How To Answer “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

“How do you handle stress and pressure?”is one of an employer’s trickiest job interview questions. Employers always search for candidates who handle stress well and have the ability to work under pressure. If you do not know how to reply to this question, don’t worry, we are here to guide you!

We will cover everything in this blog, from why the interviewer asks this question to sample answers that you can use as a reference.

Why Employers Ask “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?” In Interview

Interviewers ask, “How do you handle stress and pressure?” for multiple reasons. Here are some of the most common reasons:

To see how pressure impacts you and how you respond to it.
To know if you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses in handling stress and pressure.
Understand your techniques and strategies and how you respond to stress and pressure.
To evaluate how well you have handled situations in the past.

Tips To Answer “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?” In A Job Interview

You should prepare “How do you handle stress and pressure?” Ensure that you stay confident throughout the interview. Here are some tips that you can follow to construct your answer:

Understand The Question: Before answering this question, it is essential to understand why the employer is asking this question in the first place. Stress is an emotion, and it can be considered a classic behavioural interview question. By this question, the interviewer wants to know how you handle difficult situations at the workplace to know if you are the perfect fit for the company.
Discuss Your Successful Stories: The best way to answer this question is by talking about the stressful incidents you overcame professionally. Write down the situations on a piece of paper, combine your answer, and come up with at least two to three impactful examples that fit the job profile.
Talk About Your Soft Skills: While answering “How do you handle stress and pressure?” It is important to list the soft skills you can discuss. The significant reason behind this is that you will likely rely on your soft skills to complete the tasks during the stress and pressure. Besides this, the interviewer will also be interested in knowing how your soft skills can benefit the organisation.
Focus On Positive Aspects: When stress comes in, blaming mistakes on others becomes easy, but this is not right. Instead of focusing on the negatives or blaming others, you can focus on all the positive aspects, such as how you communicated, overcame the situation, learned from this experience, etc.
Discuss How You Handle Difficult Situations: You can also discuss the strategies and methodologies you use to manage stress. Some stress management techniques are:
- Accepting what you cannot control
- Staying positive
- Practising relaxation activities like yoga, exercise, and meditation
- Choosing healthy habits
- Making an everyday to-do list

What To Avoid While Answering: “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

Remember these important points to avoid while answering “How do you handle stress and pressure?”:

Do Not Deny Your Stress: Feeling stressed is natural and happens to everyone. Claiming you do not feel stressed while answering this question can be a red flag for the interviewer. So, try not to deny that you do not get stressed, and instead answer it positively and gracefully, which makes you stand out from the crowd.
Do Not Get Nervous: It’s a tricky question, but do not lose your calm, and stay focused. It will show you are comfortable and confident enough to answer this question. Sometimes nervousness reflects fear, and getting flustered during the interview can hinder your chances of getting hired. So, make an effort to keep eye contact and sit up straight.
Do Not Use A Bad Example: Enlightening your interviewer with relevant experience is extremely important to support your answer. So, when you share your experience, do not discuss the difficult and avoidable situations where you were at fault. It might show your carelessness.

Sample Answers: “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

Here are some sample answers for “How do you handle stress and pressure?” that you can consider:

Sample Answer: 1 “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

When I am stressed about something, I pause and think about how I can prioritise my work to ease the pressure. If I’m working on two projects simultaneously, I become more efficient with my time. I divide my task and see which one takes a longer time to complete. It makes my work more manageable and less stressful.

Sample Answer: 2 “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

To deal with stress and pressure, I always look forward to something positive in every situation. Instead of focusing on the time I have lost in completing the task, I focus on how much progress I can still make. For example, two months ago, multiple employees in my team were on leave, and three were sick. I was left with too much workload, which became overwhelming. However, I did not give up; instead, I made a to-do list of five things I needed to complete in a day. I try to note things, which helps me manage my time and stress.

Sample Answer: 3 “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

I believe that stress is an incentive for me, and I work very well under pressure, even if I’m working on several projects simultaneously. I recently worked on four projects for different clients, but the stress factor encouraged me to do better and smarter work. I gave my best to each client, and they were happy with the finished products.

Sample Answer: 4 “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

When I get stressed and under pressure, I try to drive my mind toward the result I am working for. When I work on something big or challenging, I take a moment to think about my goals, which helps me stay positive and motivated. In my previous job, my manager left without giving us any notice, and our team was scrambled with a lot of work. We segregated our tasks and worked accordingly. During this period, I was designated as the team manager. Fortunately, the result came better than we expected, and we were all really proud of our achievements.

Sample Answer: 5 “How Do You Handle Stress And Pressure?”

I prefer to be calm and focused during stressful times. For example, suppose a client is not approving my creatives. I will communicate with my client, ask about their expectations, and get detailed feedback. Then, I will create a roadmap to complete my tasks and work on my creativity to deliver what they expect.

To Sum It Up!

A perfect employee is not the one who does not stress out, but it is the one who overcomes the situation gracefully. So, learn from such situations, and show your employer why you are the ideal fit for the company.

Follow our tips to answer “How do you handle stress and pressure?” and ace that next big job interview. Good luck!