Describe a time when you took personal responsibility for a situation

[rainbowsunshineclouds]

This is a question in a job application I'm completing and I'm not really sure what direction to go with it

For the other situational questions I have used work situations, so in a way I think it would be nice to use an example from my personal life

Any pointers much appreciated

Elderly neighbor not managing, you helped out short term, contacted daughter and arranged a gp visit,social services.
Not much help apparent re the school fête. You contacted vendors, booked bouncy castle and band, asked local café to do refreshments so taking some of the responsibility off head teacher.
You noticed lack of community in the street during covid, you set up street WhatsApp
You noticed new starters at work not meeting up. You set up a weekly lunch for them which you hosted until one of them had the confidence to take it over...

Depends on the job but when I'm recruiting I expect all answers to be work based. I would only be interested in personal answers if it was one of our entry level roles so you had no work experience.

I wouldn't be wanting to know about you helping out a neighbour, I want to know about a time you spotted something incorrect on our webpage and amended it, or someone was in the office with a complaint and a manager wasn't available so you helped them as you could or someone had been passed from pillar to post and rather than passing their email on again you got them the information even though it was from a different team. That sort of thing.

Definitely use an example from work.

How senior is the role?

If senior think of a project you initiated or an idea you brought to life.

If junior you could talk about events you've coordinated, arranging the Christmas party, regular meetings you've chaired.

What sort of role are you applying for? A carer or support worker type role, then a personal life example may be relevant. But broadly, you still need to use the same STAR / competency based explanation that you would if using a workplace example: you’re being asked how you identified the situation you took responsibility for, what steps you decided you needed to take to resolve it and why you decided on them, your role and why you took on that role, the results, and whether you’d do the same again or whether there were lessons learned.

I would keep it work based too unless you’re really, really short of examples. Focus on something where you achieved a result and explain in a few sentences:

1. what you did


2. how you did it


3. what the benefit was.

Keep your language positive, assertive and factual eg “I did this” and “I achieved this” - don’t use weak words/phrases like ‘I think’ or ‘I might have’.

Check out Stef Sword-Williams’ book - F* Being Humble. Teaches you how to self-promote and shout about your achievements.