Tag: interview question

Interview Questions: Your Professional Development

The challenges and expectations in your career will continually change. You must learn and grow to succeed. Interviewers often will question how you approach your career and what you have done to continue learning.

The challenges and expectations in your career will continually change. You must learn and grow to succeed. Interviewers often will question how you approach your career and what you have done to continue learning.

Some of the interview questions about your professional development include:

  • What continuing education classes have you completed recently?

  • What new skills have you gained in the last 3 years?

  • How do you stay current on developments in your industry?

Professional development can come for a variety of sources. Many people stay current through magazines, blogs and books. Others receive excellent continuing education at work. Some individuals take training classes, college courses or pursue industry certifications. All of these activities are good to discuss.

Your answers to professional development interview questions need to be specific. I’ve had candidates give answers like “I keep up on my industry by reading a few trade magazines.” This does not tell the interviewer anything. You could add some detail, for example, discussing specific periodicals and books you have read, but this is still a weak answer.

A better answer would include specific knowledge or skills that were gained. You could discuss a new technology, a tool or a process you learned. Your answer should have a clear, direct benefit to the job you are seeking. You want the interviewer to see that you are committed to your professional growth and are adding skills that will benefit them. Very broad learning unrelated to your field may help you in the long run, but probably will not make a strong memorable impression on the interviewer.

The best answer to a professional development interview question will discuss what you learned, how you learned it, and how you have applied what you learned to deliver results. This last piece makes a huge difference. It’s one thing to say you learned something. It’s another to say your learned something and applied successfully.

Look at the projects you have completed in the last couple years. Which projects required you to apply skills or knowledge that you didn’t possess before the project?

An example of an answer to a professional development interview question is:

“I am committed to continuing to learn in my field. I read several periodicals, and I try to take training courses in my field on a regular basis. Most recently, I attended a seminar on inventory management. I learned a new cycle counting approach that I applied this past year. By implementing new cycle counting procedures, we reduced our inventory levels by 20% and improved our inventory accuracy. All of this was achieved while we reduced our cycle counting hours by 15%”

This example shows a commitment to professional development, and most importantly, a commitment to the continuous improvement of the organization from the lessons learned. The results are likely to be valuable to an employer, making the candidate also valuable.

Interview Questions About Deadlines

One of the interview questions that is very common relates to working under tight deadlines. It is important to be able to meet deadlines in many careers. There are very few companies where the speed and urgency are not important.
Over the years, I’ve asked about deadlines in interviews very frequently. This is one of the questions where job seekers usually react exactly the same way.

One of the interview questions that is very common relates to working under tight deadlines. It is important to be able to meet deadlines in many careers. There are very few companies where the speed and urgency are not important.

Over the years, I’ve asked about deadlines in interviews very frequently. This is one of the questions where job seekers usually react exactly the same way. It doesn’t matter what type of personality the job seeker has, their job type or the industry. The answer that almost everyone gives is a variation of this:

Question: Tell me about a time when you worked under a tight deadline.

Answer: All the time. Everything we do has a tight deadline. Meeting customer needs requires responding quickly. We never have much warning when we get a special project and have to get the project done quickly.

This answer is very general. Job seekers usually include specific industry terms in their answer, but the overall message is the same. Everything the job seeker does has a deadline.

I’m sure you can see that this answer tells the interviewer nothing. The goal of a question about deadlines is to understand the sense of urgency of the job seeker and to get an idea of how the individual will perform. Generalizing the answer provides nothing noteworthy.

To effectively answer a question about deadlines, you need to give an example. Starting out with a statement that deadlines are common in your field is ok. The interviewer probably hears this every time they ask the question, so you’re not going to make a bad impression with it.

The key to making a good impression is what you do next. Give an example of a specific deadline and how you were able to meet it. This will demonstrate the value you provided in the past and help create an impression of success.

This is an example of a better answer to this question:

We work under tight deadlines all the time. For example, we recently had a customer place an order for one of our products with several custom modifications. The customer needed the product in a week, and our typical lead time with the modifications was 10 days. I was able to cut a couple of days off the production schedule by coordinating with the manufacturing department to run the product on a different line than normal and then cut another day by working with quality so that they would inspect the product as it was produced. We shipped the product on time. These type of deadlines are commonplace and I work very well with other department to ensure that we meet every schedule no matter how tight.

This is very basic example of expediting production of a product. Despite this, it shows the type of deadlines the job seeker encounters, how they approach the deadline and gives an example of a success. Even though this is a basic example, it is a much better answer than the original general answer.

One reason this example is effective is the emphasis on working with other departments.  The anser address the sense of urgency of the job seeker but also uses the example to demonstrate how effective they are at influencing others in their company.

Look for ways to give examples of what you have done. Examples create a picture in the mind of the interviewer and make a much stronger impression.