Employers are looking for employees that demonstrate decisiveness. One way to assess these skills is by asking candidates to reflect on a crucial choice in their professional life. If you are asked to relate your decision-making skills, here are four steps to a winning answer:
1. Define the decision. Quickly sketch the crossroads at which you found yourself. Explain the choice, allowing your interviewers to see that you understood the context and the stakes of your decision.
2. Explain your rationale. Walk your interviewers through your reasons for selecting the option you did. Ideally, your answer should show how you evaluated your options, listened to the input of others, and innovated a solution.
3. Demonstrate results. Show how your decision paid off. Point to specific benefits to your organization in quantifiable terms. Select a couple key indicators so that you don’t get bogged down in too many metrics.
4. Reflect and refine. Explain how you integrated your experience into your approach. If some aspects of the outcome were unexpected or undesirable, show how you’ve accounted for those variables moving forward. What interview question have tripped you up in an interview? Share your suggestions for questions that you’d like us to cover in a future article.