Reply to: interview question...

[DS23]

"dancing on the cusp of the catastrophe curve." i like it!

[jmo21]

Current client co boss asked me something similar in my interview for this contract.... "how do you deal with tight deadlines, vague requirements".

Without thinking, I blurted out, "does that happen a lot here"?

it got a smile, and I recovered well enough with my answer.

[vetran]

I like this one however surely by the time you have been through this epic effort, all of the prioritisation candidates have moved from important none urgent all the way to buying issue needs to be done now !!!

no a piece of paper / tool & 10 minutes tops.


key thing is to get them in order and defer / refuse the ones you just can't do.

[bobspud]

if they are into time management this will get you past it:

The Urgent/Important Matrix - Time Management Skills from MindTools.com

I like this one however surely by the time you have been through this epic effort, all of the prioritisation candidates have moved from important none urgent all the way to buying issue needs to be done now !!!

[oscarose]

Which is most important to you Mr. Client, as it is your priorities I am delivering.

Technical BA perm. New territory.



It's a new job or the SAS boot camp.

[GB9]

Any suggestions on how to answer the interview question that goes...

'how do you prioritise to hit tight deadlines whilst working on muliple projects?'

Sensible answers please.

Which is most important to you Mr. Client, as it is your priorities I am delivering.

[oscarose]

Its a serious response aimed at figuring out just how much of a bunch of morons I am on the verge of working with. I am on blood pressure tablets for the rest of my life mostly thanks to five years of truly Trojan epic nasty projects. I am at a position where I can notice a correlation between broken companies and ones that like to give their humans unmanageable tasks one after another and relying on them getting to the verge of death achieving them.

I like solving problems, not herding cats - not designing without requirements - and most of all not trying to build out solutions in three months despite the fact that the companies own procedures ensure it takes six at best.

I'd rather let the job go to someone else

Don't let that blood pressure rise!

Thanks for sharing.

[NotAllThere]

Actually answer is someone else should be able to tell you what your priorities are.

Not possible in my case. I'm working on five (soon to be 6) independent projects.

[vetran]

if they are into time management this will get you past it:

The Urgent/Important Matrix - Time Management Skills from MindTools.com


this is popular

http://boykepurnomo.staff.ugm.ac.id/...ive-people.pdf

Say yes to the person but get stuffed to the task!

I would really like to help you but my dance card is full with these urgent projects for VP X,Y & Z - sorry.

[bobspud]

I like the tone.

Will be worth not getting the job to see the reaction!

Its a serious response aimed at figuring out just how much of a bunch of morons I am on the verge of working with. I am on blood pressure tablets for the rest of my life mostly thanks to five years of truly Trojan epic nasty projects. I am at a position where I can notice a correlation between broken companies and ones that like to give their humans unmanageable tasks one after another and relying on them getting to the verge of death achieving them.

I like solving problems, not herding cats - not designing without requirements - and most of all not trying to build out solutions in three months despite the fact that the companies own procedures ensure it takes six at best.

I'd rather let the job go to someone else

[oscarose]

Actually answer is someone else should be able to tell you what your priorities are.

True; but not a good answer...

[oscarose]

The obvious answer although it won't get you a job is this:

So your firm hired people that are unable to set requirements and understand project contention, however rather than starting to try and understand enterprise capability and prioritise projects in terms of delivery and business benefit you prefer to shotgun everything at a target and see what sticks then complain when the rest of the buckshot misses the target completely? The only answer to this is you want me to risk my health and mental well being so you can continue in your bad habits? Personally my approach would not to juggle your ill conceived idea of priority and try to show you how doing things in the right order not only delivers what your company wants but improves the speed and efficiency while doing it. But don't hire me to dump your unsolvable issues...

I like the tone.

Will be worth not getting the job to see the reaction!

[SussexSeagull]

Actually answer is someone else should be able to tell you what your priorities are.

[bobspud]

The obvious answer although it won't get you a job is this:

So your firm hired people that are unable to set requirements and understand project contention, however rather than starting to try and understand enterprise capability and prioritise projects in terms of delivery and business benefit you prefer to shotgun everything at a target and see what sticks then complain when the rest of the buckshot misses the target completely? The only answer to this is you want me to risk my health and mental well being so you can continue in your bad habits? Personally my approach would not to juggle your ill conceived idea of priority and try to show you how doing things in the right order not only delivers what your company wants but improves the speed and efficiency while doing it. But don't hire me to dump your unsolvable issues...

[NotAllThere]

Any suggestions on how to answer the interview question that goes...

'how do you prioritise to hit tight deadlines whilst working on muliple projects?'

Sensible answers please.

I work on multiple projects frequently. I always manage to deliver to everyone's satisfaction, but I'm not sure how I do it. I do enjoy dancing on the cusp of the catastrophe curve. I've noticed that while I don't get stressed, the people around me frequently do - they should trust me more.

That's how I actually work. But in an interview, I'd probably say something about the urgent/~urgent/important/~important matrix.