Interview question

[badgerread]

Hi there

I recently had an interview and was asked, 'Have you ever had to compromise your standards?'. It threw me and I went blank and answered no.

I have another interview lined up and wondered whether anyone had any insight as to what I could potentially answer?

I'm a PA to the MD and CEO..

What comes to mind for me is potentially a situation of having more work than is possible / not enough time to do something in the "normal" way and how do you focus on what is important vs nice to have

I suppose an urgent task with a short deadline could mean you had to compromise standards because getting it done was so important. Stupid question if you ask me though!

If they meant ethical standards or something else I would not know what to say! You can always ask them what do they mean as they might have a particular competency / skill area in mind

The answer of short deadline is a good one. If you are working on a tender document with a 12 noon tomorrow deadline, and were only given the task now, then you would not be able to complete it to your usual high standards. The best tender in the world won't be considered after a deadline. However, a "good enough" tender means that you have at least got a crack at being awarded.

The answer would need to be no as I delegated my work load or prioritise the work. We use the STAR approach
S / T. situation / task - give example
A action - what you done
R result - no work was comprised

Good luck