{"id":42145,"date":"2015-05-26T11:23:27","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T16:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=42145"},"modified":"2015-05-26T11:20:44","modified_gmt":"2015-05-26T16:20:44","slug":"conflict-in-the-job-interview-how-to-approach-the-tricky-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=42145","title":{"rendered":"Conflict in the Job Interview: How to Approach the Tricky Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by Ruth Lincoln, former Senior Assistant,\u00a0<a title=\"INALJ DC (Washington, DC)\" href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?page_id=56468\" target=\"_blank\">INALJ Washington, DC\u00a0<\/a><br \/>\npreviously published 10\/4\/13 &amp; 8\/29\/14<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Conflict in the Job Interview: How to Approach the Tricky Questions<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ruth.lincoln.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-58800\" src=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ruth.lincoln-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"ruth.lincoln\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>A job interview isn\u2019t complete without a little conflict. That is, questions about how you handle conflict.<\/p>\n<p>A great employee knows how to stay calm when plans go awry, attitudes clash, and tempers fly. Even the sunniest workplaces can pack a thunderous punch. <b>An interview committee wants to know how you\u2019ll handle the inevitable conflict.<\/b> We\u2019re all familiar with the \u201cWhat\u2019s your biggest weakness?\u201d question, but it\u2019s important to consider other ways we handle stress.<\/p>\n<p>Below I\u2019ve gathered some questions from my own experience and the tremendous interview questions <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/spreadsheet\/ccc?key=0AuYsyqpmSJUHdFJOS0toVC1tTmNwTXVBM0xMdW5UR3c&amp;usp=sharing#gid=0\" target=\"_blank\">Google Spreadsheet<\/a> maintained by the blog <a href=\"http:\/\/hiringlibrarians.com\/2013\/03\/11\/new-survey-interview-questions-database\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hiring Librarians<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When considering your answers, <b>focus less on the problem, and highlight the solution instead. <\/b>Putting a positive spin on a negative question is a great technique to focus on your conflict\/resolution skills.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tell us about time you put your foot in your mouth. What happened and how did you deal with it?<\/li>\n<li>Think of a time someone criticized you in a meeting. How did you respond?<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s your biggest pet peeve?<\/li>\n<li>How can you tell when you are under stress? What do you then do about it?<\/li>\n<li>What makes you angry?<\/li>\n<li>Describe a time you had to deal with a difficult patron and how you handled that situation.<\/li>\n<li>Tell me about a time you made a mistake and how you fixed it.<\/li>\n<li>Name a time when you did something wrong on the job and your supervisor had to talk to you.<\/li>\n<li>Name a time when a subordinate had a problem with you and how did you deal with it.<\/li>\n<li>How do you deal with difficult people?<span style=\"letter-spacing: 0.05em; line-height: 1.6875;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now it\u2019s your turn. What questions have you been asked to demonstrate how you\u2019ll handle a tough situation?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Ruth Lincoln, former Senior Assistant,\u00a0INALJ Washington, DC\u00a0 previously published 10\/4\/13 &amp; 8\/29\/14 Conflict in the Job Interview: How to Approach the Tricky Questions A job interview isn\u2019t complete without a little conflict. That is, questions about how you handle conflict. A great employee knows how to stay calm when plans go awry, attitudes clash,&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=42145\">Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":58800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,3637,217,6905,4590,4720],"class_list":["post-42145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-inalj-washington-dc","tag-interview-questions","tag-in-six","tag-preparing-for-interviews","tag-ruth-lincoln"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/ruth.lincoln.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-aXL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/58800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}