GEICO Interview Prep
What do you do outside of work?
When I'm not working, I'm a nationally ranked fencer, and a freelance photographer. During my study abroad to South Korea, I ranked 1st place in the capital of the country and placed in 3rd in the nation. Here I'm a member of the USFA and I compete in national tournaments for olympic level ratings. I'm also an avid photographer, and I've worked freelance for concerts when their tours stop in this area . Most of the acts are from Korea and I've had to work and shoot under a deadline with a foreign time zone and have had to primarily communicate in Korean.
How are your past experiences going to help with this new position?
generalist, adaptability to change, being a people person throughout
What's a strength?
resolve
Tell me about yourself
- graduated from umbc - picked major because intrigued by tech things - idk about being programmer but middle ground - the more progressed through courses, language - appreciated functions - huge demonstrations, built an app that leverages tools - ended up doing research made me intrigued - i'm really glad i got a call back and we're here to talk about it absolutely i just graduated from UMBC! i have an undergrad degree in info systems i actually picked that major because i was always intrigued by technical things i wasn't necessarily sure if I wanted to be a programmer but i thought this was a nice middle ground. the more i progressed through my courses i went through a couple database courses, application development, and systems design. and it really did speak my language it was logical and i appreciated the different opportunities i got to actually learn how things works. it's always interesting to peel that curtain back and see how modern industries function at the end of the day. as part of the umbc is major there were a lot of group projects with huge demonstrations and we actually built this application leverages the more modern tools, some of it still being dated due to the coursework but i'm here today because i ended up doing some research looking for potential opportunities and seeing this job posting and hearing what i've heard about the organization made me really intrigued. i'm really glad i got a call back and that we're here to talk about it
Why GEICO?
- serving people for over 80 years, and grown to be one of the nations largest insurance companies. - the current chairman started as an entry level clerk. As an insurance company there's the overarching theme to the commitment to the greater good, and I relate very strongly to this companies mission statement. Representing people in their time of need
What was your favorite class and why?
- systems analysis and design - assigned to group to partner with a local business - we chose a small appliance repair and focused on the user interface on the employees end - they previously communicated jobs to each other using a group chat - we were able to draft a system for them to use on their mobile device to drop and pick up shifts clearly so all employees could see - it was challenging at first, gathering all the requirements, going through the motions of the sdlc, creating use scenarios. This class took the most time because we had to travel off campus as a group to meet with the appliance repair. - at the end of the day, I realized it was the class that aligned with me career goals the most, the most like what i wanted to do - work with people to help people, and gain that satisfaction someone solve a problem. I've taken many classes at UMBC, but I found that my favorite was Systems Analysis and Design. It's a course that on day 1 we were assigned to groups and partner with a local business to revamp a system for efficiency. We chose a small appliance repair and it took a lot of time outside of class to interview the employees to gather their thoughts on what we could make better, creating a better employee request system. We were able to present a streamlined system that helped the user interface storing. At the end of the day it was a class most like what I wanted to do. Work with people to help people and gain that satisfaction that comes with helping someone solve a problem
Tell me a lesson you've learned through your life that still holds true today
- the importance of hard work. Coming from an immigrant family, my family has had to work hard for their entire lives and that was the environment I was raised in. My parents run a food truck and I've had to help them serve and prepare through most of my childhood. In my young adult life I've balanced many part-time jobs, my academics, as well as my passions in photography and fencing. It's evident that GEICO shares this philosophy as well, as I was looking into the company, I discovered that with the founders being an husband and wife team that worked for over 12 hours a day in order to launch. GEICO is one of the fastest auto-insurers in the nation. In this time period in particular where most people are obsessed with the instantaneous result, I still see merit in meticulous hard work. By now it's a way of life for me. I've had to do it my entire life and I plan on continuing to do so in whatever company I end up
What's one of your weaknesses?
- what used to be a weakness of mine - measured pace because fastidious in what I do - butttt at my internship in the deep end - well equipped - i discovered that with any problem. i think that what used to be a weakness of mine is that it would take me a long time to get up to speed on things, i think i take a very measured pace and approach because i like to be very fastidious in what i do but when i was in my internship last year, they just threw us in the deep end we had to start delivering right away and at first it was very challenging but then i realized this is something i'm really well-equipped for. i deal very well in high stress situations and that with any problem it's breaking it down into components at a time. how do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time
