Application questions: Describe a situation where you achieved a challenging goal

Describe a situation where you achieved a challenging goal. How did you achieve this? What have you learnt from this?

David Schwartz, former head of graduate recruitment for Europe at Goldman Sachs and founder of D N Schwartz & Co advises:

Here what the interviewer wants to hear is a compelling story of achievement. It can be any type of achievement - academic, athletic, business, personal - but it should be something that you are proud of, something that differentiates you from the crowd, and something that can be used to draw life lessons.

The bank will be looking for the relative difficulty of the challenge you faced; the ability you demonstrated in marshalling resources to address the challenge; and finally, some evidence that you have thought deeply about the achievement and what it means to you.

Firms that emphasise group/team dynamics will want to see evidence that the achievement was something that required working together with a group of people to achieve a common goal. Firms that emphasise independence and entrepreneurial spirit will want to see how creative you were in addressing the challenge.

Indeed, the nature of the achievement, whether it was team or personal, may in some ways dictate the kind of firm that you will feel most comfortable with.