Behavioral Questions

Story Time

How do you manage multiple priorities?

In my role as a Marketing Associate, managing competing priorities was pretty common.

One example was when I was simultaneously working on a customer presentation for a Quarterly Business Review, a sales flyer for a new service offering, and several other marketing requests with overlapping deadlines.

The requests didn't come in the same order that I completed them. I prioritized based on business impact, deadlines, and the level of coordination each project required.

The Quarterly Business Review presentation became my top priority because it was tied to a client-facing meeting and required review from three stakeholders: the sales team, my manager, and our Vice President of Marketing and Pricing. The sales flyer was next because it supported an upcoming business development effort, while the other requests had slightly more flexibility, such as LinkedIn posts.

To stay on track, I broke each project into milestones and worked backward from the review deadlines rather than the final due date.

As a result, the presentation was completed ahead of schedule, leadership had time to review it, and all of the other deliverables were completed on time as well.

That experience reinforced the importance of prioritizing based on business needs rather than simply tackling tasks in the order they arrive.

How do you handle feedback?

I try to separate personal preference from the goal of the piece. I would focus on being responsive, organized, and accurate. Brokers are likely moving quickly and need materials that help them communicate clearly with clients, so I would make sure I understand the request, confirm key details, follow brand standards, and deliver materials on time.  If I receive feedback from multiple that is conflicting, I clarify the priority, like deadline, or the intended audience. I’m comfortable making revisions, and I see feedback as part of getting the final material to where it needs to be.

One example that comes to mind was when I was creating a sales flyer for a new service offering.

After the first round of feedback, the salesperson wanted to highlight the delivery location on the map with a neon green star. I understood what she was trying to accomplish — she wanted the location to stand out quickly for clients — but the color choice didn’t align with our brand standards.

Instead of simply saying no, I focused on the purpose behind her feedback. I created three map variations that still emphasized the delivery location, but used colors and design choices that were more aligned with our brand. That way, she still had ownership in choosing the version she felt worked best, while I could make sure the final piece stayed polished and consistent.

As a result, we finalized the flyer within three days, and she was able to use it in her client meeting the following week. That experience showed me that feedback doesn’t always have to be taken literally — sometimes it’s about understanding the goal behind the request and finding a solution that meets both the stakeholder’s needs and the brand standard.

Your manager wants a report in an hour. How do you readjust your schedule to make sure you don't fall behind in your regular tasks?

I actually encountered a situation very similar to that in my previous role. Each month, I was responsible for scheduling and helping prepare a presentation for our global marketing meeting, where leadership reviewed what our department had accomplished and what was planned next.

On one occasion, I was already working on several ongoing projects when my VP needed support pulling together updates for the presentation on a tight timeline. The first thing I did was understand the purpose, deadline, and urgency of the request. Because the presentation was for senior leadership and needed to be completed quickly, I recognized that it had become the highest priority.

Next, I reviewed my existing workload and identified which tasks could be temporarily paused without affecting deadlines. If a project involved other team members or upcoming deliverables, I communicated those adjustments early so expectations remained clear.

Once priorities were reset, I focused on gathering updates, formatting the presentation, and coordinating revisions with my VP. The presentation was completed on time and successfully delivered to leadership. Afterward, I returned to my regular projects and was still able to meet my deadlines because I had reprioritized early rather than trying to work on everything at once.

That experience reinforced the importance of evaluating priorities based on business impact and deadlines, not simply the order in which requests come in.

Tell me about a time you presented your marketing ideas to senior managers or clients.

One example that comes to mind was shortly after the Dodgers won the 2025 World Series.

At KWE, most of our content focused on logistics and supply chain topics, but I saw an opportunity to connect our brand to a moment that many people were already paying attention to. There was a lot of excitement around the team, especially because of the attention surrounding Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers' international fan base, and I felt it was a timely opportunity to join a broader conversation in a way that was still relevant to our business.

I came up with the concept of comparing air freight to baseball using the message, "In baseball, every play counts. The same goes for our Air Freight solutions." My goal was to make our services feel more relatable while keeping the message tied to the business.

Before creating the final design, I presented the idea to my manager and explained why I thought it would work. I shared how it connected a timely cultural moment with our brand, reinforced our value proposition, and could increase engagement because it aligned with something people were already thinking and talking about.

My manager liked the concept, approved the direction, and I developed the final creative. The post was published on LinkedIn and became a good example of how we could connect our marketing to real-world moments while staying true to the brand.

I learned that leaders are much more receptive to new ideas when they understand how those ideas support the brand, engage the audience, and contribute to larger marketing goals.

Tell me about a time you made a mistake

One example that comes to mind was when I was updating content on our website and accidentally removed a promotional video from one of our regional pages.

I discovered the issue during a review and immediately investigated what had happened. Rather than waiting for someone else to fix it, I worked through the website management system, identified a backup version of the page, and successfully restored the missing content. I was able to identify and restore the content the same day once I investigated the issue. After that, I worked with the team to verify that everything was displaying correctly across the site.

Afterward, I reviewed the update process and became more deliberate about checking changes before publishing them. I also gained a better understanding of the platform's backup and recovery features.

The experience reinforced the importance of verifying updates before they go live, but it also taught me how to stay calm, take ownership, and focus on finding a solution when something doesn't go as planned.

Tell me about a mistake you made and how you handled it.

Early in my role, I was focused on making sure presentation content was accurate, but I underestimated how much visual consistency matters in a client-facing deliverable.

We submitted a large presentation for review, and our Vice President noticed that the headers weren't consistently aligned from slide to slide. The content itself was correct, but the presentation didn't look as polished as it should have.

After receiving that feedback, I went through the entire deck, corrected the inconsistencies, and started paying much closer attention to formatting details during my review process. I eventually became the person on our team who would do final quality checks on presentations before they were submitted.

The experience taught me that details that seem small can have a big impact on how professional and credible a presentation feels to the audience.