Preparing for the Stressful Situational Interview

In a situational interview, the job of the interviewer is to present you with scenarios and examples in order to ask you how you would handle the situation if it happened on the job. These can be a challenging because you really will need to think fast to come up with a great response. These questions may related to the work history on your resume or totally hypothetical.

If at all possible, try to make a reference to a situation that you have dealt with. Telling an employer what you did will have more impact than telling an employer what you think you would do.

Examples of situational interview questions may include:

• Can you give an example of a situation when your communication skills impacted the outcome of an event in a positive way?
• You have been assigned a project and the deadline is coming fast but you fear that you will not finish in time. What do you do?
• How have you handled a disagreement with a coworker in the past? What was the situation and how was it resolved?
• What would you do in the following situation: You are leading a meeting that requires you to poll a group of your peers, and the vote is tied. What would you do as the team leader?
• Whenever your boss is not around, you have a co-worker who skips out early and asks you to cover for her. What would you do?
• From your previous work or school experience, tell me about a project that you had to complete from start to finish and what strategies you used to see it through to completion.
• How do you resolve conflict with your boss?

There is no way to know example what interview questions will be asked of you. Employers want you to be able to come up with answers off the top of your head and not to give them too many canned answers that you have rehearsed for days.

However, it is a pretty safe assumption that the following general areas will be covered:

• leadership skills
• organizational skills
• time management skills
• inter-personal skills
• communication
• conflict resolution

In addtion, in technical environments, you should also be prepared to give very specific answers to questions about your knowledge and expertise.

In order to prepare for these types of questions in a situational interview, think about your past. Any situations in your work experience or your personal life that can showcase your skills will be helpful. Remember, most questions relate to the broad areas of communication, interpersonal and decision-making skills. If you can prepare yourself with a solid example in each, you will be confident and ready for most scenarios.

Many job seekers find that the situational interview is the hardest. However, it also may be a great opportunity to shine and stick out from the crowd. A confident answer may reassure your interviewer that you can handle anything the new job will require.