Behavioral - Management#

Problem: Disagreeing Colleagues

Tell me a time when your colleagues did not agree with your approach. What did you do to bring them into the conversation and address their concerns?

Solution:

The answer to this will obviously differ from person to person. Try to think of an example related to the projects that you have already discussed or showcased in your CV or in the interview. Focus on the following things:

  • What was the conflict about?

  • Show that you thought through both the viewpoints and not bulldozed your ideas

  • Explain which idea was chosen finally and why did you choose it. Try to showcase that chosing the best method of the project was important rather than individual ideas

Problem: Exceeding Expectations

Tell me about a time when you exceeded expectations during a project. What did you do, and how did you accomplish it?

Solution:

Here showcase a project where you went the extra mile. To be honest not a very difficult example to come up with. Did business ask for a key driver analysis for customer churn and you not only did that but also created a easy to use Power BI dashboard where they can get a list of customers too with the highest chance of churning. Something along these lines.

Problem: Your Strengths and Weaknesses

When an interviewer asks a question along the lines of:

  • What would your current manager say about you? What constructive criticisms might he give?

  • What are your three biggest strengths and weaknesses you have identified in yourself?

  • How would you respond?

Solution:

Gone are those days where you could sell a weakness as a strength. Very few people gets sold on things like I am a workoholic where you are indirectly trying to sell your commitment to work at the cost of work life balance. Actually these could backfire beacuse a lot of companies do a culture fit of employees. Instead be honest, be humble, introspect find something which makes you human but also something which is a not huge handicap for the role you are applying for. You can tell things like need to work on story telling, though I have worked on it a lot etc etc.

There are no one size fits all answer to this question, it depends on which company, seniority of the role etc.