Answers to pa qs

1. 1 - positive change that I have made
I used to work with an American Operations Manager who was not the most organized
person when it came to meeting documents. He always started his working day by
reviewing what the production units did the day before and telling them about the new
production plan. He would often let them wait for a while as he couldn't find the right
papers. I noticed that and started to put everything in the right place before going home.
Next day when he came in, he was surprised and kind of pleased with the convenience
and never let people wait in his morning meetings ever since.
2 -
As you know, my previous manager was American, so my job was very involved with
translating. There was a manager whose position was under my manager's. He was very
confident and self-reliant on his English. One day, he did expressed his anger by
frowning and abruptly gesturing with his hand to tell me stop translating. In fact, he could
not clearly understand what my manager said, and that was not good, so I came up with a
plan and told my boss about that. You know, mostly people nod their head or say Yes to
show that they understand what other people are talking about even though they do not,
and this happens a lot during a conversation between Vietnamese people and foreigners.
My manager agreed with my plan and asked him some questions to check if he
understood anything. It turned out that he didn't, that was when I jumped in to help him.
From then on, he happily let me translate for him.
3 - Dealing with people
When I was a student, I used to moonlight as a consultant at a language center. I started
my first real job as a teacher 4 years ago, and still have been ever since. Later on, I took
up the post of HR assistant. These jobs required me to work with various people on a
daily basis, and offered me lots of experience in people management. Patience and being
good at listening are important when it comes to dealing with people.
4 - Handling of Multiple Priorities
Everyday I had to do the translating work in more than 4 meetings. One day he put me on
a project which aimed to centralize many types of information about the performance,
production progress, problems and corrective actions, etc, and to help people navigate.
On that same day, I had some emails and meeting minutes that needed translating. The
first thing I did was to summarize all the pending tasks, then I asked my manager about
the deadline of each task. When I got all the deadlines, I did one thing at a time in order
of priority. As for the project, it could not be done anytime soon because it was huge and
I also had my daily routines to follow, so I did ask my colleagues for help once in a while
when they had free time. When I felt like a rest, I would rest to prevent myself from
being stressed out.
5 - About yourself

2. After graduation from the college in 2009, I was lucky enough to be recruited as an
assistant to the Vice President of International Affairs Department. I loved supporting
other people in getting a job done. Because of my good command of English, I was also
invited to join in with other ESL instructors to teach at Binh Duong University and with
the marketing team in the role as Leader. During my tenure at Binh Duong University, I
learned a lot about assistantship, marketing and training through different positions. Then,
I was discovered by my latest American operations manager and stood side by side with
him in the role as his assistant. He taught me a lot, not only how to be an excellent
executive assistant but also the company's business. To me, the most precious thing I got
from my job is his trust. And I hope to find that again here.
6 - Reason to leave your current job
.....
7 - Your strengths
Very organized. Detail-oriented. Able to deal with various situations.
8 - Your weaknesses
I used to be afraid of displeasing people, especially my friends and co-workers. There
was this worker who was my friend outside the company, he's older than me; he took
advantage of that and his position in order to have me do his work. Every time he asked
me to do something, he always had some excuses. Even though he had no power to
control me, I accepted to do work for him because I wanted to maintain the relationship;
and he kept asking me to help him. One day, I responded politely and with a smile to him:
I am on some tasks now, let me ask my boss if I can let them wait and help you with this.
He knew that he did the wrong thing as asking me to do his work, so he told me not to
bother my boss and did the work by himself.