SA Skills

Question 1

Leadership

Answer 1

• S: Production management at MCS towards end of the month there would be a lot of orders to be built in a short time to meet monthly shipping target
• T: Determining which orders were to be built and by who
• A: Assessed what all of the build engineers strengths were, assigning appropriate builds. Prioritised most important builds to the most senior engineers. Set a plan of when each of the projects needed to be build and communicated to engineers.
• R: Regularly cleared build backlog and met shipping targets.

Question 2

Teamwork

Answer 2

• S: Part of the Leeds Formula Student Race team, and the engine sub team. Final year project
• T: researching, designing, building and presenting a race car over final year. Issue was to ensure everyone worked as a team whilst completing their individual projects.
• A: Delegated tasks according to peoples key strengths, organised team meetings, led team meeting, took minutes if I wasn’t leading, set deadlines with a Gantt chart.
• R: We completed our engine team report ahead of schedule giving us more time to prepare for team presentation. Scored highly in both.

Question 3

Verbal Communication

Answer 3

• S: Working as Mountain Safety Volunteer Whistler Blackcomb
• T: Coordinating with team members and reporting to Ski Patrol when accidents occurred via radio
• A: Ensured I gave the key information first for serious situations such as injury and location, communicating concisely.
• R: Meant a small team of 7 people patrolled an entire mountain. Ensured Ski Patrol quickly arrived with the relevant equipment.

Question 4

Ability to identify and summarize key themes

Answer 4

• S: Part of the Leeds Formula Student Race team, and the engine sub team. Final year project
• T: Team presentation to our sponsors MAHLE Powertrain summarising the basis of our project and initial design. Early on in process.
• A: Identified the key issues.
• R: Received further support, such as a GT power training day at their headquarters. Secured further funding for the project.

Question 5

Quick and Flexible Learner

Answer 5

• S: Began customer support role at MCS with little training and just a morning shadowing my predecessor.
• T: Required to learn on the job how to answer customer questions effectively, log issue and resolve technical issues.
• A: Analysed the support log. Identified most common issues. Researched these issues. Shadowed build engineers.
• R: Much better equipped to answer customer questions and effectively solve customer issues to reduce the support log by half

Question 6

Handling Ambiguity

Answer 6

• S: Customer Support at MCS. Often customers so frustrated with their issues it would be hard to get the required information because they would be very ambiguous and demand an engineer on site immediately.
• T: Protocol was to identify the likely issue before sending an issue, to make sure engineer time was not wasted on issues which could be solved on the phone.
• A: Asked specific questions to extract the relevant information and ensured a good relationship was maintained
• R: Customer Problems Solved Faster. Less engineer time was wasted.

Question 7

Responsibility

Answer 7

• S: MCS Purchasing department when my colleague was on holiday
• T: Someone was required to complete additional responsibility of order processing
• A: Volunteered to do this alongside my purchasing role because I enjoy responsibility, by prioritising and planning tasks
• R: Orders were processed accurately and promptly, ensuring they were authorised for production.

Question 8

Integrity

Answer 8

• S: Customer support at MCS dealing with their questions and problems.
• T: Solve their issue as soon as possible but often replacement items were not in stock and engineers were not available
• A: I always gave them a realistic date of when their problem would be solved
• R: Maintained the trust of the clients and a good relationship. Allowed information to be extracted more easily and also ensured repeat business.

Question 9

Discipline/Time Management

Answer 9

• S: Production Management at MCS
• T: Ensure that monthly shipping targets of £500k were met
• A: Produced detailed production schedules and deadlines designed to indicate if we were underperforming. Daily checks with build engineers of the status of each project.
• R: Orders were shipped on time, happy customers. Shipping targets met, happy managing director.

Question 10

Problem Solving

Answer 10

• S: Designing the Exhaust system Leeds Formula Student Race Car
• T: Previous two years had exceeded competition noise limits
• A: Critically reviewed exhaust design research with a focus on acoustics, designed innovative expansion chamber, modelled computationally and analysed data, optimised the geometry.
• R: Minimised the noise output, predicted under competition limits. Maximised Performance.

Question 11

Innovative

Answer 11

• S: Designing the Exhaust system Leeds Formula Student Race Car
• T: Attaching a section of aluminium to a section of stainless steel. When arc welded very brittle intermetallic compounds start to form.
• A: Analysed other options and discounted a rigid fixing because of the vibrations. Innovative solution of a lubricated fitting attached with springs to absorb the vibrations.
• R: Result was weight was saved from the system by being able to use aluminium.

Question 12

Critical Thinking

Answer 12

• S: 3rd Year Project analysing the effect of polymer additives on the breakup of water droplets
• T: Conduct a literature review on the previous research in the field
• A: analysing and comparing different sources and their significance to the project
• R: Achieved a high grade of 90% for the literature review

Question 13

Multi Task

Answer 13

• S: MCS Customer Support, often received a high volume of calls/emails
• T: Accurately log all of the issues and keep the customers happy
• A: Always recorded information as soon as I received it and to the highest level of detail, as I could get a call at any time. Prioritised the most serious issues. Systematically worked through the problems.
• R: Prevented a backlog of issues. Didn’t have to ring customers back for more information.

Question 14

Analytical Skills

Answer 14

• S: 3rd Year Project analysing the effect of polymer additives on the breakup of water droplets
• T: Identify the tends in droplet break up from lots of videos
• A: Just watching the videos it was difficult to see the trends. Turned it into quantitative data by placing a ruler next to the droplets. Allowed distances and therefore velocities to be measured. I used these to identify trends in the breakup.
• R: I was

Question 15

Intellectually Curious/ Inquisitive

Answer 15

• S: Customer Support MCS
• T: I wanted to know more about how our products worked
• A: When there was some downtime I would try and research how our machines worked. I volunteered to spec in some new stock. This involved completely taking apart the machines.
• R: Had a better idea of how all of the machines were put together. Meant I was much better equipped to answer customer questions.

Question 16

Attention to Detail

Answer 16

• S: Production Management MCS
• T: There was a quiet period for the production team so I took the initiative to so a complete stocktake.
• A: Meticulously recorded the specifications of all of the units, compared this to the units we thought we had, identified missing and additional items.
• R: Allowed sales offers to be updated accordingly, and found some components we thought were out of stock.

Question 17

Worked Under Pressure

Answer 17

• S: Purchasing department, salesperson told customer they could have a specialist unit on very short timescale because they thought we had everything in stock.
• T: Acquire all missing components in one day when individual components were not available due to specialist nature
• A: Remained calm, researched alternative components with senior build engineer. Conducted a cost analysis and asked to permission for expedited delivery. Prioritised the build.
• R: Approved by MD, the customer received their order on time with slight upgrades. Did not increase the cost of the project for the company.

Question 18

Numerical Skills

Answer 18

• S: Working in the purchasing department at MCS.
• T: Provide cost analysis for the MD to authorise the purchase of components.
• A: Accurately calculated the cost of the components required to ship orders compared with the value of the order. Prioritising orders to optimise the Cash flow. Present these in daily reports to MD suggesting which supplier to pay when.
• R: Ensured that the components purchased where the most urgent. Saved the company money by minimising losses due to currency fluctuations.

Question 19

IT Skills

Answer 19

• S: During my degree I often used computers to effectively model and analyse problems
• T: Analyse the performance of a turbofan engine
• A: MATLAB program to predict the performance of a turbofan engine used on a Boing 777 using gas turbine cycle analysis
• R: This meant I was able to predict the performance of the engine by plotting thrust vs TET and thrust specific fuel consumption vs TET. TET being the Turbine entry temperature.

Question 20

Adaptability

Answer 20

• S: Working at the Longhorn Saloon in Canada
• T: Adapt to a different working culture and could perform a variety of roles in one day. This could range from attending to customers to checking in stock for deliveries.
• A: If I was new to doing one of the tasks I would ask my colleague to do it with me the first time.
• R: This meant that I was quickly able to learn how to do new things

Question 21

Decision Making

Answer 21

• S: Working in Production Management at MCS
• T: Decide which components where to be allocated to which orders. Sometimes we would have less of a component than was required for multiple orders. Had to decide which order would ship first.
• A: Identify which orders were most urgent. Identify which orders were could be shipped fastest and with the lowest additional cost. Weigh up the costs and benefits of each option.
• R: This meant components were used effectively and not sitting idle whilst an order might be waiting for additional components.

Question 22

Negotiating

Answer 22

• S: Purchasing at MCS
• T: Negotiate component prices to meet target prices
• A: First I would check previous prices we had paid. I would then use this as the starting point to negotiate lower by purchasing in bulk. I would also find cheaper alternative suppliers and then ask our usual supplier to match the price.
• R: Lower cost per unit for components, saved the company money.

Question 23

Influencing/ Persuading

Answer 23

• S: Leeds Formula Student Race Team
• T: Persuade and influence the rest of the team to agree to re-rout the exhaust system around the side of the car
• A: Gave a presentation to the whole team outlining the benefits, allowing a much longer exhaust header. Responded to any of their criticisms and doubts with a second amended presentation and design. Made sure I outlined how it would affect each team.
• R: The team all agreed with my reasoning for moving the exhaust exit to the side of the car rather than the rear of the car.

Question 24

Self-Motivation & Initiative

Answer 24

• S: Production Management at MCS
• T: Accurately plan weekly build plans and meet monthly shipping target
• A: Suggested, Designed and Implemented a new production modelling system in excel. Highlighted the key issues holding orders back and when they would be resolved.
• R: Meant account managers could view when their orders would ship and communicate to their customers why it was being delayed. Improved communication between the warehouse and the sales office.

Question 25

Entrepreneurial Mind Set/ Self Starter

Answer 25

• S: Self built career as a DJ and now Running a club night
• T:
• A: Asked for advice from friends who had done it
• R: Regular DJ and Starting Club night etc