Describe a time a suggestion you made at work was rejected.
"I used to experience that early on in my career, feeling I wasn't recognized for my contributions. But, now I realize if I want to be heard out, it's up to me to communicate my vision and be assertive in my efforts to be heard out. This way, I ensure whatever I bring to the table is my best, and communicated to the best of my ability. I can't blame others for not sharing my vision when I'm incapable of illustrating that vision. If it gets shelved, I learn what I can from the experience and move on. Often, the sheer feeling of rejection is the only setback, because that feeling can paralyze you and keep you from moving forward. I like to think I'm past that, but everyone thinks they're ready until they're not. Who knows what the future holds?"
They designed this question to evaluate your emotional maturity by looking for signs of defensiveness or stress behavior. How you answer will offer insight into your self-awareness and whether you identify your weaknesses and growth opportunities. How you dealt with rejections in the past will offer clues to your communication skills and the professionalism of your conduct. When providing your answer, present the backdrop of your situational example, including how informed your suggestion was. In an instance where your suggestions were rejected, it's important to explain why, and whether the reason for passing over your idea was valid, and what you learned from it. Your answer will show of whether your contributions will match the innovation they are looking for in their candidates. Your motives should come from a place of helpful professionalism and a drive to support the team effort, not of self-advancement.
The HireVue algorithm will evaluate you for your consistency and your non-verbal cues will hold more weight than what you're vocalizing. It will interpret this as the speaker's true feelings, intentions, and attitudes. So not only do you want to ensure your answers are consistent throughout your interview, but your performance as well. When words and statements are incongruent with your tone, facial expressions, or mannerisms, this reveals limited emotional intelligence or burnout syndrome. It suggests a lack of self-awareness of one's nonverbal cues as being inconsistent with your narrative.
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