Hi there, my name is Richard, and I am here to help you pass your interview! And in this
tutorial, I will teach you exactly how to answer the challenging interview question:
How did you handle a difficult situation? Now, this interview question comes up frequently
during all types of job interview. So, make sure you take notes as I work through the
presentation. Now, to help you pass your interview and answer that particular interview question,
this is what I'm going to cover. I will tell you the 3 THINGS the interviewer wants to
hear in your answer to the question, how did you handle a difficult situation? I will explain
how you can STRUCTURE YOUR ANSWER to that question to get the highest scores possible.
And I will also give you 3 BRILLIANT EXAMPLE ANSWERS that you can use at your job interview.
Now, people say to me all of the time… “Richard, what is an example of a difficult situation
at work?” Well, here's a couple of examples to help you. It might be where you experienced
conflict between you and a co-worker and you were the one who took it upon yourself to
resolve the situation. Another example could be conflict between other team members, and
you got involved to resolve it for them. It might be problems with customer service that
you have to handle, or it could be difficulty in deciding on an idea for a team project.
So, those are a few examples of how you might handle a difficult situation. What does the
hiring manager or the interviewer want to hear in your response? Well, they want to
hear three things. First of all, they want to hear that you TOOK ACTION to resolve the
problem or the situation. Never say in your response to that interview question… “I
passed it on to my supervisor so he or she could deal with it.” You have to show that
you are capable of taking action. The second thing they want to hear is that you THOUGHT
LOGICALLY about the situation you were in. There was a thought process to your solution
to the problem. And then finally, they want to hear that you achieved a SUCCESSFUL OUTCOME
yourself. How do you structure your answer to the question, how did you handle a difficult
situation? My advice is to use the brilliant technique, which is called STAR. The STAR
technique is Situation. Task. Action. Result. So, you start off and you tell the interviewer
the situation you were in. You then move on with your answer and you explain what needed
to be done. You then go into detail about what you did, what action did you take, and
finally you finish off and you tell them the results. So, you explain the outcome of your
action and it should always be positive. |Let me now move on to those three example answers
to the tough interview question: How did you handle a difficult situation? Here's example
number one. “I was working as a customer service assistant and a customer entered the
store to pick up a product they had ordered the previous day online. When I went to the
storeroom to collect their order, somebody had mistakenly put the product back on sale
and it had been purchased by another customer! This was a very difficult situation to deal
with because the customer would be understandably annoyed, and I had to find a quick solution
to the problem. After quickly considering my options, I called another store a few miles
away to see if they had the product in store. Thankfully, they did! I then explained to
the customer what had happened. I apologized unreservedly and told them I would drive over
to the store myself to get the product for them. I asked the customer to come back in
an hours’ time, which they were happy to do so because they needed to do some more
shopping in the local vicinity. I quickly drove over to the store, picked up the replacement
product and brought it back for the customer. By being open and honest with the customer,
and by thinking on my feet I was able to come up with a successful resolution.” That is
a brilliant answer to the tough interview question: How did you handle a difficult situation?
And it shows that you are confident enough to take action and resolve it successfully.
And you can see there how by using situation, task, action and result, you can give a top-scoring
answer! Let's take a look at another example answer number two. And again, I will use a
STAR technique to show you how effective it really is. Here we go. “In my previous job,
I noticed two team members were not getting along. They were constantly arguing, and their
negativity was starting to have an impact on the team. Although I wasn’t their supervisor,
I was concerned for the team and so I decided to intervene. This was a difficult situation
because I had to use tact and diplomacy to raise my concerns. I was sat down next to
them in the canteen one day and they started with their arguing. I asked them both how
they felt their actions were impacting the team. I went on to explain that I felt they
needed to sort out their differences and reach a compromise. I then explained that the organization
had set values regarding team performance and both myself and our coworkers needed them
to work harmoniously together because they were valued members of the team. My actions
clearly had the desired effect because from that day on I did not hear either of them
arguing anymore.” That's another brilliant answer to that tough interview question: How
did you handle a difficult situation? And again, as you can see, by using Situation,
Task, Action and Result (STAR technique), we are able to give the interview a brilliant
top-scoring answer. Let's take a look at another one example. Answer number three. Here we
go again, using the STAR technique. “I was in a team meeting discussing the marketing
campaign for a new product we were launching. Everyone in the team had put forward brilliant
ideas that all could have worked. However, we only had a very limited budget to work
with and we had to choose just one of them. After careful consideration, I suggested that
we shortlisted two of the ideas by a team vote, and then divide the budget equally amongst
them both. If it became apparent that one of the ideas was working better than the other
one, we could stop the second idea and put all the money into the one that was working.
Everyone in the team agreed this was a great way to solve our problem and after shortlisting
two ideas, we went ahead with the product launch and one of the ideas proved to be a
massive success. I like the answer because it shows that you are able to work as part
of a team and you are the one suggesting a solution to your combined problem. And there
is again, a successful outcome. And by using the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action,
Result), you are achieving success for your team. There is free BRILLIANT answers there
to help you pass your interview. Now, if you'd like a copy of these slides and more brilliant
answers to tough behavioral interview questions, CLICK THAT LINK in the top right-hand corner
of the video. Go through to my website, PassMyInterview.com and you can download a whole host of brilliant
answers to tough behavioral interview questions! And you also get these slides, including the
answers as a free bonus. Thank you very much for watching. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to
the channel. Lots of you, I am pleased to say, are successfully passing your job interviews
after using these tutorials! If you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, you can do. My
LinkedIn.com link is in the description below the video, and it's always great to connect
with like-minded professionals such as yourself. And finally, I would very much appreciate
your support if you gave the video a LIKE. Thank you very much. Have a brilliant day.