Situational Judgement Interview Questions

[Castelli99]

Hello

I have an upcoming interview later today and was told it would involve some situational judgement interview questions - e.g. the printer is broken and you need to quickly print off resources for client or something. Does anyone have any tips for these kinds of questions or any resources to look at please? I often fail SJT's so would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[Jaysen]

Hello

I have an upcoming interview later today and was told it would involve some situational judgement interview questions - e.g. the printer is broken and you need to quickly print off resources for client or something. Does anyone have any tips for these kinds of questions or any resources to look at please? I often fail SJT's so would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

Some scenario from recent interviews if you want to practice:

• If your colleague was slacking at work because of personal issues that they didn’t want to share with their boss, what would you do?
• You’re a trainee, and you have been working really hard on a specific task. But then, an associate says that you need to take a completely different approach and scrap what you’re doing right now. How do you react to this?’
• You notice a trainee solicitor outside your office is being rude to a secretary, what do you do?
• You are working on a project with a client. The client sends an email to your team berating your poor attention to detail. You notice that it was your supervisor who made the mistake. What do you do?

It's impossible to know what question will come up, so my main advice would be to practice walking through the above questions and talking through your thought process. I find it helpful to honestly imagine what I'd do in that scenario (while keeping in mind the role of a trainee).

Good luck for today!

 

[Castelli99]

Thanks for the quick response Jaysen!

 

[IntrepidL]

Hi @Jaysen, for such scenario-based interview questions, do you recommend using a certain structure, like the STAR method? Or would this be inappropriate here?

 

[Jaysen]

Hi @Jaysen, for such scenario-based interview questions, do you recommend using a certain structure, like the STAR method? Or would this be inappropriate here?

Yeah STAR wouldn’t really work here, I think you’d risk having a rigid answer that wouldn’t really answer the question.

I’ve never really applied a set framework for these kinds of questions, but sometimes I’d find it helpful to start by laying out my concerns/thoughts on the situation before diving into what I’d do. That would then help me to structure my thoughts and talk through my approach. That’s not necessary though - just whatever will help you to walk the interviewers through your answer.

 

[IntrepidL]

Thanks @Jaysen. Would it be better to give 2/3 steps on what you would do in chronological order?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi @Jaysen, for such scenario-based interview questions, do you recommend using a certain structure, like the STAR method? Or would this be inappropriate here?

STAR isn’t appropriate as it can only be used for past experiences, not answering what you would do in a situation.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thanks @Jaysen. Would it be better to give 2/3 steps on what you would do in chronological order?

If there are only 2/3 steps, then yes. Just make sure you focus on that particular scenario.

 

[IntrepidL]

Thank you, @Jessica Booker!