Situational Interview Questions
Situational interview questions, more commonly known as
"hypothetical interview questions" are questions an interviewer uses to
find out how you would approach certain problems if they were to arise.
This type of questioning is designed to help the interviewer with
determining how you would handle a certain situation. Unlike behavioural interviews which you are required to provide examples of how you
handled a certain situation, situational questions ask you to envisage
and hypothesis how you would handle a particular situation if it were
to arise.Examples of Situational interview questions:
- If you found out an employee was stealing from the business how would you approach this employee?
- What would you do if your supervisor asked you to do something that you felt was unethical?
- Imagine you have a deadline and you are running out of time. What would you do?
- How would you handle an employee that is disrupting the work environment?
- In a position of management, how would you handle a heavy workload if you were short staffed?
- If your supervisor makes a decision you do not agree with how would you handle this?
- How would you react if a team member was not contributing towards a project?
- As a leader what would you do to build team spirit?
- What would you do if your supervisor asked you to do something that you felt was unethical?
- Imagine you have a deadline and you are running out of time. What would you do?
- How would you handle an employee that is disrupting the work environment?
- In a position of management, how would you handle a heavy workload if you were short staffed?
- If your supervisor makes a decision you do not agree with how would you handle this?
- How would you react if a team member was not contributing towards a project?
- As a leader what would you do to build team spirit?
Keys to answering situational interview questions:
Remember
that situational interview questions deal with hypothetical situations
and not necessarily past experiences - while a hypothetical question may
seem daunting to answer, the best way to prepare yourself is similar to
the steps involved a problem solving exercise.
Rule 1: Be
prepared and have a definite understanding of the role and the position
that you are applying for. By understanding the position, you can
already second guess the questions that an interviewer might ask. For
example, if you are applying for a managerial position, it is more than
likely that the situation questions will be about how you would handle
certain scenarios as a manager.
Example: "How would you react if a
team member was not contributing toward a project?" By researching the
type of organization and hierarchy you are in a better position to
answer this question.
Rule 2: During your research, make a list of
events that happened in your previous role or in your past that led to a
positive outcome. If you're a recent graduate or entry level, draw on
other areas such as volunteer work or memberships you belong to.
Rule
3: Develop a few short stories about specific examples where you solved
the problem and how you solved the problem. Most important is to have a
clear understanding of how you resolved the issues.
Rule 4: Apply these examples to the questions.
Sample Situational Interview questions and answers:
Question 1:
How would you react if a team member was not contributing towards a project?
Answer:
Unfortunately,
I have been in this situation before where one team member was not
contributing, and it caused a detrimental effect on the whole team. I
would handle this situation with honest communication at the very
beginning. What I have found is that the more you ignore the problem,
the worse it can get. Speaking with the team member in a
non-confrontational way is the best approach. Often the reason for a
team member not contributing is that they don't understand the work or
what is expected of them. By communicating with the individual, I am at
least able to find out what the cause of the problem and then be able to
work toward a solution.
TIP: As you can see from my answer I have
drawn upon my experience, listed the event that occurred and presented a
positive solution to the problem.
Question 2:
If you believed your supervisor was wrong how would you handle the situation?
Answer:
I would present my reasons to the supervisor and provide an alternate
solution. In my experiences I find that telling someone they are wrong
without providing facts or examples is the wrong way to go about it. I
would ensure that I was fully prepared and had analyzed the situation
before speaking to the supervisor. Most importantly, I would discuss my
reasons in private, in a one on one situation, not in front of other
team members.
Question 3:
How would you react if a project you had been working on suddenly changed or the deadline had been changed?
Answer:
My
first response would be to speak with the supervisors to get an
understanding why the project had been changed and ensure that I had all
the facts and answers before approaching the rest of the team. As soon
as I had the answers I would notify the team to let them know things had
changed. Once everyone was aware of the changes I would want to sit
down with the team to develop a new strategy to move forward with the
project.