A common question that you may be asked to answer in a graduate interview is about a time when you encountered a problem or challenge. This question allows the interviewer to assess your aptitude, specifically, whether you have the necessary skills to excel at the role. This article will provide tips for answering this question effectively in order to impress recruiters as a grad.
Why do interviewers ask this question?
This question is asked by interviewers to determine whether you possess specific characteristics. These typically include problem-solving skills, conflict resolution skills, adaptability, creativity, and perseverance. This is especially important in high pressure work environments where challenges are frequent or industries where employees regularly interact with clients. Interviewers want to hire graduates that are resourceful, resilient, calm and efficient when managing and resolving challenges. It is important to go into a job interview with a prepared response to this question so that you can demonstrate the extent of your skills and suitability for the role. This will allow the interviewer to make an informed and reasoned decision on whether to offer you the position.
How to answer this question?
Before your interview, it is important to prepare and practice a response to this question. This question is often one of the most important questions that you can be asked in an interview. This is because recruiters want to employ graduates that are adept in dealing with challenges to ensure efficiency in the workplace. Here are the steps to follow when composing your response to this question.
Step 1: Brainstorm
This question revolves around an example of a problem or challenge. This means that you need to pick instances from your own experience to answer the question. Begin by brainstorming a list of problems or challenges that you have faced in your employment history. Try to come up with as many as you can. If you do not have much work experience and cannot think of a suitable example, then extend that search to other aspects of your life. This can include problems or challenges that you encountered while in a leadership position, doing volunteer work, participating in an extra-curricular activity, completing a project, or accomplishing a goal.
Step 2: Choose an example
After you have a couple of examples, cull the list to situations that are adjacent to something you might experience while working in the role that you are applying for. This will demonstrate the transferability of your skills and inform the interviewer of your suitability. Aim to pick an example that can provide you with the best answer to this question. This means a situation where, despite facing a particularly challenging problem, you were able to develop an effective solution that prevented the company from suffering any losses or streamlined a project timeline. This will demonstrate your problem solving capacity and your innovation. Another effective example is one where you were under a time constraint; this will show the interviewer your efficiency and your ability to remain calm in high stress situations.
Step 3: Use the STAR Method
Use the STAR Method to structure your response. This means to outline the situation, the task, your actions, and the result. This will allow you to provide a structured, clear, and informative response to the interviewer.
- Situation: First, describe the situation. This means any relevant background information that the interviewer needs to know to understand the context in which the problem or challenge occurred. This can include the company you were working for, your role, and the work you were completing at the time the problem emerged.
- Task: After you have established the context, describe exactly what the problem or challenge was. Make sure that you are clear so that the interviewer can understand the situation and recognise the skills you employed to resolve it.
- Action: Next, describe the actions you took to resolve the problem or challenge. Be sure to highlight your individual contributions to obtaining the solution even if it was an overall group effort.
- Result: Describe how your actions prevented a certain outcome. This will demonstrate the benefit that was acquired as a result of your input and problem solving ability.
Find out more about using the STAR Method by reading our informative article here.
What if the interviewer asks me a similar question?
The interviewer may not directly phrase the question as “Talk about a time where you encountered a problem or challenge”. This question can be phrased in various ways. Regardless, you should follow the same steps when answering it as the interviewer simply wants to know what conflict management and problem solving skills you possess.
Some ways this question might be asked include:
- Describe a challenge that you have faced and how did you overcome it?
- Describe a time where you were uncertain about a situation. How did you handle it?
- Describe a time where you had to overcome an issue?
- How have you overcome challenges in the workplace?
- How have you overcome problems while working in a team?
- How have you overcome problems that you had with your colleagues?
- How do you manage setbacks in the workplace?
- What strategies do you employ when dealing with problems in the workplace?
- What tools do you use for conflict resolution?
- Describe a time where you had to solve a problem independently?
Example Responses
✏️ Example 1:
I was working as the social media officer for my university’s business and economics society. We were hosting a series of seminars with leading professionals in the business and economics field in Australia. I was responsible for all advertising, including designing, scheduling and posting advertisements on all our social media platforms. However, on the day before the first seminar, there was a security issue with our social media account and we were locked out of our primary avenue of advertising. I immediately contacted the support team of the social media provider to get access back to our account. Then, as an interim solution, printed out all my scheduled posts into poster formats and distributed them across campus, including in the libraries, the business and economic buildings, and popular study places. I was eventually able to get a response and my account access was restored. Due to my problem solving, I was able to garner enough attention for our event and the first seminar had the highest number of attendants! I was able to prevent a low turnout and wasting the time of industry professionals that had volunteered to speak to interested students. |
✏️Example 2:
I was working part-time at an accountancy firm while studying full-time. In the lead up to the examination period, I was under a lot of stress. I was doing a lot of work for the firm while trying to study for my final exams. I was worried about how my stress and workload would impact the quality of my work for the firm. I communicated openly and honestly with my manager about my concerns and presented a plan to complete my work for a major account and delegating my remaining work for the next fortnight to a fellow employee who had volunteered to help me. My manager was impressed by my honesty and the alternatives that I had provided to ensure that the firm’s work was not negatively impacted. I was able to delegate my work and concentrate my time on my exams. Once my exams were over, I returned to my typical workload. My actions prevented a low standard of work from being completed as I managed to juggle all my responsibilities. |