Answering the job interview question: “Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.”

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No company or role is without challenges. Regardless of what job you are doing, difficult problems, tasks, and situations will undoubtedly come up. Though these challenges can make work miserable, solving these same challenges can also be the reason for making work so rewarding. Challenges and how they are handled and solved is what sets rockstars apart. Answer this question effectively and you will impress any recruiter, so make sure you take time to follow the steps below to give a solid answer.

Variations of this question

“Tell me how you handled a difficult work situation.” · “Describe a difficult challenge, and how you handled it.” · “What have you done in the past when faced with a difficult problem on the job.” · “How have you solved a problem at work?”

What the hiring manager is looking for

The hiring manager wants to know how you handled a difficult situation so they can see how you respond to stress, communicate with others and solve problems. They want to be sure that when a problem arises, you will be up for the challenge.

What your goal should be

Your goal is to share a story where you can describe a challenging situation, a clear process you used to solve the situation, and a successful result. By sharing a process or framework that you use to address difficult work problems, it will reassure the hiring manager they can give you any assignment and you will be sure to figure it out!

Preparing for this question

Start by reading the job description and listing the responsibilities and expectations of the job. Then think of the many stories you have had to overcome challenges or difficult situations. Next, pick the story that aligns most to the responsibilities and expectations found in the job description. Make sure your story is a work experience and not a trivial example nor one that will scare the hiring manager away. Also, make sure that the story has a great ending where you were able to clearly overcome the challenge.

Once you have thought of the story, break it up into principles that you used to solve the challenge. This will be the framework you can share with the hiring manager.

Answer Structure

Your answer should be no longer than 3 minutes and should contain the following elements:

1. Start by stating the framework you used to solve your problem in one or two sentences. This should take 30 seconds.
   
   Example: “When I am faced with a challenge, the first thing I do is breathe and remind myself that the world is not going to end. Then I immediately come up with a plan and figure out the people who can help me execute the plan. I make sure to give them very clear instructions and explain the urgency of the situation to give them motivation. Then we perform the best we can and it usually works out.”
2. Then, tell the story using the S-T-A-R interview response method, by explaining the Situation, Task, Action and Result of your story. This step should take no longer than 2 minutes.
   
   Example:
   Situation- “Let me give you an example. After our biggest competitor acquired a tech startup that was working on new technology, our board of directors became concerned about our future revenues. ” (~15 seconds)
   Task- “The board asked me to put together a presentation on our product strategy to learn how we were going to combat our competitor’s plans. They gave me just three days.” (~15 seconds)
   Action- “Once I heard of their ask, I went to my office and started working on the plan of action. In order to get the presentation done in three days, I would need to research the acquired startup, figure out the direction we felt our competitor would be taking, explain why or why not that could impact us, and what we would do to address the situation. I brought in a product director, two analysts, and a tech director and told them about the situation. We worked together on getting the skeleton of the presentation down, made a list of all the things we still needed for the presentation and made assignments. As we worked on the project we collaborated on Slack and had daily check-ins. I’m happy to report we were able to get a pretty solid presentation together.” (~60–90 seconds)
   Result- “After I presented our data, the board was quite impressed. I had an answer for every question they asked me. They told me that my information made them feel much better about the situation and they were excited about the way we were going to address it. The best part is that a year later the situation we presented played out almost perfectly!” (~30 seconds)

Extra tips

• Whatever you do, make sure you don’t speak poorly of a former manager, colleague or company. If you say anything negative about others, the hiring manager may assume you are difficult to work with.
• If you don’t have enough work experience, share a challenge from school assignments, extra-curricular initiatives or side projects. Try to make them relevant to work challenges you might have in the role you are applying for.
• Check out our related articles: Answering the Job Interview Question: “Tell me about an accomplishment you are most proud of.” and Using the S-T-A-R Interview Response Method.

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