Afel
Jun 26, 2012
Undergraduate / "time when you went out of your way to help a colleague" Competency based question [NEW]
I'm applying for a graduate program position with a big company. One of their profile assessment questions is as follows:
Describe a time when you went out of your way to help a colleague or customer? A customer could be someone you have done work for in a job or at university for example.
What was the situation?
What did you do?
Why did you decide to help?
What obstacles did you encounter and how did you overcome them?
What was the outcome?
What feedback did you receive?
Please keep your answer within 300 words.
Would you please consider my answer and make some corrections where needed?
During my first experience with *** company, there have been some changes in our management team which brought in new colleagues. One of these new members had to deal with complex financial data issues which needed the help of the previous manager. That was a bit of tricky situation as the previous manager wasn't able to devote enough time to fully explain his role.
My excellent relationship with the previous manager and my understanding of the functioning of our work allowed me to act as an efficient intermediary between the two facilitating the transition process and saving time.
I decided to help because the whole efficiency of the finance team was at risk.
This situation involved some "extra-work" explaining the role of the previous manager, investigating the accuracy of some figures and handling some complex dashboards. It was not easy to reconcile the opposing attitudes of the two managers.
By the end of fourth week in his new role, the new manager was getting closer to a full understanding of the big picture and I managed to reduce transition delays and enhance the overall functioning of our team.
Both the previous and the new manager had shown approval for my attitude and accepted to write me some recommendations.
I'm applying for a graduate program position with a big company. One of their profile assessment questions is as follows:
Describe a time when you went out of your way to help a colleague or customer? A customer could be someone you have done work for in a job or at university for example.
What was the situation?
What did you do?
Why did you decide to help?
What obstacles did you encounter and how did you overcome them?
What was the outcome?
What feedback did you receive?
Please keep your answer within 300 words.
Would you please consider my answer and make some corrections where needed?
During my first experience with *** company, there have been some changes in our management team which brought in new colleagues. One of these new members had to deal with complex financial data issues which needed the help of the previous manager. That was a bit of tricky situation as the previous manager wasn't able to devote enough time to fully explain his role.
My excellent relationship with the previous manager and my understanding of the functioning of our work allowed me to act as an efficient intermediary between the two facilitating the transition process and saving time.
I decided to help because the whole efficiency of the finance team was at risk.
This situation involved some "extra-work" explaining the role of the previous manager, investigating the accuracy of some figures and handling some complex dashboards. It was not easy to reconcile the opposing attitudes of the two managers.
By the end of fourth week in his new role, the new manager was getting closer to a full understanding of the big picture and I managed to reduce transition delays and enhance the overall functioning of our team.
Both the previous and the new manager had shown approval for my attitude and accepted to write me some recommendations.
