Hr Library
Trending

What Interviewers Want to Know When They Ask You to “Describe a Time You Had to Make a Difficult Decision”

By | Regina Borsellino | www.themuse.com

When you’re in a job interview, you’re likely to get asked questions that require you walk your interviewer through past experiences. “Describe a time you had to make a difficult decision,” for example, asks you to do this in a way that provides them a bit of insight into how you handle tough choices and how you work overall. Like all interview questions, it gives you a chance to show the interviewer you’re the right person for the job—as long as you’re well prepared. (If you’re looking to land more interviews, you can search for jobs right on The Muse!)

Why Interviewers Ask This Question

Interviewers ask behavioral questions—these questions that prompt you to describe past experiences—to give them real-life examples of how you use your skills. Anyone can state they have a certain skill needed for a job, but that doesn’t tell the interviewer how you’ve used it or how well.

“Every job has conflict and challenges” that require you to make choices big and small, says Muse career coach Tara Goodfellow, owner of Athena Consultants. So asking you to describe a time you had to make a difficult decision can “help an interviewer understand a bit about how you process and solve dilemmas,” Goodfellow says. “It’s not so much about the actual situation, but the resolution and how a situation is handled.” Basically, your interviewer wants to see that you can not only approach decisions thoughtfully and make choices in a clear, logical way, but also explain your considerations and ultimate call.

Interviewers will also be on the lookout for red flags in your answer. “It also can be telling when an interviewee blames others or doesn’t hold herself accountable,” Goodfellow says.

4 Steps to “Describe a Time You Had to Make a Difficult Decision”

Here are some steps to follow as you prepare and construct your answer:

Click here to read the full article

Source
www.themuse.com
Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Back to top button