How to Answer: Provide an example of a time that you had to make a difficult ethical decision?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for an Analytical Chemist job interview.
3. Provide an example of a time that you had to make a difficult ethical decision?
How to Answer
The interviewer wants to know that you are a very ethical person and that if you make a mistake or witness an ethical concern, you will do the right thing and report it to upper management. Ethical issues can be things like time falsification, reporting or recording false data, intentional actions that pose as a safety hazard, or any intentional misrepresentation of data. The interviewer wants to hear that you are willing to do the right thing even when no one is around. Provide an example of a time that you had to make a decision when it came to ethical concern and talk about the details of the outcome.
Written by Lindsay Williams Ortega on December 1st, 2021
Answer Example
"I recently became aware of an ethical issue regarding time falsification from one of my coworkers. I noticed that my coworker was badging into our department and then would wait for another member of the team to badge out and he would follow behind without using his company keycard. By doing so, it gave the impression that he never left the department. He was leaving for multiple hours at a time and management did not realize it. When I became aware of what he was doing, I had to tell my supervisor. Not only was he receiving pay for a job that he was not doing, but our team was falling behind because he was not present to complete his tasks. It was not an easy thing to do because he was a nice person but, it was an ethical violation so I had to report him."
Written by Lindsay Williams Ortega on December 1st, 2021