Shadowing Practice: Tell me a time You Handled a Difficult Situation (Interview Question) - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Having that perfect fairytale ending to the interview question, tell me about a difficult situation, challenge or conflict, and how you handled it, is sort of like saying,
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oh, I just work really hard when answering what's your biggest weakness.
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Both answers seem a little too good to be true.
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Unfortunately, a lot of good candidates fall into the trap of
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thinking a flawless conflict resolution is all that's required to pass this question.
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But as soon as the interviewer follows up with additional questions, that facade starts to crack and break because let's be real,
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very rarely are workplace conflicts so cleanly resolved.
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In this video, I'll show you how having a less than ideal outcome can still make for a powerful answer,
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share how we can apply learnings from Nelson Mandela to this interview question, and provide a full sample answer at the very end.
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So let's get started.
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Hi friends, welcome back to the channel.
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If you're new here, my name is Jeff, and we're all about practical career and interview tips.
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So if you're a current student or working professional, consider subscribing for more actual content.
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The key to coming up with a realistic
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and meaningful answer to the how did you handle a difficult situation interview question is to first understand
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that the interviewer is not looking for a perfect ending.
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Instead, you wanna show number one, you are able to listen to and accept other people's point of views even if you have already formed your own opinion.
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And number two, you're able to put the needs of the business above your own
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when a conflict does arise in the workplace.
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In a way, any outcome you end your answer with is simply a byproduct of how well you did those two things.
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Starting with the ability to hold your tongue and hear everyone else out.
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This is important because any hiring manager knows that workplace conflict is inevitable
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and in many cases necessary for a healthy team dynamic.
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I'll link a study published in the Harvard Business Review on that topic down below.
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And this is where the famous quote from Nelson Mandela comes in, be the last one to speak.
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In a professional context, especially one where a conflict is involved, good managers know that letting the other person feel heard is half the battle,
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even if that person's ideas are rejected in the end.
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So a core part of your answer to, tell me a time you dealt with conflict on the job, should involve some version of you asking the other party
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to expand on the reasons as to why they believe they are correct.
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Then you show that you have fully understood their point of view by paraphrasing the answer and repeating it back to them.
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This tells the interviewer you have generally tried to put yourself in their shoes.
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This part of your answer should fall under the action category of your overall structure, which we'll come back to in a little bit.
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By the way, please let me know down in the comments if you're getting value from this video so far.
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And while down there, make sure to click that like button three times as it would mean the world to me.
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Moving on to putting the needs of the business above your own.
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This part is more self-explanatory.
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The hiring manager needs to know
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that they're hiring a team player who's willing to put aside personal differences for the sake of the organization.
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To put it bluntly, are you willing to let your pride take a hit to show
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that you can take the high road and be a professional?
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To convey this point effectively, you pinpoint the exact moment where all parties involved are at the most risk of losing face.
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Then show how you deescalate the situation by providing a platform for everyone to step down on.
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Common best practices here include suggesting a cool off period and revisiting the situation a day after,
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or even acknowledging the other direction or idea has more merits than your own and could potentially be a better solution.
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This part of your answer should be under the result category of your overall structure
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and should clearly show how the broader team or business benefited as a result of your actions.
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At this point, many of my regular viewers will know the answer structure I'm referring to.
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Yes, I am talking about a good old buddy, Carl.
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Context, action, results, and learnings.
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I've done a whole video on why Carl is a superior answer structure to the STAR method, so make sure to check that out if you haven't already.
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While context and learnings play a complementary role for this specific compared to the more important action and results pillars.
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There are several pro tips I can share here as well.
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The context part of your answer should mention a relevant conflict you might realistically face in the new role you're applying for.
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For example, if you're applying for a job in a technology company where the team structures are relatively flat,
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a meaningful conflict is how you try to influence others without authority and the challenges that you faced.
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For the learnings part, this is simply an opportunity for you to recap what you did, explain why it was a correct course of action in that instance,
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and what you would do in a similar situation next time.
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Putting all this together, here's your sample answer you can reference.
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Hopefully you'll be able to see that even though the result was less than perfect, it makes for a very convincing and meaningful answer.
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Okay, Jeff, could you please tell me about a difficult work situation and how you handled it? Of course.
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So a few weeks ago, a colleague on another team approached me asking for my help.
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She had just developed a new training program for our clients
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and she wanted to leverage some of the content my team had created.
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Usually this wouldn't be a problem, but we found out very quickly that because she had her own program landing page and we had ours,
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having the same content on both our platforms would have caused confusion for our users.
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Because there were clearly some synergies between our projects, we decided to sit down
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and having brainstorming session to figure out how we can help her achieve her goals without completely changing our existing infrastructure.
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Over the course of two days, I asked her a series of questions that helped us map out the user journey for her clients and mine.
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She was actually surprised I took the time to do this
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because usually other team members would just tell her yes or no based on her initial proposal.
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Unfortunately, even after two days, we were unable to figure out a good solution without having to deprecate one of our landing pages.
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So we agreed to consult a manager who had experience in this area.
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The manager acknowledged this was a tricky situation, and after referencing a similar project that she's worked on in the past, she gave us a solution
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that involved directing some of my existing users to my colleague's platform that will only host more advanced content.
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While this meant less traffic to my colleague and myself in the short term, this was clearly beneficial to the end user,
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and we kept the same content from showing up on two different platforms.
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Looking back, while we did need to consult a manager for this particular situation, I was pretty proud of how we exhausted all our options before exploring alternatives.
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We learned a lot from that user mapping exercise, and we actually came up with new ideas during the brainstorm sessions.
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And it taught me that next time, it's probably smart to involve a third party with experience in that area, right from the beginning, to be more efficient.
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As you can see, the candidate, who is surprisingly handsome, did a good job on both one and two.
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He first showed that he was open to hearing new perspectives, even if it meant extra work, and then was willing to suffer a short-term loss for the benefit of the client and business.
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If you're interviewing right now, feel free to check out my playlist on comment interview questions and answers that I'll link right there, and make sure to subscribe if you haven't already.
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See you on the next video.
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In the meantime, have a great one.
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Vocabulario y notas de pronunciación para esta lección
Esta lección de conversación de nivel B2 se basa en el vídeo “Tell me a time You Handled a Difficult Situation”. Las palabras que más se repiten: answer, conflict, situation, manager. Este vídeo tiene 84 frases y 1428 palabras para practicar shadowing. La parte hablada dura 6:57. El hablante habla rápido, unas 206 palabras por minuto, así que espera sonidos enlazados y reducidos. El 86 % de las palabras está entre las 3.000 más comunes del inglés; conviene repasar el resto antes de empezar.
Vocabulario clave de este vídeo
Las 15 palabras más avanzadas del vídeo, con su pronunciación y significado:
| Palabra | Pronunciación | Significado |
|---|---|---|
| interviewer sustantivo | /ˈɪntɚvjuɚ/ | entrevistador, entrevistadora |
| workplace sustantivo | /ˈwɝkˌpleɪs/ | lugar de trabajo, curro |
| meaningful adjetivo | /ˈmiː.nɪŋ.fl̩/ | significativo |
| colleague sustantivo | /ˈkɒliːɡ/ | colega, compañero |
| subscribe verbo | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | suscribirse, subscribirse |
| acknowledge verbo | /əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/ | reconocer |
| bluntly adverbio | /ˈblʌntli/ | sin ambages / circunloquio |
| brainstorm sustantivo | /ˈbɹeɪnstɔɹm/ | ocurrencia, gracia |
| brainstorming sustantivo | tormenta de ideas, lluvia de ideas | |
| explanatory adjetivo | /ɪkˈsplæn.ə.t(ɔː.)ɹi/ | explicativo |
| facade sustantivo | /fəˈsɑ(ː)d/ | fachada, frontispicio |
| paraphrase verbo | /ˈpæɹəfɹeɪz/ | parafrasear |
| revisit verbo | /ɹiːˈvɪzɪt/ | revisitar |
| synergy sustantivo | /ˈsɪnəɹd͡ʒi/ | sinergia |
| complementary adjetivo | /ˌkɑmplɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi/ | complementario |
Phrasal verbs que vas a escuchar
| Palabra | Significado |
|---|---|
| come up with verbo | ingeniar, ingeniarse |
| figure out verbo | averiguar, captar |
| check out verbo | investigar, chequear |
| find out verbo | averiguar, anoticiarse |
| look back verbo | recordar, volver la cabeza |
| put aside verbo | dejar de lado |
| sit down verbo | sentarse |
Gramática en este vídeo
Las estructuras que más usa el hablante, con las palabras exactas del vídeo:
| Estructura | En el vídeo |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio pasado — una acción pasada que sigue importando ahora | have already formed · I've done |
| Voz pasiva be + participio pasado — importa lo que ocurre, no quién lo hace | is involved · are rejected |
Pronunciación a tener en cuenta
El hablante usa 20 contracciones y formas reducidas, como you're, I'll, haven't. Dilas en su forma corta, tal como las oyes.
- Los sonidos de “sh” y “zh”: beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, confusion /kənˈfjuːʒən/
- Palabras largas — cuida el acento: explanatory /ɪkˈsplæn.ə.t(ɔː.)ɹi/, complementary /ˌkɑmplɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi/, inevitable /ɪˈnɛvɪtəbəl/, beneficial /ˌbɛn.ɪˈfɪʃ.əl/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/
Sonidos difíciles para hispanohablantes:
- /v/ — no es /b/: los dientes tocan el labio inferior: interviewer /ˈɪntɚvjuɚ/, revisit /ɹiːˈvɪzɪt/, viewer /ˈvju.ɚ/, convey /kənˈveɪ/, leverage /ˈlɛv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/
- /z/ — sonora, no /s/: paraphrase /ˈpæɹəfɹeɪz/, revisit /ɹiːˈvɪzɪt/, exhaust /ɪɡˈzɔst/, arise /əˈɹaɪz/, surprisingly /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋli/
- /dʒ/ — no es la “y” ni la “ch”: acknowledge /əkˈnɑ.lɪd͡ʒ/, synergy /ˈsɪnəɹd͡ʒi/, leverage /ˈlɛv.(ə.)ɹɪd͡ʒ/
Cómo practicar con este vídeo
- Escucha el vídeo entero una vez sin hablar y anota las palabras que no conoces.
- Empieza a velocidad 0,75×, haz shadowing frase por frase y vuelve a la velocidad normal cuando te resulte fácil.
- Grábate y compara con el original, prestando atención a palabras como interviewer, workplace, meaningful.
¿Qué es la Técnica de Shadowing?
Shadowing es una técnica de aprendizaje de idiomas respaldada por la ciencia, desarrollada originalmente para la formación de intérpretes profesionales y popularizada por el políglota Dr. Alexander Arguelles. El método es simple pero poderoso: escuchas audio en inglés nativo y lo repites en voz alta de inmediato, como una sombra que sigue al hablante con solo 1-2 segundos de retraso. A diferencia de la escucha pasiva o los ejercicios de gramática, el shadowing obliga a tu cerebro y músculos de la boca a procesar y reproducir simultáneamente patrones de habla reales. Las investigaciones muestran que mejora significativamente la precisión de la pronunciación, la entonación, el ritmo, el habla conectada, la comprensión auditiva y la fluidez al hablar, convirtiéndola en una de las metodologías más efectivas para la preparación del IELTS Speaking y la comunicación en inglés en el mundo real.