Tell me about the last time you undertook a project that required a lot of initiative.
A willingness to expand your comfort zone exhibits leadership potential and a big-picture view. Demonstrate yourself as a self-starter by sharing a specific time you took the lead. Include details of your project timeline, who you led, or what you had to teach yourself for the project to be successful. Be sure to complete your answer by telling the interview the outcome.
"We recently had a major inventory count requested of us by the corporate head office. At the time, our manager was away on holiday. No one quite knew where to start or who should take the lead. I took the initiative to lead my co-workers through the inventory project. I taught myself the tracking software in a short amount of time and created a schedule for the inventory counts so everyone knew what was expected of them. We completed the project three days ahead of schedule! It was a great success."
"I was tasked with changing our health benefits provider. Completing this project was crucial to our employees and our bottom line. I made a lot of calls and RFQs and spent a lot of time hearing proposals to make the best choice before enrollment time."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
In my previous research assistant position, my professor needed me to learn how to use Python quickly so that I could practice reinforcement learning techniques on neural networks. I added studying Python to my schedule and spent a lot of time each day learning the basics of Python. As a result, I was able to write scripts for my professor so he could focus on other tasks.
Amanda's Feedback
I like how clear and concise your response is. You can strengthen it further by telling the interviewer how much time you spent each day learning Python independently and how quickly you mastered it to be able to write the scripts needed.
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