In an HR Interview, it is common to ask candidates about their relationships with previous bosses/managers/professors, etc. Questions like “Have you ever had a conflict with your previous boss/professor?” are commonly asked in interviews. Here we have given a guide to tackle these questions.
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Conflict management is an important skill to have, which the interviewers look for in candidates. It is important for an employee to know how to deal with disagreements. The aim of asking this question is to check how a candidate deals with authority. Employers are not keen to hire candidates who have a history of conflicts with management.
This is a very tricky question to answer. Simply saying a yes or no will not suffice for this situation.
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Refer the sample answers given below.
Once during my fourth semester in college I had a disagreement with one of my professors. We were supposed to submit a project report which consisted of ten marks, and we had to submit before a particular deadline. I submitted the report before the time, however the professor included my name in late submission list, deducting 4 marks and judging my project on 6 marks. This would have heavily affected my gpa for that semester. So I ended up going to the professor. He however was not ready to listen and was adamant that I have submitted my project late. Ultimately I ended up talking with a few other students who were facing the same issue with the professor. Together we went to the professor once more, but the same results. So we took the matter to the HoD, who intervened and spoke with the professor. Then the professor considered our situation and removed our name from the late submission list.
I do not think I have had a conflict with my boss or manager. However there was this one time when my team was working in a cross over project with another department. The work ethic of that department was not compatible with me, and I found a lot of errors in their operations. I repeatedly told my team leader about the errors of their way, however my team leader did not take any actions, asking me to continue working. Ultimately one day it was too much for me and I ended up talking unprofessionaly to my team leader and how he was not doing anything to make the situation better.
My team leader however was a patient person and he calmy explained to me about how certain situations are not in our hand and we cannot do anything about them. He told me that every team has their way of doing things, and we cannot force anyone to work according to our ways.
I understood his point and apologised for my misbehavior.
I ended up arguing with my reporting manager as I found out that I was marked absent for days I had worked, and my salary was deducted accordingly. This came as a shock to me since they had a deducted a huge portion of my salary. I brought to this to my reporting manager’s notice but he paid no attention initially saying that I was absent for those days.
So I went back to my daily activity tracking sheet and took proofs of the work I was doing on the days I was marked absent. With that I reached out to the HR, who was convinced with my proofs. The HR spoke with the reporting manager and ultimately the situation got resolved with them giving me the deducted amount.
Answer:-
It would definitely not be recommended to do so. Telling the interviewer about such situations will lead to a very bad effect on the interviewer and show you as someone not capable of rationality.
Answer:-
If you do not have any incident where you had to manage conflict, you can tell so to the interviewer. However, it is advisable that you mention at least one incident, even if it was not exactly a conflict. Any situation where you had to take a stand against or for something, you can talk about it.
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