Have you ever had to create or allocate a budget related to an IT project you were involved in?

How to Answer
Answer Example

Budgeting is usually the responsibility of the information systems management team. However, they may depend on the systems engineers to help create the budget by determining the cost or allocating funds to specific tasks or parts of the project. Having experience with this will differentiate you from the other systems engineer candidates and position you for advancement into a leadership role once you are hired. This latter point is important to the interviewer because Palo Alto Networks likes to hire people who can advance within the organization.

"In several of my previous jobs, the IT management team reached out to the systems engineers when they were budgeting. They often sought input regarding the cost of our normal operations, specific items related to a project, or extraordinary items which would impact the team's budget. While contributing to this, I learned a lot about the budgeting process. I became familiar with how the management creates an annual operating budget and allocates funds for specific projects. As I became more adept at this, the management team gave me more responsibility for creating individual parts of the budget. I enjoy this work because it gives me a big picture view of the entire IT organization."

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How to Answer: Have you ever had to create or allocate a budget related to an IT project you were involved in?

Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Palo Alto Networks job interview.

2. Have you ever had to create or allocate a budget related to an IT project you were involved in?

How to Answer

Budgeting is usually the responsibility of the information systems management team. However, they may depend on the systems engineers to help create the budget by determining the cost or allocating funds to specific tasks or parts of the project. Having experience with this will differentiate you from the other systems engineer candidates and position you for advancement into a leadership role once you are hired. This latter point is important to the interviewer because Palo Alto Networks likes to hire people who can advance within the organization.

Answer Example

"In several of my previous jobs, the IT management team reached out to the systems engineers when they were budgeting. They often sought input regarding the cost of our normal operations, specific items related to a project, or extraordinary items which would impact the team's budget. While contributing to this, I learned a lot about the budgeting process. I became familiar with how the management creates an annual operating budget and allocates funds for specific projects. As I became more adept at this, the management team gave me more responsibility for creating individual parts of the budget. I enjoy this work because it gives me a big picture view of the entire IT organization."

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