Talk about a time when you succeeded despite being under intense pressure.
The hiring managers at Progressive want assurance that you can handle the pressure that comes from working in the high-pressure, ever-evolving insurance industry. The goal of your response is to provide evidence that you have the mindset and tenacity to behave professionally and appropriately while working under pressure.
This question presents the opportunity for you to be a storyteller. Using the STAR method, form an engaging story-based response that showcases your proudest accomplishment. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result.
Use a solid and compelling example of your poise under pressure. Be as specific as you can while remaining concise and on topic. If possible, provide a story of a time when you were under a type of pressure related to this position's duties. Your response should come from a recent scenario.
The expectations placed on you at Progressive might feel overwhelming at times. For this reason, the hiring managers are looking for evidence of your ability to face pressure while still ensuring that you deliver high-quality work.
Talk about a specific time when you were under a lot of pressure at work, yet you succeeded. Outline the situation, explain why you felt under pressure, and describe your actions. Spotlight that you made well-calculated decisions even though you felt some strain or conflict. If your actions made a measurable impact, discuss the results you generated.
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.
"Throughout my career in the professional services sector, I have gained the skills required to deal with stress constructively. (Situation) Last year, one of our Insurance Managers retired, and she passed me one of her most important legacy accounts. I was thrilled to have the opportunity; however, this account was notorious for being complex. (Task) I knew that onboarding this client would be challenging. It would take a great deal of diligence, research, and time on my end. I felt overwhelmed, but I knew that serving this account to the best of my ability would help my department meet its goals, and it would be a valuable addition to my portfolio. (Action) I sought out a mentor with more industry experience to ensure my success. This individual taught me incredibly beneficial approaches and tools for managing my time, controlling stress, and regulating my mindset under pressure. (Result) As a result, I successfully onboarded this account and even received accolades from the client, which felt great. Now, when I feel immense pressure on the job or in my personal life, I lean on these mechanisms and techniques to get me to the finish line with focus and poise."
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 consider myself a top performer when the going gets tough because of my ability to stay focused on the task at hand and remain calm. Over the last year, teachers have been working very short-staffed, and this has caused major stress for everyone. My principal has praised me for prioritizing work smartly and efficiently so I can chip in to help others.
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! Can you talk more specifically about a time or two when you stepped in and helped a teacher? Give details so the interviewer understands exactly what you did and what kind of pressure you were under. Emphasize your ability to work effectively in a hectic and intense environment. Good job!
Anonymous Answer
I took over an assignment that another Estimator failed to complete. The assignment had already been open for 3 weeks and was due in two days. This was a large water loss on the second floor of an apartment building and affected several units. I was able to reschedule my current assignments and visit the location of the loss within 24 hours, performed my Inspection and scope, and was able to upload the renovation estimate within the time frame originally given.
Marcie's Feedback
Awesome! This is a powerful example because it shows you are willing to move quickly and work hard to meet an urgent deadline. Can you talk more about the pressure you felt? Why did the other estimator fail to complete the job? What was difficult about it? Finally, how did getting the estimate uploaded in time benefit the client and your company?
Anonymous Answer
During my career at ______ Mortgage being successful under pressure was a daily part of work life, and I loved it. The first month of banking I was able to achieve my goal within four days. This taught me how to gain the most trustworthy relationships with my clients and team members. I achieved my goals because of a positive mindset and determination. Despite whatever is around me the pressure helps me to stay focused on the task at hand.
Jaymie's Feedback
Great start! Consider adding more context around what your specific goals or targets were, so the interviewer really understands the impact of your achievement in the example.
Anonymous Answer
The first wedding I ever photographed I was under intense pressure. A wedding is something that only happens once, there's no do-over for the photographer, so if you mess it up in any way, there aren't many options to fix the problem. Many things can go wrong when photographing a wedding between time constraints, camera batteries dying, memory cards failing, missing the shot during important times, forgetting what poses to use, etc. By taking the time beforehand to prepare for all of these issues that may come up, and being sure to stay calm throughout, I was able to avoid any obstacles and successfully photograph their wedding.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is such an excellent example to use! Great job speaking about preparation and maintaining your composure to get the job done under pressure.
Anonymous Answer
As a program manager, one of the many tasks that I had was to assign 13 teachers to a classroom at five different locations throughout the valley. At that time the teachers we had in our pool were getting hired by school districts so we were losing our teachers. Time was ticking and I had about one week to interview and hire new teachers to help start the new programs. It was going to be difficult because I wanted to make sure that the right candidates were brought on board in order to have a successful program. I met with my team and delegated the work.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is a great example to use with specific information that helps the interviewer better understand the task. If possible, go into more detail on how you made sure the right candidates were selected and what the outcome was of this assignment. Highlight skills you used that would help you stand out, like communicating, prioritizing tasks, follow-ups, planning, and organizing, and give as much detail as you can. For example, did you take the initiative and lead the project? If so, how many people did you lead?
Anonymous Answer
I took over handling a wrongful death case from an attorney that left our office. While handling the probate for the wrongful death case, we had a significant amount of beneficiaries and debt collectors that had to be served notice for the hearing for the estate with a minimum of 10 days' notice. When we were approaching the date, we still did not have service on all those that needed to be served. I made contact with each party that had not been served to discuss the circumstances and try to get signed waivers on the service. I was finally able to get all the signed waivers by the day of the hearing which allowed us to go forward.
Jaymie's Feedback
Great job! This was definitely a high-pressure situation, but it sounds like you handled it with great care and experience which resulted in a positive outcome.
Anonymous Answer
Recently, at work, a 3-year-old patient was given a Kit Kat candy bar by his Aunt. She wasn't aware it may have been made with other peanut products and since he was allergic to peanuts, he quickly went into anaphylactic shock right in front of me. In the 30 years, I've been doing this, I fortunately have never had to do any emergent type rescue. Thankfully, my brain remembered the 1st step was to immediately administer an EpiPen. As the patient was passing out, he woke up a couple of minutes after the administration.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is a great example of a high-pressure situation you experienced. Your response shows you can remain calm and take action.
Anonymous Answer
Working as a Tax preparer is something I have only done informally for myself and my family. After completing a crash course, tax season began. My plan was to work just a couple of days a week, but after a couple of weeks, 4 of the 6 people that started left and I was asked to work full time.
Challenges were:
The obvious increase in the volume of clients I saw,
I was tasked to prepare more complex returns,
Speed became as important as the quality
Although the first 8 weeks were intense I managed to keep up with demand and made consistent progress in speed and quality.
By the end of the season, I completed over 200 tax returns and became the go-to preparer in the office for business return-related questions.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is a great example to share! It shows you're able to remain calm and focused under pressure, learn quickly, and take on challenges! It's always important to focus on success and share the result of your perseverance, as you did here in this example.
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