Tell me about a contribution you made to the last team you worked on.
"My most notable contribution was my ability to analyze and predict market trends, and then create a successful marketing strategy for a challenging product that nobody else wanted to tackle. As a marketer, the most significant growth comes from taking on projects that may seem undesirable, and completely knocking them out of the park. This initiative showed my team that it's worthwhile to exit your comfort zone."
"In my sales pod, I am the only one with financial industry experience, so I have made it my mission to create educational materials for the rest of the pod so they can feel not only more comfortable but come off as more confident and natural when they are making their pitches to our finance clients. I was not asked to do this, but I knew it would benefit everyone and the company as a whole if we portray ourselves most professionally."
"Before my arrival in my current role, our office faced a great deal of disorganization. The biggest contribution that I made was creating a new filing system, introducing Trello - a web-based project management application, and then training the team on how to properly utilize the application."
"My most significant contribution to my last team came in the form of introducing a transformational leadership style. This type of leadership means that I spent my time working on inspiring my squad, encouraging effective communication, and creating a comfortable environment by helping my team members to ask the right questions. I am considered a blue-sky thinker and like to promote this way of thinking with my team."
"I was able to contribute to my team by exceeding the conventional expectations of a teacher. I will assist other teachers with marking, should they be falling behind. I will help on sports trips, acting as an additional chaperone. Also, if we introduce new faculty members, I will take them under my wing, ensuring they feel comfortable in their first few weeks on the job."
"I was the key-holder for a family run print and copy business. We had many part-time employees because the owner liked to hire students. Often they were not trained properly and put in front of customers too soon. I took it upon myself to create a training binder that the employees could reference, should they have a question when the owner was not around. This binder increased the quality of customer service we delivered while reducing employee turnover."
It is essential to show the interviewer that you are a team player. Talk about a time that you were recently expected to achieve a goal in a team setting. Discuss how you went above and beyond to ensure that your contribution made a difference.
"Last month our company asked upper management to complete a full inventory audit. There were 4 of us in total and so we broke the audit requirements into shifts. These shifts had to take place when the warehouse was not in its daily operations. In the end, there was one additional shift that nobody wanted to take. I volunteered myself to do that shift to show my dedication to my job and my co-workers. The gesture was appreciated, and the audit completed on time."
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 think it was a situation that I managed to turn a negative into a positive. My boss complained that I was not communicating with team members when I had finished my part in a particular project to pass it on to the next team member. I had to admit that I was at fault for doing this, but I also felt that we should come up with a useful project management tool to help the whole team. I researched the topic and came up with a tool called Jo, which helped all team members plan, track, and organize our work. It was a big success!
Kevin's Feedback
Jo is an awesome tool. Fabulous suggestion! It’s also very good that you took ownership of your part in the situation. However, emphasize why this solution was necessary for the entire team, how it benefitted the team and not just you. Since the central issue was your failure to pass the baton, why was it necessary to change the processes for the entire team to solve your performance issue?
My boss pulled me aside, bringing to my attention the fact that I was inconsistent in communicating with team members when I finished my part in a particular project. It was necessary to pass that information on to the next team member to prevent them backtracking to find out where I left off, and thereby preventing rework. Admittedly, I was a bit hard on myself about it, when my boss revealed it wasn’t just me who had this issue, but over half of the team was struggling with this as well, and he was having several talks throughout the day. So, when I went back to my desk to try to come up with a system that would help me improve in this regard. That’s when I managed to turn a negative into a positive. Knowing I wasn’t alone in this, I shifted my thinking and felt as if we should come up with a useful project management tool to help the whole team. I researched the topic and came up with a tool called Jo, which helped all team members plan, track, and organize our work. It was a big success!
Anonymous Answer
I created the syllabus for the onboarding CT clinic by using my own time. My manager appreciated my work because this syllabus shows the new CT nurse the clear direction for onboarding regarding what to learn for the day, what to review, and move on to the next day and when the onboarding would be done.
Rachelle's Feedback
This sounds like a very important syllabus that would help many people to come! Way to go over and above your typical job requirements.
Anonymous Answer
I have previously undertaken a technology internship at Wetrack which provides digital products for event management. After frequently testing the software, I would find bugs and have to communicate these to developers in the Bulgaria office. English was not their first language, so I had to communicate very clearly.
I decided to use fewer words in my messages to them and use screenshots to show exactly what page and where the bug was. This resulted in them easily understanding the bugs and being able to fix them quickly for a more fluid web experience for our customers.
Kevin's Feedback
Good example. You're demonstrating a number of qualities that employers value, including conscientiousness about meeting goals, problem-solving skills, and good communication. I've modified your answer for clarity, flow, and to more effectively communicate your message.
I interned at Wetrack, an event management digital products platform. One of my responsibilities was frequent software testing. Whenever I found bugs in the software, I’d communicate these to our developers in the Bulgaria office. This proved to be something of a challenge at first, since English was not their first language. This put my communication skills to the test. It was a real challenge finding alternate methods to communicate clearly. I quickly adapted, though, deciding to use fewer words in my correspondence, using screenshots instead to communicate exactly where the bugs were so that they understood. They understood, fixed them quickly, and together we provided a more fluid web experience for our customers.
Anonymous Answer
At My last role, I produced the cash forecast for 2021/22. We had a new team leader who delegated this duty to me which I wholeheartedly accepted as a good experience. Initially, she asked that I work on some lines, but having completed those I was confident to have a look at the rest so I did. She was very pleased with what I did.
Stephanie's Feedback
Great--you may wish to share a bit more about exactly how this contributed impacted the team.
Anonymous Answer
I opened up new accounts in my territory to help my team as a whole grow the most that we could. I did this by opening new accounts, gaining trust, and building relationships.
Stephanie's Feedback
Excellent! What was the impact of opening these accounts? If you're able to actually quantify your response, that is always helpful. (For example: "As a result of these new accounts my team's revenue increased by X amount.")
Anonymous Answer
Very recently, our management decided to move onto the cloud version of UiPath and this meant taking on the entire migration process with very few resources and continuing mundane bot development and support and maintenance activities. Even though faced with time constraints, I took the lead in this process and successfully migrated to the cloud implementation within a month's time.
Jaymie's Feedback
This is a great example! Be sure the interviewer knows what your job title and role were at this company so they can better understand what the expectations might have been for you in this transition. That way, they can see just how much you went above and beyond to support this project.
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