How to Answer: How do you handle stressful situations?
Advice and answer examples written specifically for a Purchasing Manager job interview.
11. How do you handle stressful situations?
How to Answer
You may get several questions around stressful situations and your ability and experience) in them. The key to your answer is to show that you don't lose control. You can also add an example of a situation where you were encountered by some such situation and you emerged out as a winner with your patience and wisdom.
Written by Rachelle Enns
Answer Example
"The important thing to do during any stressful situation is to maintain professionalism and be as transparent as possible. By making everyone aware of all the facts, assuring that we all can solve the problem, stressful situations can be energizing and opportunities to be creative to solve problems.
Few years back one of our main suppliers decided to stop working with us during the peak season. This was a real stressful situation as none of us were prepared for anything like this. We tried to talk him into continuing the supplies for at least that season but he refused as he was getting higher prices from some other company. We could not outmatch those prices. It was tough as we could not find any big supplier during that time of the year. So I contacted several small suppliers that were working with us and asked them to increase the supplies as much as they could. Also introduces some new suppliers. For quality checks we didn't have a separate team so I appointed some of the most experienced workers for this task and we were able to get over the crisis within a week's time."
Written by Rachelle Enns