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Medical Devices Mock Interview

Question 25 of 25 for our Medical Devices Mock Interview

Medical Devices was updated by on January 22nd, 2021. Learn more here.

Question 25 of 25

Many of our projects have very strict timelines. Tell me about a time you missed a deadline or deliverable and how you handled it.

"We had a new leader start recently. To get her up to speed, she asked for a number of different reports in a 2 day turn around time. She needed them for an executive meeting she was going to. One of the reports was very manual and with my other responsibilities, I just wasn't able to get it done in time. I went to her office and told her that I could have this complete tomorrow, but I wasn't able to finish it for her meeting this morning. She asked what I was working on and I explained my competing priority. She recommended that I come check with her to get help prioritizing in the future. I learned a big lesson that day about using your leader as an advocate for you. I should have come to her first. I've kept this in mind in other scenarios when I've had competing deadlines."

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How to Answer: Many of our projects have very strict timelines. Tell me about a time you missed a deadline or deliverable and how you handled it.

Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Medical Devices job interview.

  • 25. Many of our projects have very strict timelines. Tell me about a time you missed a deadline or deliverable and how you handled it.

      How to Answer

      Everybody makes mistakes and it is best to pick a project where the missed deadline wasn't fatal and you were able to recover and learn from your mistake.

      1st Answer Example

      "We had a new leader start recently. To get her up to speed, she asked for a number of different reports in a 2 day turn around time. She needed them for an executive meeting she was going to. One of the reports was very manual and with my other responsibilities, I just wasn't able to get it done in time. I went to her office and told her that I could have this complete tomorrow, but I wasn't able to finish it for her meeting this morning. She asked what I was working on and I explained my competing priority. She recommended that I come check with her to get help prioritizing in the future. I learned a big lesson that day about using your leader as an advocate for you. I should have come to her first. I've kept this in mind in other scenarios when I've had competing deadlines."

      2nd Answer Example

      For example: "As a new grad, I remember in college, I had a huge project due in my economics class at the end of the semester. I made a schedule that would help me get all of the pieces of this project done in time, but part of my project required outside data that I needed from a different university. There was a delay in this data getting to me and it delayed some of the subsequent steps of my project. I ended up getting it just a few days before the deadline. As hard as I tried, I couldn't get it submitted on time. I was absolutely devastated. I called my professor who understood, but I got a reduced grade because it was late. I learned that I should have chosen a data source that was more readily available to me but also that I could have looped in my professor earlier who might have had another idea."

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