Behavioral

When did you take a risk?

Full Stack Software EngineerData ScientistProduct ManagerBackend Engineer

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Answers

Anonymous

3.5Strong
One of my previous projects involved managing a large scaled database managment systems application. This project was to mimick online shopping tools such as Amazon.  This project was a semester long and my teammates were getting frustrated with the lack of progression approaching the deadline. We did not implement main features such making orders and changing customer information to reflect correctly within the database.  I took a risk and decided to pivot our strategy, which invovled leading our focus on the functionality and prioritizing main features. The outcome of this proposal guided my teammates and myself to implement key features before the deadline. Due to this risk, we were able to create a professional ordering system which accurately reflected adding records in the database. This was completed before the deadline. After explaining the situation to our professor, she was imcpressed with the agility and decision making after this event.

Anonymous

3.8Strong
One of my previous projects involved managing a large scaled database managment systems application. This project was a semester long and my teammates were getting frustrated with the lack of progression approaching the deadline. I took a risk and decided to pivot our strategy, which invovled leading our focus on the functionality and prioritizing main features. The outcome of this proposal guided my teammates and myself to implement key features before the deadline. After explaining the situation to our professor, she was impressed with the agility and decision making after this event.

Anonymous

3.6Strong
During final stages of testing upgraded version of core banking applications, we encountered a defect which required resolution from development team. After dev deployed the defect, I had very limited time to thoroughly retest and perform regression.
My task was to perform retesting and make sure there are no major defects after the release.
After resolution, based on my prior knowledge of the apps I grouped those testcases that had a potential impact to run automation regression to speed up the testing. While I manually tested the defects with some edge case scenarios. 
I kept the cross functional team updated about the testing progress and the risk involved if testing wasn't completed on time. 
But, I was able to mitigate the risk of not completing the testing on time and major risk of unexpected issues with the help to prior knowledge and proactive communication.
Thus, I learnt from this incident to carefully strategizing the situation and collaborative approach can help to mitigate risks.

Anonymous

3.2Strong
A time where I handled a risky situation was when I needed to ask my manager to take PTO for a trip that I had originally planned before being assigned to the project. It was a risky situation because of the timeline at work and of how busy it would be at that time. I discussed with my manager about taking the time off, which he was a bit hesitant to approve of. What I did was that I talked with to figure out a solution to this problem where I could take the time off, as this was a very important trip for me to go on. 
  • Can you describe a time when you took a risk?
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  • When did you take a risk?
  • How did you handle a risky situation?
  • When have you taken a risk?
  • When was the last time you took a risk?
  • Would you be willing to share an experience where you took a risk?
  • Tell us about a time you chose to take a risk?
  • Describe a time that you took a risk?
  • Could you narrate an experience where you stepped out of your comfort zone and took a leap of faith?
  • Have you ever encountered a situation where you had to take a gamble and make a daring move? If so, can you explain it to me?
  • Can you share a moment when you decided to take a chance and pursue an uncertain path?
  • Have you ever faced a challenge that required you to take a bold risk? If yes, please elaborate on the incident.
  • Could you walk me through a situation where you had to make a risky decision? What did you learn from it?
  • Have you ever faced a situation where you had to take a gamble to achieve something? If so, can you describe the experience?
  • Can you tell me about a time when you faced a challenging situation and had to take a calculated risk to overcome it?
  • Can you describe an event where you had to take a chance and push your boundaries beyond your comfort level?
  • Have you ever encountered a situation where you had to make a tough decision that involved a lot of risks? Can you share the experience?
  • Could you recount an experience where you had to make a bold move that you were initially hesitant to make? What was the outcome?
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Interview question asked to Full Stack Software Engineers, Data Scientists, Technical Program Managers and other roles interviewing at Zenoti, Urban Company, Slido and others: When did you take a risk?.