Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Mock Interview
Master 26 LLNL interview questions covering security clearances, technical expertise, and mission-driven research.
Question 5 of 26
A career move to a consultant with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory may find you working on new challenges that you haven't faced during your career. What's been the most challenging project you've led up to this point in your career?
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Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
No matter what challenge you choose to discuss during your answer to this question, keep in mind that your interviewer is mostly looking to hear how you handled yourself during a time when you were pushed to your limits. In your answer, discuss the importance of being resourceful and team oriented and talk about how these things helped lead to success in the project. Also, be sure that your interviewer walks away from the interview knowing that you are willing and able to tackle any challenge in front of you.
Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
"Looking back at the 12 years of project management experience that I have, the most challenging project I led was about five years ago. The challenge started from the beginning when I was tasked with improving waste efficiency at one of my organizations warehouses. At the time, I was not very well versed in warehouse operations, so I took the time to research and talk to experts within my organization to start the brainstorming process. The high level leader that tasked me with the project didn't really do a great job of defining any end goals for me and those are really important in planning for a project. So I scheduled several follow up meetings with him to define more specific goals for the project. In the end, I assembled a great team of experts that ended up reducing costly waste by almost 80% in our operation."
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While not necessarily a "project," the most difficult challenge I faced so far was very quickly going from the newest member of the lab to the 2nd most senior member. In a 4 month span, our side of the lab graduated 3 members and lost 2 post-docs who signed onto new careers, and quickly hired 2 new postdocs. This put me second in command in terms of lab seniority as a student who had been a member less than a year. I really had to extend myself to onboard new lab members, become very self-sufficient in my own research, and from a more interpersonal standpoint, become the face of the lab as we started recruiting more and more. While it was not the most technically difficult thing I had to do, I really grew in the way that I had to very quickly become a decisive and morale-setting lab member.
Stephanie's Feedback
This sounds like quite an undertaking, and you clearly navigated it with ease! This is a very strong response and would leave any interview committee feeling confident in your abilities.
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