Santander Competencies QA Flashcards
Tell me about a time when you had to learn something completely new to achieve a goal. How did you go about it
- One of my early modules of university introduced a new topic about oop structure for programming
- I learnt that this was a commonly used structure used in lots of programs and development therefore felt it was important to understand not only to pass the module but to apply to my future work
- On top of what we learnt in class and labs, I made an effort to do some independent research and learning from other people’s experience to further my understanding
- I created some projects to try and practically apply what I had learnt
- As a result I furthered my understanding of the topic thoroughly and in future modules and projects I was able to create well structured programs.
Describe a situation where you quickly adapted to a new process or technology. What steps did you take to get up to speed?
- During my time working as a waiter, Covid 19 imposed constant new regulations and changes to how our stores would operate.
- When given guidelines or a new policy or rules, I ensure to carefully understand the specification set out
- For example one of them being the 2 meter rule, customers were not allowed to be seated within 2 meters of other customers.
- The way I accommodated these new regulations was to strategically fill up the restaurant in a way that maximized the amount of customers we could have whilst ensuring their safety and following the guidelines.
- As a result as a restaurant we maintained a safe dining environment and operated efficiently under challenging circumstances.
Give an example of when you identified a skill or knowledge gap and took steps to improve it.
Tell me about a time when you had to balance learning a new skill with meeting deadlines. How did you manage this?
- During development of my dissertation project I had to quickly learn how to manage a data stream, while still meeting key milestones for my dissertation
- I broke the task into manageable steps, dedication focused time to both research and implementation,
- Ensuring i hit project deadlines while successfully integrating live telemetry.
Describe a time when you actively sought feedback to improve your understanding or performance. How did you apply what you learned?
Can you provide an example of a time when you learned from a mistake and improved as a result?
- A nice example of this is when I was learning to drive
- ## During one my mock test I had made a mistake regarding to positioning in a roundabout
Tell me about a time when you proactively researched or studied a topic to improve your work or help your team
- One of my early modules of university introduced a new topic about oop structure for programming
- I learnt that this was a commonly used structure used in lots of programs and development therefore felt it was important to understand not only to pass the module but to apply to my future work
- On top of what we learnt in class and labs, I made an effort to do some independent research and learning from other people’s experience to further my understanding
- I created some projects to try and practically apply what I had learnt
- As a result I furthered my understanding of the topic thoroughly and in future modules and projects I was able to create well structured programs using what I have learnt.
Describe a time when you attended training, a workshop, or an online course and successfully applied what you learned.
Have you ever taught yourself a skill outside of formal education that proved valuable in your work or studies? How did you go about it?
Tell me about a time when you had to ask for help to fully understand a new concept or task. How did you approach this?
Tell me about a time when you faced a significant challenge at work or university. How did you handle it, what was the outcome?
Describe a situation where you encountered an unexpected obstacle while working on a project. What steps did you take to overcome it.
- Developing dissertation project
- Issue of handling real-time data whilst maintaining performance
- Had to find a way of getting the best of both worlds
- Broke down my project into smaller parts, identifying areas in each part that require processing power
- Put focused research into these areas discovering new ways to implement them to reduce performance cost for example storing them in a different way that had faster access speeds
- Resulted in an more optimized program that could handle this data optimally
Can you give an example of a time when you had to quickly adapt your approach to solve a problem? How did you manage it?
Tell me about a time when you had to manage competing priorities under pressure. How did you ensure you met your deadlines?
- Sales assistant
- Offloading stock whilst serving customers
- Needed to try complete delivery asap
- Prioritized high demand items
- Ensuring customer needs were met
- ## By communicating and working efficiently with my team
Describe a time when you face a setback or failure. What did you learn from the experience, and how did you apply that learning in future situations?
- During closing at WHSmith I had forgotten to turn off the self service till
- The self service needs to be turned off so that it can reset and update overnight
- As i did not turn it off it ended up updating during the day, meaning staff had to spend more time serving customers instead of managing store operations
- After apologizing and understanding my mistake
- I created a checklist to ensure I carry out every task when I close.
- I also informed my colleagues and provided them with the same list so that this could be prevented from happening in the future.
Tell me about a time when you worked as part of a team to acheive a common goal. What was your role, and how did you contribute to the team’s success
Tell me about a time when there was conflict within your team. How did you handle it, and what was the outcome.
