Situational interview questions are structured, predetermined questions that require an applicant to respond to what they would do in a hypothetical situation related to the job of interest. The hypothetical situation usually involves some kind of dilemma or choice of responses.

Example of question:

A customer comes into the store to pick up a watch he had left for repair. The repair was supposed to have been completed a week ago, but the watch is not yet back from the repair shop. The customer becomes very angry. How would you handle this situation?

Example of scoring key:

1 = Tell the customer it isn’t back yet and ask him/her to check back later

2 =

3 = Apologize, tell the customer that you will check into the problem and call him/her back later

4 =

5 = Put the customer at ease and call the repair shop while the customer waits

Using this example, you should write a situational interview question and develop a scoring key to evaluate answers to your question. Administer it to friends and assess their responses.

Specifically, write a question for the job of a women’s shoes salesperson. Remember, pose a hypothetical situation that might happen on the job, and ask the applicant what he/she would do in that situation. You should create the question and the rating scale that you would use.

Question:

Rating Scale:

1 =

2 =

3 =

4 =

5 =

Also answer: What did you think of the situational interview?