Tell Me Again How Were Easily Forgettable

The Goal

The interviewer wants to hear more about your critical thinking skills. They would also like to see that you can use logic to make sound decisions. The goal of your response is to show that you are capable and confident when it comes to independent thinking and decision-making.

How to Answer

Think about a time during your career when you needed to make a decision without all of the information you would typically possess. Then, tell a story that outlines the situation and how you approached coming to a conclusion. Outline your ability to think critically and independently. At the end of your response, be sure to make a connection between your decision-making abilities and how you will make an impact in this new role.

Pro Tip

Behavioral-based interview questions that begin with 'Tell me about a time...' are best answered using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Organizing your response using this framework will ensure that you provide the interviewer with the right amount of information and detail to form a compelling answer.

What to Avoid

Avoid giving a general answer regarding your decision-making skills. Stay away from vague statements like, 'I am a skilled decision-maker and am confident in my ability to come to decisions even in an ambiguous environment.'

Christine's Answer

"(Situation) In my current role, I am responsible for creating the weekly schedule for 56 staff members. (Task) When I first took on the responsibility of scheduling, I did not have any data regarding our busiest times of the week and day. (Action) I worked hard to 'guesstimate' our customer traffic while remaining under the staffing budget and, at the same time, not understaffing. I used my logic and critical thinking skills to fill in the blanks for the data that I did not have. (Result) This scheduling approach worked out quite well for me. Now I fully understand our customer traffic flow, which has made staff scheduling a breeze."

Rachelle's Admin Example Answer

"(Situation) In my position, ambiguity is a large part of my daily reality. (Task) As an Executive Assistant, I often find myself making decisions wishing I had just a little bit more data. (Action) Just last week, the executive I support sent me a rough outline of her preferred travel itinerary. I knew that some of her requests would work and that some would not align with pre-booked meetings. In this case, I looked at everything I had scheduled for her up to that point, created what-if scenarios for several variables, and selected the best possible option. (Result) I always do my best for this executive, and she appreciates my hard work and critical thinking."

Rachelle's Marketing Example Answer

"(Situation) Often, our agency's clients are vague about their needs or the vision for their project. (Task) As a Creative Director, I know this vague approach occurs because they don't fully know what they seek. I have had to fill in the blanks many times. (Action) To do this, I bring forward a few tools such as questionnaires, brand sprints, and discovery sessions. (Result) By using these tools, I can get to know my clients well. Also, it helps me to be more comfortable in making executive decisions on projects."

Rachelle's Sales Example Answer

"(Situation) I recently had a customer seeking a particular piece of inventory that was hard to source. (Task) As a seasoned Account Rep, I knew my products very well. I also knew that there were only two products nationwide that met his criteria. (Action) These products were seemingly identical, but I had to choose which one to purchase on his behalf. With a price tag of $5k+, it was a significant decision to make. I leveraged my industry knowledge and my understanding of the customer. (Result) By using context and prior knowledge, as well as a bit of instinct, I made the right choice, and my customer was thrilled."

Rachelle's Retail Example Answer

"(Situation) Often when a customer dispute arises, I am missing pieces of the story. One particular example that comes to mind occurred just last week when a customer stormed in and demanded a refund. (Task) As the Retail Manager, whether I had the full story or not, I was instantly pulled into making a customer service decision. (Action) I quickly assessed what category the problem seemed to fall in, whether it was a service, product, or pricing issue. Once I determined that it was a product issue, I knew I would go ahead and offer a product replacement. (Result) All in all, this customer dispute lasted under five minutes, and I was able to avoid any other potential damage to our store's reputation."

Rachelle's Teacher Example Answer

"(Situation) For years, my department didn't have a consistent or reliable way to quantify the effectiveness of our teaching methods. (Task) As a teacher, this presents a challenge when it comes time to tweaking the curriculum or even gaining accurate feedback. (Action) Two years ago, I proposed that we set up four tests throughout the year to test cumulative knowledge. My department head agreed, and we have been using these tests ever since. (Result) Now we shape most of our teaching decisions using actual data, making for much clearer feedback."

Rachelle's Manager Example Answer

"(Situation) Before my company had an HR department, I had to lead all of the hiring efforts. (Task) I was often missing information critical to job offers, such as details on the company's health benefits plan. As a new manager, I was afraid of looking green and unorganized. (Action) I connected with our benefits account rep, and they agreed to come to my office and walk me through the details of our benefits package. (Result) After this meeting, I had a clearer understanding and was able to answer most candidate questions with ease."

44 Community Answers

Anonymous interview answers with our interview experts feedback

Anonymous Answer

"In my current role, I am responsible for creating a weekly schedule. I didn't have any data regarding our busiest times of the week so I had to guess and still remain under staffing budget but at the same time avoid understaffing. I used my logic and past experience at other pharmacies to make decisions on staff scheduling."

Rachelle's Response

I reworded this just a touch, to help with the flow. Otherwise, good response.

"In my current role, I am responsible for creating the weekly schedule. I don't have access to data regarding our busiest times of the week, so I had to figure out the schedule to ensure I remained under the staffing budget, while at the same time having enough coverage. I used my logic and experience at other pharmacies to make decisions on staff scheduling."

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Anonymous Answer

"We have a big customer that had a critical issue with their alarm system software that we develop where it was not working. I didn't have all the information, but I went ahead and escalated the issue to our development team because of the critical nature of the problem. They found a bug in the software, resolved it pretty quickly, and the customer was satisfied in the end."

Kristine's Response

Excellent response! The interviewer will be glad to know your reasoning behind your decision to escalate the issue.

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Anonymous Answer

"In my current role, sometimes we can end up having data that we don't have much information on. I had to guesstimate what the other group wanted with their data and how to analyze it. So, I used my logic and critical thinking skills to fill in the blanks for the data for which I did not have much information. It worked out quite well for me. Now I fully understand their needs."

Rachelle's Response

Your answer is well laid out and highlights a strong ability to collect information to problem solve. Well done.

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Anonymous Answer

"I was asked to give a short presentation on a technical project to some people who had flown in from the company's headquarters. Since everything was planned at the last moment, my manager did not give me details about the audience. Usually, I decide on what to say after assessing my audience based on whether the presentation was technical or non-technical. With that piece of information missing and little time to prepare, I decided to concentrate on the "why" of every step, rather than the "how." Fortunately, it was a success, and the more technically inclined people had their questions answered during the Q & A session."

Rachelle's Response

This example is fantastic! You do a great job explaining the situation and how you would typically approach this task. You adjusted in a very smart manner, and it sounds as though the outcome was very positive. Well done.

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Anonymous Answer

"At my last job, I had a customer come in and tell us that she was shorted on her medication after she tried to fill it, and it came up early refill. Back then, our inventory management was not as good as it was later, and our on-hands were not always accurate. Since it was for a non-controlled substance diabetic medication, I provided enough medication to make it until the next fill date per the computer. I also documented it as an incident report as a quantity refill error. Since it was a generic medication and not too expensive, I decided to take the patient at her word and provided her with enough medication until her next refill date."

Rachelle's Response

Excellent display of problem solving skills!

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Anonymous Answer

"There were instances throughout my time being a QA engineer when I had to make decisions not having all the required information. I believe it happens often, as our field is so vast and there might be a lack of tech knowledge or not enough domain knowledge. When I’m in this situation I try to gather as much information as I can, I meet with the product owner, I talk to people from other parts of the team, I learn new tools and frameworks to gain the required knowledge. And even if there are still some missing pieces, I try to rely on my own experiences, observations made on the project, and logic to make the best decision. Situation: There was a time I had a story assigned to me and put in a backlog. I was supposed to start working on it the next sprint. Before the sprint planning, I arranged a meeting with the product owner to get a better understanding about the condition of satisfaction for this story (expected outcome of the story). Task: Although I still had some uncertainties about the task I had to start working on it. Action: I talked to our QA lead engineer who had worked longer on the project to get more information about the technical side of the story. But still, I had to make some of the decisions on my own. Result: I relied on my own experiences, observations made on the project, and logic. I was thinking about the team members who were going to use my changes in their work, and it helped me to make the best decision."

Rachelle's Response

Situations like this can often arise, for sure! *Great use of STAR for approaching your story example. Your answer is nice and clear and your actions/initiative really shines :)

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Anonymous Answer

"There was a time when I had a rapid change in my patient condition, and I needed to transfer the patient to a step-up unit. This decision required a doctor's order, and it takes a while for doctors to respond to a page so I contacted the receiving unit, and I had other team members set the patient up for transfer while I was on the phone with the doctor. The patient was in route to the unit when I got the order from the doctor."

Stephanie's Response

This is a compelling example! My only feedback is to add an additional sentence or two at the end of your response to further express your problem-solving skills and the steps you took to make this decision when you didn't quite have the information you needed.

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Anonymous Answer

"Once, I had a customer who ordered a specialty drug from me every month, challenging me that I was charging him too much. All he said was, "I can get this for $200 cheaper." I handled this by asking him for proof of that price, he could not give it to me and said: "I haven't bought it from them yet, but I will, and I'll show you, and you'll lose the business." I used my industry knowledge and understanding of all the different price points we have on not only this particular drug but all the drugs in that family. I told him I had to hold at my price, and he ended up buying it from me anyway. He was trying me to get to lower my cost."

Rachelle's Response

Wow, this sounds like a difficult client to please, but you did it! This was a very smart approach that any company should appreciate.

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Anonymous Answer

"When customers discuss use cases or feature requests, they are often vague about their needs or the vision for their project. As a PM, I know customers are vague because they don't fully know what they seek. As a result, I have had to fill in the blanks many times. To do this, I use a few tools such as questionnaires or discovery sessions. By using these tools, I can get to know my customers well and become comfortable making executive product decisions."

Rachelle's Response

It's great to see you using the STAR framework! For this 'Tell me about a time...' question, the interviewer wants you to carve out a specific situation when you needed to decide on something without all of the information. As it stands, your answer addresses your work in general. Feel free to revise, and I can return with further feedback :)

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Anonymous Answer

"I recently needed to prepare for a site visit by one of our regulatory bodies and did not have all of the information prepared due to the pandemic and record keeping. I decided to prepare as I had the last time of our visit without knowing the full depth of our reporting for the quarter. It worked out well as the regulator was most concerned about keeping the cadence and communication consistent rather than the quarter's entire data content."

Rachelle's Response

Another great start! I encourage you to follow the STAR framework and the feedback I provided in question #1 to help work out the answer even further. Some details are missing that will contribute to painting a full picture.

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Anonymous Answer

"I became in charge of ordering turkeys for thanksgiving at the grocery store I was running. We had just acquired this store and didn't have any data on previous years' sales and ordering. I did the math on what we had been running and took into account the growth that naturally happens with thanksgiving. We ended up having a few extra turkeys at the end of Thanksgiving, and more important information to work on for the following year."

Chad's Response

This is a great example from your professional life, and clearly demonstrates how you were able to use critical thinking skills to estimate the amount of product the store would require, and establish a benchmark for the following year. Good job!

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Anonymous Answer

"We have a big customer that had a critical issue with a secure DB system software that was developed by a partner startup that was not working. I didn't have all the information about why the system was failing but I went ahead and escalated the issue to the development team due to the critical nature of the problem. They found a bug in their software, resolved it pretty quickly, and the customer was satisfied in the end."

Cindy's Response

Good! You're showing good judgment. Whether or not you could identify the cause of the problem, you recognized the need to fix it and found the right people to handle it.

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Anonymous Answer

"“(Situation) In my previous position, I had to lead all of the efforts for hiring student assistants. (Task) In one important project, we needed the help of two student assistants for a data collection and analysis task. My supervisor gave me the applications of five candidates that he pre-selected. He asked me to make the hiring decision based on this material only. (Action) All candidates were very similar with respect to their grades. Thus, I screened their CVs for indications of any experience with data work, proficiency in Excel or other statistical software. I took this as an indicator of their experience of working with data. (Result) I selected the two students for which I found the most of these indicators in their application material. They were very good student assistants, performed well, and did a great job.”"

Marcie's Response

Great answer! It sounds like you were able to make some smart and quick decisions with only limited information. This is what the interviewer will want to hear! And, in the end, you ended up with great student assistants so the outcome was successful. Nice!

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Anonymous Answer

"In my current role, I am responsible for allocation works for teammates. When I first took on the responsibility of allocation, I did not have any information regarding our team’s leave notification or other tasks they are currently working on. I worked hard to 'guesstimate' our workload while trying to communicate with our team mate’s on their workload and ensure we are not breaching the turnaround time. I used my logic and critical thinking skills to distribute work among the team. Now I fully understand our workload and how to leverage each team member’s ability."

Marcie's Response

Excellent example. This is a strong answer because it clearly shows how you managed to fulfill your responsibilities without having all of the information you needed. The interviewer will see that you are capable of solving problems and thinking creatively. Great job.

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Anonymous Answer

"As the Department Coordinator for the School of Education, I help with reservations for upcoming events. A Department Chair told me to find a space for an upcoming event for 50 people. I did not have any other specifics. I went onto our scheduling system and looked for all available spaces with a capacity of 50 people. I created a list with the available spaces and all my follow-up questions. The Department Chair was able to tell me which space they would like to reserve and answered all the additional questions I asked in my email."

Marcie's Response

It sounds like you didn't have much information to work with at all! The interviewer will appreciate that you still moved forward on the project and provided a list that was comprehensive so the Department Chair could easily choose what they needed. Great job!

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Anonymous Answer

"There was a situation where we needed to take a substation out of service and feed those consumers from different substations. Based on our system model and load history in the area, it was not clear whether we would need to use voltage regulators on the line. I tend to be conservative in making these decisions and decided to err on the side of caution and use the regulators. The result was increased confidence in the project and there were no issues taking the substation out of service."

Marcie's Response

Great example! It clearly shows that you're able to make smart decisions even when the information you have is limited. It's also good that you explain what the end result was and that it was favorable, in addition to the fact that you erred on the side of caution. Nice job.

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Anonymous Answer

"Situation- The customer needed a particular valve ASAP due to a leaking valve in the field. Task- I knew I could find what he was looking for in town and have it to him the same day, but it would be more expensive than sourcing it from out of town. So options were having the field shutdown be 2-3 days, costing them money by the hour, or finding a quick solution the same day. Action- I decided to buy the valve for $2,000 more in town and deliver it to the customer the same day to the field. Result- The customer was so appreciative of the quick turnaround time and, in the long run, saved him a lot of money."

Rachelle's Response

This is a terrific response and great use of the STAR framework. Well done! You tell the situation clearly, and the action that you took shows your strong critical thinking skills.

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Anonymous Answer

"We have a regular client that had a critical issue with its user authentication and authorization account in a web application that we developed. I didn't have all the information, but I went ahead and escalated the issue to our development team, because of the critical nature of the problem. They found a bug in the application, resolved it pretty quickly, and the customer was satisfied in the end."

Stephanie's Response

While it sounds like you took the correct steps in escalating an issue, this response doesn't really highlight your decision-making skills, which is the intent of the question. Can you think of another workplace instance where you had to make a significant decision with limited information? While escalating an issue is important, it doesn't feel like the strongest example of decision-making.

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Anonymous Answer

"plug-ins score a customer, try with parameters"

Marcie's Response

It sounds like you have an example in mind. Now just make sure to give more details to the interviewer so they understand how you came to a decision without having all the information available to you. What steps did you take to come to the decision?

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Anonymous Answer

"In my current role, I am responsible of induce and market all IT services. when I took the responsibility of marketing, there were no criteria of IT service selection or if we would go for mass or selected audience. I met with all stockholders and came with a selection methodology and establish the process from execution till rollout."

Marcie's Response

This is a great example! It sounds like you didn't initially have all the information you needed when you took over marketing so you met with all the stakeholders and established new methodologies and processes. Excellent! Perhaps you can talk a bit more about why there was so little information when you first took over and also explain what some of the methodologies and processes are that you have successfully implemented.

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Anonymous Answer

"Heavily intense manual accounting process needed to be automated. My task was to ensure that is automated. One of the challenges was that it was an age-old process inherited by current accountants who did not have much clarity about why a particular thing is happening in a certain way. Also, it had a lot of small manual inputs flowing throw different teams which makes it harder to deep dive further. After understanding the requirement, I created a detailed but simple flowchart which relevant pictures which were easier to understand. This helped in breaking down the process into multiple smaller pieces and then addressing each one by one. As a result, I had excellent collaboration and communication across different teams. Not only I was able to get the project implemented successfully I was also able to correct the identified gaps in the current process (eg. correct mappings) and establish efficient communication between multiple teams required in this process."

Marcie's Response

Excellent! The detailed example you give clearly shows how you were able to move forward and complete a project successfully despite many obstacles and not having all the information you needed. Great job! It shows the interviewer that you are organized, a strong leader, and able to think outside the box.

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Anonymous Answer

"When the customer complained to me about a problem with a manufactured product, I escalated the issue to the design team. I was not sure if the problem was with the design team. I made sure that there were no mistakes from my end. Hence, even though I didn't have all the information to pinpoint the source of the problem, I escalated it since it was of a critical nature. In the end, the design team found the problem and made a fix. Everyone was happy as a result."

Marcie's Response

It sounds like you used logical thinking and problem-solving skills to determine that this was the best course of action to help the customer. The interviewer will appreciate that you made every attempt possible to help the client and that you were able to move forward even without having all the information you needed. Your response shows that you're resourceful and a quick thinker.

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Anonymous Answer

"In my prior role, I was responsible for creating a weekly schedule. I didn't have a confirmed schedule regarding our busiest times of the week so I had to guess and still remain under staffing budget but at the same time avoid understaffing. I used my logic and past knowledge of the prior weeks to make decisions on staff scheduling. I had myself on call if needed to fill a shift. The week came and the schedule turned out great with no issues."

Stephanie's Response

Another great example--this shows active problem-solving skills!

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Anonymous Answer

"In my current role, I am responsible for daily customer risk reporting. A year ago, our stakeholders requested additional information on the report. That particular information requested turned out to be not available in any of our systems. Using my mathematical knowledge and the current information that is already in the daily report, I end up creating a formula that will derive an output that the stakeholders need. I integrated the output into the current report and the stakeholders are delighted. They have more valuable information to make an insightful decision for the business."

Chad's Response

Excellent! You make good use of the STAR method, and the example you provide clearly shows strong critical thinking skills to solve a problem and develop a way to obtain the information the stakeholders were seeking.

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Anonymous Answer

"It was the first time that I was asked by my superior to perform annual appraisal evaluations for the colleagues of my BCP. I had no guidance at all and just a 10 days deadline. It was an interesting task to perform but quite challenging also. I went through the relevant regulation and I also asked for the help of another colleague from another BCP with great experience in that domain. Finally, I managed to accomplish my task and I created even my own notes and guidelines that helped me a lot in my future appraisal evaluations."

Marcie's Response

This is a great example that shows how you handled a situation when you had little guidance. Nice job! The interviewer will be happy to hear that you asked for help from a more experienced colleague (this indicates that you are resourceful). Have you continued to conduct annual evaluations? If so, mention this as it proves that you were so successful that you were asked to take on the responsibility indefinitely.

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Source: https://www.mockquestions.com/interview/Behavioral/Tell+me+about+a+time+when+you+had+to+make+a+decision+without+all+the+information+you+needed..html

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