Employers want to know how you would tackle problems. Can you use logic and imagination to find solutions? Better still, can you anticipate problems and find ways to prevent them?
Good problem-solvers possess the following skills:
- analytical skills
- innovative and creative thinking
- a lateral mindset
- adaptability and flexibility
- level-headedness
- initiative
- resilience (in order to reassess when your first idea doesn’t work)
- teamworking (if problem solving is a team effort)
- influencing skills (to get colleagues, clients and bosses to adopt your solutions).
How can you prove your problem-solving skills?
You might be asked in an interview to talk about a time you solved a problem, or you could be given a hypothetical situation and asked how you would respond to it e.g.
Give me an example of a time when you ran into a problem on a project. What did you do?
OR
How would you react if given negative feedback by a manager on an aspect of your performance?
In both these cases, you should refer to the above list of skills and how you demonstrated each when giving your answer.
Developing your problem-solving techniques
The following situations are all good examples of using problem-solving skills:
- Sorting out a technical problem with your phone, device or computer.
- Resolving a dispute with a tricky landlord in order to get your deposit back.
- Carrying out DIY.
- Serving a demanding customer or resolving a complaint.
- Finding a way round a funding shortfall in order to pay for travel or a gap year.
- Turning around the finances or increasing the membership of a struggling student society.
- Organising a student society’s trip overseas, overcoming unforeseen difficulties on the way.
- Acting as a course rep or as a mentor for other students.
- Course assignments that involve problem solving
Articulating your skills
You will need to explain how you identified the problem, came up with a solution and implemented it. Follow the STAR technique outlined on our website. If you tackled a problem as part of a team, explain how your role was important in ensuring the positive solution, but also explain how your group worked together. This could be an opportunity to promote your teamworking skills as well – bonus!
For more advice on developing your problem-solving technique, visit the Target website