what is your tolerance for ambiguity so you're sitting in an interview and you get
this curveball question your interviewer wants to know if you're comfortable with ambiguity
the question is vague easy to misinterpret and you're not sure exactly what your interviewer
wants to hear in this video i'm going to share two example answers to this tough interview question
one for senior leadership or management level positions another for junior or non-managerial
positions now in order to use the key elements of these answers in your own interview
you'll need to understand four things one what is ambiguity two why interviewers ask three what
the interviewer is looking for in your answer and four why the example answers i'll share are strong
so you can use the key elements and variations in your own interview i'm Amri Celeste a career
coach with over 10 years hiring experience and i regularly make videos on how to help you secure
the job you want including lots of tough interview questions and answers so if you're job hunting
like and subscribe it really helps out this channel so first what is ambiguity the quality
of being open to more than one interpretation but what about when you're asked this in an interview
in the context of your approach to work well it pretty much means the same what is your tolerance
level for unclear or vague situations people instructions etc so some ambiguity examples
are things like working with a particular character who tends to give vague instructions
being required to create a plan strategy or create things that don't have a solid outline
which means that you may not be given solid structures to work with on a regular basis
why do interviewers ask this question one important thing to bear in mind is that
if you're asked about dealing with ambiguity or your tolerance for ambiguity in an interview
it relates to the duties or skill sets required in some way so if your answer
shows that you're at odds with the skill you need such as the ability to tolerate ambiguity
it may affect your chances of getting an offer especially if this happens multiple times when
interviewers ask this they want you to show that you know how to deal with ambiguity and you're
able to take the reins in an ambiguous situation because it's a behavioral-based interview question
what you should not do don't say things like i don't like ambiguity i don't have a high tolerance
for ambiguity or even vague positive answers like i like ambiguity ambiguity is good these sound
obvious but when interview nerves kick in whether for junior or senior roles it happens i've heard
these types of answers so the first thing to do is to pause before you start speaking and really
think about what you're about to say and ask for clarification if you need it how to answer you can
start your answer really simple and positive with something like my tolerance for ambiguity is high
then back it up with a strong example an easy way to make sure your answer covers all bases
is by using the star interview method if you don't know what this is it's a structure that is
commonly used by interviewers to assess candidates answers and it's also a great structure that you
can use to make sure that your answer covers all areas star stands for situation task action result
and these are the areas your answer needs to cover i'll show you how it works in the example
i'm about to give you and then afterwards we'll look at how it fits the star method
what the key elements are that you need to focus on and why it's a strong answer this
first answer is for any non-managerial or junior level position so the example is i was asked by
my manager to start sending a weekly report on complaints handling activity so they could include
the results when reporting to senior directors this was an ambiguous instruction as i wasn't
sure what areas or metrics my manager wanted me to include i wanted to use my initiative but i
also needed more information i sent an email to my manager with a few suggested metrics on complaints
such as volume of complaints per week how many were resolved and how many were still outstanding
at the end of the week and asked if this is what she would want to see on a weekly basis
she added a couple of suggestions but was happy with my recommendation overall i felt including
suggestions would demonstrate that i was able to take on an ambiguous task with a rough outline
she was pleased with my final version and i provided this on a weekly basis
so if we look at this answer in a little bit more detail i've listed here how it fits into
the start interview method so you can see the situation which was that you needed to start
sending weekly reports the task it was ambiguous in nature and you needed more information
the actions you took you sent an email to your manager and the result so she was happy with
the recommendation and you ended up providing the report on a weekly basis and some of the elements
that make this answer particularly strong is the initial action that you took so if your manager
were to ask you to start sending reports without clarifying details it's an ambiguous instruction
and instead of you batting it immediately back to your manager you've taken the initiative to start
listing out some of the metrics that you think would be suitable for the type of report that
she wants so you've shown how you dealt with an ambiguous instruction in a way that doesn't give
your manager more work you've taken on the bulk of the action and then you've simply asked her for
final approval so that's one of the things that makes this answer particularly strong so in your
answer any example that you can give that shows that you have taken on the bulk of an ambiguous
task and you've really enjoyed or relished working out the small detail will be a strong answer
now i do want to add that you can also ask for clarification so you can include in your answer
that you initially asked for clarification if it was essential to the next steps you needed to take
but an answer that shows that you took the reins with little information such as this one
is also very strong if you found that first answer helpful do click like as it really helps out this
video and you'll be pleased to know that i have 20 more answers for you to take away and use totally
free i've created a top 20 interview answers guide this guide is packed with answers for your
job interview including answers to tough interview questions like why should we give you the job what
is your greatest weakness and how do you handle pressure at work i've also included an important
bonus question and what you should be asking your interviewers at the end of your interview
it's free and you can get yours by clicking the link in the description below this video
so this next example answer is for senior positions such as leadership or management
now as someone in leadership positions you'll know that you will likely be expected
to deal with tasks or duties that include a certain amount of ambiguity on a regular basis
so you could start off by explaining this with something like i'm very comfortable dealing with
ambiguity it's pretty much part of my day-to-day and i've certainly developed a high tolerance
for ambiguity over the years and then you want to back it up with an answer that demonstrates that
you're comfortable managing ambiguity such as the following a good example of this is when i started
my previous role as head of hr i was tasked with updating our hr system my predecessor had moved on
from the company so the request was ambiguous as i had no further detail on what the main issues were
and we had a few thousand employees on the same system which included payroll functionalities
so i knew that not only was it key to select the right system the transition to the new
system also had to be seamless first i spoke to several heads of department and put together a
project team as i knew this project would likely take some time by speaking to the project team
and others in the organization i discovered that the current system was causing multiple problems
and delays with payments employee data and there were also multiple technical issues i asked a
member of finance to join the project team so i could understand current costs budget and savings
then i considered multiple alternative systems and invited companies in for pitches and presentations
in order to make a final decision ultimately i was able to gather all the information i needed
select a system that addressed the main issues and was very close to the budget we set out with
which solved many of the issues so now looking at the key elements of this answer you can still
see how it fits into the star interview method you were tasked with updating the hr system the
predecessor had moved on so the task was ambiguous as you didn't know what the main issues were and
there were lots of employees on the system you put together the project team which was the first
action you asked a member of finance to join the team so that you understood all the costs
and associated budgets and the result was that you were ultimately able to get the information
you needed and solve the issue now some of the elements here that make this answer particularly
strong is again the fact that you haven't batted this back to the person that has given you the
task as somebody in a senior or leadership level position you want to show that you can identify
the right people within the company and work to solve that issue and your first step was to
put together a project team so to identify all the people with the skills in key areas that
you needed and make sure that that team were able to help you in solving the issue and you can see
in the result here that you were able to find a solution that was close to the budget which would
definitely be a key win if you're starting out as a new leader or a new manager in a senior position
if any of these answers helped you i'd love to know please comment below and let me know
now that was the core of the answer you may be asked about key learnings
takeaways and what you might do differently next time but that answer covers the core points they
may also ask variations of this question such as can you give me an example of a time when
you dealt with ambiguity or how do you deal with ambiguity but essentially it's the same answer
you may just need to slightly rephrase to match the question if you're interviewing at the moment
it's important that you're aware of the number one reason that candidates get declined and that is
lack of preparation interview prep covers a wide range of areas from connecting with your
interviewers to company and job research so i also created an ultimate interview prep guide
this is a solid playbook of how to prepare for your interview in a way that leaves an impact
it has examples of top key skills that you can give the format you should use to practice your
interview what to research and where you should be looking and the questions you absolutely must
ask in your interview again it's absolutely free i'll leave a link to that in the description below
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notified when a new video is ready thanks so much for watching and i'll see you in the next video