Give an example of a specific situation

“When I was a _____ at ______, here’s what I was faced with” 

Objective – what was supposed to be accomplished

What did I do, take to future

Positive results

Project work example

Revamped chemical classification and labeling system of entire product line to comply with GHS

initiative

-  Given strict due date, in which all MSDS’s and chemical labels had to be accurately re -classified in

order to oppose strict international fines for safety and compliance

-  Proactively read the required official regulatory guidebooks to understand the structure and

function of the program

-  Re-classified all of the company’s products according to specific algorithms referenced in

guidebooks

-  Met regularly with plant EHS team and held conference calls with international regulatory

consultants (EU, China, Australia) for supplemental guidance on specific issues and constraints

-  Heavy data analysis, research, strictly following guidelines

Result: All products were re-classified correctly to reflect the GHS classification rules, and the new

MSDS and label generating system was successfully implemented Australia; cost savings of ~ $100,000

(cost to outsource work)

Project in which worked and solved a particular problem

Problem: When working at a refinery with Valero, the DCS (control system) which gives refinery workers

logged data of process stream conditions (temperature, pressure, flow rate) seemed to be gathering a

large amount of outlier values. These values were crucial to accurately model the system process at

hand.

Solution: I asked my fellow interns to help self-audit these output meters at specific random times

where the outliers seemed to have occurred in order to gauge which readings were inaccurate using

sophisticated flow metering equipment as well as temperature and pressure gauges.

Outcome: It was found that two of the combination gauges which logged these conditions were quite

old and had corroded metal contactors where the readings were supposed to record. Since these

contactors were corroded, they at times gave spiked or nonsense values. Due to my thoroughness, I

solved an even bigger issue that could have resulted in more damaging impacts.

Teamwork/conflict resolution/leadership/interpersonal skills

Big moving day – company brought van instead of truck, one instead of three movers, the one mover

 just started, was stressed and overwhelmed because of the staffing mistake. Dad was making things

worse by not being helpful to movers, complaining, arguing. Girlfriend was paranoid, worried the whole

time about not being able to move everything within day. Was a rainy, windy day  – not the best for

moving. All from different backgrounds, different personality types, professions threw out our

 

backgrounds and helped strategically. I came in and took the reins by calming everyone down, easing

their minds with a strategy/plan.

Planning/organizing/prioritizing

-  Two exams in school, EE presentation (last minute) on smart meters (sensitive subject because of 

public pushback from customers/technical stuff) and normal work within three days

Irate customer

-  customer had been extremely irate over high electric bills ($2-3k) in which she had fallen behind,

low-income customer. Energy Advisor forwarded customer to me due to high usage. Spewing

vulgarities, crying, extremely upset. Did my best to calm her down while speaking to her in a calm

tone that it was absolutely okay. I made her feel good for taking the first step to solving this issue

and ensured her that we would help with some type of budget billing option. She was very happy to

see that an engineer took the time to listen to her personal concerns and worries. We then

proceeded to evaluating her energy usage and business as usual… 

Unsafe conditions, had to utilize safety precaution?

I was taking a pressure reading from a ball valve from a cooling water heat exchanger. Before

opening the valve fully, I slowly nudged the valve to check how high the pressure of the hot water was

inside. I realized that the valve was loosely staying on and seemed like it needed to be tightened or it

could potentially open up and cause injury of scalding hot water. Therefore, I got a maintenance

operator to tighten the valve so no future incidents would occur with the valve.

Don’t say “like” 

Don’t look frustrated  – look enthusiastic