Deadlines are notoriously the number one cause of stress in the workplace. Due to the nature of the beast in the field, HR Consultants are often tasked with short turnaround times on project work. At some point during your interview process, your interviewer will be looking to get a feel for how you handle working with tight deadlines. As you prepare to answer this question, try to focus on the necessary skills required to multitask many things at once and be able to reprioritize work as you go along. Then, if at all possible, talk about a specific time where you had to handle a tight deadline and be sure that your example describes the situation and shows how you took action to help provide a great result.

"Throughout my career, I have displayed the ability to handle last-minute deadlines and short-term projects with ease, and I owe this all to my ability to stay organized and on-task with all of my work. I use the tools available to me to block project work time and set aside time for other projects that can come up. Last year, my current organization was awarded a large contract, and the contract required increasing production by 33% in just a few short months from the announcement. Knowing that we would be adding close to 35 new employees in a short amount of time, I had to quickly work to plan our recruitment approach with my team and put that plan into action. Right away, I talked with other stakeholders I was working on projects with to delay them since this new hiring venture was a top priority. I set a timeline for important milestones in the recruitment effort and let my team get to work. Under my leadership, we had 32 of the 35 expected staff able to start when production increased. The final three staff started just two weeks later. This was a huge win for our department and organization as a whole."