Behavioral Interview Questions
Master 31 behavioral interview questions covering past experiences, conflict resolution, and decision-making.
Question 9 of 31
Tell me about the most competitive work situation you have experienced. How did you handle it, and what was the result?
The Goal
Example Answer
Admin
Marketing
Sales
Retail
Teacher
Manager
How to Answer
Pro Tip
What to Avoid
Community Answers
Christine Pasqueretta is a human resource and recruitment professional with experience creating, developing, implementing, leading, and measuring HR impact initiatives.
The interviewer wants to determine if you function well in a competitive environment. The goal of your answer is to show the interviewer that you can rise to a challenge and that you are excited to push yourself to be the best. You'll also want to highlight your desire to maintain healthy competition by cheering others on along the way.
Christine Pasqueretta is a human resource and recruitment professional with experience creating, developing, implementing, leading, and measuring HR impact initiatives.
"(Situation) My current sales position is highly commission-based, so my colleagues and I are quite competitive. (Task) Despite being competitive, we have a terrific work environment where we help each other when someone is struggling to meet their quota. (Action) We coach each other on sales techniques and share success stories. (Result) The result has been a positive work environment with healthy competition."
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"(Situation) There is not often a chance for competition, as an Administrative Assistant; however, our office does a fundraising challenge every Thanksgiving. (Task) This challenge involves raising sponsorship for an office-wide 5K race. (Action) Most years, I am in the lead for funds raised, as I have a very supportive network of friends and family. Also, this challenge is one of my favorite charitable initiatives. (Result) Every year, we donate 100% of the funds to sponsoring two families for their Christmas needs. It gets competitive, and all for a great reason!"
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"(Situation) My employer recently introduced a 'friendly' competition between two agency locations. (Task) It turned into a fierce contest to see who could increase their productivity, decrease errors, and maintain the company's high-quality standards while earning the highest amount of positive client reviews. (Action) Our team worked tirelessly and harder than usual, spending weekends working extra hours and encouraging each other along the way. (Result) We won the competition, and everyone received a new iPad. The whole event was a lot of fun."
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"(Situation) The most competitive I've ever been in a work environment was when I was up for promotion against a sales executive in another region. (Task) The leadership team let us know that we were both the contenders and essentially pitted us against one another. (Action) I hunkered down, worked extra long hours, and got my team on board to create and execute a plan to surpass our quota. (Result) Our efforts worked, and I received the promotion! I was also so thankful to my team for supporting me in my career goals."
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"(Situation) In retail, Christmastime is very competitive. Numbers are high, and everyone is trying to outdo last year's performance while earning the most commission. (Task) This holiday season is the time when our managers introduce an incentive program to encourage even more hustle. This particular year, there were rumors of a promotion being at stake. (Action) The rumors of a potential promotion, coupled with the holiday sales incentive, made me and another employee want to prove ourselves worthy. We made a handshake deal that we'd play nice, but at the end of the day, each of us still wanted to win. (Result) I did not earn the promotion; however, I was a close second. I learned a lot about healthy competition and enjoyed my successes either way."
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"(Situation) Teaching environments are not openly competitive. (Task) With that said, as an enthusiastic educator, I am internally competitive when it comes to helping a student improve their performance. (Action) I like to set goals for my struggling students and coach them in a way that speaks to their internal competitive streak. (Result) Throughout my years as a teacher, I have made a difference in the lives of students by exuding enthusiasm. It's gratifying."
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"(Situation) In my current role, we have four department managers. (Task) Since our jobs are so closely aligned, we are always in a friendly competition. (Action) We compete to see who can save the most money on hours per quarter, follow procedures the closest, and have an accident-free month. (Result) It's a fun approach, but we also take these KPI's seriously at the same time. In fact, since introducing this friendly competition, all departments have seen a boost in employee engagement and productivity."
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
Answer this question by telling the interviewer about a specific time you faced a competitive situation at work. Perhaps you were in a friendly competition to achieve the highest sales, were working towards a promotion, or eagerly trying to win a new contract. Be sure to explain how you react in the face of competition. Discuss the actions you took to ensure healthy competition and include details of the stand-out results you generated.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
Behavioral-based interview questions that begin with 'Tell me about a time...' are best answered using the STAR method. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Organizing your response using this framework will ensure that you provide the interviewer with the right amount of information and detail to form a compelling answer.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
Avoid giving a general response about your approach to competitive situations. Statements like, 'I haven't been in a competitive work situation, but in that case, I would do my best to be a team player and encourage collaboration,' are too vague and lack depth.
Anonymous Answer
The competition was not quite often within a team, but we did have institution-wide competition for cultural engagement. I remember there was a competition to choose the best team for celebrating Maori New Year. Each of us in our team put in full effort, we dressed up, decorated our space, and performed Maori song and dance. Our team came in as second, but it was great fun and team engagement to celebrate NZ unique Maori culture.
Rachelle's Feedback
Your example is fun; however, it may be too light a response for the interviewer who is trying to gauge your work-related skills. If your work environment is not competitive, try mentioning a competitive situation during college or university.
Anonymous Answer
When I started a new sales job it was a very competitive environment. I was new to sales so I learned by reading sales books and learning from other senior salespeople. I got top salesperson in my first year!
Rachelle's Feedback
Great achievement, and well crafted response.
Anonymous Answer
I participated in a big green belt project that consisted of 4 other green belt projects. We were all working simultaneously on our projects to get to the end at the same time, but we would have some friendly competitions between each project team. We needed to be all around the same part of our project, so one team didn't get farther ahead than the other. I would help the other teams if there were a way I could help them to keep them up with our team.
Kristine's Feedback
Good start. You mention an example of a time where there was some friendly competition. However, the interviewer may not be convinced this situation was the most competitive work situation you have experienced. If there is another example that would show more intense competition, you may want to mention it here. Also, be sure to tell the interviewer about the outcome of the competition.
Anonymous Answer
One of my most competitive work experiences was with a manager that was placed above me that was younger than me but wanted to compete with me resolving automation issues with pumps, valves, and other instruments. He didn't have to assist me resolving field related issues but I suspect he wanted to take credit for resolving problems. I basically had to confront him on the matter and remind him that he had so many other duties he could be successful in completing. He was not happy at first but over time, he came to understand his responsibilities.
Rachelle's Feedback
Rather than positioning the situation as an age issue, I recommend phrasing this differently. For instance, he was less experienced than you. I have reworded this slightly so that there is no risk of you sounding jaded because the manager was younger. Be careful with wording such as 'reminding' your manager of their duties or the fact that he 'came to understand'. These phrases can sound like you belittled the manager. Mix that tone with ageism and it can become a big red flag for an interviewer.
"One of my most competitive work experiences was with a manager placed above me who had less experience resolving automation issues with pumps, valves, and other instruments. He didn't have to assist me in resolving field related issues, but he felt the need to participate. Once trust was built between us, I brought up the fact that he had so many other managerial duties to tend to, and I was comfortable being in the field on my own. He was hesitant at first, but later agreed, and it worked out well for both of us."
Anonymous Answer
I come from a family of 'One Uppers' so everything is a competition. This is why I've excelled in sales. The most competitive work situation I've been in was when our company was launching a new drug, and we had to choose our top five customers. Our results were tracked on a weekly basis, and it was not for the faint of heart. When you see your sales data being compared to your peers right there in black and white, that can be an incredible motivator for me.
Rachelle's Feedback
These are two great examples, both in your personal and professional life, where you thrived in a competitive environment. My only feedback here is to avoid the 'you' statements making them "I" and "my.' A sample is below.
"I come from a family of 'One Uppers' so everything is a competition. This is why I've excelled in sales. The most competitive work situation I've been in was when our company was launching a new drug, and we had to choose our top five customers. Our results were tracked weekly, and it was not for the faint of heart. When I saw my sales data compared to my peers right there in black and white, it was an incredible motivator for me."
Anonymous Answer
My first job in a private company was very competitive. There was no that much difference in age and experience between project leaders, who were in charge of the realization of conferences from scratch, and project assistants, who worked on single tasks. I wanted to lead a project, and I tried my best to learn from all the project leaders I was working for, juggling at the same time different tasks for different projects, which were all at various stages of realization. I volunteered to keep working on the tasks following those they were assigned to me, and, in general, did my best to show to my supervisors my reliability and professionalism and to gain the trust. Before moving to France, I was assigned as a project leader on the organization, a series of one-day seminaries.
Rachelle's Feedback
It sounds like you did a very good job displaying your capability in this role despite all of the competition. Generally speaking, I recommend avoiding comments around age in an interview (ageism is real, and it can go both ways). In this example, it would be sufficient to note that there was little difference in experience levels between project leaders.
"My first job in a private company was very competitive. There was not much difference in experience between project leaders, who were in charge of the realization of conferences from scratch, and project assistants, who worked on single tasks. I wanted to lead a project, and I tried my best to learn from all the project leaders I was working for, juggling at the same time different tasks for various projects. I did my best to show to my supervisors my reliability and professionalism and to gain their trust. Before moving to France, I was assigned as a project leader on the organization a series of one-day seminaries."
Anonymous Answer
I think in modern society, any job can be competitive as we have KPIs and targets to meet and exceed. I have learned to keep doing an excellent job on a consistent level to drive the result. I am not a person who often stresses about targets, but instead, I spare no effort to do everything I can, which naturally brings achievement.
Rachelle's Feedback
This is a very well worded response, showing how dedicated you are to your work. Excellent job!
Anonymous Answer
Students compete with each other in our clinical days; everyone wants to be recognized by the clinical professor. I believe this was a good thing as we all performed to the best of our ability, and we couldn't do enough for our patients. We provided the best patient care every time.
Rachelle's Feedback
These clinical days would be competitive both internally, and with other students, I am sure. Be sure to include the times when you received individual recognition by the clinical professor, and how it made you feel when that happened.
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