Tell me about a time you identified a problem and how you fixed it.

Choose your reasons and words wisely. How you reacted should be in the best interest of the company. Owning your mistake shows character and integrity. Use examples that reveal your ability to adapt, detailing how quickly you reacted and the logic behind your course of action. Avoid examples that reflect poorly on your performance. Describe the situation, the obstacle, and how you ultimately overcame it. Providing examples where you dealt with disappointment is fine. How you deal with disappointment should be the point of your answer. But this is also an opportunity to show yourself as a half-glass-full person, by sharing an example of a project that worked out better than you had planned.

"There were discrepancies in our inventory results. Theft seemed like an unlikely cause for the shrinkage. Speculations and rumors were spreading like a fire. While reviewing our retail stock ledgers from the last six months and comparing them with our manifests, quite an undertaking, I realized our receiving clerk was just signing off on our shipments without monitoring the exceptions and discrepancies. We addressed the issue, and our next inventory came in within an acceptable range."