These types of questions are asked to judge one's personality traits to handle a difficult situation or problem solving skills that one possessed e.t.c. The interviewer generally wants to access the problematic incidents faced by the candidates in the past.

An example of a question-- Have you ever transformed a client's negativity to positivity and closed the deal. If so, how?