Interview Tips

Describe a time when you had to persuade someone or a team to your point of view.

These kinds of questions are a little scary, because getting them right usually makes no difference. I've hired people myself, and advised clients who are hiring people, and nobody ever says "let's go with Chris, I loved that persuading answer." But you can really really get them wrong and it can be the no-hire reason. Some ways to get them wrong:

• Say you've never faced that situation. Come on. Everyone has to persuade people - even your parents to let you stay up later or your professor to give you an extension. Everyone has had a conflict. The only people who've never faced those situations are minor princes or the super rich who everyone obeys without pushback. More likely, you're just not very self observant, and employers want you to know a little about yourself. So it's good that you're thinking about that now.

• Describe using nothing but external authority ("mum put me in charge, so you have to" or "I'll have my dad call the dean if you don't") to get your problem resolved

• Describe wildly disproportionate responses - violence, suing, the police, mean practical jokes, getting someone fired, burning all someone's clothes - to get your own way

• Describe a pattern of not getting your own way or resolving your problem, but just putting your head in the sand and hoping it will end

• Describe a pattern of "tattling" to authorities and making them solve it for you

You know the grownup way to solve conflicts and persuade others. Try to find one really good, true example of when you handled it well. The closer the situation is to the job you're applying for, the better - if it happened at a job (even pizza delivery), it's better than if it happened at university, but the university story is better than something with a sibling or romantic partner. It must be true. We can actually tell when it's what you think you would do. And if you lie in the...