SUGGESTED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
A.Standard Questions
1.What trends are emerging in American Society that promise to significantly influence local government risk insurance s in the coming decade? As Executive Director of POOL, how would you prepare or change the organization to cope with these trends?
2.Political considerations are an important factor when dealing with many organizations at one time. Give us an example of a politically sensitive situation you found yourself in during the past year. Explain how you handled this situation.
3.As the newly appointed Executive Director of POOL, what are some techniques you would employ to create an atmosphere of trust and unity within the organization? What experience will you draw upon to assist you in the transition?
4.Heads of local government risk insurance sare constantly confronted with conflicting demands from different segments of the community. How would you minimize or balance these conflicting demands?
5.Describe actions you have initiated and taken that were unpopular with segments of the customer base. What did you do to gain an understanding with customers regarding these actions?
6.What do you consider to be your major accomplishments in your current and previous positions as they relate to this position?
7.What do you feel has been your greatest frustration or disappointment in your present or previous positions, and why do you feel this way?
8.What three words would others use to describe you and how would they differ from your self-assessment?
9.What do you see as the primary role of the Executive Director of POOL and what qualifications should one possess to be successful in this position?
10.Why do you want this job?
11.What are your long-term goals, and how does this position relate to them?
12.What has been your experience, and how have you interacted with a Commission, Board, or Council?
13.How did you prepare for this interview?
14.What makes you uniquely qualified to be the Executive Director of POOL?
15.What are your thoughts about technological automation in the workplace (i.e., microcomputers, electronic mail, optical imaging, etc.)? What has been the level of usage of these tools in your current or former positions?
16.Heads of local government risk insurance soften have vexing problems that defy traditional problem solving methods. Tell us about a time when you employed your creative talents to solve an administrative problem. Be specific. What did you do?
17.Sometimes leaders of organizations have to take risks to solve problems. Recall a time when the risk you took did not result in the outcome you expected. What happened?
18.What was the most difficult decision you had to make in your career and what did you learn from it?
19. Communication with the press or other news media can be tense under the best of circumstances. Tell us the last time you had to make a critical decision about how much information to communicate with a member of the news media about a specific incident. What did you consider?
20.Describe the level and nature of customer involvement in the direction of operations in your current organization.
21.What has been your experience with elected officials?
B.Simulation Questions
1.It is 5:30 in the evening and the Chamber of Commerce calls you and asks you to speak to them that evening at 6:00 PM. They would like for you to speak on the subject of Ethics in the Public Entity Risk Insurance Industry." Roughly outline some points you would like to touch on.
2.The Board of Directors is severely split on most every issue and the situation is worsening. You can't get anything accomplished because of walking the tightrope between factions. How would you handle the situation? Why?
3.POOLhas been sued because of an apparent failure on your part to properly protect its liability and risk relative to the handling of a personnel problem. How would you handle the situation?
4.There is low morale in one Department reporting to you because of the apparent way the Department Head manages. His style of management is highly autocratic and unreasonably demanding. Turnover within the Department is high. Productivity is low. You could fire him but do not have any documentation. What would be your approach to handling this situation?
5.You discover that one of your Department Heads is showing unusual favoritism in the way that a particular employee is being handled. On further investigation you determine that this Department Head has a close personal relationship with this employee. How would you deal with the situation?
- A key employee is doing a good job but apparently has an alcohol or drug-related dependency. How would you handle this situation?
- Paint me a picture of your work day.
- If your current supervisor(s) were here right now, what they say about you?
- Is there anything that you would change about your current organization?
- An employee comes to you with sensitive information. What do you do?
- What else did you want to tell us?
Follow-up Questions
1. Can you explain that?
2. What was your part in that?
3. Can you be more specific?
4. Why did you take that course of action? What resulted from it?
C.Targeted Selection Questions
1.What is your style of management? How do you manage your staff?
2.What has been your experience in increasing the customer base of a local government risk insurance pool? What specific tools do you think are most appropriate to employ in this environment?
3.Describe your experiences with cost containment/downsizing.
4.What experience have you had in working with an active customer base comprised of diverse groups or organizations?
5.What has been your direct experience with budgeting and finance?
6.What experience have you had in dealing with staff recruitment and development?
7.What are two traits that you think are essential to being an effective leader?
8.Sometimes organizational leadershave to make quick decisions under pressure. Give us an example during the past six months when this has been the case? What did you do?
9.Give us an example of a committee, task force, board, council, or commission that you were involved with where the members had their own hidden agendas, and did not wish to work towards the agenda assigned. How did you handle it?
10.You often have to make recommendations to the Board of Directors on issues that have strong political implications. Give us an example of one such recommendation, and tell us how you handled it.
11.From time to time, actions occur which damage the public's confidence in a local government risk insurance pool. Give us an example of how this has happened and tell us how you have handled it.
12During your professional career, you undoubtedly have had work-related situations evolve which have been significant problems for you to deal with. Sometimes the more you get into such a problem, the worse it gets. Give us an example of such a problem, and tell us how you have dealt with it.