Describe a Time You Had to Make a Difficult Decision

Situation:

• When I became a lead, I had a team of 5 engineers including myself.
• We were almost always busy.
• One of my teammates was not performing up to par. That person was lagging behind and made many mistakes that usually lead to bigger problems.

Problem:

• This became a problem because someone else had to verify this person’s work all the time.
• It’s as if two people were working on the same problem.
• This causing others to get frustrated because they had to clean up or refactor code.
• This was unnecessary work.

Solution:

• I talked to this person several times and made this person keep a notebook with the notes he had learned daily.
• I designed a project where this person had to work on without anyone’s help.
• Since this person had worked on this before, this person should know how to solve it. This is similar to a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).
• I wanted to give this person enough time to prove themself.

Impact:

• At the end of the day, the person still did not meet my teams standard.
• My manager and I made the decision to let him go.
• We were able to hire someone better shortly after.

Lesson:

• The lesson learned here is a difficult but important one.
• At the end of the day, we are supporting a business, charity can only get you this far.
• I can put all the effort I want to keep this person, but at the end of the day it’s up to this person to show up.
• It’s easier to cut our losses sooner and move on, rather than drag on.