One
of the trickiest questions to answer for a professional is when she is asked
what the biggest or the toughest challenge of her professional career has been till
now (meaning, till the time of the interview). This is a double-edged question,
because it is a way of showing up the candidate as a complete success, or the
exact opposite of it. A lot of presence of mind and tact is needed to confront
a question such as this.
The
motive with which this question is usually asked is to test what mettle the
professional is made up of. A deftly handled situation, when explained properly
and in the right context at the interview, can give the interviewer the
impression of having on hand a candidate who doesn’t run away from a challenge
or gets overpowered by it, but rather has the fortitude and resilience to take
a challenge head on or handle it with caution, depending on the nature of the
challenge.
It
is always better to be prepared for questions of this nature. NetZealous LLC is
a leading provider of professional trainings in the field of human resources.
Through its well-known brand, TrainHR, it
offers professional trainings on all areas of HR. With its trainings, many of
which are approved by the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), it
offers courses that are recognized all over the HR
trainings industry.
Some of the ways of answering questions of
this nature
The
way a candidate answers a question like this is a clear indicator of her
ability to deal with tough situations. A positive reply is one in which the
candidate, in the process of explaining the situation, gives a fair indicator
of the kind of leader or person she is. A positive person with a ken for leadership
only mentions that there was a certain challenge that needed addressing, never
who created it. Even if the problem had been a colleague’s creation; saying so
will show the candidate in poor light, because it will give the impression of
being a person who blames otters for a bad situation.
Another
very important point that the interviewer assesses in the course of the answer
to this question is the extent to which the candidate takes up responsibility
and ownership of a situation and the level to which she considers her actions
as being accountable. These are prime traits of leadership. An answer which
explains the situation vis-à-vis the possibilities of success and failures of
her decision-making at the time of the biggest challenge to her career will
give a clear indication of these qualities.
A
logical flow of the answer to the question should be shown, which gives the
impression of how logical the candidate is in approaching challenging
situations. The right way of expressing the answer will be to make it linear
and interestingly narrated. It should be described as if the candidate is
explaining a movie.
How do TrainHR trainings help candidates
answer questions of this type?
TrainHR,
an HR training
portal from NetZealous LLC, has the right answers to delicate and problematic
questions a candidate may face during an interview. Its experts are very well
known in their professions and have earned a reputation for helping HR
professionals scale their professional careers.
TrainHR delivers high quality trainings in the form of short duration
web seminars and long duration in person, live seminars, which are usually
spread over a couple of days. It is at sessions like this that it helps
candidates face issues concerning careers. This is among the many topics of
training that it offers.
NetZealous LLC’s human resources
training providing portal, TrainHR equips participants with the acumen and
skills needed for understanding and presenting answers to questions they face
regularly during interviews. Its courses on communication skills improvement,
business communications, business ethics and many other related areas are of
great help to HR professionals.
In
the current situation, NetZealous LLC’s human resources training brand, TrainHR
could help with tips like the following:
Be clear about the answer:
When
a candidate is asked about the most challenging situation she faced in her
professional career; the most appropriate way of getting into the answer would
be choose a particular challenge or episode, rather than meander about giving
explanations about a number of challenges. The candidate may be under the
impression that tackling this question at multiple levels shows her ability to
handle different types of challenges, but the fact is that it takes away the
clarity of the answer.
Choosing
one particular challenge handled in the past is a good way of answering. It is
good for the candidate to take up a particular challenge that she felt was a
very important one, and one which helped her exercise her abilities of judgment
and intuition and leadership. Let the answer be restricted to a particular
event to make it appropriate. For example, explaining how the candidate faced a
challenge when the organization had to expand to another area of business, or
how the candidate was called upon to draw a list of employees to be fired
during a particular time such as the recession or during a takeover are all
good examples of choosing specific situations that presented challenges.
Absolutely no bullshitting:
A
lot of people think that they can get away with smartly constructed lies in
interviews which ask questions like this. Nothing could be farther to the truth
than this idea. Lies can take you a very short distance, at the most till the
next interview round, but never beyond. Are seasoned HR professionals so dumb
that they believe everything that a candidate says about her past, nodding
their heads, like kids? No matter how neatly packaged, a lie is a lie. Imagine
the mortification the candidate will have to face if the interviewer found out
during subsequent background checks that everything that the candidate uttered
was bullshit. There is no greater disgrace than being exposed this way.
The
biggest advantage of speaking the truth is that you don’t have to remember what
you have spoken. If you have presented the truth about a challenge you faced
and nothing but the truth about it; you have no fear about any crosschecks the
HR may make with your organization, because the truth you have uttered at the
interview is known to everyone in the organization.
Talk of an incident of the recent past
HR trainings from
TrainHR, a brand of NetZealous LLC, impart understanding of the
nitty-gritty of interviewing. Attending training sessions from TrainHR gives
professionals the opportunity to understand ways of dealing with questions that
are sometimes framed to test the candidate’s ability to steer clear of walking
into a trap. When explaining the challenges faced during one’s professional
career for instance, TrainHR’s trainings help HR professionals understand that
it is better to mention a recent incident when explaining the biggest challenge
of her career. Talking about something of the distant past will have left no
easy memories with colleagues with whom the interviewing organization may want
to call back to verify the veracity of the claims. During such times, it is
better to keep in mind a recent incident that the candidate felt tested her
abilities.
Learn a lot more than to just handle tough
questions
While
learning the ways of handling tough questions at interviews is an important
aspect of an HR professional’s career; there are a lot more she needs to equip
herself with. TrainHR, a leading human resources training providing brand from
NetZealous LLC, offers professional trainings on all areas of human resources.
These trainings are an invaluable learning tool that HR professionals can use
to advance in their careers by staying current with the latest updates and
happenings in the HR industry.
As
an industry that is in a constant state of flux; human resources needs
consistent upgrade all the time. Knowledge gained at one point of time could
become outdated very soon, because of which it needs to be gained and
implemented all over again and again. HR trainings from TrainHR, a NetZealous
LLC brand, are designed to help HR professionals stay updated with these and
apply the ways to implement them in their careers.
Professional trainings in all the areas of
importance to HR professionals
TrainHR,
a brand of NetZealous LLC, offers professional trainings in all the areas of
human resources. With a very broad spread of such topics and areas, it is the
ideal provider of human resources trainings for HR professionals. Its experts
are drawn from around the globe. They impart the most relevant and current
trainings on any aspect of human resources. This is just a small list of the
areas in which the NetZealous LLC brand, TrainHR offers professional trainings:
o
Affirmative
Action
o
Age
Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
o
Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) & ADA Accommodation
o
COBRA
(Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act)
o
Department
of Labor (DOL)
o
Dealing with
Errant Employees
o
Dealing with
Violence at the Workplace
o
Discrimination
– Age, Disability, Gender, Genetic, National Origin, Pregnancy, Race,
Religious, Sex & Sexual Orientation
o
Dress Codes
/ Uniforms
o
Employee
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)
o
Employee
Benefits Security Administration (EBSA)
o
Employment
at Will
o
Employment
Contracts
o
Employment
Eligibility Verification and E-Verify
o
Employment
Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
o
Employment
Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI)
o
Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
o
Equal Pay
Act (EPA)
o
Exempt vs.
Non-exempt Employees
o
Fair and
Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act)
o
Fair Credit
Reporting Act (FCRA)
o
Fair Labor
Standards Act (FLSA)
o
Fair Pay Act
o
Family and Medical Leave Act
(FMLA)
o
Federal /
Government Contractors
o
Firing/Termination
o
Furlough
o
Genetic
Discrimination and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)
o
Harassment
- Age, Disability, Gender, Genetic, National Origin
o
Pregnancy,
Race, Religious, Sex & Sexual Orientation
o
Health
Benefits & Health Care Reform
o
Immigration
and Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
o
Independent
Contractors
o
Intermittent
FMLA Leave
o
Jury Duty
o
Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
o
Leave
o
Layoffs,
Downsizing & Reduction in Workforce (RIF)
o
Mental
Health Parity
o
Military
Leave and FMLA
o
Military
Service
o
Minimum Wage
o
National
Labor Relations Act (NLRA), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) &
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) & Unions
o
19th Century
Civil Rights Act
o
Occupational
Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
o
Office of
Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP)
o
Older
Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA)
o
Pension
Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)
o
Patient
Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPAC)
o
Pensions
Protection Act (PPA)
o
Pregnancy
Discrimination Act (PDA)
o
Retirement
Plans
o
Sarbanes-Oxley
Act (SOX)
o
Section 1981
of the Civil Rights Act of 1866
o
Sick Leave
o
Substance
Abuse
o
Temporary
Employees
o
Title VII of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964
o
Trade
Secrets Protection
o
Uniformed
Services Employment Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)
o
Wage and
Hour Labor Laws and Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
o
Whistle-blowing
o
Worker
Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act)
o
Worker's
Compensation
o
Training
& Development
o
Employee
Induction
o
Interviewing
Skills
o
Professional
Etiquette
o
Soft Skills
Training
o
Team
Building
o
Recruitment
o
Background
Checks
o
Motivation
and Retention
o
Internal
Investigations
o
Layoffs
Downsizing & Reduction in Workforce (RIF)
o
Personnel
Administration
o
Crisis
Management & Disaster Planning
o
Employment
Practices Liability Insurance
o
Ethics
o
Mergers
& Acquisitions
o
Risk
Management
o
Succession
planning
o
Performance
Management
o
Scorecards
and Dashboards
o
Strategy
Maps
o
Technology
in HR
o
Documentation
& Document Retention
o
Electronic
Data Management & Monitoring
o
Communications
and Interpersonal Skills
o
Integrity
o
Foresight
o
Conduct
o
Business
Writing and Presentations Skills