Interview Question: "How Do You Deal With Pressure or

Stressful Situations?"

When you have a job interview, you need to be prepared for various key questions. Some
of these will be around your general strengths and weaknesses, while others will be
scenario-specific.

Whichever questions you get, you need to be aware of showcasing your skills because
this self-knowledge will go a long way towards making a good impression.

If you’re applying for a role in a high-pressure or stressful environment, a potential

employer needs to know how you would react in these types of particular situations. In this
case, they are likely to ask for examples from your own experience to check if you have
demonstrated that you can handle different kinds of stressors.

Why Would an Interviewer Ask This Question?

An interviewer wants to know how you can cope with difficult situations so that if a similar
scenario occurs in their workplace, you will be well-equipped to handle it. One way they
can ascertain your ability to thrive in a tough environment is to ask about certain situations
in your work history.

An interviewer will also likely want to know how self-aware you are and whether you can
handle your emotions, especially under pressure. A candidate who shows some clarity
over their reactions to stress – and their ability to manage it – is invaluable to a
prospective employer.

The best way to answer these types of questions and satisfy an interviewer is to provide a
broken-down example of how you have handled pressure or a stressful situation in the
past. It’s particularly relevant to show that the quality of your work, in the end, wasn’t
impacted by the stress, so be prepared for follow-up questions.
If this quality is important to them, they will likely ask the question again using different
words, so prepare a few different scenarios that you can use as evidence. Having a
variety of examples can make you seem more credible and you won’t run out of things to
talk about.

How Else Might This Question Be Asked?

There can be variations on the question asking how you deal with pressure or stressful
situations. You might be asked what kind of work environment you prefer, for example.
This is a type of open question which you luckily get to lead in the direction you want.

If you are applying for a role in a busy, fast-paced department, make it clear this
environment is one where you would perform best.

You might also be asked what kind of challenges you like in the workplace. This again is
giving you a free opportunity to talk about how you enjoy working under pressure and to
tight deadlines.

Another way of asking how you deal with pressure or stressful situations is making the
question more specific. For example, an interviewer might ask how you’ve dealt with a
difficult colleague in the past, or how a customer or client has put pressure on you.

These are asking the same underlying question but narrowing it down so that a ‘generic’
prepared answer might not work. This is why having a few scenarios prepared is
important.

You might even be asked about pressure more hypothetically, for example, “Do you think
there are healthy types of stress?” Interviewers may want to see how you react to stress in
reality by putting you under pressure with an unusual question.

Seeing how you act under duress might be important to prospective employers, as the
way you behave if you get the role will impact the company and they need to make sure
you are a good fit. The point of the interview process is partly to pressure you anyway –
seeing how you respond to new scenarios, scrutiny and tough questions.

If you do feel like the interviewers are pushing you, it might be worth paying extra attention
to your body language. Sometimes people get defensive in their posture when they are
uncomfortable and you might need to consciously re-adjust it.

Practicing mock interviews in advance can help you to be more mindful of how you come
across and build your confidence.

How to Prepare for This Question

To prepare for questions about how you deal with stress or pressured situations, you need
to think through your work or educational history and come up with specific examples that
demonstrate your skills. You can even use scenarios from your extracurricular life, for
example, you might volunteer as a lifeguard at the weekends and be able to draw upon
these experiences.

Once you have a collection of strong examples, think about the most useful anecdotes
you can use. Those that show growth and self-awareness are particularly powerful. For
each of the scenarios you want to talk about, be clear on which skills you are showing,
and ideally find a way to link these to the type of job you want to apply for.

When you practice talking about your stressful situation and how you responded to it, be
sure to build the answer in a clear, structured way, showing great communication skills.
The more you get used to talking about your examples, the more confident and fluent you
will be in the actual interview and the more likely you are to impress.

It's important to keep things positive, so focus on the solution you came to in the scenarios
and the soft skills you were demonstrating, rather than spending most of your time
describing the problem or complaining about other people. It’s more valuable for the
interviewer to hear about how you fixed things, for example, the tools you used or the
methods you found helpful in dealing with the difficult situation.
How to Answer: "How Do You Deal With
Pressure or Stressful Situations?"

When you’re answering any interview question that requests you to remember a situation
you handled, it’s best to do so in a structured way. There are several story-telling methods
you can use; a popular one is the STAR technique:

S: Situation – Give an overview of the situation (for example, you were let down by a
colleague who didn’t attend an important meeting)
T: Task – Briefly explain the task at hand (perhaps you were meeting clients to
cement a deal)
A: Action – Describe the action you took (you might have had to step up and lead the
pitch when you weren’t expecting to, demonstrating flexibility and commitment)
R: Results – What did you achieve? Always try to link this back to the specific role
you are interviewing for (you might have landed the clients and received a
commendation from your boss; you can then connect this to the current interview and
explain how you often go the extra mile in the workplace)

Interview Question: How Do You Deal With Pressure or Stressful Situations?

When you are answering any questions in an interview, try to remain calm and
unflustered. Even if you lose your way in a story, just take a breath, regroup and
summarize. This way you’re demonstrating your ability to handle yourself if things go
sideways.

What to Avoid When Explaining How You Deal

With Pressure or Stressful Situations

When you’re answering questions about difficult scenarios, it’s best to focus more on
actions than your feelings. While a bad situation will undoubtedly have impacted you
emotionally – and you may well have been angry with colleagues – it’s best to stick with
neutral and factual terms than to use heightened descriptions.

Remember this is a job interview, not a place for you to get personal. If you seem like a
person who regularly gets into tricky situations or quickly gets overwhelmed, you run the
risk of looking like a bad investment. After all, nobody wants to hire someone who will
easily burn out.

Focus on the job you are interviewing for and make sure you have done enough research
and preparation in thinking about it. If the role specifies balancing multiple projects, then
don’t say you get stressed when there is lots of juggling to do on a daily basis.

You don’t want to make it seem like the basic requirements of the job are beyond your
capabilities or that the role itself will make you feel under pressure the whole time.

It’s not wise to say that you never feel pressure at all though, as this will come across as if
you lack self-knowledge. A little humility is required in answering how you deal with
difficult situations as this builds trust and makes you seem authentic.

If you show off and say that you never get stressed, you might tempt the interviewer to
push you on that point or even to create a pressured environment there and then.

Similarly, it’s best to avoid using examples of procrastination or carelessness that don’t
reflect well on you. Whilst everyone has had situations where they have made mistakes
that led to stress or pressure, it’s best not to use these when answering interview
questions. It’s easier to shine when you’re the hero of the story rather than the cause of
the problem!

Sample Answers for Dealing With Pressure or

Stressful Situations

When you’re answering questions about difficult situations, remember not to get bogged
down in detail. The interviewer wants to get an overview of the problem but you should
keep the main focus on how you solved the issue.

Example 1

This sample answer shows teamwork and your ability to work beyond the level at which

“
you are expected to. It’s great if you want to show you are serious and someone worth
promoting quickly:

In my last job, there was a sticky situation where my manager

had an unexpected family emergency, in a week when there were
three deadlines to meet. As the person with the most knowledge
of these particular projects, it fell to me to step up as interim
manager.

It was a stressful time as I had to try and coordinate the team

while getting as much information as possible from my manager,
being mindful that he had other things going on. I do enjoy
working under pressure and I am good at prioritization, so my
time-management skills really came to the fore as the week
progressed.
 It all came together brilliantly. I created a detailed schedule with
everyone’s input and ran through all three projects with a fine-
toothed comb before submission. My manager returned to work

”
the following week and publicly praised me for performing under
pressure, so I was really glad I rose to the challenge.

Example 2

In this situation, you are showing emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills, which go

“
a long way towards creating a strong and supportive workplace – important for every
employer:

There was a tough period last year when my company was

downsizing and the department was under a lot of stress. I was
coping OK as I work well under pressure, but I had a colleague
who was scared of losing his job and his performance was
suffering as a result of his nerves. Morale was low everywhere,
but I was conscious he needed extra support.

I took the time to sit with him and help him work out an action
plan for getting back on track. One of the big things for him was
not feeling comfortable bringing things up with our boss. I had
been at the company longer and with my knowledge of how
things worked, I was able to suggest some strategies and even
role-played with him.
 He followed my advice, and in this particular situation, a
redundancy was offered with great terms and a glowing
reference. While unexpected, it ended up being the best thing for

”
my friend as he took some time out to regroup and then got a
new job at a higher level.

Example 3

This sample answer demonstrates openness, a willingness to learn and to reach out to
other people when necessary. Nobody has all the answers all the time, and employers
want to know you are confident enough to ask for help, rather than muddle through alone
and risk making a hash of things. This example also shows good problem-solving and the

“
ability to empathize. These soft skills are very important for any prospective employee to
demonstrate:

I recently had to manage a work-experience student and she was

continually pushing boundaries, turning up late and showing a
lack of attention in her work. I found this frustrating but I
reminded myself the goal was to find a solution, so I spoke to
some peers to ask if anyone had been in a similar situation. I
heard some interesting stories which made me wonder if I was
missing something, so I decided to try and dig a bit deeper with
the student.

We went out for coffee at my suggestion and I asked her directly

if she felt she needed any extra support while she was working
there. She opened up and told me she was exhausted, as she
had been working late into the night to finish some final
 coursework which was due that same week. I learned a valuable
lesson that day in asking more questions before jumping to
conclusions about other people’s priorities.

I showed her empathy, knowing she was new to the corporate

world and suggested she take a day off to complete the work to
get it out of the way. I also made the point that I needed her full
attention once she’d sent in the assignment that was due, and
she promptly agreed. I’m glad to say after that, her work and

”
punctuality were exemplary and I was able to give her a great
evaluation in the end.

Final Thoughts

All jobs have their pressure points and it's common for employers to ask about your
stressful experiences. They want to know that you can handle yourself if or when such
situations arise. They also want to know that you can reflect on these types of difficulties
and grow from them. Having emotionally intelligent answers prepared will help you stand
out from the crowd.

Think about past situations that show a focus on your personal development and that
demonstrate you have a growth mindset. Remember, when you’re answering questions
about how you deal with pressure or stressful situations, it’s really a chance for you to
showcase your specific skills and strengths to impress your interviewer.