Senior Investigator Interview Questions
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Senior Investigator interview questions shared by candidates
THINK BIG Definition and Indicators Think Big: Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers. What this looks like in Practice As a people manager do you… As an individual contributor do you… · Take a radical approach and risks when necessary, always questioning traditional assumptions in pursuit of the biggest and best idea? · Create a gutsy mission that employees can be inspired by and get behind; provide direction for how to get there and explain how everything fits into the long-term plan? · Continually communicate the big picture and mission to the team in a manner that gets employees excited (as a result, employees want to get out of bed and come to work each day)? · Actively explore new ideas from team members, encouraging risk taking when appropriate? · Translate broader mission into big, hairy ideas and tactics in your own work? · Ask questions to get a sense of direction and confirm how work fits into the short- and long-term picture? · Hungrily accept the challenge to create the best idea/solution and take risks? 1. Give me an example of a radical approach to a problem you proposed. What was the problem and why did you feel it required a completely different way of thinking about it? Was your approach successful? 2. How do you drive adoption for your vision/ideas? How do you know how well your idea or vision has been adopted by other teams or partners? Give a specific example highlighting one of your ideas. 3. Tell me about time you were working on an initiative or goal and saw an opportunity to do something much bigger than the initial focus. 4. Tell me about a time you looked at a key process that was working well and questioned whether it was still the right one? What assumptions were you questioning and why? Did you end up making a change to the process? 5. Tell me about a time you took a big risk – what was the risk, how did you decide to do it and what was the outcome? 6. Now Tell me about a time you took a big risk and it failed. What did you learn? What would you do differently? VOCALLY SELF CRITICAL Definition and Indicators Vocally Self Critical: Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. Leaders come forward with problems or information, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders benchmark themselves and their teams against the best. What this looks like in Practice As a people manager do you… As an individual contributor do you… · Admit mistakes, issues and areas for development; seek out and accept coaching and feedback to improve? · Set an example for your team by owning responsibility for problems and failures and working to resolve them? · Encourage team members to bring issues to your attention constructively? · Escalate issues even when doing so might be unpopular? 1. Give me an example of an idea you had that was strongly opposed. Why was there so much resistance? How did you handle the negative feedback? 2. Give me an example of a significant professional failure. What did you learn from this situation? 3. Tell me about a time where someone has openly challenged you. How did you handle this feedback? 4. Tell me about a time you made a significant mistake. What led you to making the wrong decision? What would you have done differently in retrospect? 5. Give an example of a tough or critical piece of feedback you received. What was it and what did you do about it? 6. Tell me about a time you received feedback with which you didn’t agree. How did you react? Tell me about time you had to learn something outside your comfort zone in order to drive results for your organization or to adapt to a change in the market, organization or other catalyst.
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STAR WORKSHEET Your Behavioral Question:___________________________________________________________________Leadership Principle:_________________ Choose behavioral question that provoke specific examples or stories for your assigned Leadership Principle(s). Process the example using STAR. Stories have beginnings (Situation/Task), middle (Actions) and ends (Results). Once you have established the story, PROBE to dive deeper on your assigned competency (Leadership Principle), get clarity or pursue a concern. If appropriate, CHALLENGE the candidate’s statements, decisions or thought process. S T SITUATION/TASK - Describe the situation/task you faced and the context of the story Answers the questions: where did this occur, when did it happen, why is it important? Probing Questions: · Why is this important? What was the goal? · What was the initial scope of the project? What were the challenges? · What were the risks and potential consequences if nothing happened? Challenge Questions: · Why did you choose this story to illustrate a xyz accomplishment? · What other stories can you think of that demonstrate.. xyz? · Could you come up with an example that is more recent? Notes A ACTION - What actions did you take? Answers the questions: what did you personally own, how did you do it, who else was involved? Probing Questions: · Deep probe functional expertise and/or assigned core competency. · Were you the key driver or project owner? · What was your biggest contribution? What unique value did you bring? · What were the most significant obstacles you faced? How did you overcome them? Challenge Questions: · What did you do specifically versus the team? · How did you set priorities…deal with xyz problem… or get manager buy-in? · What decisions did you challenge? Why? How did you influence the right outcome? R RESULTS - How did you measure success for this project? What results did you achieve? $ Cost savings, revenue generation # Quantify to understand volume, size, scale % Percentage change, year over year improvements ˆ Time to market, implementation time, time savings J Impact on the customer, the team d Quality improvements Probing Questions: · Why did you choose to focus on these results? What other results were important? · You mentioned revenue, what percentage change is that year over year? · What trade-offs did you have to make to achieve this? (quality, cost, time) · I’m concerned about… (the time it took, the volume, the customer impact), tell me more… Challenge Questions: · What were the lessons learned? What would you have done differently? · How would you implement this at Amazon? · How did these results compare to your actual goals? (refer back to goal stated in Situation Less
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So this is a gold mine. It is actually a sheet from AMAZON and how they probe and challenge questions. Thank you for sharing! Less
INSIST ON THE HIGHEST STANDARDS Definition and Indicators Insist on the Highest Standards: Leaders have relentlessly high standards - many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed. What this looks like in Practice As a people manager do you… As an individual contributor do you… · Raise the quality bar by demanding that your team delivers high quality products, services and solutions? · Teach and coach employees about setting their own high standards and exceeding customer expectations? · Provide feedback to employees when work is of high quality and coach to continually improve work? · Ensure the quality bar remains high by delivering high quality work, and demanding it of others’ work? · Continually self-critique your work to make sure the quality is the best it can be? · Accept and seek out coaching and feedback from your manager and others about improving the quality of your work? Tell me about a time when you have been unsatisfied with the status quo. What did you do to change it? Were you successful? Tell me about a time you wouldn’t compromise on achieving a great outcome when others felt something was good enough. What was the situation? What measures have you personally put in place to ensure performance improvement targets and standards are achieved? Describe the most significant, continuous improvement project that you have led. What was the catalyst to this change and how did you go about it? Give me an example of a goal you’ve had where you wish you had done better. What was the goal and how could you have improved on it? 6. Tell me about a time when you have worked to improve the quality of a product / service / solution that was already getting good customer feedback? Why did you think it needed continued improvement? Give an example where you refused to compromise your standards around quality/customer service, etc. Why did you feel so strongly about the situation? What were the consequences? The result? INVENT AND SIMPLIFY Definition and Indicators Invent and Simplify: Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here”. As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time. What this looks like in Practice As a people manager do you… As an individual contributor do you… · Simplify and always encourage others to innovate and change inefficient or unnecessarily complex processes? · Use new ideas and methods to do your job better and enhance the customer experience? · Create an environment that encourages breakthrough thinking that is simple? · Encourage innovation and invention for the right reasons, helping others not to unnecessarily reinvent the wheel? · Think up and implement great ideas and simple solutions? · Know when not to reinvent the wheel? Tell me about the most innovative thing you’ve done and why you thought it was innovative (can also probe with: That sounds more evolutionary than revolutionary – tell me about something you’ve done you feel was truly revolutionary? Ask for one or two additional examples to see if it’s a one off or pattern.) 2. People often say the simplest solution is the best. Tell me about a particular complex problem you solved with a simple solution. 3. Tell me about a time you were able to make something significantly simpler for customers. What drove you to implement this change? 4. Describe a challenging problem or situation in which the usual approach was not going to work. Why were you unable to take the usual approach? What alternative approach did you take? Was it successful? 5. Give an example of a creative idea you had that proved really difficult to implement. What was the idea and what made it difficult to implement? Was it successful? 6. Tell me about an out-of-the-box idea you had or decision you made that had a big impact on your business. 7. Give me an example of how you have changed the direction or view of a specific function/department and helped them embrace a new way of thinking? Why was a change needed?
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So you answered the question with questions? Great.
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OWNERSHIP Definition and Indicators Ownership: Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job”. What this looks like in Practice As a people manager do you… As an individual contributor do you… · Create a vision for your team that aligns with the customer experience? · Foster an environment of autonomy where an employee prioritize and make decisions? · Think about the impact of your decisions on other teams, sites and the customer over time? · Coach and mentor your team to understand the big picture, how their role supports the overall objectives of Amazon, and how it ties to others? · Ask questions? · Consider future outcomes (scalable, long-term value, etc.)? · Give feedback – coach and develop others (peers, associates, manager)? · Speak up in meetings – question, challenge respectfully? · Understand your role and relationship with other roles? · Understand the impact of your work on others? · Partner with peers across the network? 1. Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility. Why was it important? What was the outcome? 2. Give me an example of a time when you didn't think you were going to meet the commitments you promised. How did you identify the risk and communicate it to stakeholders? What was the outcome? 3. Tell me about a time you made a hard decision to sacrifice short term gain for a longer term goal. 4. Give an example of when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help. What was the situation and what actions did you take? What was the outcome? 5. What steps do you take to ensure projects you complete get transitioned effectively to new owners? Give an example where you elected to re-engage on a project that you had already transitioned to someone else. What was the situation and why did you feel it was important to re-engage? 6. How do you ensure your team stays connected to the company vision and the bigger picture? Give an example of when you felt a team or individual goal was in conflict with the company vision. What did you do? (Manager) 7. Tell me about an initiative you undertook because you saw that it could benefit the whole company or your customers, but wasn’t within any group’s individual responsibility so nothing was being done. (Manager) Less
How do you feel about working in an environment with lots of policies, how do you deal with a supervisor that you don’t agree with something . (There were a lot of two and three part questions)
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I didn’t do to well on this question but still got the job.
Tell me about a tough task you handled.
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I explained how I handled a tough Situation in workplace.
How would I handle a patient diagnosised with and STD that’s under 18 and parents are not aware.
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My answer had to do with HIPAA laws on confidentiality and eventhough they were a minor if they presented to the clinic and tested positive they are entitled to treatment. I also have specific examples of how I would handle the parents questions about why I was looking for thier child. Basically I can’t share anything with you please have a discussion with your teenager. It’s a different story if they are 12, but the example I believe was 15 or 16. Less
Why BMS? Describe your projects in the past. What is your exception for the this role.
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Great pipeline, fun work.