Department of Water Resources Mock Interview
Practice 30 Department of Water Resources interview questions covering water policy, infrastructure, and public service.
Question 9 of 30
Tell me about a time you made a decision without all the information you needed. How did you handle it?
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Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
"I was compiling a report, and there was missing information I needed from a supervisor who was out on leave. I used unconventional sources, old records, and archived information from data entry. From those, I found several pieces of a puzzle I could piece together. I could almost complete the picture, filling in the blanks and guessing the missing pieces in a way that ensured me I was close enough. Once I could do that, I could quantify the suspected missing data from other sources, which proved to be correct. It only pushed back our timeline by one day, still well within meeting our deadline for the project."
Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
This question is intended to reveal how resourceful you are, your capacity for innovation through taking calculated risks, and your ability to improve workflow and implement systems while protecting the company's assets. It also evaluates whether you respect the chain of command and your awareness of the bigger picture. For some, taking risks comes naturally. Others might take risks compulsively, which could be costly for an individual, a family, or a company. Others are risk-averse, maintaining the status quo. This question tests your propensity towards innovation.
Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
Using the STAR method, which stands for Situation/Task/Action/Result, explain why you lacked the information you needed (the situation). Explain how this hindered your progress (the task). Describe how you navigated the situation and moved forward (the action), the outcome of your course correction, and the feedback you received (the result). Tell the interviewer what inspired you to take the approach you took and how you achieved a positive outcome. When delivering your example, present yourself as someone who takes calculated risks as opposed to someone who is a habitual risk-taker. Avoid providing examples where you went outside of the chain of command or the approach you took failed. This will only serve as a red flag and present you as a liability.
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