Stryker Ltd. Mock Interview
Master 35 Stryker Ltd. interview questions covering medical device sales, clinical knowledge, and customer-focused problem solving.
Question 1 of 35
At Stryker, we need outside-the-box thinkers to continue to innovate our company so we can stay competitive in the medical device industry. Tell me about a time you thought about something differently or proposed a new way of doing something.
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Example Answer
Community Answers
Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
If you take the time to review Stryker's history of innovation in the medical field, it will become abundantly clear that they are committed to rethinking ways of doing things and helping to improve medical care for patients around the world. From their historic manufacturing of the wedge bed for patients with serious back injuries to their work today in robotic-arm assisted technology in surgery, Stryker will always strive to think outside-the-box and your interviewer needs to be convinced that you will do so as well as part of their team. In your example, show your ability to be creative in your thought process to come up with a solution that benefits the work that you do and the people the work impacts.
Ryan Brunner has over ten years of experience recruiting, interviewing, and hiring candidates in the healthcare, public service, and private manufacturing/distribution industries.
"In sales, being flexible and forward-thinking is necessary to stay in the game in any tough market and I know this is true in medical devices and technologies. Back when social media was taking a foothold and becoming more popular, I was the first on my team at that time to start pushing a social media presence on channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Large hospitals and individual providers were gaining presence on those sites and I came up with many creative ideas to get information and videos about products on those sites so key customers could do their homework and research them on their own. At that time, the feedback I received from customers was amazing. I want the Stryker team to know that I would always be a visionary when thinking about new and innovative ways to bring great products from your lines to the market."
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Anonymous Answer
In my current role, the physician is always the main focus. I identified that the clinician that saw the patient prior to their surgery was the mid-level provider. I worked with my leadership team to develop a mid-level training program that provided training and product understanding to the mid-levels in high volume offices to help grow our business exponentially over a 12-month rolling year. This training led to numerous product implants.
Lauren's Feedback
Great example. I cleaned up some of the wording.
I am a person who continually looks for areas of improvement, and I recently spearheaded a new training program that has boosted numerous product implants. Our old way of thinking focused solely on the physician. I took a step back to identify clinicians as vital mid-level providers. I provided my observation to the leadership team and, together, we created a training program geared towards mid-level employees in high volume offices. The program aimed to widen product understanding, and has become extremely successful.
Anonymous Answer
I started with my company while they were experiencing their first significant expansion and so I was the least experienced of my group. I spent several weeks learning about the process and forming relationships with my cross-functional partners. When my team ran into a logistics issue about five months in, I was able to solve the problem by leveraging logistics partners I had identified on my own in the field. Because I had built relationships within my company, my efforts were welcomed, and it ultimately saved a lot of business.
Rachelle's Feedback
Excellent response! Well laid out, easy to follow, and a successful example.
Anonymous Answer
In my previous role as a Customer Care Advisor for a Pharma company, I was in constant communication with Key Account Managers and customers, receiving a great amount of feedback from customers on what products worked better for them. I had the idea of setting a plan with the Sales Team to collaborate with them in order to design specific product offers for customers depending on their needs and I was recognized by the company for contributing to achieving the Sales Department objectives from a Customer Service perspective.
Cindy's Feedback
Great example! You could develop the details by following the STAR format, which stands for situation, task, action, and result. By dwelling on the action you took and detailing how you made your idea a reality, you'd give the interviewer a line of sight into your abilities.
Anonymous Answer
At one of my previous company's, there was a wellness program that was losing employee interest and was costing the company a lot of money, and was not getting any results. It was mainly focused on physical activity which was excluding a large population of people who had physical handicaps or who were already physically fit. I suggested the idea to approach the wellness program that focused on holistic health which included mental health, nutrition, physical activity but also provided tools and resources for employees to utilize. The employees were very excited about this change and participation increased by 60% within the first year.
Stephanie's Feedback
This is a very strong response and really captures your problem-solving skills and ability to innovate new ideas. My only suggestion is to change the phrase "physical handicaps" to "physical limitations," as the word "handicaps" has some negative connotations and could be poorly received by an interviewer, depending on their background and views. Otherwise, this response is great!
Anonymous Answer
My web developers finished a system upgrade ahead of time and under budget and wanted bonuses but that wasn't possible. I convinced the CIO to host a formal dinner that the team could bring their spouses to and the CIO wrote a short speech praising each team member's accomplishments and presented them with a certificate and an extra week of PTO time to show his appreciation.
Marcie's Feedback
Wow! This is a great example to include here because it shows that you took the initiative to benefit both your colleagues and the company, in addition to thinking outside the box. The interviewer will undoubtedly be impressed by how proactive, thoughtful, and original you were in this instance. Consider ending your answer with some information about how this impacted the team's morale and how much the web developers appreciated the gesture. Great response!
Anonymous Answer
I try to think of doing things outside the box every day. My MBA has helped me think outside the box, my product management experience has helped me think outside the box. Being in healthcare my whole career I can examine the pain of customers and help develop products that are needed in the market. As far as regulatory is concerned, in examining manufacturer-held clinical data, such as CAPAs, Complaints, NCRs, customer feedback, PMCF surveys, PMCF studies, and the CER, I can identify new products that are needed in the market or product improvements. One was a complaint of the delivery needle not being MRI compatible, the rest of our device is MR conditional, therefore there is a need for a needle that is MR conditional or compatible, but also visible during MRI or ultrasound and we are currently working on this product. I also discovered in the CER some of the clinicians were asking for a needle that was polymeric without breaking upon insertion.
Amanda's Feedback
I can see that you have extensive experience! Sometimes, that can make it challenging to streamline your response. But, for a situational question like this, choosing to talk about one very impactful example of a time when you proposed doing something differently is actually better than lightly touching on many different areas. Share the initial problem, how you thought about it in a new way, how that helped you solve the problem, and what the positive outcome was.
Anonymous Answer
We had a substantial amount of annual scrap due to a number of defects after the material is extruded. It was always accepted that due to the nature of our extrusion process (coating an MDF substrate with a plastic coat), there is no way to recover material. We would scrap up to 2M annually in lost goods. I made a proposal to design a reverse extrusion DIE that allows for the plastic to be "peeled" off. In doing so, we were able to recover the high-dollar MDF profiles and be reused again for Finished Goods,
Amanda's Feedback
This is an excellent response. You've explained the underlying assumption and cost associated with it as well as how you thought differently and what the positive outcome was once you implement your innovative process.
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