Interview prep for supervisor job

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I've spent most of this week preparing for my supervisor interview tomorrow. It'll be highly competitive, and the general feeling around the office is that 1 slot is pretty much a given, but 8 of us will be fighting for the second slot.

If you are a supervisor or have hired for a supervisor position, what questions were you/did you ask? I have a pretty good feeling on what they'll ask, but wanted to get some other perspective.

I have my 3rd and final meeting to ask questions/gain some insight into department workings later today; I've sat down with the manager of another department in the division, a former coworker who was well respected and had good insight into the department/hiring process, and now a meeting at 11 today with a supervisor with a department we work very closely with. We know that there will be a lot of questions revolving around our work with other departments... so I think I have my bases covered on this.

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It's funny, I've been a supervisor for 5 years and helped hire one for our department this summer, but I'm not sure what to tell you--I think it depends so much on the individual department.

We always ask about technical skils. Have examples of leadership tasks you've taken on. If you will be responsible for things like training new staff, be prepared to share examples of when you have helped colleagues in learning.

If you would be supervising former peers, be prepared to discuss how you plan to be neutral towards people who used to be your friends and you will likely need to be willing to cut social ties. My personal rule is I attend events only if everyone is invited (so a happy hour after work on occassion--my boss usual comes to those too.)

Supervising requires striking a really strange balance--having absolutely no ego and being able to take feedback for improvement without internalizing it. As well as being able to have a lot of confidence in what you do and having no fear in having difficult conversations. Just remember that you are looking out for your team and the company and putting off difficult conversations helps no one.

So as far as actual advice, be confident. I don't think people can be too confident in situations like this. Also know that you can't reward people too much if they are actually doing a good job. If you have ideas on how to do that and engage current employees, I would definitely share that. Also think about any other issues the team is having and how you might approach them--be careful about solutions that make huge changes--that may be insulting towards the managers interviewing you because they put those processes into place.

Good luck! I have found much reward in the challenge of supervising people.

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Thanks for the insight. The last paragraph is actually where we have a LOT of issues right now, we went through a major restructuring and there are a lot of bitter people around. It's one of the questions I plan to ask them (what they perceive to be the biggest challenges facing the department in the next 12 months), and I have some ideas on current morale issues.

I appreciate it!