What was your biggest issue or challenge at your last position? How did you overcome that challenge?

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1st Answer Example
2nd Answer Example
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The interviewer wants to gauge your ability to face challenges in the workplace. Share an experience you've had and describe how you overcame the challenge.

"In my previous role as a manager, I was faced with the challenge of hiring high-quality candidates to fill out facilities roles. I identified the issue, which was our candidate pool, and adjusted our recruitment parameters to reach more candidates. We were able to fill our vacant positions quickly after that."

"The biggest challenge I faced at my last organization was filling my customer's requests. The customer often had high demands and wanted things done in unrealistic timeframes. To overcome this challenge, I explained the process and timelines for the things they would request. This offered them an understanding of the work and more realistic expectations."

Anonymous Answer

"There's a steep learning curve to the machine certification process and I've never worked with X-rays before so I had to spend time learning about x-ray diffraction and material science, so a lot of theoretical knowledge. That combined with the language barrier for technical documents. I found that it took significantly longer than I expected to get up to speed. Initially, I thought it would 2-3 months to be on my own, and for the most part, I was correct, however, for some of the more advanced machines it took me over about 8 months. Just before the holiday, I installed the machine which is the 2nd of its kind in the world down in San Jose and got high praise from both the head office and the factory engineer from Japan after I helped him create an English guide for technicians to troubleshoot, repair and certify it for use."

Stephanie's Feedback

Excellent response--you did a great job navigating this!

How to Answer: What was your biggest issue or challenge at your last position? How did you overcome that challenge?

Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Facility Manager job interview.

29. What was your biggest issue or challenge at your last position? How did you overcome that challenge?

How to Answer

The interviewer wants to gauge your ability to face challenges in the workplace. Share an experience you've had and describe how you overcame the challenge.

Written by Ronda Barnes on November 18th, 2021