1. Explain a situation where you have made an ethical decision. Discuss how you weighed up the values involved in that decision, the decision you made, and how you reflect on the decision now.

In my previous role as a designer, I faced an ethical decision involving work-life balance. Our regular working hours were Monday to Friday, but due to the time difference, our Canadian team’s Friday fell on our Saturday. One weekend, while spending time with my family, I received an urgent Slack message from a Canadian colleague needing help with a critical design issue for a client.
Despite being off the clock, I decided to assist. I worked for over an hour to resolve the issue, ensuring both the company and the client were satisfied. I carefully weighed the importance of my professional responsibility against my need for personal time. Reflecting now, I feel this decision was justified as it showed my commitment to the team and the client, while still maintaining a balance between work and personal life.

2. Describe how your culture and the people around you have influenced your values and identity.

Growing up Korean, I was deeply influenced by a culture that emphasizes hard work and constant self-improvement. My family and community instilled in me the value of always striving to enhance my skills and knowledge. Having lived in New Zealand for over 10 years, I’ve carried this mindset with me, actively seeking new skills and staying updated with industry trends. Although this approach can be challenging, it has consistently contributed to positive outcomes in both my personal and professional life.

3. Identify your strengths and how they will support you during your learning journey.

My strengths are empathy and resilience, which are valuable for collaboration and navigating a long-term learning journey. Although I might be dumb moments or feel stuck at times, I will eventually get over it quickly and effectively.

4. Evaluate your limitations in terms of your learning and career development. How might these affect your learning journey?

My limitations include English being my second language, which sometimes affects my pronunciation and vocabulary. However, having lived in New Zealand for over 10 years, I am open-minded and non-judgmental, so I will make an effort to communicate my thoughts clearly and actively. Additionally, my career background is primarily in design, so I will need to acquire many new technical skills to support my learning journey.

5. Share an example of when you were trying to work productively with others, but there was resistance or tension. Discuss strategies you tried at the time, how effective they were, and your reflections on what other strategies you would try now and why.

In my role as a UX designer, I often worked with cross-functional teams. Once, I shared some UI improvements for a product feature, but one of the engineers wasn’t on board. He preferred the current design and thought my changes weren’t the best choice. To address this, I set up a 1:1 meeting with him to better understand his viewpoint and explain the user pain points we were trying to solve. He was a fan of popup modals over long scrolling, but we couldn’t use multiple duplicated modals due to process constraints.
So, I used Hotjar to track how users interacted with our designs through heatmaps and recordings. I then tweaked the design by adding a bottom secondary navigation bar and incorporating horizontal scrolling. We did some A/B testing internally and with a few clients to see how the changes performed. It was a bit intense and involved a lot of meetings, but in the end, the result was much better than before.
Looking back, I think involving everyone earlier in the process might help avoid some of the tension and make collaboration smoother. It’s all about finding that balance and working together to create the best outcome!