a person who completes tasks quickly, effectively, and without being requested or requiring assistance
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to look into the future and determine whether your new hire will be a self-driven hustler who consistently completes tasks?
Instead, many of us make every effort to learn as much as we can about a candidate’s professional background while conducting interviews, cross our fingers, and anticipate the best possible outcome in terms of employee performance.
But fortunately, there are a few unmistakable indicators that point to the traits of a go-getter, hustler, and all-around GSDer. Who better to identify a GSD executive than a GSDer themselves? I sat down with a few GSD executives and used their hard-won experience to create an interviewing recipe that will increase your chances of hiring top talent moving forward.
It is undeniable that those who are proactive convey what they can do both orally and in writing by using action verbs and terms. Look and hear for “I” first because GSDers act independently rather than in a “we.” Then, keep an eye out for verbs that denote action, such as produce, influence, accomplish, and lead. Your non-GSD radar detector should sound if you encounter resumes, cover letters, portfolios, or social media profiles that use ineffective language (such as assist, help, or aid). GSDers typically possess the ability to make an impression before even entering the room.
…
Now interview for those behaviors.
- Tell me about a past project where time was of the essence?
- Tell about the specific need for speed on the project?
- What were the expectations on your personnel?
- What factors slowed the progress of the project?
- What did you do to expedite progress?
Leading Change: Establish a Sense of Urgency
Describe a time when you were given a task or project that was too difficult for you. A great response will detail how they would reach out, who they would reach out to, and how long it would take them to reach out in order to reach out. Red flags should be raised when people respond by refusing to accept assistance, putting off solving the issue, or ignoring it.
Great answers will include finishing work ahead of deadlines or demonstrating a desire to get tasks and projects completed in a timely manner not because they have to, but because they want to Red flags may be raised by responses that lack self-motivation and a desire to complete the task at hand.
Here are five questions that we advise all of our clients to ask during interviews, along with suggestions for excellent answers and responses that should raise red flags:
A professional recruiter’s duties go beyond simply locating outstanding talent to fill challenging positions that will help organizations grow. The advice recruiters offer organizations for their own interviewing procedure is a frequently undervalued aspect of their services. If your company needs to make improvements in the interviewing process, your recruiter should be ready and willing to assist you. Every interview is built on questions, and choosing the right ones can have a significant impact on how a candidate is ultimately assessed.
A great response from a candidate will include a summary of their professional background, arguments for why they are the best hire for the position, and whenever possible, tie in pertinent examples of successes. Someone who divulges a lot about their personal history but does not discuss aspects of their character or upbringing that would enable them to meaningfully contribute to your organization if hired could be a red flag.
In addition to learning about how you handled the unexpected, the interviewer wants to know if there was anything you could have done to better prepare for or even prevent the unexpected event. Additionally, the interviewer will be looking for changes you may have made to your response to similar situations in the future.
For entry-level candidates, here’s an example of how to best respond to this query: “During my most recent internship, we had an all-hands-on-deck request when one of the customers placed an unforeseen large order that needed to be fulfilled within 24 hours.” Our team jumped into action to help with the order’s fulfillment, and they essentially worked nonstop to make it happen. During that time, I learned a lot about exceeding customer expectations, and our team also developed a process document outlining our lessons learned so that future instances of this kind could be handled more effectively.
The best strategy for responding to this inquiry is to say that daily firefighting is a part of most jobs. Some jobs more than others. The key to answering this question is to choose an unforeseen circumstance that you were able to successfully resolve. Another choice would be a circumstance in which you assisted another team in an emergency. It’s ideal if you were able to solve the problem and come up with a plan of action for when it might happen again.
For experienced candidates, an example of how to best respond to this question is: “We recently experienced an event that resulted in system downtime for our entire company and our user base.” To reduce our downtime, we had switched to a cloud services provider. They had numerous layers of redundancy that we were unable to offer internally. As a result, it was ironic and unexpected when the provider of cloud services suffered a denial of service attack that caused the entire network of websites to go offline. We were impacted, along with many other businesses. We were completely offline for over two hours. I coordinated a manual IP shift with our IT staff and the cloud services provider to temporarily redirect traffic to our local servers in order to lessen the effect on our users. In case the issue recurs in the future, we set up an automated IP shift using the lessons we learned from the incident.
Similar interview questions: What happens when you need to quickly change what you are doing at work? What happens when something unexpected occurs? Give me an example of when you went into firefighting mode? Who on your team has the best emergency response capability?
Similarly, Candice Olson, founder and co-CEO of The Fullbridge Program and one of the first female leaders to lead an IPO in the U.S., says that “asking questions that lead a candidate to give multiple examples of hitting their goals and how they did it ” is part of the recipe. Olson observes that her “best hires never lack examples of achieving results, and typically even exceeding expectations.” Particularly, she seeks to find the combination of “a positive attitude and someone who will get the job done whenever the call comes.”
a person who completes tasks quickly, effectively, and without being requested or requiring assistance
All of Fremont-Smith’s businesses have adopted this measure, she says, “in order to separate the people who can hit the ground running from those who can’t.” “The highly efficient candidates exert extra effort, use their quick thinking skills during this exercise, and exhibit a wow factor when they arrive,” You can get a glimpse of what people can do if they work with you by judging the effort and passion they put forth during the exercise.
It shouldn’t take more than 48 hours for candidates who truly care about your company to send you a fantastic follow-up email or original response. Anything less is a red flag, and the response will be original, passionate, and pertinent to what you discussed rather than being canned. Strong, original, and considerate interview follow-up is frequently a predictor of who will be ardent, motivated GSDers, according to Fremont-Smith: “The most motivated employees have specific feedback, suggestions, and follow-up ideas.” ”.
Instead, many of us make every effort to learn as much as we can about a candidate’s professional background while conducting interviews, cross our fingers, and anticipate the best possible outcome in terms of employee performance.
Similar interview questions: Give me an example of how you prioritize your projects when you can’t finish everything in the allotted time. Do you have trouble prioritizing your time? What is the hardest thing for you to do? Can you give me an example?
The best way to respond to this query is to concentrate on a situation where you had to solicit input from others in order to establish and approve the order of your work tasks and/or projects. Ideally, your manager would be involved in this, but it could also involve other team members and external managers who are asking for your time.
To be fully prepared for your interview, review the answers to these Common Interview Questions.
“Well, I recently had to choose between going out to party with my friends or studying for midterms the following day,” is an example of how you shouldn’t respond to this question. So I decided I would do both. Prior to returning home to study, I would first go out with my friends to party. I was at the party so long that I ended up passing out, and when I woke up in the middle of the night, I had no idea where I was. I eventually made it back home and began studying; despite what you might be thinking, I was able to earn an A on my midterm. Remember to respond behaviorally to every interview question, whether it is a behavioral question or not, so that I can clearly multitask my priorities. Use an instance from your background and experience to demonstrate this; it’s the simplest method. Use the S-T-A-R method to make your response a STAR by discussing the situation or task you were given, the action you took, and the outcomes you saw. This is what distinguishes your interview response as being uniquely yours and turns it into a hit!
For experienced candidates, an example of how to best respond to this query would be to say, “My job has multiple conflicting priorities, making it challenging to determine what is most important and urgent. I developed an important/urgent scale with my boss so that it is clear what tasks are given the highest priority. The highest priority is given to something if it is both urgent and important. Next comes important but not urgent, followed by urgent but not important, and finally not important and not urgent. My boss is aware of the rating system and even designates requests to me as IU, INU, UNI, and NINU. As a result of using our prioritization rating system, my overall productivity over the past year has increased significantly in comparison to before.
FAQ
What are the top 10 behavioral questions in an interview?
How do you handle a challenge? is one of the top 10 behavioral interview questions with answers. Can you work effectively under pressure? . How do you set goals? . Can you handle criticism? . How do you handle a mistake pointed out to you? . What is the best course of action when you disagree with someone at work?
How do you handle emergency situations interview question?
Interview Response Depending on the circumstance, I will need to be understanding of people’s fears while also being assertive because it may be crucial for the visitors to adhere to the rules. Overall, I would do my best to maintain composure and prioritize the safety of the visitors.
What are the 5 hardest interview questions and answers?
Tell Me About Yourself: The 5 Difficult Interview Questions (And How to Answer Them) Tell me about a time when you failed or made a mistake, and how you handled it. Describe a time when you had to deal with a challenging coworker and what you did. Why did you leave your last job? . Why do you want this job?.
How do you handle multiple tasks and priorities interview question?
Examples of prioritization interview questionsHow do you organize your work when you have to juggle multiple projects/clients at once?How do you prioritize your duties if you’re reporting to more than one manager?Describe a typical day at work. How much time do you devote to X each week?
