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Are you single? Can you do things without supervision after being shown how?
A job interview question about how you used your initiative can be particularly challenging to interpret, as the Oxford English Dictionary defines “initiative” in different ways. If you’re not sure exactly what you’re being asked in an interview, it’s very difficult to give a confident, impressive answer.
Then according to the dictionary definition, initiative is:
The ability to judge and initiate things independently.
The power or ability to act or take responsibility before others do.
An action or strategy designed to resolve a difficulty or improve a situation; a fresh approach to something.
So what is the graduate recruiter actually asking with this interview question?
When asking an initiative question in the form of a typical competency-based question—for example, “Give me an example of a time when you showed initiative”—the interviewer may be interested in the following:
Are you single? Can you get things done without needing additional guidance or supervision?
after
were you shown how once?Are you able to come up with new ideas and think creatively to solve problems?
Can you work independently?
Can you spot an opportunity or something that needs improvement, make a plan and execute it?
Your example can address one or more of these questions, or you can instead ask your interviewer to say how they define initiative to help guide the example you give.
How do you answer “Give me an example of when you took the initiative”?
You can take an example from your work experience, a part-time job, a group project or coursework, gap year travel or a skills-related extracurricular activity.
If you’re struggling to think of a time when you’ve acted on your own initiative, our sample answers below should get you thinking about when you might have done something similar. Remember to provide enough detail in your answer for the interviewers to understand the scale of your achievement. It is also important to talk about the impact your initiative has had.
An example of using your initiative in a part-time job
“In my part-time job as a copy assistant at a reprography facility, I would always try to fix a paper jam or a broken copier before asking a more experienced colleague for help. Nine times out of ten I fixed the problem and the customer was served faster, which helps increase customer satisfaction.”
An example of using your initiative at home
“In my student house, our Wi-Fi wasn’t included in our rent and we were paying more than we should have for it. I developed the use of our house, researched options that balance price and quality, and used my research to negotiate a new, more competitive price with our supplier. We were saving £12 a month on our bills and my flatmates were happy that I took the initiative.
An example of using your initiative in your course
“While researching the impact of the punk counterculture in the 1970s, I came across references to news articles written by a music journalist at the time. I couldn’t find the articles on our library network or online, so on my own initiative I found the journalist on Twitter and asked her if I could get copies of her work for my dissertation. Instead, she offered to be interviewed for my dissertation. I did, and my dissertation won distinction.
An example of using your initiative when looking for a job
“When I was in my first and second year at university, I couldn’t decide between a career in publishing and a career in law. To help me decide, I asked family and friends if they knew of anyone working in these fields and used my university’s alumni database. I contacted an editor and a family lawyer and they both talked to me about their careers and offered me a week of work placements – these internships were informal and not organized by my university. They helped me confirm that this profession was the right one for me.
If you’re still struggling to think of an example of when you took the initiative…
Remember that using your initiative can involve many related skills and attributes, so you may be able to repurpose an example you’ve prepared for another competency question to meet the needs of that question—just pick something that is your idea and it happened to you.
Skills and qualities that often go hand in hand with taking initiative include:
Innovative thinking.
Solving a problem .
Entrepreneurship.
creativity
Leadership.
Confidence and belief in yourself to try something new.
Being a quick learner.
How proactive you can be.
Other ways in which your ability to take initiative may be assessed
Graduate recruitment teams may value your ability to take initiative in other ways. For example, they may try to gauge your level of initiative by:
Situational Judgment Tests (or SJTs): visit our commercial partner AssessmentDay for free and paid tests.
how you react to situations in assessment centres, such as how you approach group exercises, case studies or presentation tasks, or the opportunities you use to ask questions of people you meet during the day.
other interview questions, such as “Give me an example of when you initiated a project,” “What motivated you?” or “Tell me about a time when you led a team on a challenging project.”
Get help answering tougher interview questions with our article on the top nine tough interview questions and answers.
You can improve your interview performance by practicing answering difficult interview questions using resources from our partners at Shortlist.Me.
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