What Major Challenges and Problems Did You Face? How Did You Handle Them?

This question is put forward in order to ensure you can handle stress and to see what you deem as a challenge. It will also benefit your interviewer to know the answer to this in case you may encounter a similar challenge in the role you are applying for. Have an example ready in your mind so that you are prepared to answer this one, as it is a common question. Try and relate them as much as possible to your new role if you can. Here are some examples of how you can do this.

Example Answers

1-

“The biggest challenges and problems I had to handle in my last job were hitting targets when given products to sell that were very difficult to sell. Sometimes we would get a campaign where the product had recently been portrayed in a poor light in the media, and we would be expected to hit targets selling it. We handled it by trying the best that we could, researching more about the product that was briefed to us, and reading about the negative media so that we could counter it should a customer mention it.”

2-

“The biggest challenges I had in my last job were the physical side of tasks. Being a carer you can often manage to move people around but occasionally I would have a client who may be a little heavier and I would find that difficult and often have to take another carer to help me.”

3-

“The biggest challenges for a firefighter are when we are faced with a fire and you know persons are trapped inside the building. You can usually tell from the outset whether or not they are likely to be alive, and it can be quite challenging to keep morale and hopes high, to get in, tackle the fire and hopefully recover the persons alive. It can be very challenging also when having to recover persons who are deceased. At the end of the day it is my job, and we just have to do it. We always have each other to talk to, as well as counselling if we require it. I like to think that for every life lost we have saved hundreds more, and focus on the positive outcomes of recues.”

Good luck

photo by: steven meyer