popper
rao_1857
Kiki723
CONGRATULAITONS to everybody who has received their Interviews!!!
BEST of LUCK to people who are still waiting ...
I have just started looking at the questions and they are killer man...
especially #2 Essay 2 (750-1000 words) Tell us about a time when you had to adapt by accepting/understanding the perspective of people different from yourself.
I am having very hard time in putting together 750 words for this. I am using a recent example where I had to accept somebody else's design as it was more flexible and had more potential for success.
Did you see the same problem as well. I can certainly stretch it .. but I dont want go to the point where it starts becoming boring..
The only reason why I would consider rethinking your approach is that the question asks about PEOPLE with a different perspective than yourself, not just one person. So, the way I understood the question was that you should illustrate an experience adapting to a group with a different background or belief than your own... Have you done any foreign travel or work with anyone without the same background as yourself (race/nationality/education/socioeconomic status/etc)?
Sorry ....I should have been more clear. So this person is actually a whole team and is a different group. Rather than pointing to this person i should have used the team (sales team had a different perspective and their suggested design was better).
I think they are looking for something a little deeper where there is truly something foreign to the way you work or think. Like someone else mentioned, if you've ever worked internationally or with people unlike yourself who had not only differing opinions but also a different way of thinking, I think that would be a stronger example. How did you go about understanding the perspective, what was the result, what did you learn, etc. Coming from a software consulting background where teams/people often had differing design ideas, it seems too common. You might better serve yourself - and further yourself from other applicants - by digging a little deeper. Best of luck.
Actually I think it is a misunderstanding that people "different from yourself" have to be defined in terms of gender, nationality, race, religion, etc. I think these are the "surface" differentiators but thinking styles are huge as well. Its just that essays based on how people think differently from you are a lot harder to write, simply because most people don't have just one way of thinking or working. They employ different styles at different points so these essays can seem a little naive IMHO.
That said, if you can write a solid essay about how you think very analytically (say) as an engineer and the sales team taught you to broaden your perspective without making it seem like you are rigid or they are stupid... go for it! I would say focus a lot on what you LEARNED from the experience, and also how you applied those learnings to other projects.
And btw everyone will be writing about their international experiences or the time they had to work with that other-person-from-other-country experiences...
10 Nov 2009, 08:10
