Find the balance between emotion and professionalism

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The goal when answering this question is to come across as calm and professional, but also to sound genuine. Therefore, it’s best not to talk about something unless you have some distance from it.

Say you pick an example about a time when you got into an argument with your boss, and you’re still angry about how things turned out. If your frustration or annoyance shines through – particularly if you insult your boss – then you could really put off your interviewer.

On the other hand, you don’t want to sound like you swallowed a textbook about proper workplace behaviour. There are a lot of buzzwords you’ll be tempted to throw into your answer, like rational, objective, calm, de-escalate, diffuse, and mutually-agreeable solution.

None of these are bad. But if you spout a clearly pre-prepared answer peppered albania phone number list with these words, you’ll sound robotic. Interviewers want to get a sense of your character, so while it’s best to prepare, don’t feel you have to memorise a perfect answer word for word.


Focus on the resolution
When answering any competency question, especially if you’re unused to interviews, is to use the STAR approach. This refers to the Situation you’re talking about, the Task you faced, the Action you took, and the Results these actions had. While it’s really important to set out the situation and task clearly and concisely to give the interviewer context for your example, the majority of your answer should focus on your actions and the result.

Start by laying out the bones of the conflict: the people involved, the goal you were working towards, and how the problem arose. Then move swiftly on to how you got to the root of the problem and what you to did to resolve it.