Interviewer: What was a challenge at your last job and how did you handle it?
Mark: As you can see on my resume, my last job was assistant manager at a clothing store. Last year, the store manager broke her leg and she couldn’t come to work for 2 weeks. So, for two weeks I had to take over all of the manager’s duties, plus all of my regular work.
Interviewer: So, how did you handle the heavy workload?
Mark: It was a lot of work, but I just tried to focus on one task at a time. I had to work a lot of overtime that week, but I also tried to delegate as much work to other staff members as I could. To make a long story short, the store ran smoothly with very few problems until the manager returned to work.
Interviewer: Your manager must have been very grateful to you.
Mark: I think that she was. Also, I felt very proud. It was one of the biggest challenges that I have ever faced at work, and I was successful. This is a reason that I am applying for the manager position at your store. I know that I can handle the work and do a good job.
Patterns and Examples
____________________ was a big challenge at my last job. I handled this by ____________________.
- Creating a new website for my last company was a big challenge at my last job. I handled this by spending a lot of time planning and a lot of time making sure everything was done right.
- Fixing technical bugs in our software was a big challenge at my last job. I handled this by carefully searching and checking our code.
A big challenge at my last job was ____________________. I ____________________ in order to deal with this challenge.
- A big challenge at my last job was increasing sales by 10% in one quarter like my CEO demanded. I spent a lot of time working that quarter to find new business in order to deal with this challenge.
- A big challenge at my last job was finishing reports while under a tight deadline. I worked overtime a lot in order to deal with this challenge.
I handled ____________________ by ____________________.
- I handled creating a new marketing campaign strategy by doing a lot of research, brainstorming ideas, and spending a lot of time thinking about every detail of the strategy.
- I handled a very angry client by listening to their needs and then doing everything I could to show them that I was working hard to fix their problems.
