Tell me about a time when you were in danger of missing a deadline. What did you do?
The interviewer wants assurance that you can perform under pressure and still deliver on your deadlines. The goal of your response is to show the interviewer that you are a diligent person and will complete your work on time.
" (Situation) Last month, our corporate head office requested a full inventory count at random. We had just 48 hours to complete this count, and inventory counts typically take three full days to complete. (Task) I am the team lead, so it was up to me to determine how the team was going to make this happen. (Action) I rescheduled us to work longer split shifts to ensure we met the timeline without overworking anyone. I turned the task into a competition - the first person to complete their inventory section received two free movie tickets. (Result) My plan worked well! We finished the inventory count in just 39 hours, and the team remained motivated."
"(Situation) My team and I were recently under a deadline to complete a global employee satisfaction survey. (Task) We had to execute the project from start to finish within six weeks. Before beginning, we came across one major roadblock that would prevent us from accomplishing this. Global customs would take six weeks to ship the surveys in and out of the facility. (Action) We came up with the solution to email the surveys and still include the coding that would catalog the results by location and department. (Result) It was our transparency in communication and collaborative work environment that allowed us to meet the deadline and deliver the results to the leadership team."
"(Situation) I was once part of a marketing project that had a major setback because of the crash of our project management software. (Task) As the Marketing Manager, it was up to me to find the solution so that our team did not miss our deadline. (Action) I went to the project backup database, quickly reviewed everyone's open tasks, rearranged the schedule, and called an emergency team meeting to set us back on course. (Result) We barely made it in time, but we did, and I was very proud of the hard work my team put in to make it happen."
"(Situation) I currently work as a telephone sales representative in a highly competitive environment. I recently had a chaotic week; Monday was a holiday, and our company database was down on Tuesday. (Task) I was tasked with cold calling 100 prospects per day, and my numbers do not change despite long weekends or tech roadblocks. This setback meant that I needed to complete five days of work in just three. (Action) I spent a few hours of overtime and skipped my lunch breaks so that I would meet my target. I called 150 people per day and 200 on the final day. (Result) My boss was thrilled with the dedication that I showed and thanked me for not making excuses and hitting my targets despite the roadblocks."
"(Situation) Recently, I was called into work at the last minute to help reach a buying deadline. (Task) Our previous manager had left suddenly, so I was asked to step in and make buying recommendations for next season. (Action) I stayed up for hours that night reviewing last year's data for the same season, to make educated recommendations to corporate. (Result) In the end, the company made many of its buying decisions based on my recommendations. I was so nervous throughout the entire season that I made an inaccurate representation of our data and put my job at risk. As it turned out, I was pretty accurate, and we had a successful summer season."
"(Situation) Last year, while writing the curriculum, we had some conflict about what lessons would be added, cut, or kept. Because of this conflict, our faculty fell behind on the curriculum deadline. (Task) Of course, as a dedicated teacher, my students and their learning always come first. I knew I needed to hustle to reach these curriculum goals before the start of the year. (Action) Ultimately, I ended up working longer hours than usual to make my final recommendations and revisions. (Result) In the end, I was able to reach my professional deadlines. I believe that my passion showed in the inspired curriculum changes I contributed."
"(Situation) This past year my Regional Manager wanted to have a new sales rep hired and trained for the first week of January. (Task) She informed me of this on the first of December. (Action) To expedite the process, I requested a budget allowance to hire a recruiter. (Result) The recruiter worked fast, and we had an offer out to the perfect candidate in just three weeks."
Answer this question by telling the interviewer about a specific time you had to perform at an accelerated level to meet an important deadline. Outline the situation and describe why it was vital to complete the deadline on time. Focus the bulk of your response on the actions you took to meet a deadline successfully. If your diligence yielded an impressive accomplishment, be sure to include this in your story-based response.
Behavioral-based interview questions that begin with 'Tell me about a time...' are best answered using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Organizing your response using this framework will ensure that you provide the interviewer with the right amount of information and detail to form a compelling answer.
Avoid giving a general answer regarding your dedication and time-management skills. Stay away from vague statements like, 'I am sure never to miss a deadline. I am a very hard worker with excellent time management skills.'
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
A deadline I was near to miss once was in my current role as test coordinator needed to test all the scenarios to a certain deadline, but because of all the dependencies, I was afraid that I will not manage to test everything to the deadline. My actions were then to push all the people a little bit more I was delivering the test data for us, by saying it is urgent for us and push them to a fast reply. If they don't reply fast, find other communication methods that got them to understand that is urgent, for example instead of emailing or texting, call them or go to them and speak with them in person. The result was really good because many of the stakeholders understood the urgent matter for us and prioritize us much higher.
Rachelle's Feedback
Try to soften your answer a touch, to avoid sounding domineering in the workplace (ie: push all the people; get them to understand...)
"While working as a test coordinator, I often needed to push important deadlines. I remember one specific time where I had to nudge my co-workers a little harder to deliver test data on time. I called, emailed, or went to speak with the team members involved, ensuring that the answers I needed were provided promptly. I delivered the project on time, and the stakeholders were happy with our teams' prioritization."
Anonymous Answer
There was a time when we proposed a new program to the authority for approval. The accreditation time was longer than we had expected and when it was finally approved we had only limited time for getting the courses set up in the system for enrollment in the scheduled term. I approached my supervisor that I am willing to take extra workload to support my academic leader as well as work overtime to complete the project on time. My supervisor commended my work ethic and gave me time in lieu of the extra time I spent on the work.
Rachelle's Feedback
It's great that you used a specific example when your supervisor rewarded you for your dedication. Perfect response!
Anonymous Answer
It was my first time ever doing a journal club for one of my rotations. My preceptor had reviewed the first draft and I needed to make a lot of revisions. On top of that, I had to complete other daily assignments. I decided to make a list and prioritize my tasks based on importance and how much time it will take me. I was able to finish making the revisions in time for my presentation.
Rachelle's Feedback
Great answer!
"It was my first time completing a journal club for one of my rotations. My preceptor had reviewed the first draft, and I needed to make a lot of revisions. On top of that, I had to complete other daily assignments. I decided to make a list of all my tasks and prioritize my jobs based on importance and how much time they would take to complete. I was able to finish the revisions in time for my presentation."
Anonymous Answer
We had a program that we needed to implement that we were falling behind on. We were getting notifications from the corporate office that we needed to sign up more people to boost our ratings.
Since I worked at other stores, I observed what they did and how they sold the program to people. I suggested that we let our customers know this and we put together a flyer and put it in everyone's bag for people not yet on the program.
As a result of the improved marketing of the program, we were soon able to get caught up and were right on schedule with the total number of patients on the program.
Rachelle's Feedback
Excellent thinking, and a very proactive solution. Very good answer!
Anonymous Answer
As we were undertaking our offshore restructuring process, the managing director had given us a timeline on the share transfer process. This meant that we had to pay stamp duty and capital gains tax. We took a risk of applying for Stamp duty exemption. Assessment of the exemption is known to take a long time, but I cleared my diary, spent the day at the registry. We got the S. D exemption and saved the company 13 million and managed to finish the task on time.
Rachelle's Feedback
It sounds like you gained an exceptional result in the end, after taking some smart steps. Good work!
Anonymous Answer
According to CMS, we need to locate and score a member within a short time. One day, I received a list of 200 new enrollees. The list may be made in two days. I sorted the member within my team, ten community health workers, and at the end of the day, we were done. The next day I review the plan of care, and we turned it on time.
Alexandra's Feedback
Great answer! I really like that you describe the action you took in delegating tasks to team members. I would suggest adding in some information to display how difficult the task was.
According to CMS, we need to locate and score members within a very short time. One day, I received a list of 200 new enrollees. I had 2 days to complete the task. I knew immediately that the deadline was at risk, because usually I can complete about 10 enrollees a day. To solve this issue, I split the 200 enrollees between 10 team members. By delegating this task to a team of people rather than trying to get it all done myself, we were able to meet the deadline. Before turning it in, I reviewed the plan of care to ensure consistency, and then I submitted it on time.
Anonymous Answer
We had a phone migration for the building of 200 phones across the building that had to be setup to go to a different phone server and all had to manually be rebooted. We ran into an issue with the new server not accepting the phones. We ended up having to delete the old cluster off the server so that it could register on the new server. We were in danger of having employees come in the next day without phones. I stayed until a little past 2 in the morning to finish the phones up.
Kristine's Feedback
Great response! You describe an intense situation where you stepped up to make sure you met the deadline. To help the interviewer understand the urgency of the task, you can discuss the tight timeframe you had to complete the project. I revised your response slightly to help with clarity.
We had a phone migration assignment for a building with 200 phones. All phones had to be set up to go to a different phone server and had to be rebooted manually. We ran into an issue with the new server not accepting the phones. We ended up having to delete the old cluster off the server so that it could register on the new server. We were in danger of having employees come in the next day without phones. I stayed until a little past 2 in the morning to finish the phone migration.
Anonymous Answer
I recall a time we had a staff shortage due to recruitment freeze by management. The team of auditors assigned to a high risk location in PH was inadequate. The audit was to take place for a week. Although the team worked fast enough to finish ahead of audit timeline, a major fraud discovered ensure that the audit timeline had to be extended.
Kristine's Feedback
Good answer! To enhance your response, you can put more of a focus on your actions and what you did to make sure you didn't miss the deadline. I assisted with wording to feature you more prominently, but you can tailor to reflect your experience. The interviewer may not know what "PH" means, so go ahead and say the words in full.
I recall a time we had a staff shortage due to recruitment freeze by management. I was on a team of auditors assigned to a high-risk location in PH. We were given one week for the audit, and the number of team members we had was inadequate. To help my team meet our deadline, I... Although my team worked fast enough to finish ahead of the audit timeline, we discovered a major fraud, forcing the audit timeline to be extended.
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