Interviewer: What is a time that you disagreed with a decision at work?
Greg: My previous job was at a game company. Last year, I had a major disagreement with my boss about the project that we were working on. We had been working on developing a mobile game for over 3 years, but my boss wanted to end the project because he thought it would not be successful. I thought that if we made some changes, then the game could be a hit.
Interviewer: So, how did you handle this situation?
Greg: I asked my boss to sit down and have a meeting about the issue. I prepared a presentation and explained to him why we shouldn’t shut the project down. He listened and after that, we had a long discussion.
Interviewer: And what happened in the end?
Greg: In the end, my boss decided to end the project. I feel like I did everything I could, but since he is the manager I think I needed to respect his decision.
Interviewer: It sounds like you handled the situation in a very professional manner.
Patterns and Examples
When ____________________, I ____________________. ____________________.
- When my former boss decided to end one of our projects, I disagreed with that decision. I approached my boss privately and explained why I thought it was a mistake to end the project, and he actually changed his mind. In the end, the project ended up being very successful.
- When my colleague and I were coming up with a strategy for our new marketing campaign, I had a very different idea than my colleague for the theme of the campaign. We spent a lot of time discussing it, and in the end, we were able to combine our ideas and come up with a great marketing campaign that was very successful.
One time, ____________________.
- One time, my company decided to acquire another business, but I disagreed with the decision because I did not think the business added any value to our company.
- One time, I disagreed with my manager’s decision to fire another employee.
There was one time when ____________________. I disagreed with that decision.
- There was one time when my company decided to stop manufacturing a product that we had recently created. I disagreed with that decision.
- There was one time when my colleagues decided to expand our clothing business into the jewelry market. I disagreed with that decision.
