Difficult Interview Questions You Didn&#x27;t Have an Answer For?

Just take your time answering questions. I made mistakes in the past answering straight away without thinking through. You better off thinking before you answer. You can start with hmmm good question let me think.

Reply 4

cbaforcba

14

Sometimes they can ask similar questions which throw me off, like in one interview they asked "How do you know you have given good customer service?" followed by "As a customer, what do you deem to be good customer service" which is the same question just from different views in a situation.

Also, not necesarily a interview question, but when they ask if you have any questions that you'd like to ask, don't have to answer and never usually have one, still good to have one prepared.

Reply 5

marinade

16

Original post by ArnoldK

Okay, so I'm preparing for interviews coming up and I'm going through potential interview questions.

I'm covering all the generic usual ones in terms of teamwork, initiative, organisation, working to deadlines, experience of a set back etc. we could go on forever with these!!

So I came across a question which was "Talk about a time you dealt with a difficult coworker" and it took me ages to think of a suitable answer for it, and it just made me think, imagine if this happened in the interview I literally wouldn't have an answer.

I would say the difficult coworker was a generic usual one, I've encountered it very frequently in interviews.

The one I've had difficulty with are what are your proudest achievements, what are your two biggest achievements etc. Not in the workplace, in life.

Reply 6

Original post by marinade

I would say the difficult coworker was a generic usual one, I've encountered it very frequently in interviews.

The one I've had difficulty with are what are your proudest achievements, what are your two biggest achievements etc. Not in the workplace, in life.

Yes I had all these questions before myself

Reply 7

cbaforcba

14

Original post by marinade

I would say the difficult coworker was a generic usual one, I've encountered it very frequently in interviews.

The one I've had difficulty with are what are your proudest achievements, what are your two biggest achievements etc. Not in the workplace, in life.

To be fair, if you've passed your driving test and passed some course (In education) their are already 2 answers, could tell a white lie aswell haha, I used to do tap dancing when I was younger, but I always exagerate and say I won competitions, I never did...

Reply 8

marinade

16

Original post by cbaforcba

To be fair, if you've passed your driving test and passed some course (In education) their are already 2 answers, could tell a white lie aswell haha, I used to do tap dancing when I was younger, but I always exagerate and say I won competitions, I never did...

I was hinting at personality differences. I don't consider myself to have 'achieved' anything in life and really dislike the question. Even if I had done so it's very personal, why would I want to share it with some trumped up alpha male type at a pushy dog-eat-dog interview?

On the other hand others may feel differently and love that question. Others may exaggerate. Others might consider achievements things that they think won't resonate with the interviewers.

Reply 9

swelshie

19

One I struggled with was "name a time when you had a moral issue with something in the workplace". Had to come back to it (no shame in asking for more time to think about it).

Reply 10

OP

Original post by swelshie

One I struggled with was "name a time when you had a moral issue with something in the workplace". Had to come back to it (no shame in asking for more time to think about it).

yeah I've just said in an interview "can I have a think about it and come back to it?" they seemed pretty happy about it and I managed to think of something to say at the end of the interview.

Still never got the job though!!

Reply 11

OP

I think for questions like "What's your greatest personal achievement?" it's probably wise to try and pick something which shows you can set yourself some kind of goal and talk about what motivated you, did you meet your goal, and what you learned along the way.

Reply 12

georginamay

8

"What do you dislike about your current job?" - completely threw me off guard

Reply 13

Original post by georginamay

"What do you dislike about your current job?" - completely threw me off guard

I thought you are not supposed to talk about what you dislike about your current job 😮

Reply 14

georginamay

8

Original post by Fizzyfuz

I thought you are not supposed to talk about what you dislike about your current job 😮

That's exactly what I thought. I couldn't even come up with an answer for it lol.

Reply 15

Original post by georginamay

That's exactly what I thought. I couldn't even come up with an answer for it lol.

I need to ask this to my possible questions list lol. Better to be prepared than be sorry.

Reply 16

GodIsAWoman

2

Good luck in your interview sweeite - Doreen

Reply 17

OP

Throwing another question into this thread as I literally couldn't answer it and I'm sure many people probably haven't even experienced it before if you're straight out of uni.

Tell me about a time you had to take a risk to get something done - What did you do?

Literally couldn't think of anything!! Not one situation!! So I just spoke about how I'd go about taking risks, and the pros and cons involved in the risk I had to take.

Reply 18

swelshie

19

Original post by ArnoldK

Throwing another question into this thread as I literally couldn't answer it and I'm sure many people probably haven't even experienced it before if you're straight out of uni.

Tell me about a time you had to take a risk to get something done - What did you do?

Literally couldn't think of anything!! Not one situation!! So I just spoke about how I'd go about taking risks, and the pros and cons involved in the risk I had to take.

They were possibly looking for a risk asessment type answer there? i.e. sum of weighted consequences and weighted likelihood of it occuring, mitigation of remaining risk... Only other answer I can think of is taking risks by going outside the norm, doing things differently (has it's pros and cons I guess).

Reply 19

OP