Tell me about the most valuable lesson you have learned over the course of the last year.

"This is a great question! In the last six months, I've taken a new approach to my work and how I prioritize the customer requests that I get and it's really helped me get the critical work done faster and provide better results to my biggest customers. In that same breath, my work with smaller customers was never put off. I've started to see some great results and returns in this new effort and I think this same approach would be very beneficial with the Fonterra farmers I would be working alongside."

"Around last February, I was reaching a definite breaking point in my work given the huge volume of projects my team was taking on. I was stressed, hardly sleeping, and my home life was feeling the effects. Seeing my kids very sad because of my attitude and condition was the point where I knew I had to do something. I approached my manager about my workload and let him know I wanted to work out a plan to get my workload to a more manageable level. The lesson learned that I can bring to work at Fonterra is the ability to know my workload limit and the ability to effectively manage things with success. If I'm fortunate enough to join your team, I wouldn't hesitate to have an open dialogue with you regarding my workload."

This is a very open-ended question that you could take in many different directions. But before you do that, it's important to understand that your interviewer is looking to gauge your ability to help live the purpose, values, and principles of Fonterra. Knowing that, make sure to read about those prior to your interview and be prepared to talk about a lesson that truly reflects one of those. Carefully walk through the situation that helped you learn this lesson and what you can bring moving forward from that lesson into this position.