Latest / Interview Prep with Fexingo: Behavioral Questions, Case Studies, and Hiring Manager Insights / How to Answer the Tell Me About a Time You Showed Initiative Question
Transcript
- Lucas: Let's talk about 'initiative.' Because if you've been in any interview prep loop, you've heard the question: 'Tell me about a time you showed initiative.' And the interesting thing is, most people bomb it—not because they lack initiative, but because they tell the wrong story. Luna: What's the wrong story? I feel like everyone has that moment where they stayed late or took on extra work. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the trap. Initiative isn't just working harder or longer. It's seeing something that isn't working—or something that could work better—and doing something about it without being asked. A lot of candidates describe being a good soldier. That's reliability, not initiative. Luna: So initiative means you changed the game, not just played it. What's a concrete example you've seen work? Lucas: I worked with a marketing coordinator last year. She was applying for a senior associate role. Her story: She noticed the team was manually pulling data from three different platforms every Monday morning to build the weekly report. It took about five hours each week. So she built a simple dashboard in Google Data Studio that automated 80 percent of that work. She didn't have a background in data tools—she learned it on nights and weekends over two weeks. Luna: That's a great example. And she showed impact: hours saved, skills built, and she solved a problem no one assigned to her. Lucas: Right. And in the interview, she used the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result. She set the context—the Monday morning report chaos. Described her task as basically 'figure out a way to stop wasting our team's time.' The action was learning the tool and building the dashboard. And the result: the team saved 20 hours per month, and she got promoted six months later. Luna: I love that she quantified the result. Too many people say 'the team was happier' or 'we worked more efficiently.' But 20 hours a month is real. Lucas: Exactly. And the hiring manager told me later that the concreteness of the number made the story stick. So rule one: pick a story where you initiated a change, not just extra effort. Rule two: quantify the outcome if you can. Even a rough estimate is better than nothing. Luna: What about people who work in roles where it's harder to point to a specific project? Like a customer service rep who handles tickets all day—how do they show initiative? Lucas: Great question. I had a client who was a support rep at a SaaS company. She noticed that the same five questions accounted for 60 percent of all tickets. So she wrote a knowledge base article for each one, got her manager's feedback, and published them on the help center. Within a month, ticket volume for those topics dropped by 35 percent. That's initiative—she identified a pattern and fixed the root cause. Luna: So the key is looking for patterns, not just handling the task in front of you. That's a shift in mindset. Lucas: Exactly. And if you don't have a story like that yet, it's worth creating one. It doesn't have to be huge. Even suggesting a new agenda format for a weekly meeting—and running it for a month to show it works—counts. The scope matters less than the intentionality. Luna: Let me push back a little. Some hiring managers are skeptical of 'initiative' stories that sound too polished. How do you keep it authentic? Lucas: Good point. The risk is sounding like you're taking credit for everything. The fix is to include a moment of struggle or a mistake. In that marketing coordinator story, she mentioned that her first version of the dashboard had a broken filter that showed the wrong data. She had to go back and fix it. That makes the story human and honest. Luna: So vulnerability can actually strengthen the example. It shows you're not just bragging. Lucas: Exactly. And it also shows resilience. You didn't just try—you tried, failed, adjusted, and succeeded. Luna: Alright, let's talk about structure. How long should the story be in an interview? Lucas: Aim for 90 seconds to two minutes max. You want enough detail to be vivid, but not so much that you lose the listener. Lay out the situation in 15 seconds, the task in 10, the action in about 45 to 60 seconds, and the result in 20. That's the sweet spot. Luna: And practice it out loud. Because written down it looks perfect, but spoken it can sound rehearsed or rushed. Lucas: Absolutely. Record yourself on your phone. Then listen back and cut the filler words. 'Um,' 'like,' 'you know'—they dilute the impact. Luna: What about if you're interviewing for a role where initiative is the core competency, like a startup or a turnaround situation? Should the story change? Lucas: Yes. In those environments, they're looking for initiative that's more autonomous and higher-risk. So pick a story where you didn't just improve an existing process—you launched something new. Maybe you started a new client outreach program from scratch, or you built a reporting system where none existed. The bar for initiative is higher when the culture expects it. Luna: So match the story to the company's risk tolerance. That's smart. Lucas: And one more thing: don't be afraid to use a story from outside work. Volunteer projects, side hustles, even organizing a community event can demonstrate initiative just as well. I had a candidate who talked about creating a neighborhood composting program. That showed leadership, logistics, and persistence. Luna: I like that. It also shows you're a well-rounded person. But let's go back to the STAR structure for a second. What's the most common mistake you see people make? Lucas: The biggest one is spending too much time on the situation and not enough on the action. They'll describe the problem in elaborate detail—the broken process, the frustrated team, the missed deadlines. But then the action is just 'I stepped up and fixed it.' That's not enough. The action should be at least half the story. Luna: So the interviewer wants to see your thought process. How did you decide what to do? What steps did you take? Who did you talk to? Lucas: Exactly. Show the choices you made. Did you research options? Did you get buy-in from stakeholders? Did you test a small version first? That's the evidence of initiative in action. Luna: Alright, let's wrap with a quick framework. If a listener is preparing for an interview tomorrow, what's the one thing they should do tonight? Lucas: Write down three moments where you saw a problem and did something about it without being told. For each one, jot down the situation in one sentence, the action in three to four sentences, and the result with a number. Then pick the best one and practice it aloud until it feels natural. That's your go-to initiative story. Luna: That's solid. And if you want more personalized help, our past episodes cover a ton of other behavioral questions. But on initiative, I think the key takeaway is: don't just tell them you worked hard. Tell them you made things better. Lucas: Before we go—one quick thing. We keep the show ad-free because we believe career advice shouldn't be interrupted by commercials. If you find these episodes useful, and you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep this going for everyone. Luna: It's a small thing that makes a big difference. We appreciate every single person who's helped so far. Lucas: So back to initiative. One last nuance: sometimes the best initiative stories are about saying no. I worked with a product manager who declined a feature request because the data showed it would hurt the user experience. She proposed an alternative instead. That took guts. Luna: That's a great point. Initiative isn't always about doing more—it's about doing the right thing. Even if it means pushing back. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the kind of judgment hiring managers are looking for. So when you're crafting your story, think about a moment where you used good judgment to make a change. That's the gold standard. Luna: Alright, I think we've given listeners a lot to work with. Go practice that story. Lucas: And good luck in your interviews. We'll be back next time with another common behavioral question.