Tell me about a time you took initiative on your own.
Assure the interviewer that you are a go-getter and won't wait to be asked what to do. Walk them through a scenario where you took it upon yourself to fix something and didn't run to your leader with the problem.
"I noticed we were taking at least two hours a week on a manual report that seemed to be a big waste of time. I started playing around in our system with the different reporting features and was able to test and customize a report that could take the place of the manual report. After my testing, I brought the idea to my boss, who made a few tweaks but was thrilled I had discovered a more efficient way to give customers the same information."
"I noticed a huge skill gap in the team's use of Microsoft Excel & PPT. Because I come from a different industry, I had to utilize these tools a lot and volunteered to host a series of lunch & learns for anybody who wanted to brush up on them."
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
I will constantly go to production. Sometimes, I would see that production needs some fixtures or tools to help them assemble the parts more efficiently. I would initiate a discussion with my boss and present to him how the new fixture or tools could help increase productivity. I will not be shy to share my ideas with production and would definitely get feedback from them.
Stephanie's Feedback
This shows a high level of initiative, but I suggest focusing on a specific time when you needed to show this initiative. Do you have a specific instance in mind? This will take your answer from good to great!
Anonymous Answer
When I was a new hire, I worked on a project with two other new hires where we ended up struggling to finish dry running all the procedures due to a lack of knowledge about test setup and the overall system. I wanted to mitigate this for incoming new hires as I gained more knowledge so I took the initiative to create a test guide complete with instructions on how to set up the different systems for all the different types of tests as well as regular operation.
Amanda's Feedback
You've done a great job using an applicable example. Build on what you have by sharing if/how this helped the new hires coming behind you by improving efficiency, foundational knowledge, or ramping up their ability to contribute to the team more quickly.
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