Job Interview Question – How do you handle stress and pressure?
Purpose of the question:
The job interview question, “How do you handle stress and pressure?” is a typical question which is asked to check how you cope and handle the pressure while working under a project or in typical working day.
Sample question:
Tell me about your ability to work under pressure.How do you handle stress and pressure?
Your Answer should be:
As a strong candidate for the job position, you must answer this question smartly and by adding few examples from your real life. Every company faces tremendous pressure in most of the time. As they come close to deadlines of the project, the intensity level increases.
The best way to handle stress and pressure is to keep calm. But this is a rare virtue and everyone cannot obtain it. The bigger the company is, the more stress and pressure they have to handle.Working under pressure is a special quality and interviewers want to see this trait in an interviewee.
A perfect answer of this question can reveal some of your other qualities as well. So arrange it in a nice way and reply with strong voice. A sample answer could be:“I observed that my best work usually comes out when I am under pressure. When I am close to the deadline or a particular project that is specified to me, I become more serious than a normal routine day. Then I know I have a target ahead where I have to reach at anyhow. I can calculate at which pace I should go to achieve this. Also, I plan to complete any project minimum a couple of days in prior to the deadline. So if suddenly any unforeseen problems arise, I still have the time to check it out and solve. Thus I can only say, I am more efficient and productive when I am stressful. I know as long as I am not reaching my goal, getting rid of stress is not possible.”Under unusual circumstances, such as under pressure and stress, people become more creative and try to find a shorter path to achieve success because of more workload and less time.
This is quite natural and such qualities are found more or less to people who fall under stress occasionally. So, pressure brings out the best of him. You can add this quality in the answer. Beside this, you can add something like you go to the gym, take a deep breath or go for a long drive to remove stress. So when you get back to work, you are fresher and more enthusiastic.
What should be avoided?
Don’t let this one go unanswered. A candidate who goes down under pressure is not likely to get employed for this job position. If you can convince them with a decent answer, you should feel that you are ahead in the race.Key points to remember:Pick some examples in your past life and try to relate it to the job position. The question may be asked either how you handle pressure on a routine working day or while working on a project. If not specified, be generic.
Possibility of this question: 90%.
