Mastering Your SoCalGas Interview: Strategies and Practice Questions
Landing a job at SoCalGas can ensure a profitable and rewarding career as one of Southern California’s natural gas providers. To help you in preparing for your interviews, we have put together a guide with all you need to know about the interview process, along with some practice questions as laid out by job prep company Job Test Prep.
Read on and learn how you can ace your SoCalGas interview!
Table of Contents
Phone Interview
After you’ve passed the initial personality assessments, you move on to a phone interview. Don’t stress; this interview is with a hiring manager, and they’ll ask you about your experience and what you look for in a career. Make sure you study the job description beforehand, and it’s a good idea to have your resume in front of you during the interview.
Panel Interview
You’ll move on to an in-person panel interview if you pass the phone interview. Conducted in Los Angeles, you’ll meet with three or four of SoCalGas’s managers from different areas in the company.
During this interview, you imagine yourself in various situations and are asked how you would respond to each one. You are also asked behavioral questions to see how you best fit the company’s needs.
Don’t forget about the technical questions. You do need to possess some knowledge about the specific position you are applying for. Again, study up on the job description and requirements before the interview.
CSR Response Testing Final Interview
This interview only applies to those pursuing customer service representative positions. You will answer mock phone calls and choose the best response based on six pre-recorded answers.
Final Interview
If you pass all of these interviews, you move on to the final interview with a hiring manager and the company’s vice president. Read further to see which questions could be asked during these interviews.
Interview Questions
These questions were all taken directly from Job Test Prep’s website. Here’s some advice on answering them and landing your dream position with SoCalGas.
1. Describe a Time Where You Had to Use and Improve Upon Any Kind of Data.
You want to relate your experience to the position for questions like these. Think of any time, whether in your personal or professional life, you improved a system.
Perhaps you noticed the assembly line in your old job wasn’t working, so you gave the manager an idea. After speaking with him about it, he realized he needed to add two more people to the shift. Now the company is number one in the state.
Maybe you didn’t have enough time in school to complete your work and hang out with your friends, so you created a schedule. After taking the initiative to make the change, you aced your classes and hung out with your friends.
During the interview, make sure you sound enthusiastic and excited about your answers. Demonstrate that you can problem-solve and adapt to any condition.
2. Describe a Difficult Situation You Encountered in Your Work Experience and How You Overcame It.
For this question, think back on all the jobs you’ve had. Was there ever a worker who didn’t pull their weight or someone who told off the manager? Maybe the manager was treating you poorly, and you had to act accordingly.
This answer shows your ability to handle conflict and problem-solve. Speak in as much detail as possible and illustrate the steps you took to solve the issue. Include any uneasy feelings or difficult choices you had to make.
3. It’s Hard to Practice What You Preach. Tell Us One Time When You’ve Had Trouble Doing Something You Told Others to Do.
Honesty is the best policy, the age-old adage goes, but for this question, you want to focus on accountability. For example, say you were a shift lead at your previous job and told all the employees to show up ten minutes before their shift.
Maybe you said this because you knew they would listen, making your job easier if everyone was there early.
Say you are chronically late to things. Maybe you told your employees to show up early in hopes it would make you show up early. You want to be early, but between your home life, kids, pets, etc., you’re just a late person.
If that method didn’t work and you still stumbled into work later than everyone else, be honest about your situation and hold yourself accountable. Show the employer that although you exercised your power for good, you are human and still have your weaknesses and are trying to improve.
4. Describe a Time When You Had to Look Back and Look at the Bigger Picture Instead of Focusing on the Details.
Ever had a job you didn’t like? Of course, you have. We all worked positions we despised to make ends meet before the next best thing came around.
Speaking of your experience in a job you didn’t like is a great way to show you can look at the bigger picture. Maybe you worked as a receptionist in an energy plant before this interview at SoCalGas. You showed up to the job to make money, knowing that if you started there, you could work at SoCalGas one day.
You needed to put in the mandatory work to be where you are today, and now you’re here. This answer makes you look good in the manager’s eyes and shows your perseverance and diligent attitude. You were able to look beyond the annoyances of that daily job and see your future career.
Remember to be humble when answering this question. The manager wants to hire someone aware of their accomplishments but not cocky about them.
5. What Tools Did You Use in Your Past Jobs?
Pay attention to the job description before the interview. Study the keywords and the requirements to prepare for this question. It’s a great chance to highlight skills you’ve learned in old positions that apply to the new position.
Say you’re applying for an engineer position, and one of your previous jobs taught you some basics about pipes and structural mechanics; mention that.
Also, speak about teamwork and any personal tools that came in handy in your previous jobs. Show you’re flexible, but don’t embellish. You don’t want to get the job and then not know how to do it. To avoid that, be as honest and transparent as possible. Also, explain if there are tools you didn’t use but want to learn.
6. Have You Ever Encountered a Situation Where Someone Did Not Have Any Integrity and Was Basically Cheating in Order to Perform the Job They Were Assigned to Do?
This question allows you to demonstrate your loyalty to the company. Tell the interviewer what happened if you saw someone cheating on the job, including how you reacted.
Your response to these questions shows how you might react in similar scenarios in the future. Even if it makes you uncomfortable to consider compromising your integrity, the company only wants to hire people who keep their ethical standards close to heart.
If you haven’t encountered this situation, speak about what you would do if one arises. How will you react if your boss or coworker asks you to cheat? Will you tell their supervisor, or will you shrug it off?
The employer wants to know you value the company and will do the best for the company. Even if it puts you in an uncomfortable position, you need to demonstrate your ability to do the right thing.
7. How Would You Handle a Situation in Which You Had to Make an Immediate Decision About an Issue You Did Not Understand?
This question analyzes how you work under pressure. If you’ve never had to make a decision like this, treat it as a hypothetical scenario where you did have to make a decision without extraneous factors.
For example, say there was an altercation at work between two workers. You didn’t know the logistics of what happened; you were just the one responsible for solving the problem.
Both of the people involved were your colleagues, and to avoid any ill-will or resentment, you decided to send them both home for the day and to organize group meetings and group outings moving forward.
That choice demonstrates your ability to act under pressure, make logical decisions, and problem-solve. You didn’t pick favorites, you didn’t aggravate the situation further, and you provided a solution to help the team work together.
8. Do You Have Difficulty Telling People That You Disagree With Them?
Take a moment before you answer this question. This question can be disguised as employers asking you if you can problem-solve. If you say you can’t tell people you disagree with them, that answer looks like you can’t problem-solve, and you run away from conflict.
If you don’t have difficulty telling people you disagree with them, be careful with that answer as well. Don’t make the employer think you disagree with everyone; that makes it seem like you don’t get along with anyone and will cause problems in the company.
Be transparent and accountable when answering this one.
Start Interview Prepping Today
Preparing for an interview is nerve-wracking, but your work just got easier with Job Test Prep’s interview outlines. Start prepping today and be on your way to your new job at SoCalGas.
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Sarah is an accomplished educator, researcher and author in the field of testing and assessment. She has worked with various educational institutions and organisations to develop innovative evaluation methods and enhance student learning. Sarah has published numerous articles and books on assessment and learning. Her passion for promoting equity and fairness in the education system fuels her commitment to sharing insights and best practices with educators and policymakers around the world.
