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When was the last time you had to leave your comfort zone?

PrepLounge: Personal Fit
New answer on Feb 01, 2024
16 Answers
10.5 k Views
Anonymous A asked on Oct 06, 2019

How would you answer this question in your Personal Fit interview? Receive feedback on your answer and browse through the Q&As to review the approaches of other applicants and experts.

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Anonymous I replied on Feb 01, 2024

Going to graduate school and working on projects I was not familiar with was going out of my comfort zone.

 

 

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Luca
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 28, 2019
BCG |NASA | SDA Bocconi & Cattolica partner | GMAT expert 780/800 score | 200+ students coached

I would link this answer to an important past achievement / experience that you want to talk about. In this way you have also the opportuniy to emphasize how difficult it was to reach that result.

Best,
Luca

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Antonello
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Dec 26, 2019
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

Talk about one of the last CV achievements.

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Anonymous G replied on Jun 11, 2023

My professor called me the day before a 1-hour talk he was supposed to give in front of an audience that was not convinced by the product we produce and asked if I could take it over because he broke a leg (… with no slides prepared yet).
It ended up actually being quite fun.

 

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Anonymous H replied on Jul 20, 2023

I always want to learn new things so the last time I went out of my comfort zone was when a friend of mine invited me to try horseriding and took me to their big stable. I never had contact with horses before and the largest animals I ever touched are dogs, I only heard about accidents when horseriding which did not make the situation better so standing before these impressive and strong animals were frightening at first but I went for it and first got closer to the animal till I felt comfortable then I tried riding and it was great learning, fear confronting, adrenaline full yet rewarding experience.

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Love replied on Sep 13, 2022

Today!

It realized there was no other perfect time to do so.

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Anonymous F replied on Jul 17, 2022

When I left my mechanical engineering team and joined process engineering with no chemical background at all. It was the time when pandemic started and all remote work phenomena started.  New team, no face-to-face interaction, no mentoring at first days and the clients asking for solution right away. It was the most stressful moments I remember from recent.

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Kareem
Premium
Skilled
replied on May 26, 2022
MBB Prep

This morning. Going to the gym 

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Anonymous updated the answer on Apr 29, 2022

I leave my comfort zone every day. 

Today I had to present a product to the extended board of a huge international corporation. I was well prepared and managed well, they ordered. 

(edited)

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Anonymous E replied on Apr 06, 2022

To be honest, my comfort zone is getting smaller and smaller because I tend to deliberately put myself into situations that are uncomfortable. But to answer this question, I will start by saying I am terrified of speaking in public. 2yrs ago my supervisor needed a volunteer to lead a Team-Based-learning course for the 1st year master students. And guess who volunteered. Yes, me. I spent several hours preparing, and practicing my lecture but that did not make me any less terrified. On the day of teaching, I disclaimed that my “nervous telltale” which is to talk really fast, was actually pure excitement. It worked! Because the students though I was just excited, they became excited. At the end of the lecture, there were so many positive feedbacks, my supervisor asked me to do it again the following year. Was was still terrified though! 

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Skander on Jul 20, 2023

I would not recommend starting with "I am terrified of talking in public" as it is a skill they are screening for, as a consultant one would need to speak in public a lot! Also, I would not say that I needed hours to prepare, they are screening for efficient consultants and that won't come across positively. Regardless, if these expressions were mentioned, I would definitely catch it up at the end and say that "public speaking has become an adrenalin kick I seek for" for example, or that "it was so much fun that I got addicted to it" and also that you became efficient in preparing.

j novitasari replied on Jan 22, 2022

taking my MBA while working 

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Anonymous D replied on Jan 08, 2022

Predominantly, I challenge myself to go above and beyond in the areas that I want to accomplish something. I have not played basketball for a very long time after high school. Eventually, I found out that my company was a part of a corporate basketball league with games against other companies on a weekly basis. So, I hit the gym harder than ever and tried to improve my shooting skills. I am not the tallest or the strongest guy on the team so I had to find ways to add value to the team. Suddenly, my improved conditioning and shooting had positive impact on both my offensive and defensive skill-set. I was able to be a part of the roster for a very long time, where I even joined the starting five occasionally.  I try to spend a healthy amount of time in my comfort zone. Enough time to forget about the work, get some steam off, relax and reflect on my actions. Once I feel I had enough rest time, I go out again and look for further ways to improve myself.

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Anonymous C replied on Dec 01, 2021

When I changed house and left my housmate to go living alone

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Anonymous B replied on Oct 04, 2021

Going abroad for an exchange semester and study at a business school in new topics and projects with new challenges

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Antoine replied on Oct 07, 2020

see answer

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Clara
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Sep 30, 2020
McKinsey | Awarded professor at Master in Management @ IE | MBA at MIT |+180 students coached | Integrated FIT Guide aut

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34), adressing topics precisely as your question.

It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Furthermore, you can find 2 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation:

Intro and CV questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/introduction-and-cv-questions-fit-interview-preparation-200

Motivational questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/motivational-questions-fit-interview-preparation-201

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!

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