Landing an interview for a new life science job is exciting, but it’s also a little intimidating. Even if you’re highly confident in your ability to handle the duties, interviewing for the position is often a bit anxiety-inducing.
Fortunately, by preparing for classic interview questions, you’ll have an easier time navigating this challenging part of the recruitment process. Here’s a look at how to respond to the common interview question, “What is your greatest achievement?” as a life science candidate.
Spend Time Reflecting
First and foremost, you need to spend time before your interview reflecting on your career. Begin with your current or most recent job, and consider what the major moments were while working in the role. Ideally, you want to focus on larger projects that your employer notably recognized. Once you figure out a few, determine which of the examples aligns most with the duties you’d have if hired into the new position.
By using that approach, you can find recent relevant examples to share with the hiring manager. Ultimately, those are more impactful, as they better reflect your current capabilities and correlate with what the hiring manager wants to find.
If you’re new to the life science field, consider any academic achievements that are relevant and showcase critical skills. Again, these are potentially stronger than examples from previous jobs in other sectors since they’re related to the industry. However, if you’re still coming up short, then branch out into your different positions, looking for an accomplishment that connects as strongly as possible to the job you want.
Prepare the Narrative
Once you identify a suitable achievement, it’s time to prepare the overall narrative. Generally, you’ll use a storytelling approach. Outline the nature of the project or the initial starting point, discuss your role in the accomplishment, highlight the actions you took and skills you used along the way, and wrap up by reviewing the results.
By using that strategy, your answer is more compelling. Additionally, it gives the hiring manager more context regarding the nature of the achievement, which works in your favor.
Quantify the Details
After you structure the narrative, you want to quantify some of the relevant details. Numbers are powerful, as they provide the hiring manager with a clearer picture of what occurred and how impactful your contributions were in the end.
Precisely what type of metrics you’ll want to include varies depending on the nature of the achievement. However, productivity percentage increases, spending percentage decreases, company profits secured, accuracy percentages, and similar data points are usually what you’re after.
Ultimately, using the strategy above can usually steer you toward a way to respond to the interview question, “What is your greatest achievement?” with a reasonable amount of ease.
Are you ready for a new position in the life science industry? Partner with the Staffing Resource Group to find a career-boosting job quickly. Contact us to learn more about our services today.
