I consider myself very good at interview techniques, but I had a situation on Monday which I consider cost me the job and I still don't know why (the fact that it was well-paid and only three of us were in for it makes it worse...)

They gave me the old "How would you prioritise your work load?" So far, so standard however without knowing the internal structure of the organisation (and there was no way of finding this out pre-interview) I was struggling. The department involved was printing and it sounded like everybody insisted that their job should go to the top of the pile - therefore meaning other tasks were pushed down. I said this was not reasonable or realistic and the customers should be "educated" to value the service and not make unrealistic demands - after all, you can't just walk into a car dealers and demand a car there and then. Also, given the nature of the job, that way lies mistakes, errors etc.
Anyway, the job's gone but should this situation arise again, I'm at a loss as to how I would answer the next time. Any advice?

wel u gotta jst get on with i'm afraid mate. i nrly lost ,y job becaiuse of a simaler situation. i think the best answer would be 'i would attempt to attend to all the duties in an efficent manner and liase with each manager or staff member on the progress on their specific job that i am doing for them.' unfortunatly ive now been demoted from my role into a much lower insignifcant role. oh well life goes on.

I would contact the interviewer and ask why you were not successful. I just got my new job :banana: but still asked for feedback on the interview and where I was not so hot.

"I prioritise my work load based on the urgency of the task. If I'm handed something that needs finishing in ten minutes, and something that needs completing within two hours, I will meet the ten minute dead line, then get on with the next task.
If however, two tasks need completing at the same time, then I would prioritise them based on importance, asking for help, if needed."

Seems a logical answer!

If you gave a reasonable answer, then that probably wasn't the key question.

Your answer wasn't unreasonable, though, depending on the tone you said it in, it may have come across as slightly haughty.

I probably would have mentioned something about escalating the prorities to a manager for them to decide.

Sorry, but yours was a poor answer - if I was working there and had to come to you to get my print work done - which was important to me - then I wouldn't appreciate being told I needed educating, or that I was being unrealistic.

That sounds like you aren't willing to take responsibility for your role, which would have been to juggle the competing demands of different customers - not push it back to them.

i rarely have pile of work so don't need to juggle anyone.

and the old addage has served me well "first come, first served".

it takes more bottle to say no than to bow down to "he who shouts loudest", it's the way you say no that matters.

I'd have said that you would need to look at each job separately to determine the urgency of each job. You would then need to go back to the people who had requested the jobs to negotiate new realistic deadlines where necessary, based around resources and critical business need. Its important to manage expectations and maintain good communication with your colleagues/customers - more often than not, they'd rather you be honest about it: if a job needed to get moved down the pile due to something of more urgency that is critical to the business, then they should be understanding. Generally if people are kept informed, then they are less likely to be arsey about it!!

If it becomes a regular issue then the management should be alerted to it, as they may need to review procedures or resources.