'What obstacles have you overcome?' is an interview question that trips up many applicants. But once you know what the interviewer is looking for, it''s actually quite easy to answer.
This guide will teach you how to come up with an effective response to this question..
Why Interviewers Ask, “What Obstacles Have You Overcome?”
Interviewers ask many questions that help provide more insight into who you are as a person, and “What obstacles have you overcome?” is a great example of this. But why do interviewers ask them?
Ultimately, it comes down to ensuring that you can handle adversity.
Life is full of many challenges, and you’ll face obstacles that seem impossible to deal with throughout your career. Some require stepping outside your comfort zone and working hard to solve complex challenges. Others will shake you to the core and make you want to quit on the spot!
No one said that having a great career would be easy. However, an employer wants to hire someone who stands up to challenges or moments of slight resistance. Companies want to hire people who are willing and able to confront challenges as they come.
It’s not only about solving every problem perfectly. While this question is a great opportunity to put your problem-solving skills on full display, it’s much deeper than that. Not every obstacle is worth facing, and some mountains are unclimbable.
Hiring managers understand that, so the most important thing is your attitude. It’s about knowing how to respond and being confident enough to address the challenges that come your way.
Whether you decide that it''s best to regroup and take a different approach or stick with the strategy and fight until you find a positive outcome, the key is staying resilient.
Talking about what obstacles you''ve overcome can give hiring managers more information than you realize. In addition to showing your strength, confidence, and ability to confront obstacles in stride, it also highlights your self-awareness and communication abilities.
You can’t face every challenge alone. Being self-aware of what you can and can’t do makes a difference. The same goes for knowing when to reach out to others for the right solution.
How to Answer This Question
The quality of your response matters for this question. It says a lot about who you are and details how you approach your work.
Here are a few tips for developing an answer that works in your favor.
1. Make Sure Your Answer is Work-Related
One of the most important tips to remember when talking about obstacles you''ve overcome is to keep your response work-related. Hiring managers want to hear about the obstacles you’ve overcome at work, not your personal life.
You may have dealt with many challenges in your personal life. But if they don’t relate to work in any way, what’s the point in bringing them up? Additionally, sharing how you overcame a personal challege runs the risk of delving into the “too much information” territory very quickly.
Sticking to professional obstacles is one way to avoid that from happening and turning your interview into an awkward mess. Remember what this question aims to unveil. It’s about learning how you approach challenging situations at work and showing hiring managers how you would respond in a similar way if given this job opportunity.
Talking about personal issues doesn’t provide the information that interviewers seek.
You can fall back on a few exceptions if you don’t have any viable examples from your past work experience. For instance, you could discuss challenges when pursuing fitness goals, learning new skills, or completing school projects. As long as those examples put your ability to overcome obstacles while highlighting your resourcefulness, they can be effective.
But remember, interviewers always prefer to hear about work-related challenges when possible.
Reflect on your career and choose moments that you’re proud of. Focus on your real-world challenges and how you overcame them to succeed.
2. Choose a Situation That’s Related to the Job You Want
Another way to earn points with your answer is to choose examples that relate to the job you’re trying to get. This can seem tough at first, but it''s often possible to connect the dots with your work history.
Start by researching the position. Learn as much as you can about the unique challenges people working this type of job face. For example, customer service professionals might have to address demanding customers. Meanwhile, managers often deal with tight deadlines and keep large teams on track.
You don’t have to provide a one-for-one example. Instead, consider how overcoming this job’s obstacles requires skills you already have. For instance, you might find that common obstacles in this job require critical thinking and quick decision-making. Use that as your foundation to choose a similar moment from your past.
The goal is to connect the dots as easily as possible for interviewers and hiring managers. You want to show you have what it takes to confront the barriers you’ll face. Your response should reassure hiring decision-makers that you’re up for any challenge and can confidently meet the unknowns of the job.
Providing relevant examples from your work history is a great way to do that.
3. Showcase Your Perseverance & Flexibility
Interviewers want to hear many things from your response. But some of the biggest attributes you must display with your answer are perseverance and flexibility.
Perseverance is a relentless drive to succeed despite how long an issue will take or how tall the hurdles to success are. It’s about having tenacity and unwavering determination. Employers love to hire candidates who exude this characteristic because it provides peace of mind that you won’t back down from a challenge that arises on the job.
When discussing what obstacles you’ve overcome, choose moments that highlight your innate tenacity. Don’t be afraid to emphasize how difficult those challenges were or how others might have given up. Lean onto your sheer determination to succeed and ensure that interviewers understand you’re ready and able to find solutions to whatever challenges you’ll face.
Another thing to highlight is your flexibility and adaptability.
While you know what to expect in your typical day-to-day, you never know what challenges will arise on the job. Problems come up all the time for employees of all levels. Those issues can vary from minor inconveniences to huge problems threatening your company’s bottom line.
Interviewers want to see that you’re flexible enough to pivot and take action. If you need a structured daily schedule, it could raise a few red flags because it indicates that even minor inconveniences may affect your performance. Choose examples that show you can adapt when necessary and are willing to take action.
4. Make Sure It’s Clear That You Were Able to Manage Stress Effectively
Another important thing to remember is that you need to talk about stress in a positive light.
Stress is a big deal in any job. It can severely hamper your performance and lead to problems in and out of work. Employers don’t want to see that a candidate folds under stress or has difficulty managing it.
The best job candidates are those who know how to unwind, handle stress, and maintain productivity. Any indication of the contrary will only harm your chances of getting a job.
Make it clear that you know how to deal with workplace stress. You can talk about the stress you felt during the example you discuss. But make sure there are no doubts about whether you successfully dealt with it.
Consider talking about how you used that stress to gain positive results. For example, you might thrive in high-stress situations because it motivates you to see results. Alternatively, you can say you walked away to collect your thoughts and find an excellent solution to your problems.
Whatever the case, turn stress into something positive and ensure the interviewer knows it didn’t hold you back.
5. Practice Before the Interview
Finally, practice your response before you head to your interview. 'What obstacles have you overcome?' is an interview question that requires some thought to answer properly.
Finding an answer on the spot will not work in your favor. This question has many complex layers, and saying the wrong thing will paint an inaccurate picture of your potential as an employee. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s an easy question you can answer on the fly.
Practice giving your response in a few different ways. You don’t want to have an over-rehearsed speech you recite verbatim. Instead, you should know what points to hit and what you want to say.
Understand the point you want to make and what example highlights relevant skills the best. Get comfortable saying your response confidently and delivering an answer that will leave a lasting impression.
Mistakes to Avoid
Now that you know what it takes to deliver an excellent response, let’s talk about some common mistakes. With questions as complex and multi-faceted as this, saying one thing wrong can ruin the entire point you were trying to make.
There are many variables to consider, but here are some mistakes you must avoid.
Long Draw-Out Responses
'What obstacles have you overcome?' is an interview question that can invite some long answers. Because of this, try to keep your response to two minutes or less. Interviewers have many questions to ask, and you don’t want this one to waste too much of your time.
Long answers also paint a less-than-ideal picture of your communication skills. That’s why it’s important to practice beforehand. Stick to your key points, focus on the skills you use to overcome obstacles and end on a positive note.
Interviewers may ask follow-up questions, so you don’t have to go into minute details.
Overt Exaggerations or Lies
It’s tempting to make something up or use hyperbole to make the truth sound better than it was. However, interviewers often see right through lies and exaggerations.
Keep your answer truthful. Be honest and open. There’s no need to lie.
Doing so will raise red flags and may cost you a job offer.
Negativity
Contrary to how the question sounds, this isn’t an open invitation to be negative. It’s not about getting sympathy points.
Your response should be positive, highlighting good outcomes and optimism. It’s fine to say that the obstacle brought you down a bit. However, you should always emphasize that the stress didn’t prevent you from getting things done.
Interviewers want to hear about how you turned a negative into a positive, so focus on your calmness and confidence.
Badmouthing and Blame
Here’s a mistake that often trips job-seekers up. It doesn’t matter what caused the obstacles. Never blame someone else or resort to badmouthing.
It’s not a good look and will likely raise flags with the hiring manager. Why would they hire someone who can’t take responsibility or someone who’s always blaming others? That’s not something employers want in the workplace.
Be careful about how you word things. Many interviewees inadvertently lay blame on others when talking about obstacles they''ve overcome. For example, instead of saying that a report was incorrect because a colleague included false information, you should say that the report was inaccurate because of resource inconsistencies.
The latter is more positive and doesn’t shift the blame onto anyone.
Unresolved Obstacles
Not every challenge you face is worth overcoming. Some obstacles are unmovable, and hiring managers know that.
However, you should steer clear of talking about those moments. While interviewers typically understand, answers with a negative outcome don’t provide much information for hiring managers to work with. They’re looking to learn about how you approach challenges as they come.
If you provide an example of a challenge with no positive outcome, you’re not highlighting your problem-solving skills. No one expects you to be perfect, but you should always lean on positivity.
Choose examples that resulted in success.
Saying You’ve Never Had Challenges
Finally, avoid saying that you never had to overcome an obstacle. Not only is that untrue, but it shows a lack of self-awareness.
Everyone has faced obstacles at some point in their career. Saying you didn’t is dishonest. Plus, it doesn’t give interviewers anything to work with.
Treat this question as an opportunity to show perseverance, confidence, and flexibility. If you don’t provide an example at all, you’re missing out on a chance to show hiring managers what you’re made of.
Example Answers
Do you need some inspiration to develop an answer to 'What obstacles have you overcome?' While everyone’s response should be unique to their experiences, we have a few examples to show you what a good answer sounds like.
Example 1
In our first example, a candidate tried to take the initiative and experienced some resistance from upper management. This answer works well for a few reasons. First, it shows tenacity and unwavering perseverance to accomplish something great.
Secondly, it highlights important skills that may apply to the job they’re trying to get.
“I had an experience at my last job that was a challenge to overcome. I was a junior developer with a unique idea for an app I believed would revolutionize how our company interacted with customers. After bringing it up to management, they hesitated to allocate a budget to this project.
I understood why, but I decided not to give up. I spent several weeks creating a prototype in my free time and made a presentation full of information proving my idea’s validity. Management was impressed with my presentation and ultimately gave me a modest budget to pursue the project.
While the final product I created didn’t launch as a standalone app, management implemented my ideas into a larger project many senior developers were working on. It ended up being a core feature of the app my former company still uses today. The elements I came up with were a huge hit and helped the company significantly increase customer engagement.”
Example 2
In our next example, we have a candidate who discusses an obstacle they had communicating with others in a foreign language. This sample answer is excellent because it shows that the job seeker was proactive enough to avoid major problems while being self-aware enough to know when to get help.
“I used to work as an assistant for a team of executives at my last job. I would accompany organization leaders to international locations for meetings. My job was to serve as a liaison and manage the team’s schedule.
We had one trip to France that was well-planned. However, we experienced a last-minute delay that put the entire schedule back by nearly eight hours! At first, the prospect of reaching out to business contacts, hotels, and transportation was overwhelming.
I didn’t speak French, but I knew that calling everyone directly was my only option to reschedule everything last minute.
Instead of panicking and jumping on the phone, I planned everything I would say. I wrote down what I needed to say for every contact before running it through a translator.
I quickly realized that many gate staff and airline customer service representatives spoke fluent French. So, I asked them to review what I had written. They helped me make changes to improve the grammar of my messages.
Then, they taught me how to pronounce everything! Those wonderful people were patient enough to listen to me practice before I called.
After about an hour, I called all those French contacts and successfully modified the team’s schedule. I had no problems, and our trip was a success.
I ultimately decided to take courses to learn the languages of the countries we visited most. While not fluent, I can now confidently get around speaking French, Italian, and Spanish!”
Example 3
Finally, we have a relatively simple response covering a challenge that many people face. This candidate had to increase their workload after a few colleagues left. Their answer reflects what they did to maintain productivity and what they learned.
“The biggest work challenge I’ve ever faced occurred when a couple of work colleagues left. Their departure left me with the workload of three people. While I did my best to keep meeting goals, it wasn’t sustainable long-term.
I reached out to my manager and suggested that we get temporary help from another team. My supervisor didn’t realize that I was struggling with the workload and thanked me for letting them know they needed to streamline the hiring process for replacements.
I worked with a couple of people from another department who taught me many great things. It changed my entire approach to work, and I ended up finding new ways to maximize productivity. When my company eventually hired replacements, I passed those skills on to my new team.
We became very productive and performed better than before! I learned that communicating with my supervisor and asking for help is always a better solution than attempting to do everything myself. That experience led to great results, and I always think of it when faced with challenges today.”
Conclusion
There''s really nothing to fear when talking about a time you overcame a challenge. In fact, you should view this question as an opportunity to leave a great impression!
All it takes is understanding how to approach your answer and a little practice.
Good luck!
The post “What Obstacles Have You Overcome?” Tips & Examples appeared first on Career Sherpa.
