Interview Practice Questions Flashcards
• When you’re working with a large number of customers, it’s tricky to deliver excellent service to all of them. How do you prioritize different customer needs?
- I always try my best to go above and beyond for my customer’s needs.
- relate to prioritising different students during tuition
- Grouping – may not be that relevant to customers but is very important in teaching, principle could be used for grouping ppl with similar requests/needs and then prioritising who’s who
- prioritisation done in my head considering: time/difficult to achieve, urgency, etc.
STAR: grouping students of a big class in LSC (my first time had to teach 9 students at once), grouping and then teaching with others listening in – although LSC teaches us to cover 2 or 3 topics at most and make everyone else listen in, I believe in everyone getting what they need, so I covered everything by having some cover their own work/handout, some listen in to my presentation whilst still taking questions at any time, since everyone can benefit from the main presentation.
-Result: very good since students have achieved higher grades than they ever have since having been acquainted regularly with me, and still keeping up the large classes.
Stats for students: -started in September, 100% of students not in top set have moved up since Term 1 to Term 2
As far as topic exams go, 100% of students received higher results than expected
As far as the first mock exam goes (Winter/January), Almost 100% of students who were not receiving A/A* equivalents before now have received at least 3 in their subjects, both GCSE and A-Level.
• Tell me about a time you handled a difficult customer. What did you do? How did you manage the customer? What was her/his reaction? What was the outcome?
- I always try my best to go above and beyond for my customer’s needs.
- relate to handling difficult students in tuition
- my philosophy is that you have to stay calm and collected, be professional, show respect and reasoning
- specific STAR: I was assigned the “difficult” student to teach, along with his siblings. His siblings were good students and good performers. I know myself, with 2 siblings that it is not ideal to be compared with yours so I related to him by being personal. Once we built a good relationship, he was willing to learn and cooperate with what I had prepared. I think that each client/customer/student is different and just because they may be difficult, does not mean that they are not a priority, they should be attended to specifically.
Result: he is now progressing with his studies and have moved up sets in class – I have used this approach with other less well-behaved students and, after the first approach, it has been working…
Stats for students: -started in September, 100% of students not in top set have moved up since Term 1 to Term 2
As far as topic exams go, 100% of students received higher results than expected
As far as the first mock exam goes (Winter/January), Almost 100% of students who were not receiving A/A* equivalents before now have received at least 3 in their subjects, both GCSE and A-Level.
• Most of us at one time have felt frustrated or impatient when dealing with customers. Can you tell me about a time when you felt this way and how you dealt with it?
- I always try my best to go above and beyond for my customer’s needs.
- relate to students again
- I like to relate these types of customer obsession experiences with experiences as a tutor dealing with students.
- There are lots of times when I become naturally frustrated due to the nature of dealing with younger students, for example STAR: teaching a troublesome student (same as previous q)
Stats for students: -started in September, 100% of students not in top set have moved up since Term 1 to Term 2
As far as topic exams go, 100% of students received higher results than expected
As far as the first mock exam goes (Winter/January), Almost 100% of students who were not receiving A/A* equivalents before now have received at least 3 in their subjects, both GCSE and A-Level.
-Lesson: It is important to remember to put the customer first, as you are a representation of something larger.
• When was a time you had to balance the needs of the customer with the needs of the business? How did you approach the situation? What were your actions? What was the end result?
- I always try my best to go above and beyond for my customer’s needs.
- First experience that comes to mind is one I’ve encountered as a part-time transcriber at a company.
- Through my experiences last year, I’ve specialised in Medical Transcription but at the time, a team from the company and I was working on a large legal client with a same-day turnover.
- However, I receive a special request asking for a Tagalog transcriber and of course, no one else was able to do this task
-After analysing the situation, it was clear that I am the only one able to tend to this request so I had to redirect some of the legal workload to the subcontractors.
However, before I did, I spent some of the cases working with the new team so that they became used to it.
-I balanced the needs of the 2 clients so that they would still get the turnovers they needed (not just dropping one soon as I see it)
-Result: All transcriptions were completed to our satisfactory standard and I even received personal commendations from the client for transcribing in their language!
• Give me an example of a change you implemented in your current team or organization to meet the needs of your customers. What has been the result?
- I always try my best to go above and beyond for my customer’s needs.
- First experience that comes to mind is one I’ve encountered as a part-time transcriber at a company.
- Through my experiences last year, I’ve specialised in Medical Transcription but at the time, a team from the company and I was working on a large legal client with a same-day turnover.
- However, I receive a special request asking for a Tagalog transcriber and of course, no one else was able to do this task
-After analysing the situation, it was clear that I am the only one able to tend to this request so I had to redirect some of the legal workload to the subcontractors.
However, before I did, I spent some of the cases working with the new team so that they became used to it.
- I balanced the needs of the 2 clients so that they would still get the turnovers they needed (not just dropping one soon as I see it)
- Result: All transcriptions were completed to our satisfactory standard and I even received personal commendations from the client for transcribing in their language!
• Tell me about a time a customer wanted one thing but you felt they needed something else. What was the situation and what was the action you took?
- relate to students wanting to study stuff for their mocks but I knew what they had to study/what they should do… (as well as what their parents wanted)
- I relate these customer obsession questions with my experiences as a tutor.
- When some students come to me knowing they have mock exams coming up and say they want to cover specific topics, I understand their viewpoint
- However, being in that position myself not too long ago, I knew that the best strategy would be for them to do a practice exam first, then highlight their weaknesses.
- Action: I obviously relate to them first and give credit to the method by saying that this was what I went through when I was a student and that I’m trying to go the extra effort to show this.
- Result: Worked out, getting higher short-term grades than expected, long-term these students have been moving up sets in class!
- This also relates to getting personal feedback from parents as a tutor, although I respect that parents may be concerned, I reassure them that my method works, and I do so with data!
• When do you think it’s ok to push back or say no to an unreasonable customer request?
In all of my positions, e.g. WPD, customers are a priority, unless its an overtly unreasonable request, we should always go above and beyond expectations to meet them. However, an exception could be if they affect other customers’ priority/quality of their request.
- For example STAR, as a tutor, I was teaching a class on an important topic (radiation in physics) when 1 student makes the connection with radiation in chemistry. I praised him for seeing the connection but I told him that right now, I cannot teach that topic since everyone had an exam for physics the next day.
- Result: Of course, I ended up going over some of the connections later on just for students to see but I knew that they had to study Physics for their exam the next day -> getting higher grades than expected (most of them A/A*)
• Tell me about a time you used customer feedback to change the way you worked. Why did you take the action you did? What was the outcome?
- relate to tutoring and parents’ feedback.
- I relate this to receiving feedback from parents of my students as a tutor.
- Of course I value customers’ feedback very much, but I do not let it dictate every single part of the way I teach. For example, when I received feedback from a student’s mum, I valued it very much. As the teacher, I know that I know best what to do in class, but I don’t know completely what happens at home.
- I was informed that the student has been having some mental health problems recently and the mum requested that she still wanted her child to go to extra classes, but not as much homework.
- Of course, I lessened the homework, but I also took it upon myself to go the extra mile and check up on the student personally during class.
-Result: The student became very open and now, more comfortable with being in class. Of course, academically, they are increasingly improving as all my students have.
• Tell me about a time you had to compromise in order to satisfy a customer.
- I always try my best to go above and beyond for my customer’s needs.
- First experience that comes to mind is one I’ve encountered as a part-time transcriber at a company.
- Through my experiences last year, I’ve specialised in Medical Transcription but at the time, a team from the company and I was working on a large legal client with a same-day turnover.
- However, I receive a special request asking for a Tagalog transcriber and of course, no one else was able to do this task
-After analysing the situation, it was clear that I am the only one able to tend to this request so I had to redirect some of the legal workload to the subcontractors.
However, before I did, I spent some of the cases working with the new team so that they became used to it.
- I balanced the needs of the 2 clients so that they would still get the turnovers they needed (not just dropping one soon as I see it)
- Result: All transcriptions were completed to our satisfactory standard and I even received personal commendations from the client for transcribing in their language!
• How do you get to an understanding of what the customer’s needs are?
- converse at the start, make it your aim to find out and make a plan – this is what I do for tutoring students when I first meet them
- STAR: meeting a student for the first time, he was very young and was only in the centre because his older sister was in y11, but he was very smart and decided to join the other classes so I taught him – even though I knew he was smart so I let him into some advanced topics for his age (Pythagoras and Trig), I changed my approach since I knew his urgency wasn’t a case, he was there for fun, not for studying.
- Result: I still see him from time to time and it looks like he has taken an approach to tackle higher level maths – I am proud of him since he reminds me of me when I was my age.
• How do you wow your customers?
- By going above and beyond expectation, taking initiative, going the extra mile, insist on the highest standards and of course, deliver results (AMAZON LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLES)
- STAR example: During my last summer internship with WPD, our task (confidential) was to produce and provide propositions to our managers/notable people within the sustainability industry
- For each task that we received, I made sure to add all the necessary and additional comprehensive data, in a format that was easy to understand from someone else’s viewpoint, as well as exhaust all possible options of what the client could want.
- I think doing everything to the best of your ability (owing to time and resource constraints) is the best step to “wow” your customers.
- Result: We did very good, with our project receiving a report review and a presentation solely by the most notable people within the sustainability industry!
• How do you develop client relationships?
- I relate this question to relationships with students as a tutor.
- At LSC, we are taught to spend the first 5 minutes of the 2 hour lesson not talking about work at all whatsoever, only about how the student is, introductions, etc.
- This is a tried and proven method and I have used this with every single student I’ve ever had, I think that it helps students get more comfortable and thus, more productive with work – I’ve tried this recently with a new class which contained a group of 3 who were all from the same school. This 5 minute method helped with associating each person with each other, despite not being friends beforehand.
- Result: This helped tremendously with grouping the students later in classes for similar topics. And of course, with helping students academically. (stats)
- Provide an example of when you personally demonstrated ownership.
- Filisoc: , even though my responsibility is to organise events, which I have been doing a splendorous job at (affiliated with each London University, both in events and business partnerships!)
- consistently taking on responsibilities that are beyond mine: e.g. organising sister unis with Warwick (which led to charity schemes “Anawim Lay Mission for fundraising for natural disasters in PH” with Manchester, Portsmouth, Exeter, Bath, Bristol + others…) (this raised + KARMAGAWA >£30K, plus affiliated with the Philippine embassy by organising and meeting the Philippine-British officials myself!
- Tell me about a time you went above and beyond.
- C++ project: all the extra solutions!
- During our end of first year project, we were building a circuit simulator LTspice based on C++.
- Even though the large-scale task only required one solution, during our brainstorming phase and even after, I continued developing 5 other alternative solutions (which we all included in the appendix) – solutions including and not-including small signal modelling and solution including and not-including Newton-Raphson iterations.
- I did this without compromising our main solution (which we perfected).
-The motive behind this was both for our own satisfaction, as well as in the hopes of receiving a higher grade.
RESULT: our working solutions was one of, if not the best, working solution in the whole cohorts, with our report on the whole project being the most comprehensive in the whole year! (which was undoubtedly due to the multiple solutions provided)
- Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility. Why was it important? What was the outcome?
- Filisoc: , even though my responsibility is to organise events, which I have been doing a splendorous job at (affiliated with each London University, both in events and business partnerships!)
- I took it upon myself (when most of the committee were pre-occupied in studies) to organise a London university-wide meeting with students and the Philippine Embassy!
- Result: I ended up using this networking event to talk to the Ambassador and Ministress themselves to organise the process for ICL FiliSoc to be an official UK society!
- Describe a project or idea (not necessarily your own) that was implemented primarily because of your efforts. What was your role? What was the outcome?
- Filisoc: charity scheme general for Typhoon Rai and charity scheme with Warwick
- Filisoc: , even though my responsibility is to organise events, which I have been doing a splendorous job at (affiliated with each London University, both in events and business partnerships!)
- I also took it upon myself to act as a FiliSoc on the most recent Philippine Typhoon Rai/Odette to sponsor and advertise a public fundraiser KARMAGAWA, which has raised over £30k!!!
- This is on top of e.g. organising sister unis with Warwick (which led to charity schemes “Anawim Lay Mission for fundraising for natural disasters in PH” with Manchester, Portsmouth, Exeter, Bath, Bristol + others…)
- Give an example of when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help. What was the situation and what actions did you take? What was the outcome?
- During our end-of-firstyear project (LTSpice based C++ Circuit Sim), we were grouped in 3.
- One of our teammates has had trouble throughout the whole year due to some mitigating circumstances which meant that, in terms of the content we should have known by then, he was still behind.
- It was in our best interest to help each other, but unfortunately, there was not enough time to sit idle revising old notes so I decided that we should split up the work such that my other partner and I developed most of the algorithm based on our strengths and would then feed the algorithm to our groupmate who would design the testing algorithms and evaluations for each section.
- This way, he would be able to contribute with only knowledge of Programming, not circuits, maths, etc.
- This also gave him some extra time to catch up in case we were asked questions or if he was able to spot something in the notes that we may have missed to implement.
-RESULT: This had a very satisfying result, with our simulator being fully functional and being one of, if not, the best solution in the cohort! (top 10% at least)
• Tell me about a time when you invented something.
- C++ project: lin alg library before using Eigen
- During our end of last year project, where we built an ltspice based circuit sim in c++, I made a very comprehensive “mini-library” of objects and functions for linear algebra.
- This was of course, before we found out that we could actually use existing libraries xD
- Nevertheless, I was still proud of this feat because I didn’t consider it a setback since I clearly had enough all round knowledge to build a library which we checked to have full functionality and was almost comparable in speed and efficiency (almost 80% of) to beta-versions of libraries like Eigen, Armadillo and LAPACK.
• What improvements have you made at your current company?
- use most recent company: WPD – our project was focussed on reducing carbon emissions.
- Although confidential, I can say that, even amongst our group, I contributed the most actual solutions/propositions – which I can’t get into detail their nature but I can say that the Result:
RESULT: We were able to hold a company-wide presentation to the most notable figures in the sustainability industry, who gave us feedback on our comprehensive report and took our suggestions to implement them in line with 2050 and Paris Agreement.
• Tell me about a time when you gave a simple solution to a complex problem.
During an interview for another company (can’t say who), I had to do a coding test where the question was to implement an algorithm to convert hexadecimal to decimal
.
-Although I implemented the solution in C++, I said that the answer was simply a pre-existing function in the library hex_to_dec()
- Of course, I still talked about the actual implementation (my own and the library’s)
- Result: I received an offer from that company last year, but decided to choose WPD…
• Tell me about a time you had to think outside the box (think creatively) to close a sale or sell your product.
- Since I have not worked on sales, I can link this question to thinking outside the box to have my idea heard/considered…
- I think that DATA is the most important part of any argument.
- During my internship last summer at WPD, our long-term, large-scale project was based on reducing business carbon emissions.
- At the start, of course, was the brainstorming phase for ideas. Although some are confidential since they were actually implemented, each time I presented a successful idea to my group first, I made a “mini-presentation” first. -> These ideas were definitely outside the box, e.g. using resources that are not meant to be but finding different uses for them in order to save money… (confidential)
- > For each one, I made sure to present all relevant and possible data, e.g. how much we could save, how much we could use, and how much we would reduce emissions by per year…
- Result: WPD RESULT…. Blah blah blah
• What is the most innovative project you’ve worked on?
- Definitely summer internship with WPD since our project was to think of ways to reduce carbon emissions. However, since that is confidential and I can’t expand much, I would say the end of first-year project.
- C++ project: -had to use concepts from everything we’ve learnt (Maths Linear Algebra + OOP + Circuits…)
- More specifically, we implemented a solution that would use a combination of the Newton-Raphson iteration of multiplication of matrices representing circuit nodes to collectively find voltages for both linear and non-linear circuits. We implemented this in C++ using OOP, but I also implemented 5 other alternative solutions.
- Result: blah blah blah successful project…10% etc.
“Tell me about a time you made a mistake”
-> in charge of making the functions -> unnecessary functions when could OOP -> wasted time and the code would have been different to fix -> …
“Tell me about a time you disagreed with a colleague. What is the process you used to work it out?”
-> either Kit’s simulations or Rania’s decisions…
“Give me an example of making an important decision in the absence of good data. What was the situation and how did you arrive at your decision? Did the decision turn out to be the correct one?”
- > Data doesn’t have to be specific -> used a lot of electricity bills data for WPD relocation strategy. -> Therefore, the solution is to try and find other data which may be relevant, even though it is not an indication of how well the solution was to perform, it was an indication of whether possible or not and whether good or bad, thus, it ended up on our presentation
- > However, other factors come into play e.g. ethical reasons, which would make it a lower priority than the rest of our solutions….
• Describe a situation where you thought you were right, but your peers or supervisor didn’t agree with you. How did you convince them you were right? How did you react? What was the outcome?
- highlight importance of: if you were wrong at the end, fail quickly and commit! (have backbone principle)
- WPD relocation strat!
• Tell me about a time that you strongly disagreed with your manager on something you deemed to be very important to the business. What was it about and how did you handle it?
- LSC: anything less than 3 students, they’re losing money
- however, anything more than 4 and the compatibility of students doesn’t match and everyone only receives about 75% of what they’re paying for
- I thought it was unfair and said they should balance it out week by week and take payments beforehand to avoid this concern and just base classes on people wanting to do similar topics…
• Tell me about a time where someone openly challenged you. How did you handle this feedback?
-elections for this year’s FiliSoc committee and me running for secretary/treasurer, challenged by Luke about my social skills and potential being wasted -> ended up being the social sec… (picked by committee!) -> still do a lot anyway as RESULT
• Give me an example of when you took an unpopular stance in a meeting with peers and your leader and you were the outlier. What was it, why did you feel strongly about it, and what did you do?
- WPD group meeting with Woodward, he said to focus on the insetting strategies (since offsetting was more common) but I thought that there were more innovative ideas with working with existing resources (relocation strat)…
- > I let him know specifically my ideas, in which he commended me and even helped me with the directions I can take for acquiring data -> COMMUNICATION IS KEY!
• When do you decide to go along with the group decision even if you disagree? Give me an example of a time you chose to acquiesce to the group even when you disagreed. Would you make the same decision now?
-One day before WPD presentation, discussing how to actually speak and stuff, I thought we should take turns presenting, but everyone else was more used to having a presenter and asking the presenter to turn page (waste of time), since this was least of our worries, I decided to just let them do it their way. -> I would plan ahead and practice…
• Tell me about a decision for which data and analysis weren’t enough to provide the right course and you had to rely on your judgment and instincts. Give me two to three examples.
- Filisoc: valentines event with either London RGs or London big FSs (data showed bigger turnout for other, but we already had good relationships with RGs)
- WPD relocation strat: data analysis was not exactly accurate for how much we could save in comparison to Remote Working, but ethical considerations pointed to RW being better…
• Tell me about a time you made a difficult decision and how you knew it was the right solution (how you evaluated the options, if you received input, what data you reviewed, etc.)
-WPD relocation strat: data analysis was not exactly accurate for how much we could save in comparison to Remote Working, but ethical considerations pointed to RW being better…
• Give me an example of when you had to make an important decision in the absence of good data because there just wasn’t any. What was the situation and how did you arrive at your decision? Did the decision turn out to be the correct one? Why or why not?
First, emphasise how important Data is… but it’s not the only thing… (
• Tell me about a time you had to fix something but had no data or direction.
- relates to Coding and Debugging!
- luckily, c++ can debug for you but only for specific situations, it can’t tell you a memory leak though and we did not have the software for that…
-for our project, we separate the code into places with potential memory leaks first
Then the higher chances
Narrowing it down, this is the solution when no direction, YOU MAKE THE DATA/DIRECTION
Result…blah lbah
• Tell me about a time when you were faced with a challenge where the best way forward or strategy to adopt was not “clear cut” (i.e., there were a number of possible solutions). How did you decide the best way forward?
- DofE expedition, getting around the seven sisters cliffs
- either go down the beach, wait for low tide, walk and then back up or walk through the top…
- even with voting we were split 3:3 so I decided that we should walk the cliffs since it was actually safer to do so since going down was dangerous due to no clear path…
- lesson: evaluate every problem rationally and always include a unanimous vote chance, take leadership or fail quickly.
- result: dofe blah blah blah…
• How do you stay inspired, acquire new knowledge, or innovate in your work?
- Before coming to uni, I read Petrsoki’s book -> process of improvement -> Moore’s Law <= inspiration and innovation
- I think it’s also important to stay updated (financial times, new scientist and the economist) as well as learning new things, both in STEM and out (Horizons and Virtual Programmes for Fintech and Data Analysis)
• How do you keep up with best practices?
- EESoc does a great deal of advertising. I like to stay updated to what companies are in the top play (Amazon of course), as well as what’s happening in the world using the magazines
- Of course, the best possible way is to actually be in the industry, which I’ve been doing for summer internships and spring experiences (OpenText)
• How do you keep up with industry trends and what your competitors are doing?
- EESoc does a great deal of advertising. I like to stay updated to what companies are in the top play (Amazon of course), as well as what’s happening in the world using the magazines
- Of course, the best possible way is to actually be in the industry, which I’ve been doing for summer internships and spring experiences (OpenText)
• What have you learned that has helped you in your job?
-before coming to uni 2 books: McKay book helped me implement some things in WPD project, Petroski book and Moore’s Law helped me stay innovative
• What is the coolest thing you’ve learned on your own that has helped you better perform your job?
-McKay’s principle of microsustainability and WPD application…
• Tell me about a time you learned something new from your peer or your direct report at work.
Kit and Nabeel’s previous experience on EVs and LCTs, was relevant on our current WPD project then…
• Tell me about a time when you solved a problem through just superior knowledge or observation.
-Linearising non-linear spice circuits -> Newton-Raphson iteration (surprisingly, only I knew the method) -> circuit sim project c++
• Tell me about a time when you influenced a change by only asking questions.
- during wpd brainstorming phase, I asked the question “Would employees actually be willing to do that”.
- > After, considered the ethical issues of each idea and had to cut some…
• What is a recent book you’ve read and what did you learn from it?
-My favourite book: Petroski….
• Tell me about a project that required you to learn something new.
-C++ project and MATLAB…
• Tell me about a time you took on work outside of your comfort area and found it rewarding.
-Filisoc, despite not being treasurer, making business partners with Maginhawa group, and Philippine Embassy!!!
• Tell me about a time you found you needed a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well.
-C++ project: OOP in C++ specifically to linear algebra and node voltages in a circuit, as well as using MATLAB for presenting data…
• Tell me about a time you didn’t know what to do next or how to solve a challenging problem?
- C++ project: non-linear circuits
- > clear your head, turn to peers and work together back in notes…
