hi everyone my name's Richard McMunn and
in this video presentation I'm going to
give you a brilliant answer to the
interview question when have you handled
a difficult situation so please make
sure you take notes watch the video from
beginning to end and then watch it again
and take notes on a sample response I'm
gonna give you it's a really good
response okay just a little quick
background about myself yet warm welcome
to this presentation my name is Richard
McMunn I spent four years in the Royal
Navy then 17 years as a firefighter
during that time I spent a lot of my
working career in the recruitment
department creating interview questions
and interviewing people like you for
jobs I then left the fire service and I
founded the career advice website how to
become calm and I'm very passionate
about helping people get the job of
their dreams I'm I'm an interview coach
and a career guidance expert so I really
do hope that this presentation helps you
so let's get into it when have you
handled a difficult situation it's a
real common interview question that
comes up a lot but it's not that easy to
answer now let me give you some tips
first of all before I come on to the
actual sample response now the top of
the situation you have to deal with the
better okay so it needs to be a tough a
tough situation you don't want to be
saying okay the tough situation was that
I actor you know study for an exam or
something that's not particularly tough
try to include any of the following in
your answer try and include like a time
constraint when you were under pressure
you didn't have much time to achieve the
task and try and also include someone
else's emotions and that could be like
anger they could be sad or there could
be some kind of conflict okay because it
just puts you in a better light and it
demonstrates that you have more skills
qualities and attributes to deal with a
situation and also try and include your
ability to adapt and be flexible so
there might be something in the
situation that changed and then you had
to adapt and be flexible these kind of
things will get you and higher marks you
don't have to include all of the
in there but just try and include at
least one of them in your response now
when you're structuring your response
and this is really important my advice
is to use what's called the star
technique so you start off and you
explain the situation what was the
situation who was involved and why was
the situation difficult and again I'll
give you a sample response in a second
then you move on and explain what the
task was what was the task or what had
to be done what was your end goal so
what did you want to achieve during
handling this difficult situation then
what action did you take so what action
did you take to achieve the end goal
this needs to be something that you did
and then finally what was the result
following your actions what was the end
result and obviously the end result
always needs to be positive okay
following your actions because it puts
you in it in a positive light so let's
have a look now at my sample response to
this to this question interview question
when have you handled a difficult
situation okay yes I can approximately
three weeks ago a whilst at work I
overheard a particularly disturbing
conversation between two work colleagues
one of the work colleagues was being
verbally abusive to the other person
there had already been rumors in the
office that the two of them did not get
on particularly well and now it had come
to a head in the canteen during a work
break although the situation was none of
my business I was extremely concerned
with some of the abusive comments one of
my colleagues was making and I felt this
was not acceptable as it appeared to be
bullying in nature any form of bullying
in the workplace is not acceptable and I
was determined to intervene my end goal
was to seek a resolution to the
situation and in order to achieve this I
would need to speak to them both in
private to seek a way forward first of
all I spoke to the person who was on the
receiving end of the verbal abuse I
spoke to her in private and calmly told
her that I was aware of the comments the
other work colleague had been making she
informed me that she was having issues
with him as he had been making unwanted
comments towards her about her
performance at work and that she felt
uncomfortable in his company after
gathering the information from her
I decided to speak to the man who had
been making these comments I spoke to
him in private and calmly explained that
I had overheard his comments in the
canteen area and that I was not happy
with what I had heard he reacted angrily
to me and told me that it was none of my
business and that I should keep my nose
out of it I remained calm spoke in a
soft but assertive manner and told him
that his comments were in fact bullying
in nature which were against our
company's policy I went on to inform him
that these comments were not just
unwelcome by the person they were aimed
at but they were also unwelcome by me -
as soon as I mentioned this to him his
attitude changed he told me he was
finding work stressful and that he felt
his work colleague was not pulling your
weight after listening to his concern I
concerns I explained to him that there
was perhaps a better way of resolving
this issue and that he should seek to
build a better relationship with his
work colleague and even offered to help
her improve her quality of work as
opposed to making abusive and
threatening comments he agreed with my
suggestion and apologized to me for his
behavior I thanked him for being
reasonable and suggested he should also
apologize to his work colleague and get
together with her to find a way forward
I also offered at this stage to mediate
the meeting between them to which she
agreed after the mediation meeting both
work colleagues agreed to work together
in a more harmonious manner and the man
promised never to bully or intimidate
his work colleague again instead he
offered to support her and help her to
improve I felt that by intervening in
this situation I was able to prevent it
from deteriorating further and
ultimately turned a negative situation
into a positive one so that responds to
the interview question one of you
handled a difficult situation is both
comprehensive but it's also specific
what I mean by that I am Telling the
interview panel of the situation I've
dealt we have a difficult situation I've
handled it well and I turn it into a
positive situation I also use the
structuring technique of star situation
to ask action result as you will see so
you can watch this video again don't
give a generic response to this
interview question what I mean is if you
say to them well
I would do this in this particular
situation that won't get you very many
marks you have to give a specific
situation that you've been in so try and
think of one that you've been in like I
say it could be something that's based
around a time constraint or this one
where there's an emotion in bold or
something somebody's doing something
wrong and you see that I dealt with this
in a calm manner okay guys
like I said at the beginning I'm very
passionate about helping people pass
interviews so to get more interview help
for your dream job please click the link
below the video and it will take you
through to my website I would very very
much appreciate it if you also gave this
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also say hi in the comments box below
and if you'd like me to create a video
on any particular kind of interview
question then do let me know and I'll
add it to my list thank you very much
for watching guys and I wish you all our
very best in your pursuit to passing
your interview