Have you had the opportunity to teach an important skill to a co-worker?
TIPS TO PREPARE
TOP ANSWERS
OUR COACH SAYS
Interviewers want to hear that you have experience teaching or mentoring others, regardless of your formal leadership experience. You may have taught a new hire all of your department's standard processes. Perhaps you taught a long-standing employee how to use Excel. You may have mentored an employee who was struggling to hit their monthly goals. All of these scenarios are great examples to draw on. Better yet, if you have personally seen someone struggling with workplace skills or knowledge, approached them, and offered to mentor them, it is a shining example of leadership!
Whatever your story example may be, tell the interviewer what you helped the person with, while highlighting the positive outcome of the improvement of their skills.
Whatever your story example may be, tell the interviewer what you helped the person with, while highlighting the positive outcome of the improvement of their skills.
Example #1
"Last week our company introduced a new module in our SAP system. I could see that our contracted HR Assistant was having some trouble with the new module. I was familiar with it already, so I offered to help him learn the module. We spent his lunch hour for the next three days working on it. He perfected the module, and our company was so impressed with his dedication to learning that they are now trying to find room to hire him on a full time, permanent basis."
Example #2
"Recently, I trained our new Accounts Payable Clerk on the Salesforce CRM as well as our accounting software. She caught on quickly, and I made sure to let her know that I was available for questions anytime. I enjoy sharing my knowledge when I can."
Example #3
"I have taught many individuals new skills, as it's always been a part of my leadership role to mentor and train new and existing employees. For instance, over the last 30 days, I have taken ownership of a group of 10 recently hired inside sales representatives. I have taught them our company's telephone sales scripts and how to overcome some of the toughest objections in our industry. I find it very rewarding to teach new skills to others."
Example #4
"I'm proud to say that, even without any official management capacity, I often seize the opportunity to teach others at work. I helped contribute to the sales team's knowledge base, even from a marketing role. I try to take new hires under my wing to teach them anything from SEO to segmenting email lists. It's fun to share my knowledge and teach others, especially since I am always seeking out learning opportunities for myself. It's nice to have the opportunity to pus my knowledge forward."
Example #5
"I was a corporate trainer before being promoted to National Retail Manager, so I had the opportunity to train quite a few employees on policies, procedures, and processes. I developed some great teaching methods that included quizzes and hands-on learning opportunities."
Example #6
"Absolutely! In each of my two previous roles, I led a small team of sales reps. I worked with these team members on everything from appointment setting and overcoming objections to price negotiations. In my current role, I continually look for an opportunity to connect with new team members to ensure that I can be a helpful resource to them."
Example #7
"We had a new teacher come on board this year, whom I took under my wing. I taught her about the school's history, the workplace culture among the faculty, and I introduced her to the community, including the highly involved parents and the President of the PTA. It felt great to help her settle in."
Anonymous Answer
"I served as a trainer of classroom management for new teachers. With this training, I was able to demonstrate the importance of managing a classroom."
Rachelle's Reply
This must have been good exposure to facilitating training experiences. If possible, add some more details on the opportunity, what you learned, and what the overall feedback was in regards to your training style.
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Anonymous Answer
"I recently had the opportunity to teach my co-worker how to do safety risk assessments."
Lauren's Reply
This is a great and specific answer. Great job! Be ready to answer follow-up questions based on your answer.
Lauren's Reply
"Be prepared to answer questions like, “What specific way did you teach your coworker?” “How did it make you feel to be able to teach a coworker a new skill?” “What was the outcome of the scenario?”"
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Anonymous Answer
"I have had the opportunity to train staff and management in my current position. Additionally, each time I see an opportunity to share the knowledge that I have, that someone else may not have, I am happy to help them grow."
Rachelle's Reply
Nice answer!
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