面试必备的词汇热身
thorny ['θɔːnɪ] adj.多刺的，棘手的
objective [əb'dʒektɪv] n.目标，目的 adj.客观的，不带偏见的
involve [ɪn'vɒlv] v.包含，含有；使卷入；使参与；牵涉
pacify ['pæsɪfaɪ] v.使镇静
resolve [rɪ'zɒlv] v.解决（答）；决定；分解 n.决心，决意
tackle ['tæk(ə)l] v.对付；交涉；阻截 n.阻截；钓具；辘轳
renegotiate [riːnɪ'gəʊʃɪeɪt] v.洽谈，协商；谈判；顺利通过，成功越过
credibility [kredɪ'bɪlɪtɪ] n.可信性；确实性
flawlessly ['flɔ:lisli] ad.完美无暇的
当被问及最近处理过的公司的棘手问题时你会说
1. I had to determine which budgets would be cut within my division to yield an overall 5 percent cost reduction. I tried to remain objective and keep the personalities of department head to commit to a 25 percent reduction through frugal travel expense planning, which was an enormous part of our sales division's costs. We accomplished most of the savings by combining trips and by securing two week advance airline reservations whenever possible.
我必须决定在我的部门里要取消哪项开支才可以使话费降低大概5%。我尽可能地保持客观。最后结果是通过减少每个科组领导的旅游开支，让他们负担所要减少的经费的25% ，这是我们销售分部的一大笔经费。在可能的时候减少出差，并通过买打折机票而实现大部分的节约。
2. My customer service position at the telephone company involved dealing occasionally with irate customers. When that happened, I'd try to talk in a clam, even voice, in order to get the person to respond in a businesslike manner and focus on trying resolve the situation. Most times I was able to rectify the problem and pacify the customer, but I remember one incident in particular in which the caller became verbally abusive. I tried to remain calm and professional and not to let my personal feelings enter into the situation. I didn't respond to the abuse, I just made a note of it and continued to help the customer as best I could. When the abuse persisted, however, I politely asked him to call back and ask for my manager, because at that point I knew I couldn't resolve the problem.
我在电话公司的顾客服务部时经常会接触到一些怒气冲冲的顾客。发生这种事情时，我尽可能心平气和地与顾客交流，目的是为了让顾客以公事公办的态度来处理事情，且重点是解决问题，大多数时候我能处理好问题，使顾客满意。不过我印象特别深是是一次顾客在电话里用脏话骂人，我尽力保持平静且不让我的个人的感受融入这种场景，我不理会哪些粗言秽语，我只是对峙作了一些记录，继续尽力的帮助他。可他仍是骂个不停，所以，我礼貌的叫他稍后再打电话过来找我们的经理。因为在那种情况下，我知道我是没有办法解决这个问题了。
A customer came in once and demanded money back for an evening dress that had apparently been worn. She claimed it was a different color after dry cleaning and that the cleaner said the fabric was faulty. I quickly told her we'd happily return her money, even though I didn't think she was being honest. I decided it was more important to keep other customers from hearing her and maybe doubting our high quality merchandise一次一个顾客要求退还那件她明显已穿过的晚装的钱。他抱怨说衣服干洗后变了另外一种颜色，而洗衣服的人告诉她是布料不好。虽然我认为她是不诚实的，但我马上就退还她的钱。我认为不让别的顾客听到她的话而怀疑我们的高质量产品更为重要。
3. Two weeks into a job, it was clear that our client expected us add more features as we went along. I renegotiated with the client, outlined his goals, and showed him a price structure similar to a menu, from which he could choose more features at a higher cost and in a longer time frame. He opted for something in the middle that he understood would cause a three week adjustment to the schedule.
一次工作已经进行两周了，可是在工作进行当中，很明显地顾客有要求我们多加几项特性。我重新和顾客商谈，记下他的目标和要求，给他一张像菜单一样的价格表，那上面他可以有更多的选择，但必须付更多的钱和等待更长的时间。他选择了一个她认为改变要做出3个星期相应调整的中间档次。
4. At one time, for all of our new product launches, our chief engineer would release a press statement about its virtues. But when I was given responsibility for a new launch, I decided to get three of our largest customers to videotape an endorsement or use in our marketing campaign. The result was a far higher level of credibility, and we exceeded our month sales quota. We now use personal endorsements routinely when we launch our products.
从前，在我们新产品投产时，都是我们总工程师发布一则关于新产品优良性能的评论。但是当我负责一项新产品的投产时，我决定让我们3个最大的客户录制一盘宣传我们新产品的录像带，用于我们的市场推销活动。这种做法大大提高了我们的信誉，而且销售量超过了六个月的销售定额。现在我们通常都采用这种方式来推出我们的新产品。
5. During my summer internship I was assigned the task of conducting a bench-marking study for all the communication expenditures for a major utility. I had to get the consensus of employees in several different departments. Unfortunately, they resented the fact that I was just a summer intern, and they refused to cooperate. I had to schedule individual meetings with every employee and persuade each one that what I was doing would be ultimately beneficial to his or her own department and to the company. After a frustrating month I finally got everyone's cooperation, the project went flawlessly, and in the end I received a bonus for my efforts. 在我做暑期实习生期间，我被派去对一主要公共设施的所有通讯费用基准进行调查研究。我必须取得属于几个不同部门的员工的一致意见。遗憾的是，因为我实习生，被拒绝合作。我不得不和每个员工单独会面，并说服他们，我现在所做的一切最终都是有益于他自己的部门及整个公司。经过一个月的努力，我终于说服了他们，计划得以圆满的实施，最后拿到了因努力而挣得的奖金。
6. One of my talents is to take complex issues or problems and break them down into the simplest parts. I'm also good at teaching other people. As a result, whenever I'm faced with a complex problem, other people tend to let me find a solution and instruct them on how to proceed. As a result, I've found that I'm an effective leader in this kind of situation. 我的一项才能是解决复杂的问题，并且使问题的难度降到最低，我也擅长教导别人。因此是不管什么时候遇上复杂难题，别人总是设法让我找出解决办法，然后教他们如何去继续。所以我发现在这种情况下，我是有影响力的领导人。但在高级行政管理部门，我不是一个特别有影响力的领导。我的爱好是处理、解决一些实际情况和数据。
7. One of our components kept arriving at distribution points with stress cracks. My materials science background helped me to diagnose the problem as one of storage temperature during shipping. Although our equipment was safely stored at both end points, it had been sitting in an air conditioned cargo space for up to thirty hours before reaching its destination. We're now using a different shipping company, and we've improved our labeling on large shipments to reflect the users warning about temperature extremes. 在运送部件到达目的地是总是出现裂痕。我用原料学方面的知识判断这与航运期间的存放温度有关，尽管我们的仪器都安全的存放在两端封闭的地方，但在到达目的地之前，仪器要放在无空调设备的船舱里30个小时。现在我们用另一家航空公司运送货物，我们用贴在货物上的标签显示极高或极低温度都是不允许的。
8. When I need to solve a problem, I generally start by writing down as many ideas as I can think of about possible causes. Next I look for relationships among causes so I can group together symptoms of bigger problems. Usually, after I study these groups of problems, the real cause becomes readily apparent. 当要处理问题的时候，我通常会尽可能把所想到问题的原因写下来。然后找出原因之间的关系，以此来归纳主要问题的共同特征。通常，研究完这些问题后，真正的原因就显而易见了。
9. I was promoted to manage a new department. A coworker in that group resented me from the beginning. I soon learned that her best friend had been turned down for the position. I actually confronted her about it; I explained that I had once put a friendship to the test because I'd worked too closely with someone and we found that we spent our leisure time talking about work. A few weeks after our talk, she admitted that she'd never thought about the potential results of working too closely with a personal friend. Our working relationship was fine after that. 我被提拔管理一个新的部门。那个部门有一位职员一开始就对我很反感。很快我知道了原因：她的好朋友刚刚从我现在做的职位离开。我当面跟她谈这件事；我解释说我也曾让友谊面临考验，因为我与一位朋友工作交往过于密切，我们俩甚至花业余时间谈工作。谈话过后几周，她承认她没有想过与私人朋友工作交往过密潜在的后果。从那以后，我们把工作关系处理的很恰当。
10.I had to start a policy of no food in work areas, including private offices, because the production workers were unhappy with the inequity. For safety reasons workers couldn't have food anywhere near expensive equipment. Now it's forgotten, but at the time a number of supervisors were angry at me. I thought the matter was important and that the solution was consistent with other new policies, like doing away with assigned parking spaces for high level employees. So far we've been progressive enough to keep unions out of our company. 我制定规章禁止携带食品进入工作区，包括私人办公室，为了安全起见，工人不能带食物靠近昂贵的精密仪器。现在这已经被遗忘了，但那段时期许多监管员对我生气。我认为这件事很重要而且解决办法也和其他新条例一样持续下去，如废除给高级职员分配车位的做法等。到目前为止，我们还能不断改进，市公司团结一致。
