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Tell me about a time you made a good
decision.
"Tell
me about a time you made a good decision."
"Tell
me about a time you found a solution to a problem."
This is a little easier than thinking about a mistake. You should make sure to
include why it was a good decision and the result should be obviously
meaningful. I also want to use this as an example of answering multiple
questions. I would use this same answer for either of the two questions above.
It was a good decision, and I fond a solution to a problem. Preparing for every
interview question in the world will be too much work. Think of key experiences
and apply them to multiple answers. In the case where it is the same
interviewer, then you might be forced to think of a new answer. So it might be
good to think of couple of answers.
Short Answer
"During
my last project, we ran into a difficult problem. This was high priority so
everyone was instructed to find a solution. I started looking for more
information on the Internet, I even talked to a different manager on a
different team. This helped tremendously and our problem was solved. I made a
decision to use every resource I could find, and in the end, it solved the
problem."
Long Answer
"In
my last position at Microsoft, there was a time period where our group was
going to slip reaching our milestone by one day. This was because the day
before exiting the third milestone, we found a problem in the program. Since we
created a new build with all bug fixes each morning, we had two choices. We
could either fix the problem and verify the program the next day after we build
again, or we could postpone the problem and fix it in the next milestone. Both
options didn't sound very appealing. I suggested fixing the program now, and
perform another build to verify the fix instead of waiting for tomorrow. Many
times people are used to following a process, but in this case, I challenged
the process of building in the morning and requested another build to verify
the last bug fix. In the end, we were able to complete milestone 3 on time and
fixed the important problem. This was significant because if we didn't exit
milestone 3, then everyone waiting to start work on the next milestone would
have to wait another day. In essence, this saved a days work for more than 30
people."
For this example, I was careful not to use too many technical jargons that
might not be understood. I also explained the situation carefully and explained
why the decision was a good one. Remember that some of these answers will not
work for you. In this case, if you never worked at Microsoft and never
experienced this, just follow the steps of stating the problem, explaining the
choices, why you made the decision, and finally why it was a good decision. |