hi there everybody my name is Richard
McMunn from the interview training
company past my interview comm and in
this video tutorial I'm gonna teach you
how to pass a situational interview and
in particular we're going to focus on
situational interview questions that are
likely to come up during your interview
more importantly I'm gonna give you a
number of high scoring answers that you
can't find anywhere else
so please do stick around because I can
assure you this training tutorials gonna
make a big difference to your interview
preparation now as always before I get
into those a very warm welcome to this
tutorial that's me there in the center
my name is Richard McMunn I've been
helping people to pass their interviews
for 20 years now and I always focus on
giving you unique and top-scoring
answers that you can't find anywhere
else so please do make sure you take
notes and watch the tutorial from
beginning to end also please do make
sure you subscribe and that way you're
not gonna miss out on any of the daily
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appreciate it if you gave the video a
like that always motivates me to do more
to help you to pass your interviews
thank you very much indeed
also if you tell me the name of your
interview in the comment section below
this video then I will come on here and
I will give you a number of situational
interview questions that I believe will
come up during your particular interview
so make sure you do that and I'll come
on 8 each day as well so what are
situational interview questions well
basically in a nutshell situational
interview questions are a set of
interview questions designed to assess
your skills your qualities and your
experience that is applicable to the job
you are being interviewed for so for
example if you were being interviewed
for a job that requires an ability to
provide exceptional customer service
then they would ask a situational
interview question to assess your skills
in that area and that question might be
describe a time when you went out of
your way to help a customer or describe
a time when you delivered exceptional
customer service so these are examples
of situational interview questions and
they usually start with describer time
tell me about a time when or also
explain a situation that you were in and
is that example describe a time when you
delivered Excel
customer service so whenever they say to
describe a time or explain something
that's your prompt that you need to
answer a situational interview question
another example is explain a situation
you were in when you went above and
beyond what was required when have you
gone above and beyond what is required
at work and the important thing is you
would need to give a specific answer to
that question what you don't do and this
is my first really important tip is not
to say well if I was in this situation
this is what I would do don't do that
you need to say I've been in this
situation before and this is what I did
to resolve it or this is the actions
that I took and I'm going to give you a
brilliant format to follow when
responding to situational interview
questions right now so what is the best
way to answer situational interview
questions well some of you will have
heard of this some of you won't but by
the end of it you will all be experts in
using the star technique now whenever
you get asked a situational interview
question always think first of all of
the star technique so star is explain
the situation you were in then tell the
interview panel the task that you needed
to do then tell them and this is the
important bit the action that you took
and go into detail don't provide basic
brief details go into specific detail
step-by-step details of the actions that
you took and then finally tell the
interview panel the results reveal the
results what happened following your
actions and this is another tip the
second important tip is to always make
sure the result is positive following
your actions so you would start off
let's say it was the interview question
describe a time when you provided
excellent customer service you would say
the situation I was in was I needed to
provide excellent customer service to a
customer who came in they wanted to make
a make a complaint and then you move on
to the task my task was that I needed to
to listen to their complaint and then
come up with an action plan for
resolving it and then you give them the
actions you went into I listen to them
in detail took notes reassured them as I
went along and then finally you would
move on to the results and say that the
customer was extremely satisfied so
that's a brief overview of the star
technique what I want to do is to put it
in greater context now in greater detail
and give you a number of sample
situational interview questions and
responses to utilize that star technique
that I've just described so let me show
you an answer to a situational interview
question using star so tell me about a
situation when you delivered excellent
customer service that's tackle at one
right now now you're gonna see this
interview answer and it's it's in-depth
but this is very high-scoring for this
question here we go I can remember
helping an elderly customer one day on
the telephone choose the right product
for their grandson's birthday now we
were a website that sold online gifts
for people and we always insured we
delivered exceptional customer service
now this particular gentleman was having
difficulty viewing our online catalog
but I was determined to help him out as
much as possible I saw it is my duty to
take my time that make his experience as
pain-free as possible due to the
customers lack of customer experience at
sorry of computer experience I needed to
be patient whilst helping him choose the
right product whilst on the phone I
suggested that I send him a printed
catalogue in the post just to make it
easier for him to read and choose a gift
at his own leisure he agreed this was a
great idea so I printed off the online
catalog and sent a copy in the post I
told him to call me back when he was
ready to place an order and I finished
off by giving him my name and my direct
line telephone number now a couple of
days later he called me back with his
product reference number and then spent
time taking his payment details and I
reassured him that his payment was safe
and secure I then dispatched the order
and a customer thanked me for going
above and beyond what was required to
help him choose and dispatch the right
product for his grandson so you'll see
that's an in-depth result response it's
a very detailed response and that's
important some people will tell you just
to give brief outlines but give a
detailed response and that shows that
you know how to provide excellent
customer service and as I say I've put
it there on the screen for you with
situation task action result now you can
obviously either take notes and as I
progress or if you want to download this
interview question and that sample
answer and another 19 do stick around
and I'll tell you where you can download
the full set as we progress through the
tutorial let's now take a look at
another sample situational interview
question and response here we go explain
a situation you were in when you put one
of your strengths to good use so this is
a common interview question some time
they will say what's your greatest
strength but in this particular
situation 'l interview question they
want you to explain a specific situation
you were in where you actually put one
of your strengths to good use and is my
high-scoring
answer using a star technique one of my
core strengths is my ability to organize
things in the workplace so they function
better for everyone now one day I asked
my supervisor if I could come up with a
new system in the office for dealing
with customer complaints just to make it
more efficient for everyone as and when
complaints came through my supervisor
agreed now it was my job to create a
standard complaints procedure that was
simplified easy to follow and also that
meant each complaint was dealt with to
the satisfaction of the customer I
started out by creating a step by step
document they each member of staff could
follow whilst dealing with a complaint I
then created a checklist documents or
the person dealing with the actual
complaint could ensure they were
following the new system accurately now
the end result was my supervisor was
very pleased with the new system and she
actually implemented it across the team
moving forward all staff had the
confidence to deal with complaints and
as such the customer service experience
greatly improved as a result so that's a
great answer to the question explain a
situation you were in where you put one
of your strengths to good use so you can
see now by using situation task action
result it provides in-depth answers to
all these questions and you cannot fail
to score high you will score I with
these answers let's take a look at
another one describe a time when you
went above and beyond what was required
now this is a very common interview
question I'll just repeat that describer
time when you went above and beyond what
was required because most employers or
hiring managers want to take on people
who will go the extra mile they will do
a bit extra so this is a great response
to that question it was about 4:45 p.m.
on a Friday afternoon and the company
website had just come down for some
unknown reason my manager understandably
was very concerned about the fact that
we could potentially lose significant
sums of custom over the weekend I along
with one other member of staff
volunteered to stay behind late that
evening to help solve the problem now it
was our task to look into the cause of
the website going down so we could get
it back up and running as soon as
possible
all three of us agreed to undertake
from tasks to save time my job was to
source a suitable IT expert from the
website freelancer.com whilst my work
colleague a manager looked into
potential local IT companies who may be
able to assist us now after 20 minutes
of search and I managed to find a highly
rated web developer who agreed to look
into the issue for us once I'd assigned
him to the job it actually took him just
less than an hour to find the solution
basically one of the website software
packages have not been ungraded which
was causing the website to fail and once
the software package was upgraded the
website came back live quickly much to
the relief of all of us the end result
was that by volunteering to go above and
beyond what was required we collectively
managed to solve the situation quickly
and the company could generate sales
over the busy weekend period as normal
so that shows that you will go above and
beyond most people would not volunteer
to stay behind they wouldn't if you use
that kind of example that kind of
scenario then you are demonstrating that
you are putting the organization first
which is what every interviewer wants to
hear now I'm going to give you another
couple of situations situational
interview questions and answers so
please do stick around but if you'd like
to download my full set of twenty great
answers to tough situational interview
questions there's a link that's appeared
right there in the top right hand corner
of that screen if you click that it will
take you through to my website where you
can download the full set let's have a
look at another situational interview
question when have you been in a
situation where you have to work under
pressure now this can sometimes be posed
I would describe a time when you worked
with others under pressure to achieve a
difficult task and again this is a real
common interview question here's my
suggested answer I was working in a
store on busy Monday morning and
normally there would be two of us
working the checkouts however my work
colleague had called in sick at the last
minute so I was required to deal with
all of the customers on my own it was my
duty to remain calm maintain a positive
and friendly attitude and work as
quickly as possible to get each customer
through the checkouts
efficiently and diligently I suggested
to my manager if it was possible to call
around the other members of staff just
to see if anyone would be willing to
come in and help out now while she made
the calls I apologized to all customers
who were in the lengthy queue for the
delay and they didn't I would work as
fast as I could
now despite some customers getting
understandably annoyed and frustrated I
remain calm and positive and I focused
on my work now the end result was after
90 minutes have been on my own another
member of staff agreed to come in and
help out during that 90-minute period I
handled the pressure well I focused on
the task in hand and I provided
exceptional customer service at all
times so that shows that you can deal
with pressure and more importantly you
will remain calm and focus on your work
whilst providing brilliant levels of
customer service and that's the way to
answer that question using situation
task action result there's a look at
another one
tell me about a time when you worked as
part of a team to complete a challenging
task again team working questions are
common place during interviews and
here's how to answer it using the star
technique I was working as part of a
small team in an office and we were
tasked with looking at ways to improve
the marketing strategy for a client who
had a great looking website but there
was not yet generating any sales it was
a task of the team to analyze the
website look for different ways to
generate more traffic to the site and
ultimately more sales through strong
conversions we started off by creating a
plan of action and it was my job as part
of the team to source different
marketing opportunities that would suit
the website I managed to quickly come up
with six different options which are
including blogs Google advertising and
also YouTube efforts other members of
the team also came up with suggestions
for improvement which we then presented
to the clients in a comprehensive report
the client then utilized all of our
suggestions and three months down the
line their website was converting well
thanks to the combined efforts of the
team so that shows that you can work
with other people to solve difficult and
challenging problems and again you know
I can't reiterate enough how by using
situation task action result it makes
you you can't you cannot fail to provide
brilliant answers in depth answers you
will provide in depth answers if you use
that structure the star technique so
please I'll encourage you to use it with
all your responses and you will stand
out from all the other interviewees I
promise you so if you want to download
the full set to save your time open to
create your own click the link right
there on the top right hand corner or go
to my website pass my interview calm and
you can have those in your hands
literally within two minutes from now
and they will make a big difference to
your preparation I hope you've enjoyed
that don't forget to subscribe and if
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and I love creating these videos for you
and thank you very very much for
watching and I wish you all the best for
passing your interview have a brilliant
day