Operations Interview With Michael Berndt

Question 1 - What does the role entail in terms of day to day activities

Michael - 

Well because I have so many responsibilities I’m running around a lot. I’m in charge of multiple departments in the office and I also have to touch base with clients throughout my day. To keep it loose I’d say an average day involves me working with my team on our many projects, checking up on our other departments and making sure they are up to speed, and phoning clients and writing reports on the calls.

Question 2 - Why is this particular role important to the overall health and success of the company?

Michael - My job is important because I’m in charge of the inner workings of the company. I make sure things are running smoothly and that we are on track to meet our deadlines or goals. Without an operations manager there is no direction to what we are doing.

Question 3 - What are the hardest parts about the role?

Michael - My work schedule is the hardest part about the job for me. I am usually working long hours and im typically in the office by 6:30-7 am and some days I don't even get out till 7 or 8, and as a father and husband it’s difficult having to spend so much time away from home.

Question 4 - How much social interaction is involved in this role?

Michael - Aside from phone calls and the occasional lunch with clients and working with teams in the office, there isn’t very much.

Question 5 - What kind of hard skills are necessary or useful for this role?

Michael - I had to learn Excel for my job particularly, but there's a lot of different softwares you have to be good with 

Question 6 - What are the most rewarding parts about the role?

Michael - Seeing a project completed successfully because you get to see all your hard work materialized

Question 7 - Is there anything cool or interesting about this role that most people don’t know?

Michael - I think there’s a lot that people don’t know about my job, but if I had to pick one thing I would say that all the products you see a company put out, or any advertisement you see or anything like that at one point started in the operations department and was directed by them as well

Question 8 - Are there any negative stereotypes or misconceptions people have about this role that you think are untrue?.

Michael - I think people tend to see this as a boring job, but there’s a lot of exciting things I get to do as part of my job. I’m always working with people on cool projects and I get to see everything that happens behind the scenes in my company

Question 9 - What does it take to be successful in this role? 

Michael - You need a lot of attention to detail to properly oversee things. I also personally think you should have a “think outside of the box” mindset because you need to find creative ways to solve problems

Question 10 - Why is this role important to the business economy as a whole?

Michael - Planning and oversight are important to any successful project in the real world, operations managers make sure that things run smoothly and without that many businesses would run very sloppily or even fall apart