Difficult Interview Questions: Are You Ready?

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Rehearsing answers to difficult interview questions. Do you think that's an activity that's beneath you? Maybe you're a senior level professional with outstanding communication skills. No need to practice. Right?

Think again! You would be shocked at how poorly some senior level people do in interview situations. Great interviewing skills are learned. Being prepared means that you won't be thrown by difficult interview questions designed by a nasty interviewer as a "gottcha" moment. To land a job, you need to interview well. It's not just about your skill set. Your technical qualifications will get you in the door. But, if you don't interview well, you won't make it to Round 2. Practice will help. Just do it!!

DESCRIBE A TIME WHEN YOU HAD TO GET ALONG WITH A DIFFICULT CO-WORKER. WHY WAS THIS PERSON DIFFICULT AND HOW DID YOU ADAPT YOUR STYLE TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL WORKING RELATIONSHIP?

We've all had the unfortunate experience of dealing with difficult people. You don't want to go overboard in your answer to this question, airing dirty laundry about every nuance of your co-worker's behavior. Take the high road here and describe a situation where a co-worker's behavior impacted a project (e.g. indifference to project deadlines) or behavior that was disruptive to your team in some way.

Essentially you want to pick a situation that occurred and give a three sentence synopsis of the problem, and then address what you did to successfully overcome the problem. This story doesn't need to end with you becoming best friends with your co-worker. But we will be looking for evidence that you confronted the situation, employed effective strategies to change the problematic behavior, with an outcome that resulted in peaceful co-existence.

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH CONFLICT?

Do you meet conflict head on? Or, do you sit back and observe the dynamics before your react? Are you reactive or proactive in resolving conflict? Maybe you ignore conflict, hoping it will resolve itself without your involvement? In answering this difficult interview question, you can respond on two levels -- first, how you personally deal with conflict; and secondly, how you might coach someone who's reporting into you that's embroiled in a conflict.

This is another question without a right and wrong answer, provided you have a process that works for you. In general, it's best not to ignore a conflict; typically we look for people who have a knack for resolving conflict within the organization. Listening plays a key role; understanding respective positions plays a part; finding out what the underlying issues really are is important. If you're a natural mediator of disputes, this is a great question for you!

PROVIDE AN EXAMPLE OF A TIME WHEN YOU TRIED TO REACH A GOAL BUT FAILED.

Any questions that ask about failure are difficult interview questions to answer, and are potential mine fields. Failure is not something that we like to talk about in an interview. Pick a business related goal with relatively low stakes attached. You might talk about an account you lost -- and what you would do differently or what you learned from the experience. Maybe you had an objective to open up a new market, but existing business got in the way. Avoid talking about total disasters. And most importantly, focus on what you took away from the experience.