way of tracking costs, I was able to come up with a way to
save significant dollars. Needless to say, the idea was met
with much enthusiasm and encouragement. The roll out
was a big success.”
■“The problem wasn’t big enough for anyone to do
anything about. But it was big enough so that everyone
was complaining about it every day. It had to do with the
scheduling of time so that the mail went out that day. I
took it upon myself to draw up a schedule and talk to the
delivery guy about the time and pickup. The problem was
easily solved, but no one had taken the time to deal with it.
I received many pats on the back for taking the initiative.”
“Tell me about a time when you solved a difficult
problem.”
■“One of my strengths is my analytical problem-solving
ability. I had a recent success when I saw that the numbers
were down on the sale of our new product. I worked with a
cross-functional team and surveyed the customer only to
find out that we had been using the wrong approach for
our target audience. I made recommendations to the
board of directors and after some discussion and tweaking
was able to influence them to approve a whole new
approach with the customer. The result was a better
product launch, more sales, and very satisfied customers.”
■“The toughest problems I have encountered are problems
that are the result of an emergency. In my last job I was
called in on a Sunday because the power to all the
computers in the company had shut down. It was essential
that I get in there fast and work on the problem before
employees started arriving in the morning. Two technicians
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