43 Questions to Ask a Receiving Clerk at a Job Interview (With Example Answers)
Receiving clerks are very important in a warehouse because they unload deliveries and check to make sure they are right. If you want to be a receiving clerk and have an interview coming up, you may want to look at some examples of questions a hiring manager might ask and practice coming up with your own answers. This can help you get ready for your interview and improve your chances of getting a job as a receiving clerk. This article has 43 interview questions for people who want to work as receiving clerks. There are general questions, questions about the applicant’s background and experience, and more in-depth questions.
General interview questions
Here are 11 general questions you might be asked at a job interview for a receiving clerk position:
- What do you do really well?
- How would your old boss describe you?
- Why do you want to work for this business or organization?
- Please tell me a little bit about yourself.
- What do you want to do with your work?
- How did you hear about this job opening?
- Why are you quitting your current job?
- What are your biggest flaws, and how have you learned to live with them?
- What do you want from a place of business?
- How much money do you want?
- In the next 10 years, what do you want to do with your career?
Questions about your past and present
An interviewer may try to figure out your work history and level of experience by asking you specific questions. Here are 11 possible questions:
- Where did you go to school?
- What skills can you bring to this group?
- What did you have to do at your last job?
- Have you ever been in charge of getting things for a job?
- How long have you been in this line of work?
- What is an example of an idea you came up with on your own and used at a previous job?
- What’s the best thing you’ve done at work?
- Do you possess any relevant certifications?
- Have you ever worked in a warehouse or somewhere similar?
- What did you do at your previous job?
- Have you ever worked somewhere that was hard on your body?
Questions to ask receiving clerks in depth
When you go in for an interview for a job as a receiving clerk, the hiring manager may ask you any of the following 11 detailed questions about the job and your skills:
- Have you got enough muscle to lift at least 50 pounds?
- How can you tell what personal protective equipment (PPE) is in a warehouse?
- What would you say about the things that our business works with?
- How do you keep up with everything?
- Which skills and traits do you think are most important for this job?
- What are some things you might look for when you check a shipment?
- How do you make sure that the information you put into the inventory database is correct?
- Has it ever been hard for you to work with a vendor? How did you make it better?
- How many times have you moved shipments around to make them work better?
- How many different kinds of warehouses have you worked in?
- How would you deal with missing items or bills that don’t add up?
Questions and answers for a job interview with a receiving clerk
You might find it helpful to look at some detailed interview questions and answers for receiving clerks so you can practice coming up with your own answers. Here is a list of 10 questions an interviewer might ask, along with possible answers and reasons why they might ask them:
How do you make yourself do the work things you need to do?
As a receiving clerk, you may have to do the same tasks over and over again for long shifts, so an interviewer may ask you this question. So, people who work in this field often have to find ways to keep themselves motivated so they can do their jobs as well as possible. Try to talk about a few things you do to get more done and stay on task all day in your answer.
Example: “While working as a receiving clerk, I’ve always stayed motivated by establishing daily and weekly goals for myself. I try to give each thing I need to do a number and compare it to what I expect of myself. When I reach these goals and then do even better than I expected, I often feel a sense of pride that makes me want to keep working hard and staying productive.”
What would you do if you got a delivery and some of the things were broken?
As a receiving clerk, the interviewer might ask you this to see how well you can solve problems and deal with them in a positive way. For this job, you need to be able to move around and switch things up quickly. In your answer, explain how committed you are to following organizational procedures and getting the word out when there are problems with inventory.
Example: “If I saw that some of the items in a shipment were broken when they arrived, I would make a note of this as an inventory discrepancy and follow the organization’s exact procedures. I would be sure to tell my boss about this difference so they can understand what happened and keep it in mind for the future. Even though this is a common problem in shipping and receiving, it can be easier to deal with if people talk to each other and follow the rules.”
How do you avoid miscommunication in a professional environment?
When shipping and receiving don’t talk to each other well, it can be hard to keep track of inventory and get it to the right places. So, an interviewer might ask you this question to find out how you handle misunderstandings and what you can do to avoid them in the future. In your answer, try to say what you would do to fix the problems caused by miscommunication and how you would improve communication.
Example: “In this job, being able to talk to people well is very important. I think that strict rules that make it hard for wrong information to get out are one of the best ways to avoid miscommunications. For instance, procedural checklists are a great way to make sure that team members don’t forget to share important information.”
How do you want to help our group work well?
This is a question an interviewer might ask to see if you can think of creative ways to solve problems at work. You can do well in shipping and receiving if you can make things run more smoothly. Try to explain what you think makes a warehouse work well in your answer.
Example: “I think the key to keeping things running smoothly is to stay organized. When I’ve worked in a warehouse before, I’ve tried to set up systems that give team members a logical way to do their jobs and make work go faster. I would be willing to offer the same kinds of ideas in this role.”
What would you do if a coworker refused to wear their PPE?
It can be hard to deal with conflicts with coworkers, but you need to be ready for them, especially if a coworker does something that makes the workplace less safe. An interviewer might ask you this question to see how you would handle a similar situation and how you would keep a warehouse safe. Try to explain in your answer how you would talk to your coworker politely and remind them of safety rules.
Example: “Everyone on the team needs to follow safety rules in a warehouse to avoid occupational hazards. If this happened, I’d talk to my coworker with respect, try to understand them, and remind them how important it is to wear PPE at work. If they still didn’t do what I asked, I might tell our supervisor what’s going on.”
How much do you know about getting software and hardware?
Receiving clerks often need to know how to use software, equipment, and other tools to do their jobs well. This question could be asked by the interviewer to find out how much experience you have in this role. Tell us about the tools you’ve used in the past and what you were able to do with them in your answer.
Example: “In my past jobs, I used different commercial software platforms and hardware like hand-held scanners and tablets to keep records, manage inventory, and let the rest of the team know about any mistakes. These tools have helped me stay focused on the details of my work, which makes it easier for others to do their own work.”
As a receiving clerk, how do you plan to keep yourself and everyone else safe?
An interviewer might ask you this question to see how well you can follow safety rules and keep accidents from happening in a warehouse setting. This is a big part of what a receiving clerk does. In your answer, you should show that you know the safety rules and how to follow them in a professional setting.
Example: “As a receiving clerk, safety is one of the things I care about the most. When everyone on the team follows safety rules, it’s easier for me to focus on doing good work and reaching my goals. To keep myself and my team members safe, I make sure we all wear our PPE, like hard hats, goggles, gloves, and other items, the right way. I’ve also used a safety checklist to make sure that all the signals are working properly.”
Tell me about a time when you did something on your own.
Receiving clerks who want to make things better at work and are willing to take the lead can be very helpful in a warehouse. This is a question an interviewer might ask to see how resourceful you are and how you’ve used this trait in the past. Tell me about a time when you showed what you could do in your answer.
Example: “I took it upon myself at my last job to set up a system for organization to make things easier. I rearranged the whole shipping and receiving area of the warehouse to make work go more smoothly and give team members a better way to do their jobs. I didn’t have to do this, but I think it will help our team a lot in the long run. Over the next six months, we were able to get 10% more done.”
If you were a receiving clerk, what would you do first?
The person interviewing you might ask you this question to find out what you value most as a professional. In your answer, try to talk about priorities like organization, communication, and working together that will help you do your job as a receiving clerk better.
Example: “As a receiving clerk, my top goals are to talk to people, work with them, and be right. I think that if you want to do well as a receiving clerk, you need to be able to work well with others and keep the lines of communication open so that everyone can see how the work is done. Making sure that reporting and inventory management are done right is a key part of avoiding disagreements and getting the most work done as quickly as possible.”
How would you tell someone that the amount of a shipment was wrong?
As was said above, a big part of being a receiving clerk is being able to talk to people. This is especially true when damage and quantity mistakes are found in shipments. This is a question that an interviewer might ask to see how well you can talk to vendors and other people from the outside. In your answer, describe the steps you’d take to talk to your team, let the vendor know about the shipment, and fix the mistake with the quantity.
Example: “If I got a shipment with the wrong number of items, I would probably first tell my boss and then record the mistake in our inventory management system. Then I would call the vendor to make sure they knew about the mistake and figure out how to get the number of items that were missing from the shipment. As a receiving clerk, it’s important to treat the vendor with respect and keep track of relationships with people outside the office.”
