IRS Agent Mock Interview

Practice 30 IRS Agent interview questions covering tax law, compliance investigations, and taxpayer interaction scenarios.

Question 9 of 30

Describe an instance where your patience was tested. How did you maintain control over your emotions?

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Kevin Downey
Kevin Downey

Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.

"Work is often stressful, and there are times were rushing to meet our deadlines. There was a day a coworker who was way ahead of their deadline backed the print cue up. They were taking a leisurely pace with preparing their project, bogging down the print cue, requiring several resets, and IT had to come over and try to clear the print cue. They'd clear the cue, but they kept resending and resending this low-priority job to the printer. Something in their file kept freezing the printer up and holding up the rest of the team's work for hours. So, instead of getting even more stressed out and frustrated by this situation, I troubleshot how we could remedy the situation by navigating around the wall. I explained to IT that if they could take the files, the employee was trying to print, and handled the job in another department, then once the print cue was clear, the rest of us could get back to work. This approach worked better, and everyone was happy. I don't think every wall you encounter needs to be climbed. There are many walls you can simply walk around."