Best Administrative Coordinator Interview Questions

Administrative Coordinator Interview Questions

Administrative Coordinator roles require an individual who thrives when faced with a variety of admin related challenges. This could be anything from data entry and invoice tracking to financial reporting and meeting coordination.

The ideal Administrative Coordinator will check the following boxes:

Hugely capable when faced with large sets of data.
Incredible timekeeping skills.
Strong levels of computer knowledge, including Microsoft Office alongside any software that your company uses.
Superb scheduling abilities.

Administrative Coordinators will often work closely with HR and Accounting Departments to streamline processes like payroll coordination and organising personnel files. So, it is a good idea to get a feel for their teamwork and structuring abilities during your interview.

Interviewing an Administrative Coordinator

Hiring the right Administrative Coordinator will work wonders for the organisation of your teams’ file systems, ensure there is never a backlog of admin to work through and in turn boost productivity levels all across the business.

Our draft interview questions for an Administrative Coordinator are designed to be used at the beginning of the interview process, so are a little more general than you might use in a second or third interview. This helps you get to know if the candidate is a right fit from early on.

How to open the job interview

As we all know, job interviews can be incredibly nerve-wracking, especially in the early stages. These interview jitters can have a real impact on how well you get to know your potential hire, so it’s best to have a couple of ‘fun’ questions prepared to break the ice.

This icebreaker section doesn’t have to take more than a few minutes but will be sure to warm things up enough to put the candidate at ease.

Job Description available

See our Administrative Coordinator Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What is it that drew you to an Administrative Coordinator position?

How did you get into Administrative Coordination?

Behavioral Questions

What traits do you think make a good Administrative Coordinator?
The candidate's answer here will show how well they understand the duties of the position, as well as give you an insight into their strengths and skills.
How do you prioritise your administrative tasks?
This question will give you an idea of the candidate's time management skills and will help you better understand how well they work under pressure.
How do you cope with organise large amounts of files, emails or data?
Answering this question will give you a better understanding of the candidate’s organisation skills, it will also potentially give you an insight into their previous experience with tasks such as these.

Soft Skills

Tell me about a time when you’ve had to handle important or confidential documentation?
This answer will give you a better idea of the candidate’s experience with file management, prioritisation and documentation skills. It will also open a conversation regarding their previous positions.
Describe a time when you’ve needed to manage communication between multiple departments?
You should gain insight into the candidate’s people skills, communication skills and ability to gather and organize information from multiple sources based on this answer.
What are some ways in which you could improve a team’s administrative efficiency?
Here you can gain an insight into the candidates initiative abilities.
How comfortable are you with handling multiple projects at once?
This role will certainly involve multitasking, so it is important to be clear that this is a skill the candidate has.

Hard Skills

How much experience do you have working with computers, and which software would you say you’re most skilled with?
This gives you a rough idea of the systems that the candidate has worked with, and will allow you to cross-check them with the ones which you use within your company.
Describe in detail which KPIs you would measure a team’s administrative performance and the steps you could take to improve these?
The answer the candidate gives here will allow you to assess whether their KPI criteria are in line with your expectations.
What would your step by step process be when entering data from multiple teams for an important financial project?
This aims to assess a candidate's organisation skills and ability to perform this crucial action in a structured way.

Operational / Situational Questions

How would you handle a situation where you’re required to create a report but find that some of the information is missing?
Finding out how a candidate would handle this scenario will give you a valuable idea of their problem-solving skills.
If you were handed a large administrative task that became overwhelming, how would you deal with this situation?
This answer should also touch on the candidate’s problem-solving ability, as well as prioritisation and ability to work well in a team.
How would you help to streamline a task that involved coordinating data between two departments that communicate poorly with each other?
This is a great way to assess the candidate's problem solving and communication skills, you're looking for a candidate who can navigate this situation in a professional and friendly manner.
Describe a time when you have encountered a bottleneck during a task, and explain how you overcame it.
This answer will give you another real-world example of the candidate’s abilities.