We asked Rodney Larmand, President at College Pro Painters Canada, for his take on how to answer one of the many odd and confusing questions you might encounter during your next job interview. Read on, and good luck!

What is an example of a challenge you have faced while working on an important project?
I like this question because it's general enough that it makes you think of an example, process through it and then explain it back to me. You can bet I'll be following up with lots of questions to learn the details of how you worked through the challenge.
First though, I'll try to establish why the project was meaningful. I want to make sure this project was important to you because we all like to think that when you come work with us you're going to find all the work you do to be very meaningful ' or we hope so anyway! Throughout your professional life you will face setbacks, and when something is important to you and it isn't going well, your emotions can really begin to get in the way of your performance. What I want to know is what does that emotional rollercoaster look like? How did you react in the situation? Were you able to control your emotions? Perhaps you flipped out but then moved on and still got the job done? Or did it take you several weeks to process and get over the issue?
We are all emotional beings, and as much as we don't like to admit it, our emotions govern our behaviours. We are all going to have hard times keeping it together at some point ' especially when we have a lot on the line ' but some people are better than others at taking that stress, pushing it aside and still executing at a high level. You can see this in high level athletes in how they train with sports psychologists. For athletes, the difference in performance is often being able to deal with the stress of competition and pushing it aside so that they can go and execute at a high level. This ability to control your emotions in pursuit of a meaningful goal is one of the major traits I look for in a good candidate. jp