PwC Employability E-learn Interview script - David

Podcast – Innovation:

Candidate: David

Listen option B:

Interviewer: Describe a time when you felt you'd shown creativity or innovation to solve a problem, it might be at home, maybe work, university or college

Oh yeah, we had this code system for my uni halls right, which had to be changed every now and again for security reasons but we weren’t always told what the new code was so there were times when we couldn’t get into the flat….was just like really annoying. I come up with a way that meant the code changed every month and everyone got an e-mail with the new code on. Thought it was pretty creative, solved a problem that got everyone’s back up in my halls….the staff had to do it manually and sometimes forgot and didn’t always let everyone know straight away what the new code was…. I had to go round my mates place to stay a few times because I didn’t always know what the new code was when it got changed it to get in, you know what I mean. (laughs).

They changed the code like whenever they remembered - so there were some times when they didn’t let us all know if you know what I mean! Some of the staff would do it regularly and remember to e-mail everyone but others were just rubbish and would change it and then forget to e-mail us all, or then they’d e-mail half of the students in the halls but not all of us….it was like seriously annoying….loads of people I knew got stuck outside until someone who knew it came along; and if that was 3 o-clock in the morning then it wasn’t funny! (laughs).

So I asked if I could look at the system and come up with a simple programme that meant the code changed at the start of each month and all the residents were sent an e-mail with the new code – it was dead easy really and we just kind of went from there.

Interviewer: and why was this creative or innovative?

Well you know, no one had done it before and er, yeah, basically…everyone just kept telling me it was a good idea. (Jokingly) Just wished I’d like come up with it before as it was a right pain until then!

Interviewer: What impact did your idea have?

Oh yeah, a massive one…..it stopped us from getting locked out of the block and that’s massive for us…..no more waiting in the cold, do you know what I mean (laughs). Obviously, we had to all agree to keep the codes a secret…didn’t want any random walking in but yeah, it worked really well….my flat mates loved the idea and could always check their e-mails if they forgot the code! Security didn’t have any problems either. I think they were relieved as we weren’t going to be calling them so much, do you know what I mean (laughs).