Three of the Toughest Interview Questions and How to Answer Them
Job interviews are always tough. We all know it. But going into them prepared and predicting what might be some of the more difficult questions is all you can really do to make the experience a little less painful and give yourself a better chance of actually scoring that dream job.
The folks at Fast Company know what they’re talking about when they say they have tips for three of the toughest interview questions you’ll be faced with. Check them out:
Job interviews can feel a lot like going on blind dates with prospective employers. While there is plenty of advice for how to answer both the most common and the most annoying interview questions, when an interviewer throws a curveball question, even the quickest thinker can get unnerved.
Glassdoor regularly publishes tough questions submitted by users who’ve interviewed at a variety of companies. Now they’ve culled a short list of the most difficult ones based on how users rate them. The list ranges from the highly technical to the just plain unexpected, from questions attempting to draw on the candidate’s knowledge of algebra and geometry, to those trying to discern how well they work with others.
In order to help prepare you if you’re asked questions like these, we asked recruiters to share the best way to answer some of the most challenging ones.
THE CULTURE QUESTION
For the position of production technician at Procter & Gamble, the interviewer asked:
If a coworker had an annoying habit, and it hindered your quality of work, how would you resolve it?
How to answer it. “The best answers to questions about how you would behave include examples from your past,” says career coach Phyllis Mufson. So she advises being prepared with anecdotes that illustrate your skills and judgment. Her reply would be: “I’d make a straightforward, business-like request. For example, in the past, I worked with a coworker who played music when we were working on a deadline. I took her aside and asked her to turn it off, saying that the music was making it hard for me to concentrate. She said that music helps her concentrate. Then I asked for her help. What could she do to make it easier for me to focus and work on deadline? Then she offered to wear headphones.” …