Progressive HireVue Mock Interview
Practice 30 Progressive HireVue interview questions covering digital assessments, behavioral scenarios, and video response techniques.
Question 28 of 30
Talk about a time when you showed initiative at work.
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Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
The hiring managers at Progressive want evidence that you are the type of person to take the initiative in the workplace. The goal of your response is to show that you are interested in succeeding, growing, and taking on responsibilities beyond your typical work scope.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
Avoid giving a general answer regarding your initiative. For instance, stay away from vague statements like, 'I always take the initiative in life; it's just who I am.' Taking the initiative could mean that you take on responsibilities independently without being asked or continually coached by your manager. It could also mean that you are the type of person who jumps in and assumes the lead before others do or before you are asked.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
Behavioral-based interview questions like this, where the hiring managers are looking for a story example, are best answered using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Organizing your response using this framework will help you provide an effective story-based response.
Start by telling the hiring managers about a specific time when you showed initiative at work. Outline the situation, describe the task, and explain the actions you took to take the initiative. Give as much detail as you can regarding the positive results of your actions. At the end of your response, be sure to describe your high level of initiative and how this characteristic will benefit Progressive when they choose to hire you.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
The average HireVue interview takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. This one-way video interview typically includes 3-5 questions. Depending on the HireVue parameters set by Progressive, the asynchronous interview platform will generally give you 30 seconds to prepare a response and up to 2 minutes to answer each question. It's important to note that HireVue stops recording as soon as your time limit is up, so it's better to run under time than overtime.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"(Situation) Last month, I realized that many of our staff training manuals had outdated information. Most notably, the company recently changed from Zoho CRM to Salesforce CRM. This change meant that the entire team had obsolete instructions on inputting important customer data into the system. (Task) As the administrative lead, it wasn't my responsibility to ensure this update was complete; however, I knew that the administrative manager was already overwhelmed with other deadlines. (Action) So, I decided to draft the training manual updates myself. The update took me about one week since I worked on it between other high-priority tasks. Once I finished the draft, I asked the admin manager to review and approve the changes. (Result) They were very impressed that I noticed the issue and took the initiative to make updates. The sales and customer service teams were also thrilled that I cared and took the time to streamline their work. Should I be hired for this role with Progressive, I will be sure to embrace the company's core values. For instance, Progressive places focus on objectives. I will set ambitious goals and evaluate my performance and my team's performance by measuring what we achieve and how we achieve it."
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Jaymie
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Anonymous Answer
For example, during my last job, when we were going through a quiet spell, I wanted to look for ways to improve the school's transportation system for special needs students. Without being asked, I researched different systems that could make things more manageable for the teacher and safer for the students.
I created a color coding system for each bus and the students who rode the bus. My principal was very pleased with the fact that I’d been self-motivated enough to make a positive difference for the school.
Marcie's Feedback
Excellent! It's great that you utilized a slower period to research and implement a helpful initiative for the children. Why did you believe that the school's special needs transportation system needed to be improved? Did your color coding system help the kids who rode the buses? At the end of your answer, reiterate to the interviewer that you will be proactive and innovative in this new position too. Good job!
Anonymous Answer
Working in a group setting on a large renovation project. The project was a 20-unit condo renovation. The group was meeting to begin the planning. No one wanted to lead the group or organize the project. I volunteered to begin the project. I assigned each person a part of the project to work on from getting information on permitting and engineers to meeting contractors, sub-contractors, and landscapers. We were able to begin the renovation within the allotted time.
Marcie's Feedback
Great! This is a clear example of you taking the initiative. Conclude your answer by reminding the interviewer that you're proactive and not afraid of taking the lead. Nice job!
Anonymous Answer
I was new to a department and inventory was coming up quickly. I had never done inventory for this company before. I observed a lot of areas of concern and loss. I took it upon myself to try and fix the problems and asked other co-workers to work with me in resolving the issues. Due to our efforts our inventory ended up being one of the best inventories in a while.
Jaymie's Feedback
Excellent example! If you have numbers or data to reinforce the impact, share that information as well!
Anonymous Answer
When I worked at the child development center, I worked on a team of 11 other providers. Occasionally, we were asked to do tasks or projects outside of the classrooms. One time, we were asked to volunteer at a job fair on the military base. The fair was on a Saturday afternoon, so not many people were offering themselves to serve. I took the initiative to volunteer myself, along with another provider, so that the positions would be filled.
Jaymie's Feedback
Great example!
Anonymous Answer
Last year, I realized that our firm has no universal or master list for cases that are being reviewed by litigation. Due to the structure of our firm, cases coming into litigation are transferred to the pre-litigation attorney that had been previously handling the case so there are lists for each pre-litigation attorney. As one of three litigation attorneys, I knew we needed a better system so I created a master list in Excel that condensed all the pre-litigation attorney case lists into one list which allowed the litigation attorneys to better review the cases that were coming into litigation.
Jaymie's Feedback
Perfect! You saw an area of opportunity and took the initiative, which resulted in more efficiency for you and the team. The interviewer will find this to be a highly desirable quality in a candidate.
Anonymous Answer
For example, our office is going through a quiet spell, I wanted to look for ways to improve the staff's knowledge of certain machines in the office that we rarely use. Without being asked, I researched training videos for all of the machines and everyone participated as if they were the patient. It gave them a better understanding of the machine as well as how to explain the test to the patient.
Jaymie's Feedback
You gave a specific example, your role in the process, and the positive outcome as a result of your taking the initiative. Excellent!
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