Brady Porter
11/26/12
Behavioral-type Interview Questions
1. Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone to see things your way.
I worked as a tennis professional for 6 years and I often used persuasion to convince the person who I was teaching to help them understand why a certain technique is better than another or why to change something on their grip. One example in particular sticks out in my head, I was teaching a group of ladies and we were working on our volleys and net game. One woman asked why she would ever want to go to the net because all the other person is going to do is lob it over her and win the point. I explained to her that the net is actually a more dominant position on the court and points are more easily won at the net. I asked her if she usually lobbed the ball over her opponents head when they are playing the net and she said no because she either hits it too low and they smash it, or she hits it too high and too far and it goes out. I helped her realize that most people feel the same way she does and now she not hesitant to go to the net.
2. Describe a time when you worked on many different projects at the same time. How did you keep track of their progress? How did the projects turn out?
I did my internship at an advertising firm that specialized in making promotional products like putting a company name on pens or shirts or something of that sort. I had to multitask when I worked there because often I would be working on more than one order at a time. An order would come for 24 polo shirts with the Whole Foods logo on the chest and I would put that project into the embroidery machine and start it, periodically putting in new shirts to continue the project. While that project was in the middle of sewing I would have down time so I would be able to also find a heat transfer application project that I would do while a shirt was on the embroidery machine. My productivity increased and I did not lack on quality either so it was a win-win situation.
3. Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation that demonstrated your coping skills.
When I worked as a high school freshman boys tennis coach at Madison West High School I was faced with a few stressful situations surrounding scheduling. One time we were scheduled to play a match at a park where there was already another high school freshman team practicing and the coach was not willing to let us use any of the courts to play our matches. I was hoping he would let us use a couple courts and he could still run his practice on the other courts but he was not compliant. I was able to find 4 available courts a few blocks away where we managed to play all our matches, it was a hassle moving everyone and getting the match started but everything worked out and parents and the other coach were supportive and helpful.