Natalie Fisher teaches the SARI formula for answering the interview question about working with a difficult coworker. She walks through a real example: a colleague unaware of a deadline, how she helped them understand the timeline, and what she learned about asking questions before reacting.
In this video, we're going to answer the situational interview question, tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult person. I love this question. This is my favorite one, I think. In this video, you're going to learn why this question is asked, How to answer it step by step, and how to wrap it up gracefully. So stay tuned. Okay, why is this question asked? So the interviewer is asking you this question, they want to see how you handle when you have a problem with somebody in your group or somebody that you work with. So Things like this come up at work all the time where you don't agree with someone or you're trying to get someone to do something for you and you can't because they don't want to. So how you answer this question, you may have guessed, you're— we're going to tell a story. So using the SARI formula, which we'll go through here. So SARI means situation, action, result, interesting features. And how you answer it is You tell the story with the beginning, middle, and end. So the story should be memorable, interesting, and include enough detail to paint a picture for the interviewer. So they want to see that you don't get personal or caught up in workplace drama. They want to see that you deal with situations at hand diplomatically and are focused on the outcome that you want. It's easy to get caught up in emotions of anger, frustration. They want to see that you just get to the point and diplomatically deal with the problem. So let's talk about the key actions that you would take and how you might answer the question. So first one, you would set the stage, which is a situation where you describe what's going on. So an example here might be dealing with a lovely coworker who is a very nice person, but who isn't deadline-oriented. So they just don't pay attention to deadlines, let's say. So say you were working with this person and you were working on an important thing that needed to be completed by a certain day, and he wasn't meeting deadlines, and you were sure he wasn't going to meet this one coming up. So that's how you set the stage. So step number 2 is where you talk about the action. That you took. So the action here, for example, might be that you approached your coworker, you figured out what was going on, and you offered to help him. And step 3 would be the results that came from your action. So then you would explain what happened. So for example, when you spoke to your coworker, he mentioned that he was overworked, he was frustrated, and he didn't have time to do everything that was expected of him. So how you solved the situation was you offered to help him and you offered to get some projects off of his plate by speaking to his manager with him so that he could meet the deadline that you needed met. And step number 4, what did you learn? This is where the interesting features come in. So you learned, for example, that to seek to understand first, to seek to help, set So not to go in with anger or frustration, which is what most people would probably do when someone wasn't doing what they needed done. So instead of this, you took a different approach, which worked out very well because your coworker was appreciative and understood him, and you were able to get the project completed on time. And there we have it, a solid example of how to answer the behavioral question Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult coworker. Thank you for watching, and if you'd like more help with these types of questions, you can click the link below to get the free instant access to the downloadable free guide to situational interviewing. In this guide, what you will learn— and you can get access to it immediately— what you will learn is an in-depth look at the SARI formula and the psychology behind it and why it works. You will get a series of complete concrete examples for the top 10 most commonly asked situational interview questions. You will also get fill-in-the-blank templates for each question, so all you need to do is fill in the blanks with your own personal stories, practice them, and you'll be set to go. And if you're still getting stuck because preparing your own stories is tough, it's difficult to come up with them on the spot, I've also included 25 questions that you can ask yourself to come up with your own stories much quicker and more effectively. You'll also get this in a beautifully designed workbook designed specifically for you to prepare for your next interview. By the end of working through the guide, you'll be totally ready For any situational interview question that comes your way. That's my promise to you, so download it now. Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next week right here on NatalieTV. Bye.
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