PowerToFly's Career Coach, Heather is a wife, mother, career coach, and recruiter consultant who has worked for 23 years helping individuals generate positive work-life experiences. Once an on-the-move military spouse, she's had the unique opportunity to work with diverse populations across multiple fields including education, computer science, IT, healthcare and tech start-ups. She obtained her masters degree in counseling from NYU and this education combined with living and working in CT, NY, NJ, PA, TX, UT, SC and abroad shaped her into becoming an expert at transitioning careers successfully. Now, she helps others with optimal career development and job matching. Her goal is to help more individuals land their best-fit job so that people and companies can improve their lives and the world around them. View Coaching Sessions
Know How To Answer These Sample Situational Interview Questions?
As a Career Coach, I hear many of my clients express apprehension when it comes to scenario or situational interview questions. Not to worry! Being able to verbalize your process, strategy and problem solving skills simply takes some practice.
While behavioral interview questions ask you to recall a past experience and explain how you handled it, situational interview questions present you with hypothetical scenarios you might encounter on the job and ask you to explain what you would do in that situation.
Here are some examples to practice and tips to help you.
Situation #1: Last-Minute Mistake
You're in charge of coordinating your team's sales demo at an event scheduled at a company office overseas. As event coordinator, you have crossed all t's and dotted all i's and everything is in place. Four hours before the event, you are told there is a typo in the brochure that is getting handed out to all participants. How do you proceed in this situation?
How to Answer:
What is this question looking to identify? How you work under pressure. So, first and foremost, state that you would remain calm and listen carefully to the problem. Then, explain how you would take action: say that you would identify who could fix the typo, as well as who could help with the reprinting of the brochures before the event. You'd delegate the tasks to them to maintain your focus on the larger details of the event, but would of course check in with them along the way to make sure everything was completed on time. Mention that afterwards (so as not to lose time on the day of the event), you would have a conversation with the employee who should have caught the typo. Bonus: Say you'd be sure to give a special thank you to the members who came to the rescue!
Themes to Include in Your Answer:
- Strong Communication Skills
- Ability to Delegate Effectively & Efficiently
- Decision Making & Problem Solving Abilities
- Relationship Building Strengths
Situation #2: Collaboration with Coworkers
You are a member of a team collaborating on a work project. One member of the team is not carrying his/her weight and it is being noticed by everyone but the team manager hasn't addressed it. How might you proceed in this situation?
How to Answer:
Explain how you would professionally approach your team member and/or team manager and justify your choice for talking with one vs. the other.
For example, if you choose to speak directly with your coworker, you might say:
"I would leverage my relationship with my coworker to see if we could address the problem head on, without escalating it to the team manager. I would check in with them to see how they are feeling about the project and ask if they need support. I would then do my best to offer them the support they needed to succeed. If I thought it was too much for me to handle alone, or the problem didn't improve after our conversation, I would escalate the situation to my manager."
Themes to Include in Your Answer:
- Strong Communication Skills
- Strategies on How You Help Motivate and Support Coworkers
- Team Collaboration and Mentoring / Continual Growth Mindset
- Your Ability to be Assertive (and do something / speak up) when Needed
Situation #3: Unexpected Assignment
Your day is well planned with a long "to do" list that will be challenging to get through. First thing when you arrive to work, your boss calls you into the office and asks you to do her a favor: to find a vendor and have 54 t-shirts made for a charity 5k that she registered the team for last minute. Tell us how you would respond.
How to Answer:
Here, you need to show that you work well under pressure and can plan and prioritize well. You might try saying:
"I would listen to my boss, and assure her that I would be happy to help. If I had any urgent items on my to-do list that might be delayed due to this new task, I would flag them for her so she could weigh in on what I should prioritize, and re-assign any of my tasks if necessary. Once I had addressed any other urgent assignments, I would formulate a game plan on the spot with my boss, given the time-sensitive nature of the assignment. I would ask for any known requirements for the shirts (color, logo, style preferences, budget, sizes, design or vendor contacts) and then get to work calling vendors to determine cost and turnaround time. I would then follow any necessary approval processes before purchasing the shirts from a vendor that was within the timeframe and budget, and would keep my boss updated on their delivery date. I would stay in touch with the vendor to ensure the shirts arrived on time."
Themes to Include in Your Answer:
- Strong Communication Skills
- Detail-Oriented Execution
- Planning and Time Management
- Proper Prioritization
The Takeaway:
You will notice that in each example above, STRONG COMMUNICATION SKILLS are key! There's not necessarily one right answer, but you do need to 1) listen carefully to the question/scenario, 2) understand why they've chosen that situation (and what it is they are looking for in your answer) and 3) demonstrate that you have the expertise and awareness to handle the situation effectively.
Job Interview Coaching & Preparation
Tips from Our Career Coach
So, you scored a job interview. Congrats!
However, it doesn't mean diddly-squat if you're not prepared. To be honest, you should have already done most of the preparation before you even applied for the job (otherwise how do you know if it's a good company or a job worth applying for?) Either way, be SURE you do your prep.
Here's how to prepare for a job interview:
1) Research the Company
Is the company mission in line with your goals? Does their purpose ring true for you? Are their values similar to yours? Is the company size a good fit for you? What about the work climate; does their company culture jive with your personality? Before your interview, be able to verbalize what their company is all about. This research will allow you to speak intelligently about their company and help both sides make a better decision.
2) Be 100% Clear on What the Position Is
Have they listed (in detail) your daily duties? If not, use the interview to gain clarity by asking specific questions about the role. Prepare and make note of these questions beforehand so that you don't forget to ask them during your interview. If the company is vague about the position and trying to "sell" it to you seemingly in a hurry, run away. It means they are either not ready to hire you (unsure of the position themselves and just plain unorganized) OR they know it is a limited (perhaps crappy) role but they have to fill it and don't really care how.
3) Understand Your Value
And be able to put this into words. This takes time and practice. Do the work! Think about and even write down your strengths, your talents, your areas of expertise, and your unique skills. Be clear on how you can add value to their mission by using these talents that you possess. Come up with examples of HOW you have already added value to projects in your current or prior roles. Be ready to share these examples during the interview.
4) Be Honest About Your Strengths & Weaknesses
Yes, you want to be very honest and specific about your strengths and not afraid to boast about them (matter of factly) in an interview. Now is not the time to be all bashful and insecure. If you are very skilled at something, just tell them! But you do NOT want to tell (even white) lies here to make yourself seem really good at something you are not. Everyone has things they are amazing at and things they are not — it's those who understand what their capabilities are and where their talents "fit" that have the best luck with jobs. Self-awareness is the key to any superb job match.
5) Think of 1 Story You Want to Tell
At the end of the day, stories are what people remember. Lots of interview questions start with, "Tell me about a time..." but it can be hard to think of good anecdotes under the wire. You should always have one great story about a time you excelled at work top-of-mind so that if the chance to share it arises, you're ready. Making an emotional connection with your interviewer by sharing a story with a beginning, middle, and end will stick with them much longer than a dry/vague description of a time you overcame a problem.
When To Consider Interview Coaching
You can follow each of these steps on your own, but if you're nervous that your prep work won't shine through in the interview itself, you might want to consider interview coaching. A typical interview coaching session will help you put your prep work into practice in a mock interview, which is followed by a debrief with feedback from your coach. There are two situations in which I think interview coaching can be particularly beneficial for applicants:
1) You're Pivoting Careers
As a career coach, I've found that interview coaching sessions are extremely valuable for clients because they offer tailored feedback. For example, you may be a superstar interviewing for roles as a software engineer, but now you're applying for a product management and nervous your skills won't transfer... during an interview coaching session, you can tackle that anxiety head on. Career coaches, myself included, will prep questions specific to the role and company you're applying for (and we often have inside knowledge on the questions most commonly asked in each industry), so you can be sure that you're ready for the role at hand.
2) You're getting lots of job interviews, but not many job offers
For anyone who doubts their soft skills, or is having a hard time locking down an offer after an interview, interview coaching can be the key to turning your job hunt around. In a real interview situation, we're all nervous... which means that it's not the best time to pick up on the visual or verbal cues your interviewer is almost certainly giving you about the quality of your responses. Alternatively, during a mock interview with a career coach, you can get real-time and specific feedback. And your coach will do the heavy lifting, noting when you could approve, on what, and how. Everything from when to make more eye contact to how to structure your responses to situational interview questions.
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The DIY Approach
If you can't afford an interview coaching session, you can always join one of my free online sessions here... or you can get creative and do some interview coaching on your own.
Work through the 5 steps above, and then research a list of questions for the role you're applying for (you can compile a mixture of common interview questions, and role-specific questions that you find on sites like Glassdoor). Ask a friend to spend an hour working through the list with you and request their feedback on your answers.
You can also practice in front of the mirror or even film yourself so you can play it back and self-assess. Whatever you do, there's no substitute for practicing out-loud before an interview! Writing and memorizing a short speech is one thing, but crafting a compelling verbal answer is another... and the best way to get better is practice.
