Question:
I have been interviewing with a management consultancy firm. They just told me that I'll be given a stress interview involving case solving. How do I tackle this type of interview?
First Answer:
A stress interview is designed not to personally attack you, but to observe how you behave under the kind of stress the job at hand might produce. To prepare, assess how you handle:
- any assignment which calls for more deliverables faster than reasonable or even extra effort can provide within the time frame allowed;
- unclear or nonexistent instructions;
- mutually exclusive objectives and conflicting priorities;
- decisions that you must make with imperfect information;
- unequal effort from members of your case solving team;
- tasks you are not equipped to perform;
- conflict between team members or between the internal or external client and the staff assigned to the case;
- criticism of your performance;
- inadequate resources;
- inadequate access to advice and guidance on any task involved in solving the case;
- any barriers to the completion of your assignments;
- situations where you must use judgment about appropriate behavior. For example, on a day of serial interviews I was once told to wait in a room until my first interviewer arrived to take me to her office. While I was waiting, two other supervisors who had been at the breakfast portion of my interview came into the room and began arguing about the performance of another employee. Was I supposed to follow instructions, and stay in the room despite increasing discomfort at witnessing such an event, or disobey instructions and wait out in the hall? (The answer was to leave room despite instructions to the contrary.)
Your performance in the stress interview will answer some of these questions. If you think you are weak in any of these areas, how can you improve? The stress interview can be a powerful opportunity to demonstrate your problem-solving abilities to a prospective employer.
-- Carol Anderson, Career Development and Placement Office, Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy at New School University in New York City.
Second Answer:
The first key is not to become too stressed out over this type of "stress" interview. The purpose of this interview is to see how you respond naturally in a variety of situations. There are a number of interview books on the market which cover this topic. One thing you might want to do is brainstorm with friends or colleagues about the type of situations that might arise in the type of company you are applying for and come up with a scenario on how you would handle this. During the interview, allow yourself a moment to catch your breath and think before you answer.
-- Linda Wyatt, Career Center Director, Kansas City Kansas Community College.
Third Answer:
This sounds like a behavioral interview. The best way to prepare is to reflect on past experiences. They will give you situations and ask you to respond. Try to avoid saying, "I would do this..." Keep it more real. Draw from past experiences and tell them what you have done in similar situations. Instead of, "I would do this..." say, "well, this is similar to a situation I was faced with a few years ago.....my approach was.....What I found valuable to my approach was....what I learned about myself is..."
Remember, you don't always have to give perfect examples. Revealing a time when you failed, but explaining what you learned from the failure is a tremendous sign of maturity and growth. Again, give specific examples. Don't be afraid to show you are human.
Finally, if you are interviewing for high-stress jobs, make sure that is what you want. If you do not personally respond well to a high-stress environment, then you are better off to avoid that line of work. You should look forward to going to work each day...not dread it.
-- Holly Lentz, Lentz Productions.
