How to Handle Difficult Interview Questions
You are in the middle of an important interview and are
confident that you are doing an excellent job of presenting your
skills and qualifications for the position. The interviewer asks
the next question - and it's a difficult one. You didn't see
this question coming and have no idea to answer it. Words catch
in your mouth. You start to sweat as your illustrious visions of
landing your dream job are rapidly spiraling away at a breakneck
speed. What do you do?
For starters, the best offense is a good defense. Preparing for
an interview in advance is the best way to ensure that you will
be at your peak performance when the time comes to answer the
question "Why should you get this job?". Compile a list of
interview questions, both general questions and those that are
job-specific, that you could potentially be asked. Then practice
answering all of the questions. It may be necessary to practice
some questions several times until you can clearly present a
solid answer. A good rule of thumb is to practice until you are
no longer uncomfortable with the question itself or your
resulting answer.
Tempting as it may be to dismiss more straightforward questions,
such as "Tell me about yourself", you should rehearse your
answer to every question. Oftentimes job applicants get so
caught up in preparing for the "tough" questions, that they
neglect the ones they perceive to be the "easier" ones. As a
result, they are ill-prepared to answer basic questions and
stumble in their answers.
It would be impossible to think of and practice every question
you could be asked, so you will inevitably run across some
questions during the interview process that you hadn't thought
of previously. When this happens, the first thing to do is take
a deep breath. Repeat the question to yourself, either in your
head or aloud to the interviewer, to ensure that you have heard
the question correctly. Then use your practice sessions to draw
correlations between this question and others you have
practiced. Is this new question a variation of one you have
answered before? Is it similar to any other question? If you can
draw a parallel to questions you are already comfortable with,
then the new question will not appear so daunting.
Another good tactic is to break the question into smaller
components so that you can take it bit by bit. This is
especially useful for multi-part questions. For example, imagine
you are asked: "Tell me about a time when you found yourself at
odds with a team member. What were the circumstances and how did
you handle the confrontation". The first thing to do is break
this into two parts: (1) provide an example of a team member
confrontation, and (2) how did the confrontation get resolved.
When answering this question, focus entirely on the first part
initially. Set the stage for the conflict that arose, giving the
interviewer all of the necessary details. Once this is done, you
can then move onto the next part, which is detailing how the
conflict was resolved. This is truly the "meat" of the question.
The interviewer is more interested in hearing about how you
handle conflict and stressful situations than the actual
specifics of the conflict itself. So don't skimp on the second
part - the resolution. This pattern is true of a majority of
multi-part questions: one section of the answer is merely the
opportunity to set the stage for the other, more pertinent
part(s) of the question.
If you are asked a question you don't know the answer to, it is
often better to admit that are unsure of the answer than to try
and buffalo your way though an answer. Most interviewers are
highly experienced at recognizing "BS" answers and can easily
pick up that you making stuff up. If this happens, they will
either call you on the table about your fake answer or write you
off a being a fraud - neither of these is going to help you land
a job. An appropriate response would be to admit that you do not
have an answer for the question, but that you would like to do
some research at the conclusion of the interview so that you
have this knowledge for future reference. Such an answer not
only shows integrity, but it also shows that you are not adverse
to expanding your learning and are willing to take the extra
effort necessary to keep your skills sharp.
A few other helpful hints for answering difficult questions:
It is okay to ask the interviewer to repeat the question if you
didn't hear it the first time or if it is a long multi-part
question.
It is also okay to ask the interviewer for clarification if the
question is unclear.
Never volunteer personal information that is not job-related.
Try to always turn negatives into positives. For example, when
asked about your weaknesses, demonstrate how this weakness can
also be an asset in other areas.
Relax! Interviewing is a learning process and you will get
stronger each time you interview for a potential position. So if
an interview goes bad, rather than dwell on it, identify where
things went wrong and work on correcting those areas so that you
can perform better in your next interview.