Tell me about a time you used creativity and problem-solving skills to solve an important problem.

During my time as a retail sales associate at Winners, the store was having a fairly large problem with regards to shoplifting taking place in the fitting rooms. I was put through a lot of training on how to spot shoplifters and how to find help when you encounter an uncomfortable situation. In this particular situation, I was put in charge of the fitting room section of the store and a young man who came through had stuffed a pair of pants into another, as well as a hat and some other small items, I can only assume with the intention of stealing them.
The training I was provided suggested that I call security to come help while the customer (hopefully) stood there and waited to be arrested or reprimanded. We were told to take all items from the customer and count them when coming into the fitting room and when they left. On this particular day, it was a busy Saturday and I was alone in the fitting room with many customers coming in and out. This young gentleman approached the fitting room and he looked a little nervous, I greeted him, asked him for his items (as per policy) and began to count them. I noticed that a few of the pants were heavier than they should have been, and I pulled out a different pair of pants, a hat, and a t-shirt, Because I was not comfortable calling security in front of the customer, I decided to alter the approach and instead asked the man politely whether he would like to try on the additional items as well. This way I managed to avoid embarrassing the customer and getting security involved. Because of company policy, I was told to report any instances so that they can be noted for liability reasons.

When I told my manager they had asked me why I didn’t call security right away and I explained my reasoning. My manager was so impressed with the dialogue approach that he asked me to train the other employees on dealing with shoplifting. In addition, he shared the situation at a regional meeting and I later found out that everyone was adopting the same approach to handling shoplifting that our store had implemented.


 

Tell me about a time when you needed to make a difficult decision in school and what was the result.
In addition to my full class schedule, I usually juggle two part time jobs and one to two volunteer positions. I like to keep busy and having all these experiences keep me going by not allowing me to have a great deal of rest time. One particular semester I found that I was having trouble balancing all my activities and making time for my family and social life.
Due to the nature of my classes, I was in four different groups, which requires a lot of time and commitment as well as a lot of flexibility in my schedule. This presented a problem because although I could make time, I could not be flexible enough to meet the group needs as there were often up to 5 other members in a team who also had individual schedules.
It because apparent quite quickly that I would not be able to maintain all my part time hours, volunteer positions, and still be a valuable group member. Unfortunately, the number of hours I worked was completely necessary for living expenses and I had a number of projects that I was running in my volunteer positions so I could not quit any of those initiatives. I had to drop one of my courses in order to align with my group requirements and I was forced to be one credit behind schedule. It was a very difficult choice as none of the options were ideal but the most frustrating part was the fact that I could balance everything I wanted to do but unfortunately I was having to align myself with the group which I found was a sacrifice I had to make.
In the end the group projects were done well and I was a very valuable contributing member. In addition, at the end of the semester I was able to get back to my usual schedule and continue all my initiatives.