Focus on giving a detailed explanation of how you handled a past disagreement with a supervisor or coworker. You do not necessarily need to describe the reason for the dispute, just how you dealt with it. The interviewer wants to hear that you dealt with the conflict privately, calmly, maturely and that there was a resolution. If you have not had a dispute with a coworker or supervisor in the past, use an example of how you handled a disagreement with a friend, classmate, neighbor, or family member.

You do not want to say that you avoid or ignore disagreements or get angry when a dispute arises in the workplace. The interviewer does not want to hear that you lack conflict resolution and communication skills. You also want to avoid speaking poorly of the person you had the dispute with or placing the blame solely on the other individual. You need to be responsible and recognize your part in the conflict.

"Fortunately, I have never had a dispute with a coworker or supervisor. However, I had a dispute with a classmate while working on a group assignment. I handled it by recognizing we had an issue and asked my classmate to speak in private. I calmly asked him why he thought we had a conflict and what we could do to resolve the issue. There was a misunderstanding in our respective roles within the group, and my classmate thought I was trying to do his job. Once we cleared up who was responsible for each role, we never had an issue again and have remained good friends."