I’m particularly proud of the mentoring program I started about five years ago. I noticed that new employees were having trouble getting acclimated to the company, causing a very high turnover rate during the first year of employment. I developed a program that allowed us to assign each new employee to an employee who had been with the company for at least three years. This allowed new hires to make a smoother transition. Now, 90 percent of new employees are still with us after their one-year anniversaries, up from 50 percent before we started the mentorship program. The interviewee provides a specific example in response to this question. She also highlights the fact that she took initiative in developing it — she saw a problem and found a solution. Notice that she uses actual numbers to illustrate the result of her efforts.
Never Say: “I was promoted to assistant director of human resources.” While it is important to share this information, this interviewee doesn’t indicate what led to that promotion.