Describe a difficult problem and how you approached it.
Interviewers at PNC Bank like to see employees coming up with creative solutions. This question evaluates how resourceful you are, how self-guided you are in your work, whether you are an outside-of-the-box thinker, and how you'll collaborate with the rest of the team towards innovation. Problem-solving skills are highly regarded within the banking industry. Use an example that explains the complexity of the situation. You can also use the job description as a guide for some of the challenges you may encounter in this new role. Try to keep it relevant and relatable to the position.
"I took a call with a client with a history of poor customer experiences with the organization. The customer was left frustrated with our banking processes and voiced their concerns unpleasantly. I took the initiative to listen and understand their frustrations, then partnered with the different departments in the company to resolve the concerns and save the customer relationship."
"While attending university, I was assigned a group project with a group of less than motivated individuals. My grades and performance were significant to me, so I approached the group with a leadership and mentorship mentality. I uncovered what motivated everyone on the team and took the initiative where others would not."
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
After schooling went fully online last spring, many people moved back home and group projects resorted to zoom meetings. With one of my group projects, we were all in different time zones, with one of the members being in Asia and another in California. To overcome the differences in times, we all shared our class schedules with the converted times per time zone and decided to rotate zoom meeting times so that way there weren't one or more people constantly having to wake up or early or stay up late in order for us to collaborate on the project together. We also found that leaving detailed notes on each others sections of the google doc helped up avoid having long zoom meetings.
Chad's Feedback
Great answer. It can certainly be challenging to coordinate schedules across multiple time zones in order to connect with group members for video meetings. However, it sounds like you and the other members were able to come up with a creative solution that was also equitable to all individuals. The use of detailed notes on a shared google doc is also a good example of creative problem-solving. Nice touch! To improve on the response, consider concluding by letting the interviewer know if the project was successful in the end.
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