Interview Smarts

Have you ever been asked the question: "Give an example of a time when you had to work with someone who was difficult to deal with; Why were they difficult and how did you handle it?"

Flipping through the magazine Jobpostings, I found an article on Interview Smarts (page 8 of Nov/Dec issue), where David Meister (Campus Recruitment @ Suncor Energy) gave some pointers on how to answer the above question.

Usually when this question is asked, it always changed the mood and candidates struggle to find examples. The reasion interviewers ask this question is not to identify how easgoing you are, but to understand how you manage through challenging situations.

Tips to preparing for this question:
1) To prepare for the question, think of a time when you had to deal with a problematic individual.
2)Practice descibing the situation; why you considered this person "difficult", and what the goal was in your interaction.
3)Then descibe teh action you took to resolve the issue or to reach and finally prepare to discuss teh result of your action.

The article continues to give an example of how this interview question could be answered. You can find this article and many others in the JobPosting Magazine. Get your copy at the Academic Adving and Career Centre at AC213!