[Prompt: Describe an innovative solution that you devised in response to a problem.]

Overcoming IT Roadblocks

Working as a sales engineer at Onlink Technologies, I quickly recognized that individual initiative was essential to the success of a growing company. Within my second month of employment, I found my resourcefulness tested in a crucial sales opportunity at Sony Corporation.

Sony wanted to create an online search engine to help customers find the Sony PC that best suited their requirements. We had successfully presented Onlink’s technology to Sony’s management team as a solution to their business requirements, but to close the deal, Onlink had to demonstrate integration with Sony’s existing Microsoft e-commerce application. Unfortunately, the Sony IT group denied our request to use their systems for the demonstration. Further compounding this difficulty, Microsoft viewed Onlink as a competitor and would not provide us with trial software.

With a deadline drawing near, it seemed inevitable that Onlink would lose the business due to the IT roadblock, but I continued to attack the problem even as others had given up hope. After poring through publicly available Microsoft documentation and consulting extensively with our engineering team, I devised a solution from approaches we had not before considered. By modifying key software components, I was able to connect our demonstration to Sony’s live e-commerce website and successfully place an order for a laptop computer. One day before our deadline, I presented the solution to Sony management and was rewarded with an enthusiastic endorsement of our solution. Sony was truly impressed with Onlink’s initiative and awarded us with our largest contract to date. This application is successfully running today on Sony’s website.

點評：

作者很明顯的一點就是堅持不懈以及創新的思維及勇氣。正如他所提到的，當遇到了普通人都會放棄的時候，在現有的資源已經無法調配的時候，作者想到的是如何去創造一種新的資源，通過對一些現有的東西進行改進，從而制造出一種新的“產物”。敢想敢做，這是美國的大學普遍提倡的一種理念，為何我們在遇到實際問題的時候很多人會徒步不前？除了不敢想，很多時候想到了還是不敢做，寧愿自己找借口做“阿Q”——自圓其說。更多的時候，成功的到來正像作者的行為方式，遇到問題，除了在正常思維去尋找解決辦法，還需要思考更有效的，或者更便捷的方法去完成目標。