The dreaded “tell me about a time” interview question is also known as the behavioural interview question. What the interviewer is doing here is using your past experiences as an indication of your future endeavours and possible successes. By proving with your answer that you have achieved something in the past the interviewer may think that you can achieve similar for their company in the future.
You need to be really specific with your answers here and although preparing answers in advance is a good idea, you should not fabricate a story as this leaves you open to being caught out. One specific example for each “tell me about a time” question should suffice. Go into detail with your answers (they should probably last 1-2 minutes) but at the same time do not stray from the question being asked. Make sure your answer proves to the interviewer that you would be a valuable asset to their company.
The answer should be split into three sections – the situation, the action and the result. The situation should present you with an obstacle or challenge you need to overcome. The action should detail what you did to deal with the challenge and in the result section you should talk about how your actions provided a positive outcome from the situation.
Some of the most common “Tell me about a time” interview questions are:
- Tell me about a time you were under pressure to meet a deadline
- Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a co-worker or manager and how you resolved it
- Tell me about a time you had a great success in your career
- Tell me about a time you failed in your career and how you dealt with it
- Tell me about a time you found yourself in a stressful situation and how you resolved it
- Tell me about a time you had to set a goal and what you did to achieve it
- Tell me about a time you went above and beyond your job description to achieve something
- Tell me about a time you had a huge workload and how you coped with it
- Tell me about a time you had to handle an irate customer/client
- Tell me about a time you had to delegate work to others
- Tell me about a time where you showed initiative
- Tell me about a time where you had to adapt to a new situation quickly
You should prepare answers for a number of the above questions at a minimum (choose the ones that are most relevant for the position you are applying for). If you have real-life answers prepared in advance there should be no problem in answering these situational Interview Questions when they come up.
This post first appeared on Three Q Recruitment: Working As A Renal Nurse, please read the originial post: here
