Laboratory Administrative Assistant

As a Laboratory Administrative Assistant at SGS, you're responsible for coordinating the day-to-day laboratory activities to achieve maximum efficiency and customer satisfaction. This includes preparing documents for analysis, planning laboratory work, ensuring compliance with safety standards, and maintaining clear communication with clients about their needs and requests.

Candidates for the Laboratory Administrative Assistant position at SGS should ideally hold a College Diploma in a technical field or a university degree in analytical chemistry. Moreover, 5 to 10 years of experience working in a laboratory focused on analyzing petroleum products is required, along with strong organizational and communication skills.

SGS places a high value on health, safety, and environmental standards. As a Laboratory Administrative Assistant, you are expected to demonstrate safe work habits and maintain a clean working environment to adhere to these standards. Compliance with such regulations is integral to the role, ensuring both employee safety and quality service delivery.

Client interaction is a significant part of the Laboratory Administrative Assistant role at SGS. You will be responsible for understanding and managing client expectations, confirming reception and comprehension of analysis requests, and addressing any issues that arise during the testing process, ensuring all communications are clear and aligned with client needs.

A typical workday for a Laboratory Administrative Assistant at SGS involves a mix of planning laboratory work, preparing documentation, interacting with clients, and ensuring that all tasks are completed within the required timeframe while maintaining compliance with safety standards and quality expectations.

When answering this question, provide specific examples of your past roles in laboratory environments, detailing the types of analyses you coordinated, your familiarity with safety standards, and how you ensured quality procedures. Highlight your ability to manage multiple tasks effectively.

Discuss your strategies for prioritization, such as using task management tools or frameworks to address urgent client requests while ensuring laboratory schedules are maintained. Share examples of how this approach led to improved efficiency and client satisfaction in previous roles.

Emphasize your communication skills by giving examples of how you build rapport with clients through proactive updates and clear documentation. Discuss your ability to listen actively, confirm understanding, and provide solutions to client issues promptly.

Highlight your knowledge of OHS best practices and SGS’s standards. Provide examples of how you implement these protocols in your work, ensuring that both you and your team uphold safety measures while completing laboratory tasks.

Explain how you familiarize yourself with relevant quality standards such as ASTM and ISO, and describe your process for checking that all work aligns with these methods before being submitted to clients, including reviewing reports thoroughly.

Choose a real-life example where you encountered a challenge, such as a tight deadline or unexpected equipment failure, and describe the steps you took to resolve it. Focus on problem-solving and the successful outcome resulting from your actions.

Discuss any laboratory management software, data entry tools, or specific analytical technology you’ve used. This shows your technical expertise and adaptability in using various software to support laboratory operations.

Share your strategies for managing stress, such as remaining organized, maintaining clear communication with your team, and ensuring that you take breaks when necessary. Providing specific examples of busy periods will strengthen your response.

Convey your interest in SGS's commitment to quality and integrity, and how these values align with your own professional principles. Mention any specific aspects of the company or position that attract you and resonate with your career goals.

Discuss your approach to conflict resolution, focusing on open communication, finding common ground, and collaborating to evaluate the best solutions. Illustrate with an example of how you successfully resolved a conflict while maintaining team efficiency.