It always pays to be prepared. Here are some tips and tricks for the sorts of questions you can expect at an interview for a school cleaning position. By brushing up on your answers ahead of time, you’ll be sure to impress the interviewer and find employment faster.
1. Prove yourself
When thinking about a job interview, consider the perspective of the employer. What are they looking for when they ask each question? Many standard interview questions are designed to give you a chance to prove your integrity, honesty and work ethic.
Seize this opportunity! Whenever you’re asked to “describe a time” or presented with a hypothetical situation, show that you’re trustable, motivated and willing to work with a team.
2. Let your answers stand out
Standard questions like “what’s your biggest flaw” or “describe a challenge you’ve faced in the past” aren’t just there to trip you up. The interviewer is looking for unique answers that show how you stand out from a field of other candidates.
If you can, try to answer in a way that he or she hasn’t heard before. Don’t disqualify yourself, obviously. There’s a reason interviewers don’t hear about drug habits very often.
Being unique in an appropriate way will make your interview stand out and make a potential employer more likely to call you.
3. Read the job description
By getting a good idea of what you’re supposed to do ahead of time, you can give yourself material to study in preparation for an interview. What kinds of cleaning are you expected to do?
Make sure that you have something to say about the equipment and supplies involved. How big is the school? Will you be working alone or with a team? What responsibilities other than cleaning can you expect? How old are the students? All of these facts can help you prepare for a successful interview.
Example question: Tip 3 in action
“How is custodial work different at a school versus working in an office environment?”
Here’s an answer you could give with some preparation:
“Office workers are adults. While they don’t do all of my work for me, I can expect them to clean up after themselves in a lot of cases. They’re also much more likely to call custodial staff immediately after a spill or other large event.
Here at Sunnyland Elementary, I’ll be cleaning up after children between the ages of 3 and 11. They’re a lot messier in their day-to-day interactions and they’re much more likely to let things like spills go unreported.
This means that I can expect to spend more time picking up trash and cleaning up after activities. When I encounter major cleaning challenges, I can expect them to be less fresh. I still have to do regular maintenance cleaning like vacuuming and washing windows, but I can expect that to be a smaller part of my day.”
Without preparation, your answer would be much more generic. By knowing how old the children at the school are, you can give a more accurate and precise answer. You can use other facts here too, like the size of the school and how many people you expect to be working with as part of the custodial staff.
Preparation gives killer interviews
If you’re looking to find employment, don’t neglect to prepare for job interviews. Even though jobs in school cleaning might not look like they require a lot of knowledge, spending some time reading about cleaning techniques, supplies and machinery is a good idea.
It’ll go a long way towards answering tricky interview questions. Research the job, read the job description and find out as much as you can about the school. It’ll help you give the sort of answers that the interviewer wants to hear.
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