Noodle Web Content Manager Interview Flashcards
Tell me about yourself.
I’m a website management and operations professional who thrives in servant leader positions. I love organization and process and helping teams be successful. In the last few years at Sabre, my most recent full time role, the business changed a few times along with my role. I adapted to what they needed, but looking back I realize I wasn’t fulfilled. As a result, I want to return to more hands-on website work and to be able to see the impact of that work.
What’s your greatest strength?
I think my greatest strength is organization. For example, one of the last projects I executed for my last role was transferring the custom web development work of 16 customers to an outside agency. I needed to be organized with each customer and where they were at in the process, as well as provide all information and files to the agency for on-time completion. I stayed organized through spreadsheets, email, a task list for the development team, and weekly meetings with the development manager and the agency. Being organized was crucial in keeping the momentum going on the project as the longer the work stayed with us, the more it cost us. I was able to transfer 80% of these customers in 8 months.
Greatest Weakness/If I were to speak to your current manager, what would s/he say is a development opportunity for you?
Because I am so thorough and organized and detail-oriented, I don’t tend to take a lot of risks. However, I am learning to ask for forgiveness more than for permission.
Why should we hire you?
- I have a broad range of experience and skills that support the job functions. Particularly - web content management, website accessibility/WCAG, quality assurance, creating and improving processes, and project management.
- I have a deep web development background.
- I’ve worked in many CMSes in updating and maintaining content.
- I am eager to expand my skills.
- I love the work that you are doing and I want to help more academic institutions discover how you can help them.
- My values align with yours.
Why do you want to work here?
Three reasons: 1) I believe in the value of education and making it more accessible to everyone.. 2) As noted, I want to get back to more hands-on web work and to see the impact of that work. 3) It’s also clear that you care about your employees and how the company works together. I want to be part of a company that cares.
Why do you want to leave your current role?
- I’m currently in a contract role (started after I applied for this job) which was more of a lateral move. I’m really looking for a full time role focused website management.
- I was laid off at the end of March. But also, I had been there for 13 years and it was time to move on to a new environment and new challenges. Being laid off in that way was a blessing in disguise.
Describe the most challenging project.
I was brought into a project a few months after it had started as a QA person, but also to help the project architect. I remember working 16 hours one weekend because the development team had missed their deadline and we needed to deliver work to the client. After that weekend, I was able to hire a group of freelance QA folks and anticipated the QA needs ahead of time to schedule QA time on the freelancers for days and hours that I couldn’t make.
Tell me about something you accomplished that you are proud of.
- I’m proud of being basically a product manager for our in-house proprietary tasking tool.
I only got an allotment of 10 hours/month on the development team, but always found more time where it wasn’t being used and used it to make improvements and fix bugs. I addressed staff needs and wants to make the tool work better for them.
I also sent a ‘release notes’ email every month outlining what changed in a fun and engaging way. - Created quality assurance strategy for our custom website builds.
Basically shift left and involved other teams in the QA (design, PM).
It saved us a lot of scrambling at the end of the project and also allowed us to deliver a better project. - My first ‘client’/real project management project.
Delivered early. Rush fee revenue.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Becoming an expert on your website and website tools to start. Also developing relationships with internal partners. Bringing the website to the next level in terms of improvements and enhancements both inside and out. Either moving up or laterally depending on my own growth and the company’s growth.
Tell me about a time you had to persuade someone.
Justin and QA list of browsers - remove second IE.
Example of a difficult project and how it was important to the organization.
Transferring the custom web development work of 16 customers to an outside agency was a difficult project because each customer had its own custom work and thus had different needs and timelines. It was important to the organization because we needed to stop supporting the clients to save money and to move in a different direction. I’m glad I was able to be a part of the project because I was able to find an additional agency that ended up being our top partner to transfer the work to. They signed the contract first and took on most of the clients.
