Describe a difficult project and how you overcame it?
"I recently had a challenging school project with a tight deadline. It was on a topic that I was not overly knowledgeable in. I decided to hire a tutor to help me through the outline creation and final edits. I will go the extra mile whenever necessary."
"I have had many challenging projects in my eight years as a biological scientist. When I am faced with a task more challenging than usual, I will create a step by step plan and follow it to a tee. I call in reinforcements when needed and also have an industry mentor who I call upon from time to time."
The interviewer wants to know how you approach, evaluate and resolve a work problem or complicated project. Telling the interviewer how you overcame the problematic project will show your problem-solving skill as well as prove that you are one that can take on responsibility.
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
The difficult project was working with isolating tubules from kidneys of SS rats on different days of salt. The difficulty arises while isolating the tubules as we go for a higher number of salt intake, the kidney becomes fibrous and so the tubules are a little difficult to isolate and thereby I had to optimize the collagen concentration which I used to digest the other kidney cells. I found the same thing with mitochondria isolation too.
Stephanie's Feedback
This sounds like a complex project, which you handled with ease! My only suggestion for strengthening this response is to add a closing sentence about what you learned or how you have used what you gained from this project as you moved forward.
Unlock all 25 Biological Scientist questions
Unlock expert responses to research-focused questions that lab directors and principal investigators ask.
Get Started