Similar interview questions:

How are you at dealing with conflict?

What do you do when you disagree with others?

Do you open up or close down in conflict situations?

How do you handle disagreements?

Why the interviewer is asking this question:

The interviewer is looking for information that normally would not be offered on the resume or as part of the standard interview response--how the candidate deals with conflict. Many otherwise excellent employees have seen their downfall in how they handled (or didn't handle) conflict. The interviewer knows that most candidates will not offer up true conflict situations, so the practiced interviewer will continue to drill until a real example is provided.

The best approach to answering this question:

Talk briefly about the conflict, but focus on the resolution of the conflict. Give an actual example of a resolved conflict, walking through the situation which brought up the conflict, what actions you took to resolve the conflict and the end result.

An example of how to best answer this question for an experienced candidate:

"I recently had a conflict with an employee in another department who had a project which was dependent on work being done by myself and two other members of our team. He had sent a rather urgent e-mail acusing us of derailing his project. I had never met him before, so I asked to get together with him for coffee. I asked him to walk me through his project and the interdependency of his project with our project. I then walked him through our project and timelines. Once we had the opportunity to communicate our independent priorities, we could begin talking about our shared priorities. We agreed to a timeline that would help us both meet our goals and the conflict was resolved before it became a major incident."

An example of how to best answer this question for an entry level candidate:

"I recently had a disagreement with one of my professors over the wording of a question on one of the key exams, which was missed by several members of the class due to the ambiguity. I brought it up to the professor privately and personally, but he was dismissive of my request. After discussing it with several classmates, we went to him together to discuss it further. At that point, he agreed that there was a level of ambiguity in the question, but still would not change the grade of the test. However, he did appreciate us bringing it to his attention and gave us the opportunity to work on a separate project for extra credit to make up for the shortfall on the test. We completed the extra credit and we were all happy with the end result. It wasn't necessarily the solution we were seeking, but it was a compromise that was acceptable."

An example of how you should not answer this question:

"I've always found that I need to show the other person, in detail, the error of their ways, then they will eventually come around to seeing my way being the best way to do things. Do I have conflict? Sure. But having conflict is a healthy thing. I actually welcome conflict. In fact, I grew up in a family where conflict was a way of life. I got battered and bruised growing up that way, but I learned how to come out swinging and make my way in the world."

Remember to answer each interview question behaviorally, whether it is a behavioral question or not. The easiest way to do this is to use an example from your background and experience. Then use the S-T-A-R approach to make the answer a STAR: talk about a Situation or Task (S-T), the Action you took (A) and the Results achieved (R). This is what makes your interview answer uniquely yours and will make your answer a star!

Similar interview questions:

What areas are your weakest?

What are the areas where you need to improve your skills?

Are there areas where you need to develop your skills further?

What would your boss say is the area where you need improvement?

Why the interviewer is asking this question:

The interviewer is exploring three things: 1) whether you are self-aware; 2) whether you are honest; and 3) whether you seek to improve. This is the question where many interviewees somehow think it is permissible to lie, yet an experienced interviewer can nail someone in their lie pretty quickly. Most interview books say to give a strength, but present it as a weakness, such as: "I work too much. I just work and work and work and don't know when to stop." Here's how a practiced interviewer will pierce through that lie: "So you think working too much is a weakness? So you want to be working less?" There is no good response when you are caught in a lie.

The best approach to answering this question:

Be truthful. That doesn't mean you need to present your greatest life weakness or something personal about you. Keep the interview focused on your education and experience. Choose a true weakness, yet choose one which you are actively working to change and improve.

An example of how to best answer this question for experienced candidates:

"I have had problems in the past with taking on too much work and then not delivering a quality and timely product because I was stretched too thin in too many areas. I know it's a weakness, because it reflects negatively on my end deliverables. I want to deliver quality in everything I do, but I have not always been able to do so when multiple priorities stack up. Part of the difficulty is that work was coming from outside groups and my boss did not have visibility into the requests being made. So I developed a project prioritization spreadsheet that I would review with my boss whenever a new request came in for additional work. My boss would review and approve moving projects up and down in priority based on the new requests. That way it allowed me to focus on completing what is most important to my boss with the highest quality, while moving the less important projects off to the side until time is available for completion. This is still a work in progress for me and I still need to get better at this, but it's an area where I am focused on continuously improving."

An example of how to best answer this question for entry level candidates:

"I have had problems in the past with taking on too many projects and then not delivering quality and, in some cases, not delivering on time. I was simply stretched too thin in too many areas with not enough time to deliver in a quality manner. I think that's the opportunity that is there as a new college student, you want to do everything and be involved in everything. However, I've learned that I'm not at my best when I have too many conflicting priorities. I've had to cut back on some of the less important extracurricular activities to focus on delivering my academic projects with the highest quality. This prioritization of my work has carried over to my work life with my recent internship. I had several key deliverables that were due the same week, so I met with my boss to prioritize the delivery schedule. She helped me focus on both the timing and the quality of the delivery. In the end, all three projects were delivered with high quality results. Would you like me to tell you more about them?"

An example of how you should not answer this question:

"My greatest weakness is that I'm a workaholic. I don't have any balance in my life and tend to stay late at work to complete all of my projects, often until 3 in the morning. I'm usually the first one in and the last one to leave. I know I should probably address my workaholic tendencies, but I know they help me to get everything completed. So I just keep on working, even when I'm not at work. As a result, my personal life has suffered, I'm recently divorced, my kids say they never get to see me, which is true. My life is a train wreck due to working all of these crazy hours. I just keep working and working."