What major challenges and problems did you face in your last position?
The interviewer is interested in knowing about the problems and challenges you faced in your last position to gain insight into your problem-solving abilities and how you handle difficult situations. It can also give them an idea of how you approach challenges and whether you can learn from your experiences. It's important to be honest about the challenges you faced while highlighting how you overcame them and what you learned from the experience. This can demonstrate your resilience and ability to adapt to new situations. Describe the most significant challenges you faced in your last position. Be sure to complete your answer on a positive note by highlighting how you overcame the challenge.
"The biggest challenges in my most recent position are surrounding the demographics of the schools I supervise. Often, our young students come to school hungry, not properly clothed for the cold weather, and have low attention spans because of issues associated with their home life. I have initiated a few programs, such as a breakfast club and a clothing swap, to offer some relief. Those initiatives have proven to help significantly. My teachers are telling me new success stories every week, and I am thrilled to have made an impact on this common problem."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
Our Superintendent received some bad health news that he needed to take care of immediately, so I had to balance my position with some other duties usually reserved for the superintendent. I took on more of a leadership role for the entire district, led board meetings, and conducted personnel interviews. I saw it as an opportunity to grow my leadership skills.
Rachelle's Feedback
It seems that you had a positive attitude through this situation, viewing it as an opportunity to grow vs. an additional burden of work. A bit more context and detail would be helpful here. For instance, the length of time you were responsible for this increase in work and how you initially tackled the extra tasks while ensuring that your quality of work remained the same. Overall, try making your answer more action-based.
Anonymous Answer
In my 18 years as an assistant principal/dean of students, I have found that my biggest challenges have been in dealing with at-risk students. Discipline issues, attendance issues, and motivation issues have caused these students to not succeed and parental support is usually lacking. I have found though that if I can help these students to discover on their own some motivation then progress can be made. I have also found that meeting with parents and truly listening to them can help provide answers and gives us the directions we need to help the student.
Marcie's Feedback
Great answer! Your response is clear and directly applicable to the question. Providing some solutions that you've found to tackle the problem you cite shows initiative and highlights your ability to problem-solve. You might consider adding more details around how you help these at-risk students discover their own personal motivation or give a specific example of one student that you helped as this will make your answer even more memorable to the interviewer. Nice job!
Anonymous Answer
The biggest challenge in my last position was changing the mindsets of the staff regarding the students we served. The unspoken biases about the ability level of the children and families we served that were rooted in social-economic status and demographics, hindered the quality of the work that was done with students each day. We worked with building-level coaches to develop training for our staff using the work of Jennifer Eberhardt and Carol Dweck. By establishing a growth mindset and working to eliminate our many unconscious biases helped us to change our instructional practices and moved us from being a low-performing school to a category 1 school in three years.
Rachelle's Feedback
This is an exceptional achievement, and you take the interviewer through this example very clearly. I recommend adding more detail regarding the steps you took and the processes you put in place to help your team achieve this success. For instance, did you introduce a specific training program or hire an outside consultant to train your staff on overcoming unconscious bias?
Unlock all 40 Superintendent questions
Unlock expert responses to leadership questions that school boards and districts prioritize.
Get Started