Behavioral stories and common questions Flashcards
English project team member conflict
I was working on this group project a while ago where we had to make a presentation/powerpoint (multimedia english class - audio, text)
One of my group members wanted to design it differently than I did
We disagreed on this/about which one was the way to get a better grade
But I tried to facilitate a conversation where both of our perspectives could be heard
And in the end we managed to come to an agreement about how how to create the slideshow and mix our two ideas, completed the project successfully and without any more issues
Problem solving, coworker conflict
AMA Agency project scope writing
Writing a project scope for consulting project that I worked on
Project manager
I heard what the client wanted out of working with us, and then I had to create a scope and outline of what my team and I were going to work on for the quarter - what deliverables would best meet those goals
Not really a lot of specific steps to writing that kind of document
Required a lot of planning, brainstorming, (drafting) organization with deadlines and seeing if the workload would be doable each week
Managed to come up with a final document + completed everything on it
Doing something with no steps laid out
AMA Agency difficult conversation
Agency
Consultant writing reports too informally, couldn’t show it to the client in that state
(poor punctuation, not capitalizing things)
Work was good, writing style that needed to be fixed
Didn’t want to make them feel embarrassed
Talked to her and said “your work is really good, there is just one thing: I need you to be a little more formal when writing the reports” outlined the changes I wanted her to make
Let her know to reach out if she had any more questions or wanted me to look over something
She understood it, fixed the work, wasn’t a problem again
Leadership, conflict resolution, problem-solving
AMA Agency client no-show
Consulting group
Project manager couldn’t be there, had asked me to lead meeting with the client
I emailed client, sent the new link
Time of meeting, didn’t show up
(initial moment of OK, what do i do now, don’t want to have everyone waiting - this isn’t going as planned)
Waited 10 minutes, sent him an email to check in (now still works?)
Waited another few, didn’t respond, so I just dismissed everyone
When he responded later, said was confused (thought we were rescheduling)
Not a problem, just reiterated the date for the next meeting (worked out fine)
Was definitely a learning experience having to make a decision in the moment
Problem-solving, taking leadership, thinking on the spot
Internship office work
Internship summer after freshman year, marketing
Small company, 15 people
Office manager went on vacation a few weeks in
Had to pick up some office work responsibilities a few weeks in, on top of the work that I was already doing - involved learning new online tools, organization methods
Was a bit of a challenge at first, but practice and repeated experience made it a lot easier, was able to help run things smoothly until our office manager came back
Going above and beyond, learning something quickly
Sociology paper procrastination
freshman year, I had this end of quarter project/presentation (sociology) thing due
I’d looked over it, made an outline but hadn’t done the bulk of the work yet but thought it was doable
ended up being harder than expected and I had to do almost all of the work the weekend before it was due
wasn’t great quality, didn’t get a super good grade on the assignment
got better at estimating how much time things were going to take and then planning out my schedule accordingly
Time you failed, time you made a mistake
BCMU project
Persuasive presentation: (goal was to use effective communication techniques when speaking, also in design + content of presentation)
bulk of our grade
Our assigned topic was about whether or not to breaching a few dams in eastern washington in order to increase fish populations so orcas would have more food supply
We had to interview an expert in the field, put all of the research together concisely
Involved working in a team over 2 months - had to divide up the work, coordinate team check ins
Useful: when group worked together each of us were able to point out areas for improvement that another might not have noticed
Managing multiple steps/putting a project together, teamwork
BCMU presentation organization
Once I was asked to revise a project that I had spent a lot of time on (business communications)
Professor said that the way I’d organized it and some of the content included didn’t make much sense.
(said to get the emotional appeal of fish/orcas out of the way first by disproving that argument, then get into our stuff about job loss and environmentally friendly power)
And at first, frustrated
but after listening carefully to the critique, I saw how I could make changes that would strengthen the finished product.
Made necessary changes, ended up w/ better result.
Received negative feedback
Accounting help
Last year, financial accounting
Had a quiz coming up on a subject that was difficult
Mentioned office hours a few times, I had wanted to try to learn the material by myself
Didn’t do all that great
For the next quiz, took advantage of learning resources and got better about asking for help when I needed it
Time you failed, time you made a mistake
Favorite and least favorite class
Favorite:
Advertising
Challenging at first because the professor was strict about how she wanted assignments to be done and what to include
We get to analyze commercials
Taught me how to put marketing concepts to use and how an advertising campaign works from start to finish
Least favorite:
Accounting
Hard to visualize
Concepts make sense once you figure them out
Getting to the point where you know how to apply them is difficult
Group project deadline persuasion:
Was in a group project, presentation based
Would present our project at the end of the quarter, over about 2 weeks and we got to pick what day were going to go
I had wanted to go earlier, they said later so we’d have more time to work on it
Against that because we’d have finals week
Concerned about time we had to work on it
So I said we could come up with a plan so that we’d have the work done ahead of time, more time during finals week to focus on our other classes
Ended up picking an early date and managed to complete work successfully, so worked out in the end
Strengths?
Communication:
The student organizations I’m in are very collaborative
We work together a lot when having to plan meetings
so I’ve learned to communicate effectively when I’m trying to get something done or meet a goal/deadline
During group projects: I’m often the one that manages communication and meeting times between members
(I was a consultant and project manager for a student-run agency, during meetings with clients we’d have to talk through the work and make sure everyone was on the same page)
Curiosity:
I enjoy learning about things that I don’t know
Helped me fully understand the projects/tasks that I work on - both with school activities and with work
Seek out new experiences
(I was a consultant for a student agency, and I think being curious really helped me understand the business and the environment they were operating in, and getting to know the client’s goals)
Organization:
Good with deadlines when on projects
Prioritizing what needs to be done and when (which I especially had to do this year with balancing some of my school activities and deadlines)
(As the director of Administration for Undergrad Women in Business, there’s a lot of tasks I have to do by a certain time, or forms that need updating, etc. I’ve learned how to schedule those (via calendar) and spread out the work so I’m not rushing to do everything at the last minute.)
Thorough:
Keep track of details
Can pay attention to multiple components of a project/task, so that everything flows smoothly
Weaknesses?
Too much attention to detail/ focus too much on small things and overthink to the point where it isn’t helpful anymore
To try to fix that, when i’m working on something like a report or a presentation, I try to check-in and remind myself of when that kind of precision is actually necessary, refocus my attention on the big picture
MGMT 200 Team member
MGMT 200
One group member who just would never respond in the group chat or meet with us in person (film stuff) or respond super late
Texted them privately and asked if they were able to be a bit more communicative
Apologized: were busy with work and school, we arranged for them to do a different section of the work, so it was still overall equal between group members but the split was different
Allowed all of us to complete the project
AMA Agency delegating tasks
Project manager, consulting project
Part of my job was to plan out what we were going to work on each week
We had a lot of different things to do and I had to figure out who was going to do what
When making that decision, I tried to factor in who was best at each thing (more technical, more creative, etc.) and also what they liked doing
Kept communication clear: slack channel so everyone knew what they were working on
Finals season pressure
Finals season of each quarter is when I’m usually under pressure
Last quarter: had a bunch of projects, presentations, tests due,
One thing that really helped was planning things out ahead of time,
blocking out time on my calendar each day for how long I was going to work which class I going to work on - not just going in with no idea or game plan
And i think that really helped minimize stress leading up to it
Also, at times when it’s really felt like too much I take it as kind of a warning sign (autumn quarter) that in the future I need to lighten my workload a bit
Marchon eyewear - database
At my last internship, I worked at an eyewear company
There were a couple of online tools and databases I had to use to look up styles and colors for some tasks my manager asked me to do
But they wasn’t all that user friendly and hard to navigate
So, for about the first week I set aside time each day to go through them myself and get more familiar with them,
and took notes to refer back to
Eventually, it got a lot easier and I was able to use them without any problems
I BUS project - group work
Project for I BUS: involved a presentation and a written paper
Took the entire quarter, going to be very long - didn’t want to be overwhelmed at the last minute
Our solution was to divide up the work according to our strengths (finance majors did finance portion, supply chain did that, etc.), coordinate regular team zoom meetings and check-ins so we could assess what we still had to do
Having consistent communication really helped us complete the project on time, so we weren’t rushing at the last second.
UWiB - group work
Women in Business - group work, everyone’s jobs kind of overlap
One thing I think I’ve been able to learn is how to communicate effectively
after our main club meeting on Tuesdays, we meet as an exec board to prep for the next week’s event - everyone shares what they’re working on
so everyone is on the same page and aware of what still needs to be done
Communicating things that I need from others in advance so I’m not dealing with things at the last second
(Like, if I need someone to post something on the social media, or someone needs to send me a link to put in our newsletter)
Helped me a develop a team perspective
Python coding
One of my majors is information systems, so some of that involves classes on coding
I had never coded before in my life
One of the first classes I took was using Python
And at first, it was really challenging because I had no experience
But I decided to put in some extra work outside of the regular class hours, like looking up tutorials on YouTube and forming a study group
Eventually became easier
Did well on the midterm and the final
Overcoming a challenge
I BUS Project - persuasion
I was working on this project for an international business class
Was really comprehensive — each group been assigned country and present on it and convince the rest of the class why it was a good idea to invest there (everyone had fake money and would go around and give it to all the groups)
we had to do a presentation with a poster board, and write an 18 page paper
It was hard because my group had Argentina, and their economy isn’t doing too great and inflation is incredibly high
We had to reframe our thinking/go a different route, focused on potential future opportunities (like growth of environmental and energy sectors, open-minded urban consumers)
We ended up getting 100% on the project
Time you had to persuade someone else, big project/workload, organizing
Business Britain study abroad
I was accepted into a study abroad program recently (it’s for a few weeks at the end of the summer in London, where we go around and visit different companies)
I had always kinda thought about studying abroad, but earlier this year I was thinking “I really want to make it happen”
So I learned more about it, met with the program director, studied for the interview
And I got in!
I’m very excited, because I’ve always been curious about how business works in other countries, and now I’ll get to see that firsthand
Accomplishment you’re proud of
UWiB Fundraiser: managing the process and training volunteers
On the exec board for women in business
One of our main events is annual fundraiser
My job for that was to manage the check in and check out process
I had to train volunteers that were helping us with that
Managing our spreadsheet, finding nametags, mingling with guests, helping with drink tickets, doing coat check
Needed to make sure everything ran smoothly on the day of the event
Created a group chat for easy communication and could ask any questions
Ran through the responsibilities ahead of time and on the day of the event to try to minimize any last minute problems
Made myself available during any breaks (weren’t that many) to make sure everything was going well
Showing leadership, learning with no specific steps, communication
UWiB Fundraiser: check out under pressure
On the exec board for women in business
One of our main events is annual fundraiser
My job for that was to manage the check in and check out process
Check in process was a bit busy but mostly fine
When people started leaving, it got crazy
I was operating the card reader — had two people checking out guests and telling me the total to enter into the reader
Loud, people are talking
Had to make sure it was the right amount so I didn’t accidentally charge someone the wrong total
One thing that helped was to just be in the moment and trust my instincts to make the right moves — don’t overthink, which worked well
Even though it felt chaotic, process ran smoothly
Under pressure
UWiB Fundraiser credit card reader
On the exec board for women in business
One of our main events is annual fundraiser
My job for that was to manage the check in and check out process and operate the credit card reader
Right before check out (when people are supposed to pay) - the reader stopped working
Initially I was panicking (everyone else busy with their own thing, had to solve it by myself)
But reminded myself to stay calm and that I could try to fix it— went into the reader’s app on my phone and started experimenting/adjusting the settings until it worked again
Luckily nothing went wrong after that
Problem-solving, working under pressure
UWiB email goal
Part of my job for UWiB is to design weekly email newsletter, where we promote our upcoming events and share job opportunities
Our president had each of us on the exec team set goals
And so since I handle the emails, mine was to increase our open rate by 10%
Had to think of practical ways that I could meet that
One was to increase people’s email sign ups, so on our check in form for each event, I added a question asking if they were already subscribed, so if they weren’t I could add them
Also noticed that depending on when I sent the email, the afternoons were usually more successful than the morning
So I tried to optimize our email campaigns to account for those factors, and our open rates went up
So i was able to achieve that goal
Setting a goal
Marchon Eyewear - asking questions
Last summer, I had a remote internship. This was my first introduction to a corporate setting
I was able to sit In on some of the meetings, and whenever I did I was always confused because I had no idea what anyone was talking about
Everyone was always using different acronyms or referring to some presentation or event that I didn’t know about
At first, I wanted to avoid asking questions for fear of looking unknowledgable and I didn’t want to bothering anyone
But I realized fast that this was a bad approach — I was still confused
So eventually, I began to speak up and ask questions when I didn’t know something or wasn’t familiar with a topic (and luckily, the people I worked with were happy to help.)
This helped me become more familiar with my work environment and became a more active participant on my team.
Unfamiliar environment
AMA Agency - coffee shop
Last year, I was a project manager for a marketing consulting club on campus, UW AMA Agency
I was leading a team of 4 consultants, none of whom really knew each other and most of whom I had just met
Our initial meetings were awkward, and since we’d be spending a fair amount of time together, I knew that our project would run more smoothly if the team got to know each other better
To try to fix this problem, I set up a meeting at a nearby coffee shop, meant to be very informal. During this meeting, we got to know each other more as people
I asked about their experiences with UW, what classes they were taking, and hobbies and interests, and shared my own experiences as well
This definitely helped us relate to each other more and improved the overall team compatibility
Afterward the atmosphere was more relaxed, helping us complete the project effectively.
MKTG 450 decision making
Was in a marketing class last quarter, did a project where we were assigned to consult for a local restaurant
My group was assigned to find improvements for only the exterior of the restaurant
Our problem was, that we couldn’t find a lot of research online about best practices for restaurant exteriors (they were all operations/food focused)
Limited info → decided to conduct our own research by surveying college students and seeing what they thought could be improved about the restaurant’s entrance
Plus going off of our own observations and instincts
Doing that, we found some good insights (lighting, color, decor) and were able to come up with some
recommendations/improvements to complete the project
I BUS project - pastries and quiz
For my international business class, one of our projects was that everyone was assigned a country, and
We had to do a presentation on why people should invest there
Trade show - everyone had poster boards + walked around with fake money and handed it out
My group had Argentina
We’d had all the info + stats on our board, but we wanted to do something to make it more engaging
Created a quiz game based on our presentation, bought pastries from an Argentinian bakery — if someone got an answer right we’d give them a pastry
People seemed to be engaged with it
Think that helped make it more memorable, and we ended up getting 100% on the project
Showing initiative, going above and beyond
AMA last minute workshop
I’m on the leadership team for a student consulting group, one thing that we do is plan workshops on marketing + presentation skills for our consultants
Message from my director on a Monday saying they wanted us to create a workshop meeting for members for this wednesday - only had two day turnaround, had to act fast
Pooled our knowledge and decided to do one on analytics - divided up work based on strengths
I did research on social media analytics, somebody else did tableau
Set up some time to work on the slides + rehearse
Helped us present smoothly, meeting was overall successful
Dealing with changes, working under pressure
Hot sauce content calendar
Was working on a consulting project for a client
Needed some help with social media
Small business, near the beginning of COVID - was so busy dealing w/ everything else that marketing kind of went on the back burner
We’d agreed on some deliverables like coming up with some content ideas
But we also wanted to make doing marketing easier for him when the project was over
So we created a content calendar of how often he could post + best times to act as a guideline
(also included templates made using canva that he could edit easily)
Got an email later after the project saying that it helped a lot
