Interview Preparation: Preparing for Situational Interview Questions

 

I want to share one of my all-time favorite interview preparation tips. This exercise will prepare you to have detailed, succinct, and impressive examples ready for any situational interview question you are asked.

 

In any interview, you will face a few questions like: “What’s an example of a challenge you faced in your current role?”, “What’s an example of a time where you improved a process?” OR “What’s a difficult management issue you faced and how did you overcome it?”

 

Since you won’t know which situational question you’ll be asked, one of the best ways to prepare for these types of questions is to prepare three “stories” ahead of time that can be adapted to fit any situational question. These stories should be based on accomplishments, projects, and scenarios that you were faced with throughout your career.

 

The goal is to come up with specific, detailed situations, and be prepared to deliver a concise response to the question.

Each “story” should have the following 3 steps:

1.) The situation, problem, or issue that came up at your organization

2.) What you specifically & directly did to impact, solve, or address the issue

3.)The positive end result on the company (think in measurable terms – time saved, cost savings, etc).

 

Here’s an example:

1.) My company was using a manual expense tracking process that extended the month-end close and often caused errors that my team would have to spend time correcting down the road.

2.) I identified, priced out, and implemented a new software called ‘XYZ’.

3.) The software I implemented cut down the time used to process expenses and reduced our close time from 5 days to 4 days.

 

By using the three-step process, you can be certain your story is specific and concise. The third step gives you the opportunity to sell yourself and show the positive impact your actions had on the organization. 

 

The beauty of creating three of these ‘stories’ ahead of time is that each one can plug-and-play for a variety of situational questions you may face.

 

For example, if the interviewer asks you: “Could you describe a process-improvement you implemented?” This story fits. If the interviewer asks: “What is one of your biggest accomplishments during your time at ABC company?” This story fits. If the question is: “What is an example of something you did at ABC company that still has a positive impact on the team?” You get it…this story fits!

 

For most interviews, three of these scenarios should be enough and you can adjust on the fly. If you’re anticipating a more in-depth interview, perhaps you create 5-6 of these.

 

We hope this is helpful!

 

For more interview preparation and tips, get in touch with one of our recruiters: contact@sdlsearch.com

 

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