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I need help answering this interview question:

Tell me a time where you had to resolve conflict with a colleague

Is this good?: I was working on a project with my classmate. I had issues with their time management so I sat the classmate down to discuss that they needed to change their ways. Although he became defensive, I listened to his concerns and remained calm. Through active listening, communication and problem solving skills, we were able to come of with a solution that satisfied both of us.

Reply 2

brandonbshah

Original post by jae jae

Hi, this looks quite good, from what I can see this is a behavioural interview question. For advice what I would say is to analyse if using the STAR method, this Situation, Task, Action, Result so can go through this with your example.

S - you mention about the project and the issues.
T - You mention the time management, but could specify why this was an issue for the task. Was their time management causing delays?
A - You mention about a discussion and use key words like active listening which is great.
R - You mention this but would say quite briefly, what did the solution satisfy, what positive outcomes came from this?

Overall I think this is a very solid start but a few bits could be more concrete and solid. If you leave gaps in response an interviewer can pick up on that.
Hope this helps! :smile:

Reply 3

jwt2002

I'd say that's pretty good, though I bet they'd ask you more about what you did and what the solution you came up was so might be good to cover this too. They'll be wanting to know how you demonstrated active listening, communication and problem solving in your answer too.

As brandon says, a good way to approach it is STAR, or I've heard another similar method called CAR.