Example : Showing How You Successfully Dealt With Pressure In The Past
Throughout my career, I have done some of my best work under pressure. I find that routine makes us complacent, and I am always looking for challenges that push me to give my best and to quickly come up with working solutions.
One time I was supposed to deliver a project to a client in five days. A colleague who was working with another client had the same deadline, but he had to take a leave of absence due to personal reasons. I was forced to take up both projects at the same time, but I did not let the stress affect me. Instead, I came up with a very detailed time management plan and found new ways to boost efficiency that enabled me to deliver both projects on time.
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Focus On Positive Aspects
Even if you have already discussed your strengths and weaknesses, this is another opportunity to show your strengths. Think about the best things you have done to manage stress and the positive consequences.
For example, talk about a situation in which you were able to think on your feet, how you were able to communicate effectively with teammates and managers, and how you were able to break down larger tasks into smaller, more manageable tasks. Perhaps your method led to an improvement in company policies.
How To Answer How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure
In this article, you will learn how to answer that difficult interview question. How do you handle stress and pressure? So if you have a job interview coming up for any role whatsoever, there is a strong possibility they will ask you this question. And how you respond to it could be the difference between success or failure.
So to help you answer it correctly, this is what this article will cover.
- You will learn why the interviewer is asking you the question, how do you handle stress and pressure?
- You will learn three really important tips for answering this question with confidence.
- You will learn three brilliant answers that you can use in your job interview.
- And you will also learn how you can get access to more example answers to tough interview questions. So lets get started.
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Best Practices And Things That You Should Keep In Mind When Answering Supervisor Interview Questions
One of the essential skills required for a successful career in supervision is answering interview questions.
Donât forget that an interviewer will know about your strengths and weaknesses. So be ready with a list of your best practices and things that you should keep in mind when answering these questions to help them decide if you would be a good fit for the position.
Best practices include:
-Be prepared and practice your responses ahead of time
-Know what you are going to say before you start speaking
-Focus on relevant details
-Frame the answer in terms of personal history, strengths, interests, and skillsets
Some of the best practices that you can follow are: avoid using unnecessary jargon, know your role and your responsibilities, demonstrate examples of good work in the past that highlight your strengths, be honest and truthful in your answers without sounding too pessimistic or too optimistic, avoid using âIâ statements and be prepared for probing questions.
Tips For Giving The Best Answer
Show the employer how you manage stress. That way, the interviewer can build up a clear picture of how well you adapt to stressful situations. For example, describe a time when you were given a difficult task or multiple assignments and how you rose to the occasion.
Focus on success. When you respond, share examples of how you succeeded despite being in a stressful situation, or of how you problem-solved to resolve the issue that caused stress.
When its a stressful job. Some jobs are stressful by nature. If youre applying for a high-stress job, be sure to let the interviewer know that youre used to working under stress and that its part of your normal routine.
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How Not To Answer The Question How Do You Handle Stress
You Don’t Have Friends At Work
If you have a full-time role, you’re likely averaging 40 hours a week on the clock. That’s a lot of time. If you spend all of that time in isolation without any real social interaction or work friendships, it can lead to loneliness and even depression, which can hinder your work performance.
Make an effort to build personal relationships at work. Be warm and welcoming, and make an effort to strike up conversations in the break room. Invite people to join you for lunch or to grab drinks after work. Ask about their weekend, find common interests, or simply start by talking about what’s happening at work.
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How To Answer How Do You Handle Stress
To answer this question successfully, you’ll want to provide specific examples of how you’ve handled stress well in the past. You might also provide examples of times when pressure actually made you work more productively.
Be careful how you respond. If you say you get stressed when you’re given multiple projects, and you know the job will require you to juggle many assignments at once, youll look like you’re not a good fit for the position.
Consider mentioning how a little stress can be a helpful motivator for you. Try to provide an example of a time when the stress of a difficult project helped you be a more creative and productive worker.
You Haven’t Upskilled Yet
Feeling like you’re not as on top of things as you used to be? Does it seem like all of your co-workers are getting promotions and raises except for you?
If you feel like you’re falling behind, it might be time to upskill.
It’s important to constantly stay relevant in your career and keep up with your industry. Think of it this way: A company is a wheel that’s always moving forward. The employees of that company are the spokes on the wheel. When the wheel moves forward, the spokes change position, moving around from top to bottom repeatedly.
If you’re not moving forward with the company by upskilling and staying on top of industry trends, you’ll find yourself on the bottom of the wheel, miserable and vulnerable. It’s your job to keep moving forward with that company and keep pushing to be the top spoke on the wheel.
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Puzzle Or Brainteaser Interviews:
This is an interesting way of stressful interview, which is mainly organized by management firms. The interviewer may ask any questions, like, What is the average number of vehicles run in the USA every day? The interviewer may ask such questions to test the logical thinking ability, analytical skills and thought process of the interviewee.
Do Not Deny Your Stress
Feeling stressed is only human. So, do not deny your stress. Instead, try to answer it in a positive manner. However, if you cannot recall a specific time where you have faced workplace stress, then focus on how you manage stress on a daily basis.
It is best to avoid citing negative examples, such as the time you forgot that a project was due the next day. Such examples will leave a negative impression about you, and trust me that is not something you would want.
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What You Can Do To Prepare For This Question Before Your Interview
Before going to an interview, ask yourself the following questions:
- What caused a stressful situation I found myself in?
- How did I immediately react to this stressful situation?
- Did the stress interfere with my work?
- Was I able to alleviate my stress? How?
- What could I have done differently to improve the situation?
You can write down these questions and your responses to help plan how to best answer.
Do Not Highlight Job Duties As Stressors
Part of your regular job responsibilities may have been handling a rather difficult client. However, this is part of the main job and should not be highlighted as a stressful situation. Highlighting one of your job duties indicates that you have trouble handling those essential job responsibilities.
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What Makes You The Best Candidate For This Position
The best way to answer this question is by focusing on your strengths, what you excel in, what you love to do, and what sets you apart from other candidates.
If I were interviewing for a position as a supervisor at my company, I would ask the person interviewing me how they would know that I was the best candidate for this role. This is not an easy question to answer because so many factors contribute to it. However, if I had to place one element in the forefront of my mind and focus on it when meeting with potential employers, I would make connections with people.
What The Interviewer Wants To Know
The interviewer really wants to know whether you can handle job-related stress, and what you do in particularly stressful situations at work. This is especially important if youre interviewing for a position where stress is an integral part of the job. That’s because job stress can have a negative impact on workplace performance.
The hiring manager may also be wondering whether stressful issues outside of work can impact your job performance. Employers look for candidates who can deal with a range of stressful situations, whether these are personal or work-related.
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To See If You Know How Pressure Affects You
You might be surprised to know that employers dont actually want to hear that you never feel stressed, or that youve never been involved in a stressful situation.
Aside from the fact that it will seem like youre being dishonest, denying that youve ever been stressed will leave the employer wondering how youd react if ever you were. Realistically, everyone has experienced stress at some point in their lives.
Likewise, all graduate jobs will be stressful at one time or another – so an employer will be looking for confirmation that you can handle the pressure, and have the experience to back up your statement.
Make A List Of Your Soft Skills
Before you start recounting various times you’ve experienced stress or pressure at work, make a list of your soft skills. Among other things, these are the interpersonal skills you use to help manage and overcome stress.
A few soft skills you might use to address stress or pressure at work include:
-
Adaptability
-
Leadership
-
Problem-solving
Even though the interviewer wants to see how you’ve handled stress and were able to stay positive, they’re also interested in learning more about your soft skills, so keep these in mind.
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To See How You Actually Respond To Stress
In a high-pressure interview, your initial reaction when asked how you handle stressful situations might be you mean, like this one?
Well you might be on to something. Employers often use this interview question to gauge how you actually handle a stressful or high-pressure situation – do you remain calm and collected, or do you become flustered and try to side-step the question completely?
Often, the best way for employers to find out how you act under pressure is by assessing your body language and the answer you give so preparing your response to the question is the best thing you can do.
How Do You Handle Stress At Work
Stress is a part of the modern workforce. It is something that we need to learn how to handle.
Some ways I handle stress:
â Take some time to decompress after a stressful day.
â Find ways to reduce your stress level during the day
â Talk with people you trust and who can provide support during challenging times
â Exercise regularly
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How To Assess Candidates Stress Management Skills
- Use a combination of behavioral and situational interview questions. Youll have the chance to find out how candidates handled stress in past positions, but also how theyll manage stressful situations in their new role, if hired.
- Generic questions like How do you handle stress? will yield equally generic answers. Ask candidates to describe specific work examples of when they beat stress.
- Deliberately being persistent or even aggressive wont give you a clear idea of how candidates react under pressure. Use realistic examples, instead. For example, if youre hiring salespeople, ask how candidates would address the most common customer issues.
- Compare candidates answers to common problems related to the position. Opt not only for people who offer the best solutions, but for those who are able to maintain composure even during unexpected circumstances.
- Candidates might already be prepared to describe a situation where they successfully handled stress. So, use the interview to gauge their stress management skills. Do they feel uncomfortable when you ask tough questions or are they able to remain calm?
- Dont be fast to reject candidates who seem on edge at first, as job interviews are stressful by nature. If, though, they remain stressed throughout the interview, you might want to reconsider their candidacy, especially in roles that require more socializing.
Find A Perfect Fit For The Role
Interviewers and hiring managers always need the best employee and the perfect fit for the role. All roles come with handling stressful situations. No situation in a job can be an easy one. All recruiters want a candidate who is reactive to stress in a non-disruptive manner. As an employee, you definitely must not shut down due to stress. No employer likes an employee who puts others and themselves through unnecessary stressful situations and then cannot handle it.
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So Why Is The Interviewer Asking You The Question How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure
Reason number one: if they ask you this interview question, the role that you are applying for will involve the ability to work under pressure. So they want to assess how you are going to handle these conditions.
Reason number two: Your attitude towards stress and pressure and how you approach it will be the difference between success or failure at your job interview. So its important we give them a rock solid, confident answer.
So when they say to you, how do you handle stress and pressure, do not say I handle it quite well and I really dont mind working under pressure, to be honest Such answer is totally wrong, theres no substance to it, do not answer this interview question in the following manner. There is no confidence in the response. And you are simply saying, I dont mind working on the pressure. That is not the way to answer the question.
How Well Do You Handle Stress Answer Considerations For Answer
This is one question that puts the candidates under stress. However, you must understand that this question tells the recruiters how fit you are for the job. One wrong answer or even a word can land you in a soup, and you could lose that opportunity that was already in your favor. Hence, all candidates must always be super careful before answering this question.
While answering this question, always make sure to focus on the positive actions that you took during the situation and not the negative feelings that you faced. There are two sides to every coin similarly, focus on the side of the coin that will get you fruits, and not on the side which will leave you in a pickle. Focusing on how mentally disturbed you were should not be the criteria. Instead, focus on how that stress turned things in your favor, and you were able to get the best results, all thanks to the stress.
Another thing to keep in mind, that if you are appearing for the role of a manager, never say that you just delegate the stress to your subordinates. Well, its inhuman to put your burden on someone elses shoulders. Also, an answer like this is sure to put you in a bad spot. Moreover, nobody wants a boss like this!
The most important thing would be, never say anything stupid! Well, this is a given for sure, but one thing you should keep in mind is that things like this can leave you in a plight, and you could just lose up on the chance you were just about to hit strike on.
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Tough Interview Question : How Do You Handle Stress
Interviewers want to know that theyre hiring people with great coping skills when the going gets tough.
So, how do you answer this question in a way that will impress your interviewer?
Here are a few ideas:
On the job, I react to situations rather than stress. My philosophy is, the only way to get past the stress is to handle the task at hand so I can move forward.
I size up the situation to get a clear sense of what needs to be done and, if necessary, I re-prioritize my responsibilities to effectively manage the issue.
Fortunately, I do some of my best work under pressure. Its an organic part of working in a dynamic environment and I find it more invigorating then anything.
I have a well-balanced personal life, part of which includes regular workouts. Ive found that what I do outside of the workplace has really helped me stay calm and balanced when Im faced with stressful situations at work.
A good answer will be truthful while showcasing your exceptional or unique coping abilities!
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