Describe your experience during a challenging time in your life. Explain how you grew personally, either despite this challenge or because of it.
Sample One
Moving from Acme to New Corp in 2007 was a particularly challenging time for me. While the move offered me on-the-ground experience with a technology startup, I was relinquishing my solid immigration status and heretofore smooth professional trajectory.
New Corp exemplified the bare-bones startup: the company was a year old, the business model was being refined, and funding was limited. Further, my ability to work for New Corp hinged upon the company’s continued willingness to sponsor my visa, an additional expense with substantive legal requirements—and thus high expectations regarding my productivity. This was reasonable, if precarious: in typical startup fashion, my ramp-up time was short, access to a search engine represented the training plan, and not getting fired constituted the performance evaluation system. The price would be high if my work was not up to par, or if the company folded: as a foreign worker, I would have no choice but to return to India.
The move to New Corp has paid off. I have learned that creativity and leadership can trump plentiful resources. On any given day, I mentor new staff members, oversee a $320,000 ad-campaign, and solve crises affecting our core web-service. My willingness to adapt to changing circumstances and to make decisions based on both instinct and deliberate planning strengthened in the process. Learning the ropes at a startup, has better positioned me to start my own company, post-MBA.
New Corp also allowed me to acculturate to American life. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge wasn’t adjusting to new accents, slang or food; it was leaving the familiarity of a stable, predominantly Indian company for a chaotic, entrepreneurial, and multicultural environment. My ability to connect with Americans outside the workplace— through softball games, volunteering and lively happy hours—eased this transition. As I set up an office and recruit a motley crew of my own to transform the online-travel business, these lessons will serve me well.
Sample Two
In 2004, when I was with XYZ Consulting, I volunteered for an engagement with ABC (DEF’s government services arm) in Kuwait. I wanted the opportunity to work on a high profile case and gain international experience. XYZ was retained to ensure that subcontracts for the support of regional military personnel had been awarded according to government procurement standards, and renegotiate with vendors or resubmit contracts for competitive bids as appropriate.
By all accounts, the environment was hostile. We were working in a conflict zone during an unpopular war, for a company known as a war profiteer. The client’s contract administrators regarded me with open contempt. They did not appreciate anyone reviewing their work, let alone someone much younger and less experienced, and actively sought to send me home crying. They assigned me to a room coined the “suicide suite”, gave me the worst assignments imaginable and called me “boy wonder” to my face.
However, I refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing me fail. I worked harder than anyone else. I treated everyone with respect and approached them with humility, soliciting their advice and listening intently. I made a concerted effort to get to know them and approached all my work with enthusiasm and dedication.
It took weeks, but they slowly began to recognize my value and rewarded my hard work with responsibilities that were usually reserved for more senior consultants. In those four months, I analyzed the market for third party national labor in Kuwait and southern Iraq to determine competitive rates, negotiated with local vendors to secure more favorable terms, and led meetings with Defense Department auditors.
While it was unquestionably a trying experience, it provided invaluable lessons in adapting to adverse conditions. I learned how to earn the respect of people with different backgrounds and form productive working relationships despite hostile conditions.
Sample Three
One of the most challenging times of my life occurred in my final months at the CIA. I had been working as the China account lead and was re-evaluating the job and how it aligned with my career plans. I did not see myself becoming a senior technical analyst, the next position on my current path. When the opportunity for a three-month rotation in Baghdad came up, I volunteered. I realized it would be an opportunity that I could not get anywhere else and wanted to experience analytical fieldwork. The only person who knew of my upcoming trip was my roommate, in case of an emergency. Getting to base was the most frightening part of the experience, but while there work consumed me with 16-hour workdays including the weekends. I became pretty down because I was away from my friends and family, the sounds of distant explosions did not allow for sound sleep, and I did not know where to take my career next. One day I got pulled into a classified process improvement project and got to see a side of the intelligence community that sparked my interest. I really enjoyed how the meetings were open to new ideas and challenged current policies in order to develop new strategies. When I returned to the States, I knew immediately I wanted a job that challenged me with new business practices and concepts. I also wanted to stay in the intelligence community where I could work on improving processes and implementing business solutions to improve the lives and jobs of those out in the field. Shortly thereafter, I interviewed with a few consulting firms and signed on with BearingPoint’s Intel Practice.