Interview Questions - Additional Flashcards
What skills and experience do you have?
- A key experience where my strengths were best shown was on my internship at AWRC as a research assistant; A key responsibility included handling multi-site confidential data and entering this raw data into an extensive spreadsheet and shadowing consultations.
- Another experience included the 3 months data analyst bootcamp ; I displayed my problem solving and analytical skills across four major projects ; For each project, I considered the data analysis life cycle and demonstrated and communicated my understanding of certain tools including tableau and programming languages such as Python and SQL.
How do you manage your time and prioritise tasks?
- I pride myself on time management and organisation skills as I learnt the importance of these throughout university ; I would often create GANTT charts to manage timeframes of projects and prioritise tasks.
- In my personal life, I use my organisational skills on a daily basis as I believe it mitigates stress and increases productivity ; Each night, I create a to do list for the next day and order the tasks in order of importance.
- In a time-sensitive task, I would firstly consider the timeframe and rank the tasks in order of importance ; I would also consider which areas in more or less confident in as this may affect time to complete.
Why do you think you will be successful in the job?
- I believe I will be successful in the data analyst apprenticeship role at BT because my values and motivational qualities align perfectly.
- The role requires someone who is willing to learn and driven ; I believe my intrinsic motivation and genuine inherent satisfaction from continuously growing as a person and professional will help me excel in the role ; Examples of my drive include learning a new word daily, completing daily coding challenges, learning to touch type for long- term efficiency, completing a 3 months data analysis bootcamp on my own initiative, and continuing to earn certificates in data analysis courses.
- The role also requires someone who is organised, confident with technology, and has an analytical mindset ; I’m confident all of these traits have been developed from my experiences at university.
- Finally, My values and BTs values align very well which means I will fit into the company work ethos and culture very well ; Personal, simple, and brilliant are valued I’ve Carrie throughout my life and academic journey.
Can you give an example of when you showed initiative?
S - I showed initiative recently, when I had to evaluate my long-term happiness and wellbeing in a sport and exercise career despite studying very hard for the last 5 years.
T - I had to be honest with myself, which can be difficult considering my success and immense dedication throughout university.
A - Instead of feeling down about sport and exercise not actually being for me, I saw it as an opportunity to learn new skills and learn more about myself as a person. I reflected on the modules I really enjoyed during university and those involved data and statistics, so I made an action plan to get to the position I am in today.
R - This process reiterate how resilient I can be, I signed up for a data bootcamp on my own initiative and were successful in all modules despite most of the tools being alien to me at that time, it also reinstated my ability to learn quickly.
Tell us about something you’ve accomplished that you’re very proud of?
I’m very proud of many things, but I think being the first in my family to go to university despite not having the most supportive or affluent upbringing is a key achievement.
On top of this, I achieved top graded degrees and my masters final project is scheduled to be published in a medical journal where I will be listed as a co-author.
This journey required resilience, commitment, and extremely hard work to achieve what I achieved. The experience also taught me a lot about myself and granted me transferable soft skills.
Describe a time when an important piece of work did not go to plan and how did you manage the consequences?
S - During my first year at university, I remember my first extensive research-based written assignment didn’t go to plan. It was graded at a low 2:1, which is still an okay grade but it was the lowest grade I achieved throughout university.
T - I approached the task with an unstructured plan and kind of went with the flow.
A - Thankfully, this experince taught me the importance of organisation. It led to me develop a systematic approach to each assignment and this is where I saw the benefits of being organised including increasing productivity and reducing stress.
R - In every assignment following this, I achieved higher grades and was generally less stressed throughout university despite increased workloads.
How would you go about researching a new project?
Throughout university, I learned the importance and benefits of good organisation, such as improving productivity and reducing stress.
So firstly, I would ensure I fully understand the foundations of the project whether that be background content, the context, or stakeholder needs and wants etc.
Then, I will lay out a plan, using a GANTT chart if necessary to ensure I stick to the project timeframe.
When researching in university, I would often create an organised research table which contained key details neatly presented which helps with efficient access later down the line.
How do you handle stress?
I handle stress by being as organised as possible. I believe organisation increases productivity and reduces that feeling of being overwhelmed.
For me, I like to have things written down somewhere. For example, each night before bed I write a daily to do list for the following day, where I rank tasks based on importance of being completed.
This also applies to larger projects where I will create GANTT charts. The visualisation helps me process certain tasks.
If I ever do get overwhelmed, I’ve learned the importance of balancing a social life alongside an academic or professional life.
What is you biggest weakness?
S - I would say my biggest weakness is not always being able to say no. This means I can sometimes get overwhelmed.
T - An example is during my masters at university, a lot of the students were international students and I could only empathise how difficult it must be to learn a masters work in a language which isn’t your first.
A - I approached some students who appeared to be struggling and I offered if they need help.
R - This led to exchanging whatapps but later in the year, I had random requests on WhatsApp and it was from other international students in my class also asking for help.
Whilst I’m helpful by nature, I’m learning to provide alternative solutions rather than take on all the workload myself.
