Interview Flashcards
Talk about a Time you had an Impact
Turning around KCA/Teaching field skills + comms at SAR
S: A Branch with a very strong reputation working on a niche problem set of utmost importance was foundering, stall in production, lack of external engagement, and issues between branch and division leadership. I was selected by the orgs commanding officer to take over as Branch head and reinvigorate efforts.
T: I was responsible for reconciling the teams issues with leadership, increasing production quantity, and ensuring items were relevant/team properly employed.
A: I conducted fact finding sitdown with current and former branch members along with division leadership. Sought to reconcile strengths of the Branch with new direction. Worked with analysts to align efforts to production guidance, instituted production milestones to keep analysts on track and keep leadership aware of production. Engaged with external entities to identify topics of need for analysis.
R: Significantly increased deliberate written production and engagement with external customers. Supported multiple high-profile senior customers and restored Branch’s reputation for superior analysis.
R: This reaffirmed for me the notion of servant leadership and ensuring open, honest communication. People want to perform well and will do so if given the tools and clear priorities.
Time you faced a challenge
Deploying during COVID
S: My unit was slated to deploy in February, 2020. As part of normal deployment procedure, about 1/10th of the unit would be deploying two weeks early to conduct a longer turnover with the current unit and set conditions for the remainder of the unit to seamlessly pick up the mission. During the two weeks we left early, COVID escalated seriously and the DoD restricted all further unit movements, for what would ultimately be two months. In an unprecedented situation, we were separated from the rest of our team on the eve of a high stakes deployment.
T: I needed to maintain focus on our initial task, which was learning from and taking on the mission from the current unit, while ensuring our Marines in the U.S. were continuing to remain focused and preparing for the deployment. We had to grapple with visiting multiple sites despite COVID restrictions as well.
A: Fortunately I was able to communicate electronically with my second in command back in the U.S. We aligned our priorities and came up with a plan to keep our Marines ready to deploy by having them remotely engage with their counterparts who were currently deployed, and begin to take on part of the mission from afar. of my 25 Marine Plt, I had 4 other individuals with me. Rather than waste time, we immediately joined in with the current team, maximizing the opportunity to learn as much as we could and provide them some relief .
R: In the overlap period, my Marines became full contributors to the current team. Upon arrival of the rest of our team, we smoothly picked up the mission and went on to exceed expectations, providing invaluable intelligence insights and completing novel missions.
R: Flexibility, teamwork, and bias for action served us well in this situation. Though it seemed like a setback, the 2 months proved to be a great learning opportunity for us.
Moment/Accomplishment you are Proud Of
Leading platoon through successful deployment during challenging period due to COVID and rising regional tensions with Iran
S: I was awoken in the middle of the night by my Marines telling me I had to go to our office, there had been a significant rocket attack against one of our positions in Northeast Syria.
T: I would be responsible for ensuring our Marines had the support they needed to provide intelligence to support the defense of the base. I would also need to provide insight on the situation to our leadership and advise them on potential next steps.
A: I established communication with my team leader at the site in question and determined what support he needed and quickly learned the necessary facts. I was proud to find my Marines already hard at work, many coming in while off-shift to support. Recognizing we would need to sustain, I ensured we had the necessary people then began sending people away to rest.
R: Our team produced dozens of valuable reports related to the incident and were directly involved with managing response and escalation control. The theater higher headquarters contacted us directly for our reports as we were the only organization with relevant information.
R: I was proud of the immediate response my team took. They were focused, professional, and disciplined. This was a direct result of the training and experience we had along with our solid working relationships.
What excites you at work?
Working on challenging problems that are of utmost importance,being able to provide a needed service/support to others, and working with and developing high performing teams, embassy walk-in story
Describe Leadership Style
Servant leader and extreme owner. Don’t see subordinates as working for me, rather I work for them. Ensuring they have adequate direction and support to accomplish their tasks.
Example: Getting equipment refreshed and working through bureaucratic process to ensure teams had what they needed to be successful.
S: In the SIGINT community, highly technical equipment is required to do our job effectively. Some units had previously fallen in on equipment that was already being used, saving them the hassle of thinking through what equipment was actually required and bringing out additional items.
T: In preparation for my deployment, I wanted to ensure my Marines were best enabled to complete their mission. I needed to take stock of existing equipment, identify what was excess and what additional items were needed.
A: I conducted an in-depth inventory of all equipment that was on hand and available. Went through the bureaucratic process to get worn parts replaced, offloaded unnecessary equipment, and requested additional items needed.
R: As a result of having the best tools possible, my detachment increased report production by 300% and were able to execute new types of missions that had not been done previously.
R: This demonstrated the value to me of putting an investment of time and effort in early, though it may be difficult, as it can have a significant payoff in the long run.
Difficult person you had to work with
Lendal
S: As deputy, I worked directly for the Division Head in leading a 70 person division, with 4 separate elements underneath. Division Head was apathetic, had poor relationships with senior and subordinate leaders, did not execute his manager’s guidance nor facilitate day to day operations.
T: I had to maintain a working relationship with the Division Head while ensuring the Division was accomplishing it’s day to day mission and appropriately planning for the future.
A: After recognizing the level of apathy of my manager, I made an effort to take on as much as I could directly, recognizing it was better to control from the beginning rather than try to pick up a dropped ball later. I attempted build motivation, interest, and understanding with my manager, but upon failing to do so ensured the next level leadership were aware of his inactivity as well. I engaged with subordinate leaders to ensure they would come to me with any issues and worked to assist them to the extent I could.
R: Division executed all required tasks during turbulent times, manager was ultimately reassigned to a lower Branch deputy position.
R: This demonstrated to me the importance of relationships in maintaining an effective work environment, holding people accountable to expectations, and recognizing when to step into a situation.
Disagreement with Someone at work/Difficult Interaction
FDRE discussion with Andy
Lesson Learned at Current Employer
Importance of building trust, goodwill, and in-depth understanding before trying to effect change. Understand incentive structures and know how to use them.
Fixed a mistake
Forgetting radio at FIOC. Conclude with learning importance of communicating priorities, developing leaders, and establishing process.
Helped an underperforming associate
Helping Nanez/Helping people in SAR w/ tech systems and land nav
Had to convince people as a leader
-Workforce opposition to quarterly quotas, having to work with people to explain the value and help them to identify a method to make it work.
S: Leadership had established a blanket standard of all written products being completed on a quarterly timeframe, and this was a significant deviation from the way the team I had joined had typically done business. As a result, they had basically shutdown in response and were wallowing in concern about not being able to fit their product type into the timeline.
T: I was expected to reinvigorate the Branch’s production, which I knew would involve gaining their trust and buy-in.
A: I sat down with all the members of the Branch to hear their concerns, their perspective on how the situation got to this point. I explained to them the value of their work, and also the intent of the leadership and why they were demanding things on the timeline they were. I worked with the analysts to develop a way ahead to maintain the quality insight of their products while doing it on the required timeline.
R: As a result, the Branch began to produce at 3x the level it had YOY, increasing engagement w/ key customers and allowing us to cover a greater breadth of topics.
R: I think building buy-in was absolutely critical in this instance, and to steal from Simon Sinek, it started with why. People often want the same ultimate thing, and recognizing that shared purpose makes people more amenable to adjust to change.
Mentored Someone
regular counseling sessions with all Marines, Mentoring Thomas
Time at work something unexpected happened
Deploying in the midst of COVID
Time you changed a process
KCA peer review streamlining
S: As part of the intelligence production process, there are numerous levels of review that must occur. Peer review is one of the first levels, which is when the paper is shared with other analysts internal to the Branch for their comments. When I came to the Branch, the way this part of the process was handled was that the author would just send their email to every analyst in the Branch informally requesting comments. I found sometimes this meant the author got no comments, or very superficial input.
T: I wanted to increase the rigor that occured in the peer review, while being cogniscent of the workload on an already busy team.
A: I modified the process so that one analyst whose production item was furthest out would be assigned as the peer reviewer. They were individually responsible for going through all aspects of the paper to ensure it was ready for the next stage in the process. They would have their name in the record as the peer reviwer.
R: We reduced the amout of time spent in rework by more than 50%, and reduced the workload on our single formal senior reviewer. This also allowed analysts to develop their skills by getting reviewing experience.
R: The key change in this situation was establishing a deliberate process and giving analysts ownership over the process. They could now be recognized as being a part of successful papers and more formally build their reviewing skills.
Goal set in last year and how you accomplished it
Secret level product dissemination/Getting more involved with SAR instruction
