Describe a time when you had to meet a tight deadline.
Interviewers may ask this question to assess your ability to work productively and efficiently. By asking this question, an interviewer can assess whether you can complete tasks with urgency when required and how well you might perform in the role overall. Deadlines play a major role in impacting a company's profit curve. This is because time management is the leading factor that drives a company's success. You will always be engaged with challenging goals which have to be completed within a deadline.
Preparing an effective answer to this question can help you demonstrate to the hiring manager that you're ready for the demands of the role for which you're interviewing. Make sure that your answer includes specific details that show that you understand the urgency of deadlines and that you can perform to meet them successfully. By using specific examples, you give your answers more weight to demonstrate your value. Also, this way, you impress the interviewer the right way by providing concrete examples of how you handle deadlines.
"In my past internship, I delivered my primary project ahead of schedule and was then given a secondary project to deliver by the end of my internship. Since it was a project area where I did not yet have experience, it took me some time to come up to speed. Yet the original time estimate was based on someone already working within the department. When I got to within two weeks of completing my internship and returning to college, I knew that I was not going to be able to complete the secondary project by the end of my internship. I met with my internal mentor and we worked out a situation that allowed me to continue to work on the project part-time after the official end of the internship. She told me that they typically would not do this, but understood the circumstances and were willing to flex to make it happen. I was able to complete the secondary project a few weeks later and got a high overall rating for my work."
Unlock all 30 Chemical Engineer Intern questions
Unlock expert responses tailored to what engineering managers expect from intern candidates.
Get Started