Tell me about a time you felt uncomfortable or unprepared in your job.

Question

Rachelle Enns · Accepted Answer

"(Situation) A few years ago, I joined Company XYZ as their newest Inside Sales Rep. I was very excited for this opportunity, but on my first day, it became apparent that the company had not prepared for my first day. I did not have an assigned desk, an email address, or training materials. (Task) Rather than panic and quit or feel discouraged, I decided to take control of the situation. (Action) I found some training manuals online and made a place in the employee lounge. I let my supervisor know that I would do what I could from there until my desk and tech were ready for me. (Result) I made the best of an awkward situation! I had a very successful start because of my willingness to take control of my onboarding. I even earned top rep status within my first 60 days."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

The interviewer wants to know how you react when you feel unprepared in the workplace or find yourself outside of your comfort zone. The goal of your response is to provide evidence of your ability to overcome potentially distressing or awkward situations.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

Avoid giving an answer that makes it seem like you blame others or shirk responsibility when you feel unprepared or uncomfortable. Instead, show the interviewer that you take accountability for your success.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

The interviewer is asking you to be a storyteller. You can 'talk about a time when...' by forming a brief story using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Using this framework will ensure that you provide the interviewer with the right amount of information and detail to form a compelling and memorable response.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"(Situation) I felt very uncomfortable in my first internship. I was new and largely unaware of how challenging the placement would be. This newness and naivete made me an outsider in the office pretty quickly. (Task) Rather than keeping my head down, I decided to make the best of the situation and learn everything I could. (Action) I asked to shadow a senior team member for my first two weeks. I wrote down pages of notes, soaking in everything this person said and did. (Result) By the final week of my internship, I had a newfound confidence and many new professional strengths that benefitted me in my final year of university."

Anonymous User · Answer

"In my previous role we sold a liquid thickener that had specific guidelines on how to mix, the guidelines changed worldwide and the supply of new materials was delayed with the new guidelines. I had a lot of training to do across one of my hospitals who were depending on this new material.

So I went back to our marketeer and requested an electric copy of the new materials that I could showcase to this customer in this big account. They agreed and as a result, I was able to deliver training with electronic copies and succeeded in my support to the customer."

Anonymous User · Answer

"My first week on a new team as new owner account manager was a big job change with lots of extra responsibilities. I was asked to take my first customer call on the 2nd day, and I wasn't prepared, the customer got annoyed at me for not knowing the answers to some of their queries. I had to remain calm, and following the call, I express to the manager that I believed I need some more time getting to know the processes for this new team more before going back to taking customer calls. I asked to shadow one of the most experienced members of the team, listening to calls and taking notes. We also went through the areas that I struggled to help the customer with. This was a big help and allowed me to understand gaps in my knowledge."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Last year my coworker was promoted and I took on their book of business. My customer base doubled overnight. This was daunting, however, I relied on my training, organizational, and time management skills to formulate a success plan for the new overarching territory. With the confidence of my abilities and advice from my team, I was able to successfully service my new customer base."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I was pulled into a meeting without any knowledge of what the meeting was about. I was not involved at the beginning and came in at the end to provide information I wasn't prepared to provide."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Our institute was due to deliver a week-long course in basic surgical skills, I had delegated staff to teaching days, specifically to their experience and expertise. On Sunday night I received a text from my colleague to say she would not be in the following day due to sickness. I remained calm and used what little time I had to reinforce my knowledge of the subject matter. I asked her to send me all her teaching material and watch online videos to demonstrate the practical elements."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I was asked to present a team member's report at an executive-level meeting. The team member was going on vacation and sent me the report without time to review together. When preparing the presentation, I had some questions. With my team member unavailable, I reached out to people I knew had contributed to the report. They were able to answer my questions, and I was able to give a solid presentation."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I like new challenges, moreover, I thrive in a challenging environment. When I was a disease investigator, I volunteered to do the first school-associated covid-19 case. At this time, we still did not have guidance materials developed at a local public health scale. So, I did my best to use CDC k-12 guidance to familiarize myself with handling exposures and disease control and prevention in this setting, discussed with my supervisor and created a plan of action, and was able to successfully complete the case and share recommendations with the school."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Two weeks after I completed my training with BD, the territory manager I was hired to work under got a promotion and moved. I was given the opportunity to cover the whole territory but didn't have much on-the-job experience. I was outside my comfort zone but looked at this as a great opportunity to learn quickly. Throughout this time, I attended cases and meetings with surgeons to build relationships. I leaned heavily on my network inside my company to give me advice on certain situations I encountered. Looking back, it was stressful but I learned quickly and built integral relationships with customers and coworkers."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I had recently taken a position as operations manager for a business. Soon after I started I was informed I would also be responsible for managing the supply chain for the business. I felt overwhelmed at first but quickly made a plan to adapt and incorporate these responsibilities into my new role. I spent extra time with the supply chain group to gain an understanding of their function and communication. With the additional responsibilities, I was able to identify synergies across departments that improved our value stream. We reduced working capital by $300k and improved on-time delivery from 85% to 97%."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Starting a job at _____ and _______. Neither trained me, they just gave me a brief example of what the objective was and turned me loose. Luckily for me, I'm independent and researched ideas, attended a few workshops, and did well at both places which led to me opening my own business that did very well for me and my family."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I was conducting a step two grievance meeting, and the owner showed up unexpectantly. I continued to run the meeting as I had planned and when he wanted to speak up and conceded the floor and then redirected the meeting where it was diplomatic to do so."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I accepted a new leadership role and was very excited to meet my new team and the new challenges I would face. I immediately started working on my transformation agenda along with my team.Just after four months in the role, the company made announcements that they were going to close the site and I was asked to lead the industrial site transferring to overseas. My team had lots of questions and feelings about the situation. I made sure to have open and transparent communication with the entire site. The key message was that as a leadership team it was important for us to keep our employees well informed on business decisions and help them to get through this tough time."

Anonymous User · Answer

"The CEO was getting stressed and putting a lot of pressure to have a number of patients enrolled in order to get the funding that we needed. The CEO ordered us to pass out flyers to Bingos and Costco. I felt uncomfortable because I knew this would pose a liability to myself and the company. Instead, I reached out to 55+ communities and offered to sponsor activities in exchange for a 20 min presentation about our medical device."

Anonymous User · Answer

"A couple of years ago, when I joined a new company and the hiring manager who was supposed to have my workstation ready forgot that it was my first day and had not prepared for me. I had already met a few colleagues before officially starting, so I took it on myself to go ahead and meet them and start reading the training folders and SOPs and understanding the systems. The manager was very impressed and apologized and, within 3 weeks of starting, moved me to a more advanced team."

Anonymous User · Answer

"In my previous role as an Account Executive, I never received any formal training or coaching, so I had no idea what to expect during my first demo. I prepared as much as I could and went into the call confident. Any time I was unsure of something, instead of panicking, I used it in my favor to look even more prepared and said that I had a product specialist joining at the end to answer any questions."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I felt uncomfortable in my job when I was thrown in front of a room to give a speech on the brand. I was not prepared; however, I took a deep breath and spoke to what I knew. I wasn't prepared, but by being able to calm my nerves and instead of running from the situation, I made the decision to own it and gave the speech to the owners and investors."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I was in a product evaluation and forgot an important piece of equipment for the trial. I gathered the staff and let them know that we would need to share one piece of equipment between the two rooms for the day. This set the expectation that there may be a delay if both rooms needed the equipment at the same time. I had the equipment overnighted for use the next day."

Tell me about a time you felt uncomfortable or unprepared in your job.

How to Answer: Tell me about a time you felt uncomfortable or unprepared in your job.

4. Tell me about a time you felt uncomfortable or unprepared in your job.

The Goal

What to Avoid

Pro Tip

1st Answer Example

2nd Answer Example

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