Master 35 Human Rights Watch interview questions covering advocacy, research ethics, and crisis response.
Question 28 of 35
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Isaiah Swanson is a volunteer recruitment professional who has interviewed, trained, and supervised thousands of volunteers supporting dozens of nonprofit programs helping families in crisis, homebound seniors, and victims of natural disasters.
This question could be a tricky one, as nobody is 100% honest. While you don't want to pretend that you are always perfectly honest, you also don't want to present yourself as manipulative or misleading in any way. Support your response by speaking about your ethics.

Isaiah Swanson is a volunteer recruitment professional who has interviewed, trained, and supervised thousands of volunteers supporting dozens of nonprofit programs helping families in crisis, homebound seniors, and victims of natural disasters.
"I believe honesty is extremely important in all facets of life, including work. In my current position, I am responsible for interviewing clients seeking assistance from our rehousing program. When leadership hired a new program director, he wanted to streamline all of our processes by digitizing everything. It greatly limited the human interaction that is so necessary for supporting clients' dignity when they come to us asking for assistance. At first, I felt I couldn't be honest because my supervisor seemed so proud of his innovative idea, but when I saw that it had a negative emotional impact on some of our clients, I decided to respectfully approach him about the idea of limiting the digital part of the assistance request to standard information-gathering. If I felt like a 7 on the honesty scale before, this situation empowered me to become more honest, and now I'd say I'm an 8."

Isaiah Swanson is a volunteer recruitment professional who has interviewed, trained, and supervised thousands of volunteers supporting dozens of nonprofit programs helping families in crisis, homebound seniors, and victims of natural disasters.
"I don't think it's possible to be a 10/10 on the honesty scale, but I make a sincere effort to be as honest as possible in all of my interactions. This does not mean being rude, condescending, or dismissive of anyone. Instead, it means that I am more than willing to engage a fellow teammate if I see them doing something that creates inefficiency, and I will offer to help them. I also believe being honest with oneself is important. Developing the ability to self-reflect and see when you are failing or succeeding is critical in one's personal growth. I am always seeking new ways to improve my performance. So, I would say I am a 9/10 on the scale of honesty."

Isaiah Swanson is a volunteer recruitment professional who has interviewed, trained, and supervised thousands of volunteers supporting dozens of nonprofit programs helping families in crisis, homebound seniors, and victims of natural disasters.
There are many ways to be honest and dishonest. Focus on the ways in which you are honest, and if you feel the need to address any ways you might be dishonest, discuss how you are working to improve.

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Written by Isaiah Swanson
35 Questions & Answers • Human Rights Watch

By Isaiah

By Isaiah