Tell me about the last time you undertook a project that demanded a lot of initiative.
This question assesses if you have leadership tendencies and are a self-starter. It also serves to provide insights into your work style and your approach.
"We recently had a major inventory count requested of us by the corporate head office. At the time, our manager was away on holidays. 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 successfully 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
The latest project I am on requires a lot of communication and fact-finding among the rail community. The community consisted of about 60 different sites all doing different processes. I needed to understand all of this for the project to cover the requirements. The team was small so I took up a huge initiative of fact-finding and interviewing reps from all the sites. I had to push these people out of their silo comfort zone and into what we were accomplishing on the project.
Stephanie's Feedback
This is a good start, but your response should be a bit more detailed and more specific. Can you identify the project and the specific ways that you've shown initiative? What was the outcome of that initiative?
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