State Farm Interview Questions and Answers, Coaching

I have recently got several requests for interview questions (and interview coaching) at State Farm, the largest property, casualty, and auto insurance provider in the United States (at least according to Wikipedia).

Clients were interested mostly in questions for customer service, sales, insurance and administrative positions within the corporation. It seems State Farm is hiring a lot of people nowadays, especially for entry level and mid-level jobs. Or perhaps it is just a coincidence. In any case, while I do not have any eBook ready for State Farm interviews, I decided to analyze at least some questions they commonly use in their hiring process. We will focus mostly on the Hirevue part, which is the first part of the hiring process and the one everyone has to pass while applying for entry-level or mid level job. Before looking at the questions, I want to rebuke some myths.

Three myths of Hirevue Interview with State Farms

Myth no. 1: You have to deal with tricky role play and games during the interview.

– This one cannot be further from the truth. It is an interview with a computer (or robot, or AI if you want), and logically there cannot be any role play. In a role play interview both candidate and interviewer react on the situation as it develops, asking new questions, coming up with new answers, etc. This isn’t possible in the HireVue interview… And while some companies use ‘games’ and some interactive tests in their online interviews, State Farm never does so, for any positions (at least as far as my knowledge goes).

Myth no. 2: You have to answer many tricky behavioral questions.

Again, this is very far from the truth. State Farm has a great training program in place, and, more importantly, as an insurance company they have a lot of polices and processes in place for everything. Which means that they will show you how to do this or that in work, every little step, during the training program. Hence they aren’t that much interested about how you handled a super tricky situation A or situation B in the past. Having said that, you may deal with a couple of behavioral questions in your interview with State Farm, and we will have a look at them in a second. All in all, you typically won’t deal with more than 7 questions in your State Farm interview–and that definitely isn’t ‘a lot’, when we compare it with the interview process some other insurance giants have in place…

Myth no. 3: It is super hard to pass this interview. Less than 20% of the candidate move to the next round (typically a call with an HR person).

To tell the truth, the interview isn’t particularly difficult. That doesn’t mean that everyone will pass it. But certainly if you prepare well, do not remain silent while answering their questions, and show some enthusiasm for your future job at State Farm, you will proceed to the next round. In my opinion and based on personal observations, at least 50% of candidates make the cut. We also have to realize that employee loyalty isn’t the highest in the insurance industry, and State Farm needs a lot of staff. If they were as picky as many people believe they are, they just wouldn’t have anyone to do the job.. Okay, I hope you feel a bit better now about your chances :). Let’s have a look at the questions.

Question 1: Tell me a bit about yourself and why you want this job.

To be totally honest, with the first question they do not care much about your words (unless you say you do some prohibited substances, or love to party every evening). What they care about, however, is how you present yourself, your non-verbal communication, gesticulation. Whether you can speak in a calm and cheerful manner, whether there is some confidence in your voice, whether you can express yourself clearly, etc. All these things matter a lot in insurance business.

Obviously if you have anything relevant on your resume–like you did a similar job before, have some relevant education or certificate, successful sales career in your own business in the past, etc, it is good mentioning it. You can also share a detail or two from your personal life (for example about your kids etc), because it gives an overall impression that you are ready to talk openly about yourself, and have a positive attitude towards this interview process. That’s the impression you want to make.

When it comes to the second part of the question–why you want the position, try to find some connection with your education, career goals, and strengths. For example, if you enjoy talking to people, are a natural leader in your circles, and thrive in debates, you can say you chose a career in sales with State Farm simply because you believe you will be successful and enjoy your daily job (at least to an extent one can enjoy it). You should never point towards salary at this point, being the first reason of your choice, even if that’s true…

Question 2: What do you consider your greatest achievement/success in life?

Can be a tough question for anyone in their early twenties, or anyone without previous working experience. However, you can always fall back on the common achievement, such as graduating from high school, college, etc. Such achievements still hold a lot of value in the US. You can also add that you are ambitious and hope for a lot of success in your career in insurance (with State Farm).

Needless to say, any tangible achievements from your past jobs are your best bet here. And you do not have to speak about something big. As long as it is at least somehow tangible, you are good to go. Improving the level of customer retention by 5% in your last job, learning to work with a difficult software that allowed you to be more efficient, saving a specific sum of money for your employer by making this or that decision, et.

Another great answer is some personal/health crisis you overcame, some tough battle you won outside of your professional career. There is some struggle in everyone’s life, and I am sure you can find something. Do not forget to give credit to people who helped you with your achievements. Such a thin clearly shows the right attitude, and the right attitude is exactly the no.1 thin they are looking for in their future employees.

Question 3: Tell us of a time when you had to handle a difficult situation with a customer.

They do not specify a type of a situation, or what kind of customer it was. And, of course, they understand that not everyone has previous customer service experience. What I try to say here is that they focus mostly on your attitude again, and the emotions you showed (or didn’t show) in a situation with customer you try to narrate. Think compassion, understanding, patience, going above and beyond etc on a good side, and anger, hate, hastiness, or even hostility on a bad side. Some good situations to narrate include:

Customer not happy with the price of a product.
Very demanding customer.
Someone unhappy about the service you provide.
You trying to explain technical information to a customer who struggles to understand such kind of info.
Someone acting in an inappropriate way towards other customers.

Pick any of these situations and narrate how you solved it (or would solve it). The key is to demonstrate that you tried your best for the customer, and remained patient and courteous, regardless of the emotions and behavior they came up with during your encounter. If this is your first job application you can (and should) admit it. However, that doesn’t restrain you from saying how important customer service for you is, and that you are ready to try everything within your powers to satisfy the customer.

Question 4: Describe a difficult teamwork experience.

This one is a bit easier, because they do not ask particularly about a situation from a job. You can talk about a tricky teamwork experience from school, sports club, or even your personal life (as a family you also form a team). Anyway, one specific thing I always recommend you to mention, when talking about teamwork in the interview with State Farm:

Say that teamwork is important to you, and that you are a team player. At the same time, however, you do not rely on other team members to do the work for you.

What I try to say here is that they should get an impression that you have your goals and schedule and follow it day after day at work, regardless whether other team members also try hard or not, and what the relations in the team are. Some good examples of a difficult teamwork experience for this interview include:

Having to work with someone with completely different values and personality.
One or two team members working really hard, while the rest of the people is just lazying about, playing on their phones etc (I observed this phenomenon in many teams, in all sorts of workplaces).
Having a disagreement with other team member about the way you should handle certain situation at work.
Excessively critical feedback for other team members, or no feedback at all.

On each of these situations you should be able to demonstrate right attitude to teamwork, and at the same time (as I suggested just a minute ago), convince them that you can and will handle the job regardless of the level of motivation in the team, or how other team members approach it.

Question 5: Tell me something about you that is not on your resume

This is a rather strange question, but I see it popping up more and more often. Some recruiters watch your reaction to it closely, trying to find out whether you aren’t hiding something, and whether you actually say the truth on your resume. What can be an applicant hiding? Well, in my experience, a lot of things:

One or two jobs he was fired from for serious breach of rules, or inability to reach the goals, and decided not to include them on their resume.
Mental health struggles (so many people have them nowadays), and the impact it may have on their productivity at work.
The fact that they are looking just for short time gig somewhere to earn money (having other plans), and will leave in a couple of months, regardless of what happens in the actual job.
… the list goes on.

Anyway, you have a few good options here. One is being brutally honest, and actually reveling some rather darker or personal detail from your life. Even if it may have negative implications on your chances of getting hired. Most recruiters will appreciate such an answer, though in some cases it may backfire too… in order to make sure it won’t backfire, you should always elaborate on your answer. Explain that you learned your lesson, and won’t repeat the same mistake twice.

Another alternative is saying that there isn’t such a thing. You honestly put the cards on the table, and try to present as authentic picture of yourself as possible, because you know it is best for all involved parties. Being transparent, you can be sure of not being hired for a job that will end up a bad match to your skills, personality, or even to your past. You are in for a long run, looking to stay with your new employer (hopefully State Farm) for years on end. Hence you see no reason to lie or hide anything.

Last but not least, you can use this opportunity to show your funny side, sharing some anecdote from your personal life, or some private detail the person watching your video may find interesting. What I try to point out here is that interviewers and HR managers are only people, and seeing countless of these video interviews, they get bored by all typical answers. This question is your opportunity to stand out, even if you have no previous working experience…

So that’s it for today, when we speak about State Farm interviews, and especially the video interview part. If you need more help, do not hesitate to contact me for one on one coaching. Thank you.

Jacob Gates, your personal interview coach.