Talk about a time where you had to think outside the box to solve a problem on the job? What resources did you use to help?
"During my internship for my college degree, I had the awesome opportunity to work for a non-profit organization that focused on drug and alcohol abuse prevention in a large metro area. During the three months that I was with the program, I was tasked with a project where I was compiling metrics on drug and alcohol abuse prevalence in the city. To best compile some of the metrics, I asked my supervisor if I could hit the streets to poll the public on their use of drugs and alcohol. Rather than mailing surveys, which are most often thrown out, I found that I received truthful and honest responses from people when I spoke with them directly. At the end of my time there, the staff was shocked with the number of people I spoke with and the data that I was able to gather to be put to use in future programs with the organization."
"During my time as a Health Educator with a large healthcare system, we were finding that we weren't getting much support from our upper levels of administration on some programs that we thought were necessary. Knowing that many major research and statistics were pointing to mental health as one of our region's number one health concerns, we asked our CEO, CFO, and Administrative Council if we could present the statistics and our plan to them for providing education on mental health awareness. It was not common for our department to do this. After being welcomed and scheduled, our presentation really opened their eyes to the needs for our plan, and we were able to implement it with the blessing of our top leaders."
As a Health Educator, providing effective education to a group or population often requires some fresh thoughts or ideas. Thinking outside the box in this field can also relate to problem-solving and quick thinking. For this question, think of a specific situation that you've encountered where you've had to think outside the box and do something nontraditional that will impress your interviewer. Be specific in your answer and talk about the problem you faced, how you came to your decision, and what the outcome was.
"On a recent project I was working on, my organization tasked me to coordinate, plan and implement a county-wide initiative on birth control among the young population in the area. Knowing that teen pregnancy was a recurring issue, I wanted to make this impact on young people. In planning to do presentations at three local high schools, I looked into the funding for a guest speaker that could talk about how pregnancy as a teenager had affected her life. After receiving the funding, I put feelers out around our organization and ended up finding a great speaker to come with me to the presentations. I was told by two of the school administrators that our program had a great impact just because of the experiences that the speaker talked about."
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