Answering hypothetical questions in job interviews

In most job interviews you will be asked a question about what you would do in an hypothetical/imaginary situation. It's one of the most difficult questions to answer well, because unlike other questions you'll be asked (e.g. 'What makes you suitable for this job?', 'Why do you want to leave your current job?' etc...), it is impossible to prepare an answer beforehand.

But although you can't prepare an answer to give for this type of question (because you will have no idea what particular situation they are going to ask you about), you can plan for it.

In this article, I will explain how you can plan to answer hypothetical questions in job interviews. You'll find out what types of situations you can expect to be asked about, what type of things to say in your answer and how to say them.

To see an example answer of a hypothetical job interview question, see the online exercise I've created on answering hypothetical questions.

But in order to plan for them, you first need to know why interviewers ask this type of question in interviews.

The purposes of hypothetical questions

Interviewers ask this type of question in interviews precisely because people can't prepare a set answer before the interview. As a result, people are less likely in theory to lie (or be liberal with the truth) in the answer they give about their skills, abilities and experience.

But knowing just this won't you to help plan an answer for this type of question. What will do, is knowing what the interviewers use your answer to test or find out about you:

  • To assess your problem solving skills
  • To see how quickly you can think on the spot
  • To see how you express yourself
  • To see if you have the relevant work experience for the position

Knowing that interviewers use hypothetical questions to find out these four things about you, is essential for not only knowing what type of things to say, but how to say them.

But before you find out about how to do these, you need to be clear about what type of questions they'll ask you about a hypothetical situation.

The type of question you'll be asked

The question you'll be asked will be about solving a common (and probably a serious) work related problem. In the majority of cases, the problem will be one you'll likely encounter in the job that you are applying for.

For example, if you were applying to run a bar/pub, they could ask you a question on one of the following situations:

  • How you would deal with a customer complaint about food?
  • How you would deal with an aggressive customer?
  • What you would do if there was a case of employee theft?

So think about possible problem scenarios that could happen in the job that you have an interview for and make a list of them.

Think about solutions and actions

The next step is to think about what you would do to resolve them. Think about what actions you would take (e.g. I would speak to the person in private, I would call a member of security etc...).

But interviewers are not just looking to hear about what you would do, but why you would do them. So for any important action, you need to explain the reason behind doing it. For example:

'I would then alert a member of the bar's security team to the situation with the customer. This is to make sure that they are ready to deal with him or her both quickly and safely if they are uncooperative or become aggressive.'

You can also think about actions that you wouldn't do. It's perfectly fine to talk about these in your answer. But if you do, make sure that you explain why.

Need to show your experience

Companies and organisations generally don't like to take risks. They avoid them wherever possible, because it's bad for business. Unfortunately for them, one of the areas that they can't avoid taking a risk is with employing new staff. Until a candidate starts with them, they have no idea if the person can do what they say they can.

One of the things you can do to make you seem less risky to employ is to keep referring to your work experience in all the answers that you give in the interview. In the case of answering hypothetical questions, tell them that you have faced and resolved similar problems at work in the past (say you have even if you haven't).

I would recommend that you always say in the first part of your answer when you are asked a hypothetical question something like, 'I faced a similar situation recently'. But it doesn't stop there. Keep refering to your work experience throughout the rest of the answer by using phrases like, 'I always find...', 'you need to ensure that...' etc...

Structuring your answer

Now that you know what to say and how to say it, the last thing you need to focus on is the structure of your answer. The structure you should use, is like what you would do when telling a story: It has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Where your answer differs from telling a story, is in the beginning. In this part, start by telling the interviewer(s) that the situation they have asked you about happens unfortunately too often. Follow this by saying that you have resolved a similar problem in the past and briefly explain what that situation was.

In the middle, you just need to tell them what actions you would do. As I have mentioned earlier, give reasons why you would do these action. Also, make sure the actions flow logically and that you refer to your extensive work experience by using certain phrases (e.g. 'I always find').

In the last part, start by saying what the last action you would do to resolve the problem would be. But finish (and it is what many people don't do) by giving some insight which the problem reveals about how to do the job well. For example:

'Running a bar is not just about selling drinks. It's also about creating a happy and safe environment for both the staff and customers. And if you don't know how to deal with aggressive or very drunk customers in a quick and safe manner, you won't have this.'

What next?

Now you know the theory of how to plan and answer an hypothetical question in an interview, you should look at an example of an answer. To see an example answer and to learn vocabulary you can use in your own answer, do my online exercise on hypothetical job interview questions.

In conclusion

As I said at the very beginning of this article, it is impossible to know what you will actually be asked in a hypothetical question. But you will know what the topic of the question will be; resolving a work related problem connected to the job you are applying for.

Knowing this and what the interviewers are using the question to find out about you, means that you can both come up with possible scenarios/situations and plan how to answer the question (what you will say, how you will say it and in what order you say it in) before you do the job interview.

Even if they ask you about resolving a problem you didn't think about before, the preparation and planning you carried out before the interview, will help you to quickly come up with an answer that you will be pleased with.

In addition to this article, we have a lot of other free online exercises on CVs/resumes and job interviews vocabulary and techniques.