if the interviewer ask you about a time when you recognized a potential prob as an opportunity?

Question

what are they looking for in an answer and what should i say? i have an interview tomorrow and i am kinda unprepared. please help! thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Think of anything from your previous work, school or volunteering that could have created a potential problem or burden that you turned into a positive situation.

We had an employee in our office who had a disability and could not do her job the way the rest of us did. I called around to suppliers to find office equipment that would assist her in doing her job more easily. I ended up finding a product that we could all use. It improved the efficiency in our office and we landed a contract with a company that reduced our office supply expenses by more than $500/yr.

I have a friend who was diagnosed with a debilitating illness. Not only did she look for opportunities to improve her health, but she saw a need in her community and started a support group. She now has 20 members who meet monthly and they have guest speakers from the medical and health community who are addressing their issues and looking for ways to improve health care services for them.

Answer 2

Common lingo in corporate America these days is to not talk about problems, but solutions. However, the term all the managers like to use is Opportunity. Some even go so far as to use it when asking what your weakness is, but they ask what your opportunity is.... it's very sly.

So say you wanted to advance in the company, but no one knew how to do your job, and because of that they wouldn't promote you. Then one day the boss brings his daughter on board to assist another manager, except the manager can't keep her busy. You want to cross train in something else, and you have a bored little girl to baby sit. The problem is the bored teenager. The opportunity is for you to "delegate" your work so you can cross train and eventually advance. Get it?

Answer 3

they are looking for you to take a situation you were in where you turned a negative into a positive. Maybee you took an angry customer and realy helped them out because you knew they would spend a lot with your biz.

Maybee you broke your leg, but used the time recovering to finish writing a book you had started years before.

Maybee you had left over supplies from a business and you figured out a way to donate them to charity.

They want to see that you can make good descisions when dealing with tough situations.

Whatever you decie to say, you should be fine. Just do your best, and be yourself.

Good Luck!