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COMPETENCY #5—PEOPLE SKILLS 171

Result: I walked out of the meeting with a one-year contract in hand.

And I was subsequently approached by team members to assist with their
presentations.

Question 190. Both written and verbal communication skills are vitally

important. This position relies heavily on e-mail communication. To help me
assess your experience, describe a time when your written correspondence
was well received.

Situation: As the project manager for Alter Communications, I esti-

mated time requirements, established deadlines, monitored milestone com-
pletion, and tracked all phases of a three-tier project.

Action: I wrote weekly e-mails to keep team members and manage-

ment apprised of changes and I provided regular status reports.

Result: Management and my peers constantly commended me for

the quality of my messages. Most notably, they mentioned my ability to an-
swer all their questions in one shot so there was never a need to ask follow-
up questions.

Question 191. Describe an experience in which you worked with a cul-

turally diverse population.

Situation: When I was a court-appointed social worker, I had a var-

ied client base, from children in single-parent households who acted out for
attention, to those who committed crimes because of drug addiction. I un-
derstood that the world in which I grew up was vastly different from that of
my clients.

Action: From the get-go, I made a concerted effort to establish a rap-

port with my clients, based on mutual respect. To create a supportive envi-
ronment, I always considered my clients’ ages, ethnicity, religion, and culture
and tailored my solutions to their circumstances.

Result: Once clients understood that I was willing to meet them

halfway, and to guide them in a new direction, they felt at ease and freely
opened up to me.

Question 192. Give me an example of when you managed to break a

communications barrier.

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