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A Challenging Situation I’ve Faced, Essay Example

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Everyone has been confronted with challenges throughout their lives, especially during their formative years in which adolescents and young adults have not yet developed effective coping mechanisms in order to grow . A handful of those struggles unequivocally have changed who a person is and how one approaches and views life. The biggest challenge I have faced thus far in my short life is my shyness, which has caused me immense anxiety both in education settings and in my social life. I have always felt a heightened level of anxiety and stress in so many situations, even just participating in class to an objective question about the reading. My teachers would always encourage me to speak in class because they said I have a lot of contribute, but I could never muster up to courage to volunteer so I would shy away as my heart started to beat faster prior to actually raising my hand.. I felt as though I had a physiological reaction that overwhelmed me, and I could not overcome the feeling. I felt ashamed, so my academic studies suffered as a result of this herculean challenge I confronted on a quotidian basis.

Despite this challenge, I soon realized I needed to have a strong desire to overcome my shyness, which was a protracted process and did not happen overnight. I believe I have come a long way as a result of my performance and success in the arena of athletics. I excelled as a basketball player and  track and field, and constant reaffirmation from my coaches, teammates, and friends slowing gave me more confidence as a student and athlete.  High school instilled that desire in me to change because I was so sick of freezing up in certain social situations and in the classroom. Speaking in front of people, especially my classmates, used to make me feel sick to my stomach.

I also decried the fact that my shyness hindered me from being an effective leader and communicator. Ironically, I want to pursue a career in politics, so I knew I had to overcome my shyness in order to develop as a person, a leader, and a social individual who is not afraid to express an opinion out of fear of humiliation.

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Essays About Life Challenges: Top 5 Examples and 6 Prompts

Essays about life challenges let us share our valuable experiences and lessons in life. See our top examples and prompts to assist you in writing your essay.

Life challenges envelop the obstacles we face to reach where we are now. These personal crises we had to deal with have left us with lessons we can use to grow as people and have better lives. Essays that tackle this subject help us reflect on our experiences so we can remember our failures, celebrate our successes, and appreciate our growth. You can also check out these essays about life .

5 Essay Examples

1. african refugees life challenges by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 2. overcoming challenges in my life: dyslexia by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 3. a self-reflection of my life challenges, motivation, and persistence to achieve my goals by terence hampton, 4. young generation’s challenges in life and career by anonymous on ivypanda.com, 5. role of challenges in identification of purposes in life by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 1. before and after life challenges, 2. extreme life challenges and mental health, 3. the role of family when dealing with life challenges, 4. life challenges at work, 5. the different effects of life challenges, 6. overcoming life challenges.

“The refugees are allowed to live in these camps and receive emergency food and medical care until they feel it is secure enough for them to go back to their domiciles or until they are reunited with their people living out of the campers.” 

This essay gives readers an insight into the everyday challenges of refugees living in a camp. The author describes their situation in detail to let the readers understand their suffering and how difficult it is to be away from their homes. The essay further includes relevant statistics and studies to showcase the astounding number of refugees worldwide, including how they became refugees. 

Refugee camps still exist today, intending to relieve refugees from their challenging situations. Creating a challenging environment for many refugees living in this situation. You might be interested in these essays about cause and effect .

“As a child, I can remember when people were reassuring me that I was such a bright and outgoing kid. But there were times that I didn’t feel that way. I’ve always thought they were wrong about me and just trying to get my self-esteem up… ”

In this essay, the author shares their difficulties with having dyslexia, noting how growing up with this disability put them through overwhelming pressure and unpleasant situations that made them self-conscious. Their disability triggered many emotions that made them constantly embarrassed or panicky. 

However, the writer recognizes how their disability helped them improve their communication skills and reflects on how their challenging time at school molded them into who they are today. You can also check out these essays about conflict and essays about stress .

“I refuse to let adversity crush me because that would mean that my family and I would have done all this suffering for nothing. I do not live in vain, I live for a purpose and that is to inspire people to be more than what they think they are capable of. No day is promised, but the future is always full of possibilities.”

Hampton starts this essay by recognizing how life continuously throws him challenges. Still, he decides to only reflect on the most significant impact on his character, namely, his brother’s arrest, his twin brother Dante’s disability, and his father’s death. Throughout the piece, Hampton narrates these obstacles, letting the readers know what they made him feel and how they affected him as an individual. 

When he thinks back to these difficulties, he realizes what his objectives should be, encouraging him to be a better person. Hampton tells his readers that these challenges inspire him to reach his goals. Check out these essays about life lessons .

“Being the age of twenty-four years, I have encountered and seen the various challenges that many youths in this generation are experiencing. The list of challenges facing the youth in the current generation is endless with most of them having great impacts on the entire globe.”

As a young person, the author lets the audience in on the challenges they face and centers the essay around the hurdles youth are expected to deal with. The writer focuses on the difficulty of gaining employment despite years of formal training. This essay looks at current challenges facing today’s youth and how to overcome them.

“When you are faced with a challenge, especially one that pushes your limits, you sometimes behave differently. I’m not sure how to explain it…but there is occasionally a moment when you feel absolutely drained — like you can’t take one more step or your arms are about to fail you — but if you have the right mindset you can pull the strength you need from a part of you that is not commonly used.”

This essay focuses on how challenges can be used to enhance self-identification. The author explains how difficulties in life are commonly related to experiential learning, which helps people reflect, grow, and change. The author also believes that the most challenging times bring out the bravest in us, and the more we get used to these challenges, the more we develop our “superhero power.” 

6 Prompts for Essays About Life Challenges

Begin your essay by sharing a personal experience about a life-changing challenge you had to endure. Reminisce about your life before this occurred, and delve into how you felt during the challenge, then describe overcoming the challenge and how it shaped you. You can split your essay into three sections to dedicate thought to each part of the process. Make sure to use descriptive language and share your feelings with the reader for an engaging piece of writing.

The effects of life challenges differ for each person. For this prompt, research severe life challenges that can significantly damage an individual and add relevant statistics that prove these cases. These occurrences include childhood abuse, long-term stress, and social isolation. Conduct research and describe how experiencing these challenges can result in mental health issues such as depression and anxiety. Tip: Make sure to cite research from credible sources. 

Our upbringing shapes how we confront challenges and find resolutions. These lessons are communicated through events we are exposed to as children and young adults. In this essay, describe the ways that different upbringings can impact our ability to cope with challenges. 

For example, a child who grew up in a family where anger was used to resolve challenges may be more likely to deal with their own challenges in a negative way, resulting in anger and anxiety. Look for studies that support this prompt and identify the importance of a family unit in a child’s reaction to life challenges. Check out our 20 engaging essay topics about family .

To narrow down the subject for your essay, focus on an aspect of an individual’s life they can’t remove, such as livelihood. Use this prompt to open a discussion about the challenges people face in their workplace and find cases that illustrate these difficulties. 

For example, there are 48.6 million Americans who have experienced workplace bullying. Delve into the reasons for these issues and offer possible solutions.

Overcoming tough challenges in life may lead to positive or negative results. Divide your essay into two parts, list the pros and cons of dealing with everyday life challenges, and add relevant factors that lead to those outcomes. 

Here’s an example: After the death of a loved one, an individual will learn how to deal with the pain and continue living their life with a stronger faith. On the other hand, they may succumb to sadness and become depressed.

For this prompt, choose a specific life challenge you had to deal with and how you addressed the situation. Narrate the difficulties you needed to manage during that time and ensure to highlight the qualities or values you used to overcome them.

Following the previous point’s example, if you have experienced losing a close relative, your struggles could include consoling your family and yourself while needing to oversee how the deceased’s funeral and estate are handled. You can describe how you overcame this challenge by remaining composed and wise throughout the ordeal. 

Looking for more? Check out our guide on how to write essays about depression .

Maria Caballero is a freelance writer who has been writing since high school. She believes that to be a writer doesn't only refer to excellent syntax and semantics but also knowing how to weave words together to communicate to any reader effectively.

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Blog > Essay Advice , Supplementals > How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

How to Write a Personal Challenge Essay (with Examples)

Admissions officer reviewed by Ben Bousquet, M.Ed Former Vanderbilt University

Written by Kylie Kistner, MA Former Willamette University Admissions

Key Takeaway

This post is one in a series of posts about the supplemental essays. You can read our core “how-to” supplemental post here .

What is a Personal Challenge supplemental essay?

Personal Challenge supplemental essays ask you to pick a personal challenge you’ve faced, detail how the problem affected you, and describe the action steps you took to overcome it.

These essays can be challenging for students for two main reasons. First, many students feel like they haven’t faced a problem significant enough to talk about. And second, other students have faced a significant problem but may not feel comfortable discussing it in a college essay.

So why do colleges want to know about a challenge you’ve faced anyway?

Well, admissions offices know that life in college and beyond doesn’t always go as expected. Colleges want to see that you’re resourceful, resilient, and capable of thinking critically to solve problems.

At their core, Personal Challenge essay prompts let you to strategically pick a problem you’ve faced and write about how you worked to solve it.

Before we continue, it’s worth saying explicitly: you do not have to talk about trauma you’ve experienced to get into college. No admissions officer will ever want to read anything you’re not ready to share. In fact, sharing negative experiences before you’re ready can actually work against you. Writing about a situation that you haven’t yet come to terms with can result in an essay that is overall too negative and not forward-looking enough to meet the requirements of Personal Challenge essay prompts.

That caveat out of the way, let’s look at three Personal Challenge supplemental essay prompt examples.

1: Brown University

Brown’s culture fosters a community in which students challenge the ideas of others and have their ideas challenged in return, promoting a deeper and clearer understanding of the complex issues confronting society. This active engagement in dialogue is as present outside the classroom as it is in academic spaces. Tell us about a time you were challenged by a perspective that differed from your own. How did you respond? (200-250 words)

2: Colorado School of Mines

Florence Caldwell was the first woman to graduate from Mines. She enrolled in 1895 and found that her fellow classmates discouraged her attendance. She persevered through that discouragement and graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering in 1898. She was described as a problem-solver, who was loyal, kind, and sympathetic to others and displayed unwavering courage. Describe a time when you overcame an obstacle, persevered through a situation, or displayed characteristics similar to Florence Caldwell. (500 words)

3: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation?

Personal Challenge Essay Strategy

When an admissions officer reads your essay among thousands of others , your supplemental essays are one of the main tools you have to stand out. The key to writing a strong Personal Challenge essay is picking the right challenge to talk about.

Personal Challenge essays are all about finding a delicate balance. While your challenge should be a genuine one that you’ve had to wrestle with, it shouldn’t be so challenging that you can’t write about it in a way that is ultimately positive.

While you don’t have to reveal anything you don’t want to, you should choose a genuine challenge.

“Genuine” problems are those that present real challenges to you, your way of thinking, or your overall lived experience.

They are significant. That means that a genuine problem is more than sleeping in late and missing a test. It’s more than losing your big baseball game or forgetting to put gas in the car before a road trip.

Genuine problems don’t necessarily have to be life-changing, but they do have to be deeply meaningful.

Significant challenges might include:

• conflict or disagreements with friends or loved ones
• information or an event that challenged your worldview
• a significant change or loss
• reconciling with differences
• Dealing with a disadvantage that sets you apart from others

Pick a challenge that lets you refer to one of your strengths.

Personal Challenge essay questions are actually questions about your strengths in the face of adversity. Since all college essays should be rooted in strengths, your supplemental essays should be no different.

The challenge you pick shouldn’t be a covert way to brag about yourself, but it should represent one of your personal characteristics that is ultimately positive.

Whether your goal is to show your resilience, problem-solving abilities, compassion, understanding, fortitude, or something else, your Personal Challenge essay should work to showcase one of your strengths.

Take the “more phoenix, less ashes” approach.

This is one of the most difficult parts of writing Personal Challenge essays. By nature, Personal Challenge essays are about a challenge. That means that you’re inevitably going to be writing about something difficult.

But essays that only focus on the negative aren’t ultimately serving your college admissions goals. The ultimate goal of a personal challenge essay is to demonstrate how you’ve grown, developed, and changed through dealing with a problem.

The essay isn’t about the problem itself. It’s about your growth.

“More phoenix, less ashes” is a helpful way to remember to focus on the positivity. The phrase refers to the mythology of the phoenix, which rises from the ashes of a predecessor. By focusing more on the phoenix and less on the ashes, you’re focusing on the life, hope, and resilience that comes in the aftermath of a challenge.

How to Write a Personal Challenge Supplemental Essay

Step 1: Read the prompt.

As you’ve seen from the example Personal Challenge prompts, there are a few ways schools ask these kinds of questions.

Some ask you to focus on a time your perspective was challenged, others ask you to discuss a time you overcame a challenge, and others yet give you the freedom to discuss any personal challenge you want.

You’ll need to know which kind of prompt you’re responding to before you begin brainstorming, so analyzing the prompt closely should always be your first step.

Step 2: Brainstorm some challenges.

Since picking the right kind of challenge is important to writing a good Personal Challenge supplemental essay, it’s probably a good idea to brainstorm a few different options.

This structured brainstorming chart might help you sort through different areas of your life to identify particular challenges.

Step 3: List your action steps, think about what’s at stake, and find a positive focus.

To maintain sight of “more phoenix, less ashes,” it may be helpful to list out a few specific details for each challenge you’re considering writing about.

Specifically, think about three criteria:

• Action Steps: What specific actions did you take to confront the challenge?
• What’s at stake?: Why is this challenge one of genuine concern? What implications did it (or its solution) have to your life?
• Resolution & Lessons: How was the challenge resolved? What were the positive lessons or outcomes that you learned as a result?

Step 4: Pay special attention to your essay structure.

“More phoenix, less ashes” also means structuring your essay in a way that keeps the focus on the positive outcome rather than the challenge.

If the story about your challenge or difficulty takes up 80% of your essay, then there’s a good chance that you haven’t written enough to address the phoenix instead of the ashes. The best way to structure a Personal Challenge essay is to quickly pivot from discussing the challenge to discussing your actions, solutions, and reflections.

Depending on the prompt you’re responding to, your outline may look something like this:

I. Introduce the challenge

II. Describe inciting incident (what caused things to change for the better?)

III. Detail the action steps you took

IV. Expand on your solution

IV. Reflect on the lessons you learned and relate them to the prompt

Personal Challenge Essay Mistakes

Writing about a fake problem.

Since Personal Challenge essays should be about genuine challenges, few things are worse than writing about a fake problem.

“Fake” problems are those that didn’t actually affect you very much. The stakes were relatively low, and your worldview wasn’t significantly altered.

An example of a fake problem would be

Writing about a “convenient” problem.

A “convenient” problem is like a “fake” problem, but it’s one that conveniently allows you to talk about an accomplishment.

Here’s an example:

The biggest obstacle I’ve faced was when my team was down 88-90 in the state basketball finals. There was only one second left on the clock. My team was really starting to get discouraged, so I called everyone together to rally them back up. When the clock started back up, I sunk a three-pointer.

While that obstacle was obviously important in the writer’s life, the story itself comes across as a convenient way to talk about their team leadership and athletic abilities.

Writing an essay that only discusses problems, not solutions.

To return to the phrase we’ve been using, it’s a mistake to write a Personal Challenge essay that is all ashes and no phoenix. If you weigh your reader down with all the heavy details related to your story, it’ll be hard for them to climb out of those details to see your overall message.

To make it easier for them, only include the details that are necessary to understanding your story. Then quickly move on to addressing your action steps, solutions, and reflection.

Personal Challenge Supplemental Essay Example

Example essay: lead pipes.

MIT: Tell us about a significant challenge you’ve faced (that you feel comfortable sharing) or something that didn’t go according to plan. How did you manage the situation? (~200 words)

Two times a day, I fill up my Hydroflask at the drinking fountain near Room 124. With over 1,000 Hydroflasks of water total, this daily ritual has sustained me through countless lectures, math tests, and in-class essays. What I didn’t realize until last May was that this ritual was also slowly poisoning me.(( This introduction draws the reader in and states a compelling and significant problem.))

Built in the 1920s, my school contains a network of lead-covered pipes. Recent tests of the drinking fountain by Room 124 found over 5,000 parts per billion (ppb) of lead–4,985 more ppb than is considered safe to drink. I started organizing my schoolmates immediately after learning this news, and I put together a petition to the school board. With my Hydroflask in tow, I stood before the board and made our case.(( The writer focuses on the latter part of the prompt to answer the question: “How did you manage the situation?” By focusing on the efforts rather than the problem, the student maintains a “more phoenix, fewer ashes” approach that highlights their strengths rather than the problem.)) Unsafe water in our schools was unacceptable, and the board needed to prioritize the health of its students and staff members. We needed renovations.

After weeks of deliberation, the school board announced its decision to delay renovations. They were concerned about budget constraints. My entire community felt betrayed and disheartened. Not one to settle, I decided if the current board members wouldn’t prioritize our health, then we would elect board members who would. Since then, I have been volunteering with two board campaigns, canvasing our neighborhood, and continuing to organize my classmates to advocate for our health.(( Even though the problem became worse, the writer continues to focus on their actions instead.))

There’s not much I can do about the lead I’ve already consumed, but I’ll continue fighting to keep future CHS students safe.

Interested in seeing even more supplemental essay examples? We've got some of our favorites in our list of college essay examples .

Liked that? Try this next.

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Experiencing hardship and adversity

The role of resilience in times of crisis, building resilience tip 1: practice acceptance, tip 2: reach out to others, tip 3: invest in self-care, tip 4: look for meaning and purpose, tip 5: stay motivated, surviving tough times by building resilience.

Whether you’re facing a global or personal crisis—or a mix of both—building resilience can help you cope with stress, overcome adversity, and enjoy the better days to come.

Lately, the world seems to be lurching from one crisis to another. We’ve experienced a global pandemic, dramatic changes to how we conduct our daily lives, economic uncertainty, and political and social turmoil, as well as an array of natural disasters. Then there are personal traumas that people are also dealing with, such as the loss of a loved one, declining health, unemployment, divorce, violent crime, or tragic accidents. For many us, this is a time of unprecedented struggle and upheaval.

Whether the source of disruption in your life is a global emergency or a personal tragedy—or both—living through difficult times can take a heavy toll on your mood, health, and outlook. It can leave you feeling helpless and overwhelmed by stress and anxiety. You may be painfully grieving all that you’ve lost, flooded by a slew of difficult, conflicting emotions, or uncertain about how to move on with your life. You may even feel that your life is totally out of control and you’re powerless to affect whatever may happen next.

While there’s no way to avoid sorrow, adversity, or distress in life, there are ways to help smooth the rough waters and regain a sense of control. Resilience is the ability to cope with the loss, change, and trauma that have been inevitable parts of life even before these extraordinary times. Building resilience can help you better adapt to life-changing events, cope with turbulent times, and bounce back from hardship and tragedy.

Why do some people seem to be better able to cope in these troubling times than others? While everyone’s situation is different, it is true that people with resilience tend to have a higher tolerance for the emotional distress generated by hard times. The more resilient you are, the better you’re able to tolerate the feelings of stress, anxiety, and sadness that accompany trauma and adversity—and find a way to rebound from setbacks.

[Read: How to Cope with Traumatic Events]

We all go through bad times, we all experience disappointment, loss, and change, and we all feel sad, anxious, and stressed at various times in our lives. But building resilience can help you to maintain a positive outlook, face an uncertain future with less fear, and get through even the darkest days.

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Building resilience

If you’re more sensitive to emotional distress and are finding it difficult to cope with hardship or adversity, it’s important not to think of it as some kind of character flaw. Resilience isn’t a macho quality and it isn’t fixed; it’s an ongoing process that requires effort to build and maintain over time.

Unless you’ve faced adversity in your life before, it’s unlikely you’ve had the need or opportunity to develop resilience. Drawing on past experiences can help you cope with the challenges you’re facing today. Even if you’ve struggled to cope with adversity in the past, you may at least be able to recognize some of the ways of coping that DON’T help, such as trying to numb your feelings with drugs or alcohol .

While it’s often difficult to imagine anything good coming out of traumatic experiences, building resilience can help you find any positives in the difficulties you’ve faced. Surviving hardships can teach you important things about yourself and the world around you, strengthen your resolve, deepen your empathy, and in time enable you to evolve and grow as a human being.

Building resilience can also help you to:

• Stay focused, flexible, and productive, in both good and bad times.
• Feel less afraid of new experiences or an uncertain future.
• Manage and tolerate strong emotions outside your comfort zone, even those you’d rather avoid like anger or despair.
• Strengthen your relationships and improve your communication skills, especially under pressure.
• Bolster your self-esteem.
• Be confident you’ll eventually find a solution to a problem, even when one isn’t immediately apparent.

You can develop and improve these qualities of resilience at any time, regardless of your age, background, or circumstances. The following tips can help you face hardships with more confidence, better cope with these tumultuous times, and make it through to the brighter, more hopeful days ahead.

While we all react to stressful events in different ways, many of us try to protect ourselves by refusing to accept the truth of what’s happening. After all, by denying that you’re even experiencing a crisis, you can kid yourself that you still have some sense of control over what are usually uncontrollable events.

While denial can have some positive functions—it can give you an opportunity to come to terms with the shock of a traumatic event, for example—over time, it will just prolong your pain. Staying in denial will prevent you from adapting to your new circumstances, stop you from seeking solutions or taking action, and stifle the healing process.

Accept the situation

Change is an inevitable part of life and many aspects of the changing world are outside your individual control. You can’t control the spread of a virus, for example, the pace of social change, or how the economy behaves. While it can be tough to acknowledge, railing against events or circumstances outside your control will only drain you of energy and leave you feeling anxious and hopeless. Accepting your situation, on the other hand, can free you up to devote your energy to the things that you do have control over.

Focus on things within your control. Make a list of all the things you can’t control and give yourself permission to stop worrying about them . Instead, focus on the action that you can take. If you’re unemployed, you can’t control whether the ideal job appears in the wants ads or whether an employer will grant you an interview. But you can control how much time and effort you put into searching for work or brushing up on your skills. Similarly, if a loved one is facing a life-threatening illness, you may have to relinquish control to the medical experts, but you can still focus on providing your loved one with as much emotional support as possible.

Accept change by looking to your past. Looking back at examples where you’ve coped with uncertainty and change before can help you accept your current situation. Perhaps you suffered a painful breakup in the past and were eventually able to move on with your life, or you lost a job and ended up finding a better one? Examining your past successes can also help you see past the current crisis and derive some confidence that you’ll be able to pull through again.

Accept your feelings

It’s tempting to believe that the best way to get through hard times is by ignoring painful emotions and “putting on a brave face”. But unpleasant emotions exist whether you choose to acknowledge them or not. Trying to prevent your emotions from surfacing will only fuel your stress, delay acceptance of your new situation, and prevent you from moving on.

By allowing yourself to feel your emotions, you’ll find that even the most intense, upsetting feelings will pass, the trauma of these tough times will start to fade, and you’ll be able to find a path forward. Talk to someone you trust about what you’re experiencing or use HelpGuide’s Emotional Intelligence Toolkit to reconnect with your emotions.

Grieve your losses

Undergoing tough times usually involves some kind of loss. Whether it’s the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, or the loss of your old life, it’s important you allow yourself the opportunity to grieve. Only by facing your grief —acknowledging and mourning your losses—will you be able to heal and eventually move on with your life.

Connecting with friends and family when you’re going through tough times can help ease stress, boost your mood, and make sense of all the change and disruption . Instead of feeling like you’re facing your problems alone, you can draw strength and build resilience from having others to lean on.

The people you reach out to don’t need to have answers to the problems you’re facing; they just need to be willing to listen to you without judging. In fact, what you talk about or the words used are often unimportant. It’s the human connection—eye contact, a smile, or a hug—that can make all the difference to how you’re feeling.

Prioritize relationships . Nothing carries the same health benefits as connecting face-to-face with someone who is caring and empathetic. These days, however, it’s not always possible to see friends and loved ones in person. If you’re kept apart by geography, lockdown, or travel restrictions, for example, reach out to others via phone, video chat, or social media.

Don’t withdraw in tough times. You may be inclined to retreat into your shell when you’re facing challenges in your life. You may fear being a burden to friends and loved ones or feel too exhausted to reach out. But try to keep up with social activities even when you don’t feel like it. Good friends won’t consider you a burden—they’re more likely to feel flattered that you trust them enough to confide in them.

Try to avoid negative people. Some friends are good listeners, kind and empathetic. Others seem to only fuel negative emotions, leaving you feeling even more stressed, anxious, or panicky. Try to avoid anyone who magnifies your problems, criticizes, or makes you feel judged.

Expand your social network. Even though relationships are vital for good mental health , building resilience, and getting through tough times, many of us feel that we don’t have anyone to turn to in times of need. But there are plenty of ways to build new friendships and improve your support network. If you know others who are lonely or isolated, be the one to take the initiative and reach out.

Living through tough times can be both mentally and physically draining. Constantly being in a heightened state of stress can lead to serious health problems, impact your immune and digestive systems, increase your risk of heart attack and stroke, and lead to burnout , a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion.

Since the body and mind are so closely linked, investing in self-care is an important part of building resilience and getting through times of great stress. When your body feels strong and healthy so, too, will your mind.

Get enough exercise. When you’re dealing with chronic stress, you likely carry it somewhere in your body. Maybe your muscles are tense, you have back or neck pain, frequent headaches, insomnia, heartburn, or an upset stomach? Getting regular exercise not only releases powerful endorphins in the brain to improve your mood, but it can also help to ease tension in the body and counteract the physical symptoms of stress.

Practice a “mind and body” relaxation technique. Practices such as yoga, tai chi, and meditation blend deep breathing and body awareness to help you relieve stress and bring your nervous system back into balance. Try one of HelpGuide’s audio meditations to boost your physical and emotional well-being.

[Listen: Inner Strength Meditation]

Improve your sleep. When you’re facing adversity, nothing wears down your resilience like missing out on a good night’s sleep. Often, improving your daytime habits and taking the time to relax and unwind before bed can help you sleep better at night .

Eat well. There are no specific foods that can help build resilience and weather tough times. Rather, it’s your overall dietary pattern that’s important. Eating lots of processed and takeout food can take a toll on your brain and mood, sapping your energy, and weakening your immune system. A healthy diet , on the other hand—one that’s low in sugar and rich in healthy fats—can give you the energy and focus to tackle the challenges you’re facing.

Manage your overall stress levels . Taking steps to manage your overall stress can break the hold it has over your life, improve your mood, and help you build the resilience you need to hold up under pressure at this time.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by frightening headlines or consumed by the crisis you’re facing. But whatever your circumstances, it doesn’t have to define you as a person. You are not your crisis. By pursuing activities that bring purpose and meaning to your life, you can keep your problems in perspective, prevent them from overwhelming you, and maintain your identity.

Everyone is different so we all have different ways of experiencing purpose and meaning. Don’t limit yourself by others’ expectations; pursue activities that are important to you and add satisfaction to your life.

Give help to others. When you’re in the midst of a crisis, it’s common to feel powerless and helpless. By proactively helping others, you can regain a sense of control as well as find purpose in your life. In fact, giving support can be just as beneficial as receiving support. Try volunteering , helping others in your neighborhood, giving blood, donating to a charity, or marching for a cause that’s important to you.

Pursue your hobbies and interests. In turbulent times, it’s important not to cast aside interests that nourish your spirit. For many of us, it’s these things that define us as individuals and bring meaning to our lives. Whether it’s playing a sport, caring for a pet , an artistic or musical endeavor, home improvement projects, or spending time in nature, continuing to draw pleasure from your pastimes adds to your ability to cope with the stress of difficult times.

An important part of coping with adversity and making it through tough times is to foster qualities of persistence and endurance. Tough times don’t last forever, but by their very nature they’re rarely over quickly. As you plot a road through the darkness, you need to find ways to stay motivated and persevere.

Deal with your problems one step at a time. If a problem is too big to deal with all at once, try breaking it down into smaller, more manageable steps. If your problem seems to have no possible solution, you can still take action by drawing up a list, researching more about the subject, or seeking the advice of a trusted friend or loved one.

Celebrate small wins. To stay motivated and positive as you navigate stormy seas in life, take a moment to savor your small successes. If you’re looking for work, for example, getting an interview isn’t as meaningful as landing a job, but it’s a sign of progress, a step in the right direction. Noting these small wins can give you a welcome break from all the stress and negativity you’re facing and encourage you to keep going.

[Read: Finding Joy During Difficult Times]

Try to maintain a hopeful outlook. While it’s difficult to stay positive and hopeful in the midst of a crisis, many of us tend to blow our problems out of proportion and make them seem even more negative than they really are. Try taking a step back and examining your situation as an outsider. Are their rays of hope that you can focus on? Instead of worrying about what you fear may happen, try visualizing what you’d like to happen instead.

Express gratitude. It may sound trite, but even when you’re experience terrible times, it’s usually possible to find one thing you can be grateful about—the love of a pet, for example, a beautiful sunset, or a caring friend. Taking a moment to acknowledge your gratitude for such small things can provide respite from the stress and really boost your mood.

Be kind to yourself. Everyone adjusts to change and upheaval differently. Don’t criticize your coping skills or beat yourself up for every mistake you make. Self-compassion is an important part of building resilience, so go easy on yourself.

More Information

• Building your resilience - A roadmap for adapting to life-changing situations. (American Psychological Association)
• Tolerating Distress - Tools to help you face your feelings during difficult times. (Centre for Clinical Interventions)
• Five Science-Backed Strategies to Build Resilience - Ways to build resilience and confront emotional pain. (Greater Good Magazine, UC Berkeley)
• Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders. (2013). In Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders . American Psychiatric Association. Link
• Norris, F. H. “Epidemiology of Trauma: Frequency and Impact of Different Potentially Traumatic Events on Different Demographic Groups.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60, no. 3 (June 1992): 409–18. Link
• Macedo, Tania, Livia Wilheim, Raquel Gonçalves, Evandro Silva Freire Coutinho, Liliane Vilete, Ivan Figueira, and Paula Ventura. “Building Resilience for Future Adversity: A Systematic Review of Interventions in Non-Clinical Samples of Adults.” BMC Psychiatry 14, no. 1 (August 14, 2014): 227. Link
• Joyce, Sadhbh, Fiona Shand, Joseph Tighe, Steven J Laurent, Richard A Bryant, and Samuel B Harvey. “Road to Resilience: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Resilience Training Programmes and Interventions.” BMJ Open 8, no. 6 (June 14, 2018): e017858. Link
• Lee, Tak Yan, Chau Kiu Cheung, and Wai Man Kwong. “Resilience as a Positive Youth Development Construct: A Conceptual Review.” The Scientific World Journal 2012 (May 2, 2012): 390450. Link
• Forbes, Sarah, and Deniz Fikretoglu. “Building Resilience: The Conceptual Basis and Research Evidence for Resilience Training Programs.” Review of General Psychology 22, no. 4 (December 1, 2018): 452–68. Link
• Shatté, Andrew, Adam Perlman, Brad Smith, and Wendy D. Lynch. “The Positive Effect of Resilience on Stress and Business Outcomes in Difficult Work Environments.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 59, no. 2 (February 2017): 135–40. Link
• Hoegl, Martin, and Silja Hartmann. “Bouncing Back, If Not beyond: Challenges for Research on Resilience.” Asian Business & Management 20, no. 4 (September 1, 2021): 456–64. Link
• Silver, Kristin E., Meera Kumari, Danette Conklin, and Gunnur Karakurt. “Trauma and Health Symptoms in a Community Sample: Examining the Influences of Gender and Daily Stress.” The American Journal of Family Therapy 46, no. 2 (2018): 153–67. Link
• Sansbury, Brittany S, Kelly Graves, and Wendy Scott. “Managing Traumatic Stress Responses among Clinicians: Individual and Organizational Tools for Self-Care.” Trauma 17, no. 2 (April 1, 2015): 114–22. Link
• Bower, Gordon H., and Heidi Sivers. “Cognitive Impact of Traumatic Events.” Development and Psychopathology 10, no. 4 (December 1998): 625–53. Link
• Ley, Clemens, María Rato Barrio, and Andreas Koch. “‘In the Sport I Am Here’: Therapeutic Processes and Health Effects of Sport and Exercise on PTSD.” Qualitative Health Research 28, no. 3 (February 1, 2018): 491–507. Link
• Hegberg, Nicole J., Jasmeet P. Hayes, and Scott M. Hayes. “Exercise Intervention in PTSD: A Narrative Review and Rationale for Implementation.” Frontiers in Psychiatry 10 (2019): 133. Link

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, examples of overcoming obstacles in college essays.

I'm planning to write my college essay about overcoming obstacles, but I'm struggling with ideas. Can anyone share some examples or tips on how to approach this kind of topic?

Certainly! Writing about overcoming obstacles can be a powerful way to showcase your resilience, problem-solving abilities, and personal growth. Here are some examples of how to approach obstacles in your college essay:

1. Personal health challenges: If you've faced a significant health issue that has affected your life, you can discuss the specific challenges, how you coped with them, and how that experience changed your perspective on life. Remember to keep the focus on your growth and personal development.

2. Academic struggles: Write about a time when you struggled in a specific subject or class and the steps you took to improve. Emphasize the positive changes, your determination, and what you learned throughout the process.

3. Balancing responsibilities: Share a personal story about juggling multiple responsibilities, such as family obligations, part-time jobs, and extracurricular activities. Detail how you managed your time and adapted to the challenging circumstances.

4. Dealing with disappointment or failure: Describe a moment when you faced disappointment or failure, and how you learned from that experience. Show how you used it as an opportunity for personal growth and development.

5. Navigating a challenging situation or environment: Relate a story about overcoming a difficult environment, such as a challenging living situation, bullying, or being in a minority group. Discuss the strategies you used to cope and how the experience shaped you.

Whichever topic you choose, the key to a successful essay about overcoming obstacles is to focus on your personal growth, learning, and adaptation. Be honest about the challenges you faced, but emphasize the positive outcomes and lessons learned. Use vivid and specific details to paint a clear picture of your journey, and close with a reflection on how overcoming the obstacle has impacted your life and who you are today. This will demonstrate to the admissions committee that you are resilient, resourceful, and able to learn from even the most difficult situations.

About CollegeVine’s Expert FAQ

CollegeVine’s Q&A seeks to offer informed perspectives on commonly asked admissions questions. Every answer is refined and validated by our team of admissions experts to ensure it resonates with trusted knowledge in the field.

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My Hard Times In Life

The life is full of events that happened since birth to end of life’s moment. It helps to understand the world and shapes our perception to behave towards our environment. Some events change your life and stay alive in the rest of life as it happened in the last day. It helps to understand the reality of life and change our behavior to respond our culture as encouraged us to face difficult events with patience. We learn a lesson from these events to avoid happening again in case of a mistake to have serious loss that is never recovered in the rest of life.

As I was 15 years old, my grandfather had a road accident while going to the office. I heard a phone ring and picked by my grandmother to answer it. She sits down with panic saying, “O My God” and asked me to get ready to go the hospital. We reached hospital in 20 minutes and found my grandfather in ICU. We asked to the doctor about condition and got reply that this is in serious condition and trying to save him. After one hour we entered into the ICU and saw my grandfather who was in an unconscious condition and did not able to understand me and my grandmother. My grandmother was trying to overcome her feeling, but it was very difficult to stay calm at this moment. After one day, my grandfather dead in ICU and we were helpless to do anything to save his life. This was a great shock to my grandmother and me to have this incident.

My family experienced troublesome times, and it was difficult to stay created for one another. It images to see somebody who once bore you behind him, and grinned gigantically stay there and not react back to you. There are a few things I don't think I'll have the capacity to do in life, similar to I'll never have the capacity to be as solid as my grandma. I know my granddad is still alive in him, and step by step, even as it deteriorates, I get more grounded, and our security as a family gets more grounded. I have seen such a variety of marvels through what appears like a disaster, and have picked up so much despite the fact that I now and then feel like I lost the most vital individual in my life, despite the fact that he is still alive. Tragedies make us more grounded, they make us to a greater extent a man, and they give us more character.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Challenges — How to Overcome Difficulties in Life

How to Overcome Difficulties in Life

• Categories: Challenges

About this sample

Words: 749 |

Published: Jul 10, 2019

Words: 749 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Works Cited

• Connor, L. T., & Phelps, R. (2019). Developing strategic writers through genre instruction: Resources for grades 3-5. Teachers College Press.
• Cooter, R. B., & Flynt, E. S. (2017). Reading, writing, and rising up: Teaching about social justice and the power of the written word. Rethinking Schools.
• Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of adolescents in middle and high schools. Alliance for Excellent Education.
• Harris, K. R., & Graham, S. (2019). Making the writing process work: Strategies for composition and self-regulation. Guilford Press.
• Hillocks, G. (2011). Teaching argument writing, grades 6-12: Supporting claims with relevant evidence and clear reasoning. Heinemann.
• Miller, C. R. (2014). Teaching for transfer: Fostering generalizations in writing. University Press of Colorado.
• Strong, W. (2003). Writing for audience: The revision process in the composition classroom. National Council of Teachers of English.
• Tartakovsky, M. (2018). Writing from the inside out: Transforming your psychological blocks to release the writer within. Central Recovery Press.
• Wardle, E., & Downs, D. (2014). Writing about writing: A college reader. Bedford/St. Martin's.
• Yancey, K. B., Robertson, L., & Taczak, K. (2014). Writing across contexts: Transfer, composition, and sites of writing. University Press of Colorado.

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Situation Essay

Have you ever written an essay that involves topics that may not be as common as people perceive them to be? We know for a fact that the most common essay topics are friendship, love and success. However, there are also essays wherein the topics may not be the kind you would think some readers would enjoy. These essays can either touch the hearts of many, or can bring tears to those who read them. In literature and prose, they are called situation essays. What are situation essays and why are they important to learn and understand? Take a look at these examples of a situation essay, which topics like pandemic, ethics and family can be written.

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What Is a Situation Essay?

A situation essay is a kind of writing style that you use in order to adapt to what your essay topic is about. You often see this in any kind of essay you will write about. From informative essays , reflective essays , analytical essays , welcome speeches , This kind of writing style helps you adapt or understand the nature of your topic without having to go off topic or having to find a better way to write or address it. Situation essays can be used in just about any form of writing. Just like in emails, speeches, essays, and letters. The main purpose of the situation essay is to provide you the means to appeal to the person or people reading your writing.

How to Write a Situation Essay

Getting an idea on how to write a situation essay should not be that difficult or complicated. All you need to do is to follow simple steps to get there. The important thing to remember is you provide the means to appeal to your audience. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1: Your Introduction Must Catch Their Curiosity

Just like in writing any story, or an email, or even a speech, the most important thing you can do is to make an introduction that catches the reader’s attention and curiosity. Make your introduction something catchy but not too catchy they may lose interest after the introduction. In a way, give them a little taste of what they are going to expect. 

Step 2: Add Something That Relates to the Topic

This is the second part or the second paragraph if you are writing a letter, an email, or even a speech. Think of something that relates to your topic. Not only does this continue to grab your audience’s attention, but it also shows you are able to correlate your introductory topic to your main topic.

Step 3: Be Clear and Concise with Your Writing

Since you are going to be writing about a topic for your essay, there are times that you may forget that you are writing for your audience to appeal to what you are saying. This however does not mean that you should forget to be clear and concise with your topic and your writing. Make sure that you stick to making it clear all the way.

Step 4: Review Your Essay

Before you hand it over to the respective audience, always be sure that every single detail is present in your essay. The topic, the introduction, the statement or purpose of your essay and the conclusion. In addition, part of your review should also be about the grammatical errors, spelling and punctuations.

What is a situation essay?

A situation essay is a kind of writing style that you use in order to adapt to what your essay topic is about. You often see this in any kind of essay you will write about.

What are other kinds of essays or works you can use for this writing style?

The other essays you can use for this writing style are:

• Reflective essay
• Narrative essay
• Formal essays
• Case studies

What are some common topics for a situation essay?

Any topic can be used for a situation essay. You can write about family, friends, romance, personal, business, etc.

Have you ever written an essay that involves topics that may not be as common as people perceive them to be? Situation essays are the type of writing format that gives your readers the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of the person or character they are reading. This is often used in writing stories, essays or speeches.

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How to Write the University of Notre Dame Essays 2023-2024

The University of Notre Dame has two sets of supplemental essay prompts, with each set having multiple options to choose from. The prompts themselves are short, but you’re required to answer two out of three options for Prompt 1, and three out of five options for Prompt 2. As such, it’s important to carefully consider which prompts you choose to respond to, and to be wary of answering prompts that may have too much overlap.

Read these University of Notre Dame essay examples to inspire your writing.

University of Notre Dame Essay Prompts

All applicants.

Prompt 1 : Please choose two questions from the options below. Your brief essay response to each question should be no more than 150 words.

• Option A : Notre Dame fosters an undergraduate experience dedicated to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual development of each individual, characterized by a collective sense of care for every person. How do you foster service to others in your community?
• Option B : What is distinctive about your personal experiences and development (eg, family support, culture, disability, personal background, community, etc)? Why are these experiences important to you and how will you enrich the Notre Dame community?
• Option C : Describe a time when you advocated for something you believed in and influenced others through thoughtful discourse to promote a deeper understanding of a difficult situation.

Prompt 2 : Please choose three questions from the options below. Your response to each short-answer question should be no more than 50 words.

• Option A : Everyone has different priorities when considering their higher education options and building their college or university list. Tell us about your “non-negotiable” factor(s) when searching for your future college home.
• Option B : What brings you joy?
• Option C : What is worth fighting for?
• Option D : What is something that genuinely interests you, and how does this tie to the academic area you hope to study at Notre Dame?
• Option E : How does faith influence the decisions you make?

Prompt 1, Option A

Notre dame fosters an undergraduate experience dedicated to the intellectual, moral, and spiritual development of each individual, characterized by a collective sense of care for every person. how do you foster service to others in your community.

This is a pretty straightforward community service essay . You’re being asked to showcase the ways in which you’ll contribute to the overall campus community at Notre Dame. It’s important to note that this isn’t an essay about what communities you’ve been a part of in the past—instead, you should discuss how you’ve been an active service member in your community in the past or present.

Brainstorming your topic:

The best route to follow when answering this prompt is to reflect on past experiences you’ve had with community service, and relate them to what the prompt says about Notre Dame as a whole. The answer for the prompt is practically laid out in the phrasing—right off the bat, the prompt tells us that Notre Dame is a school where the individual is characterized by the community. 

The school is portrayed as a place where no one is left behind, and everyone looks out for one another. So in order to respond successfully to this prompt, try to dissect how your past experiences may prove to be an example of this philosophy.

As with other similar community service essay prompts, it’s always better to write about a long-term commitment than something you’ve only done once or twice. While volunteering at a soup kitchen with classmates for a night is undoubtedly a good act of service to the community, it doesn’t reveal anything extraordinary about you or your passion for community service.

There’s a general rule of thumb for supplemental essays—the more specific you can be, the more unique you’ll sound. Really highlight the experiences you’ve had that say the most about who you are; the essay is less about what you did, and more about why you did it.

Your chosen experience should also be something that changed your perspectives or preconceived notions. Perhaps you realized the importance of rescuing animals from your time spent volunteering at the animal shelter, or maybe you developed more patience and empathy when working with children with special needs or disabilities. Whatever you choose to write about, it should highlight a passion or perspective of yours that you feel is important to your identity.

Tips for writing your essay:

With only 150 words to work with, it’s essential that you make your point strong so that it sticks with your reader. A great way to do this is to weave your actions, motivations, and perspectives into a vivid, relevant anecdote. This strategy gives you the chance to hook the reader right away and put them in your shoes. Write about what you saw, heard, or felt while volunteering or doing your act of community service. You might do this using the present tense for effect.

For example, writing “Last Christmas, I drove around town to collect gifts for underprivileged families who otherwise couldn’t afford to give presents.” doesn’t say anything about you, your perspective, or the impact the act had on you.

Instead, try “As the hours ticked by and snow began piling on the street, I pushed my foot harder on the gas. Today was the last day I had to pick up donations for kids who would otherwise not be receiving Christmas gifts, and I was going to get to as many as I could.” Not only does this paint a far more vivid picture of what the experience meant to you, but it shows your genuine passion and care for the act itself.

Once you’ve written about what you did, it’s time to connect your response to the ways in which you’ll take your experience and passion to Notre Dame. In the final few sentences of your response, write about what community service means to you overall, and why you’ll continue your efforts, both on and off campus at Notre Dame.

Community service can be as simple as lending a helping hand when needed, whether that be to a classmate, a friend, or someone in the broader community. You can write about forming or joining study groups, your desire to find community service opportunities at Notre Dame, or even how you hope to gain and listen to new perspectives both inside and outside of the classroom. Keep it short and sweet, and most importantly, keep it genuine!

Mistakes to avoid:

Besides keeping your response short, the biggest pitfall to avoid is having a pretentious or privileged tone. If your response makes it seem like you’re painting yourself as some kind of savior, embellishing your efforts, or looking down on those you helped, it will leave a sour taste.

It’s important to truly reflect on what community service means, not only to you, but to others. Even if you did a truly good thing for someone who needed it, make sure you maintain a balanced tone in your essay that doesn’t sound like excessive self-praise.

Prompt 1, Option B

What is distinctive about your personal experiences and development (eg, family support, culture, disability, personal background, community, etc) why are these experiences important to you and how will you enrich the notre dame community.

This is a standard diversity essay in which you’re being asked to elaborate on some aspect of your identity. However, the main purpose of this prompt is not just for Notre Dame to understand the communities that have been essential in shaping your identity, but also to get some idea of how your experiences in your chosen community will translate to your future as a Notre Dame student.

Remember that diversity encompasses several disparate aspects. It can include an ethnicity/race, country of origin, language, gender or sexual identity, geographical location, income class, disability or illness, personality trait, extracurricular interest, or something else entirely!

An aspect of diversity might also be something that taught you or inspired your passions, something that you were born into, or something you’re just now learning that you’re a part of. Basically, the chosen aspect of your diversity just needs to represent a part of yourself that is infallibly true.


We recommend focusing on just one aspect of identity to write about. While there may be several communities or groups you feel are a core part of your identity, 150 words will not be enough space to write about them all equally. However, if you do feel that one community is not enough to represent who you are, see if there’s a common thread between the communities you want to mention before diving in.

A quick note if you intend to write about your racial background: In June 2023, the United States Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. The ruling, however, still allows colleges to consider race on an individual basis, which is one reason many schools are now including diversity prompts as one of their supplemental essay prompts. If you feel that your racial background has impacted you significantly, this is the place to discuss that.

Tips for writing your essay :

Once you’ve chosen the aspect of your identity you want to write about, reflect on the impact that it’s had on your life and begin weaving that into your response. Think about the lessons you’ve learned along the way, the people you’ve met, and the experiences you’ve shared with them, or even perhaps the experiences they’ve shared with you. Also consider how being a part of this chosen community has impacted your goals and hopes for the future.

The part of your identity you’ve chosen to write about will have hopefully left all these impressions on you and more—and it will hopefully just be a matter of condensing your response to 150 words. It’s important to showcase your passion for and genuine investment in the part of your identity you write about, but make sure to keep it short and sweet.

Don’t feel like you have to embellish your diversity either. Remember that diversity can be defined as practically anything that makes up your identity—it doesn’t necessarily have to be something that has changed the course of your life. Take this example:

“Ever since I was a little kid, stories have run rampant in my mind. I would make up stories in the car, in the shower, when I would close my eyes to go to sleep. They’d play out like movies in my head, and I got overwhelmed by not knowing what to do with them, so I turned against myself and wished that I would stop. That’s when I found the Creative Writing Club at my school.

Finding other people who shared the same inherent reflex I did not only made me feel normal again but made me feel accepted. I found that my habits were not unhealthy, but inspired. I suddenly found an outlet for 16 years’ worth of pent-up ideas and creativity. I had people to share my stories with, but more importantly, I was a person with whom they could share theirs. Swapping stories became a way for us to learn about different perspectives, cultures, and identities, and in doing so, it has made us all more worldly and empathetic.”

Prompt 1, Option C

Describe a time when you advocated for something you believed in and influenced others through thoughtful discourse to promote a deeper understanding of a difficult situation..

This is a more unconventional prompt (similar to the political/global issues prompt ) that will require you to reflect on the issues and topics you truly believe in and on the things you’ve done to advocate for them.

This can be a particularly challenging response, made no easier by the small word count you’re allotted to elaborate on your chosen cause. However, there are many routes you can take to condense your response and deliver it in a neat and engaging way.

It’s natural for your first instinct to be to think of a hot-button political issue, and while this can be a great framing device for a response, it’s important to note a distinction in this prompt—it’s not asking for what you believe in, but rather what you did to advocate for what you believe in. As such, it’s imperative that you avoid spending too many of your 150 words trying to convince the admissions officer to back your chosen cause.

As with any kind of political discussion, you may need to dial it back a little and understand that you won’t know who is reading your application—the admissions officer may very well not agree with your political beliefs or standpoints. While the admissions officer will most likely have been trained to approach all applications with minimized bias, he or she is still only human.

If you choose to respond to this prompt and discuss a political topic, you must demonstrate that you advocated for your belief respectfully, including the ways in which you engaged with someone who disagreed with you.

Of course, political or social activism is a great starting point to answer this prompt. If you’ve engaged in a protest, debate, or some other event surrounding a cause you believe in, reflect on why you chose to engage with it in your free time. What about the cause is important to you? How did it make you feel to engage civically with your cause? How do you hope to change perspectives and minds in the future?

Asking yourself these questions is a great exercise in an activity that Notre Dame (and any other college you might attend) will challenge you to do anyway—exposing yourself to new perspectives and ideas and using them to develop your own. Showcasing your understanding of that practice in this response can be a great way to distinguish yourself.

Your chosen cause can extend beyond just politics or social justice as well. Perhaps your school canceled its men’s volleyball program, and you and your teammates lost an extracurricular. You could write about how you petitioned the school to bring it back and promised to rally fans for the games. Or maybe you had to fundraise for the theater program in order to put on the best show possible, even showing up at a school board meeting to ask for more funding.

Once you’ve chosen a topic, you can move on to framing your essay. Remember that this prompt wants you to talk about your thought process, the discourse you shared with others surrounding your chosen issue, and the ways in which that discourse promoted deeper understanding on both sides. The primary thread throughout this prompt is diplomacy, and understanding how diplomacy can lead to success and progress is a great start to writing your essay.

Rather than sounding like you’re regurgitating talking points, reflect on why your advocacy was either successful or unsuccessful. Let’s look at this scenario—perhaps you rallied classmates to walk out in support of gun control, and the school administration responded harshly. Here are two different approaches you could take in writing about the issue:

“I feel that guns do not belong in schools. In my junior year, I unfortunately found that the school administration clearly felt otherwise. As part of a committee to organize a class walkout in support of gun control, we were met with animosity and a lack of empathy from our principal and school board. We were called in for a discourse but soon found ourselves in a full-on trial. While I wasn’t personally deterred by what we faced, it was a reminder that there is much work to be done in support of this cause.”

In this response, the student writes about facing an insurmountable challenge and being forced to accept the circumstances and hardships that come with supporting a cause. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with what the student is trying to say, they are approaching it from the wrong angle. Let’s try another response, written about the same situation:

“There is no question that the issue of gun control, specifically in schools, is one of the most contentious debates in our country right now. As a student, I, along with a few of my classmates, felt that it was necessary to let the school board hear our thoughts. While we hoped to stage a walkout in support of gun control, our principal and other faculty members shut the idea down.

We scheduled a meeting and debated our points, advocating for awareness and a media presence to further our cause so we could make a change. While we were not successful in our endeavors, we left feeling more united than ever, and even more committed to making change than we had been before. Learning that we can’t change everyone’s mind is part of the process, as is accepting that and focusing on what we can control.”

This response takes a much more methodical and contained approach. Its effectiveness lies in its levelheadedness. Ending the response with a reminder, both to yourself and the reader, that the power of discourse is not to be abandoned even in the face of unsuccessful endeavors, is an important way to show maturity and understanding.

This was stated above, but it’s worth repeating—admissions officers are only human. Though they are trained to minimize bias when reading applications, they still have personal beliefs and perspectives.

If you must write about a politicized issue, which is reasonable with a prompt like this since you don’t want to write a trivial response, tread carefully. Express your belief in a respectful way without coming off as condescending or trying to force that view on your reader.

A Quick Note About Prompt 2:

The main thing to note about Prompt 2 is its very small word limit. Rather than having 150 words like you do for Prompt 1, you’re only allotted 50 words for each of your responses to Prompt 2. However, these prompts are generally personality questions, so have fun with the few sentences you do have!

Prompt 2, Option A

Everyone has different priorities when considering their higher education options and building their college or university list. tell us about your “non-negotiable” factor(s) when searching for your future college home..

This is a sneaky “Why This College?” prompt —Notre Dame admissions officers want to see that your college priorities align with their offerings. Don’t worry too much about researching the exact resources you hope to engage with at Notre Dame though, as this is a hypothetical question and should be treated as such.

Besides directly answering the “Why this college?” question, the best way to respond to this prompt is to demonstrate what attending college (particularly Notre Dame) means to you. College is unlike any other learning environment you’ve encountered before. Whether you’ve taken summer classes at local colleges or are entering a college academic setting for the first time, college will be full of new experiences—both good and bad, but mostly challenging and extremely rewarding.

Reflect on what you hope to gain from attending college. Are you excited to embark on a new chapter of your life? Do you know what you want to study? Are you excited to dive headfirst into your passion? Do you want to expand your horizons and introduce yourself to new perspectives? Some of the above? Something else entirely? There are so many ways to answer this prompt, but the best one will be the one that is most truthful.

Perhaps you’re a first-generation college student and going to college means more than just another step in your education. You could write about the impact it’ll have on you and your family, the pressure that comes with it, and also the excitement and importance of pursuing higher education. Whatever angle you choose, tie that angle into what you hope college will offer you.

Continuing the first-generation college student example, something you might want to highlight is your hope of finding a community that values each and every student, regardless of family or economic background, and a community that has resources for first-generation students to transition into the college experience.

Again, you only have 50 words, so while specificity is important, it may be a tough rope to walk! Keep your response short and close to what matters to you most.

Prompt 2, Option B

What brings you joy.

If this feels like a broad question, that’s because it absolutely is. It’s also one of the best questions to show the admissions officer what matters to you most, display a new aspect of your personality, and write about something unconventional. Obviously, there’s a nearly endless number of answers to this question, but that doesn’t mean that all the possible answers are strong.

While most mistakes to avoid with this prompt may feel like common sense, don’t immediately rule out answers that feel arbitrary or even immaterial. Obviously, writing that video games are what gives you joy probably won’t give the admissions officer any valuable information about yourself; however, that fact is not because of your subject matter, but rather due to your execution.

For example, if you write “My favorite thing to do in my free time is play video games. I love playing online and feeling competitive, but I also find joy in just playing alone and getting lost in new and exciting worlds,” the admissions officer won’t have a whole lot to work with.

Instead, brainstorm for this prompt and reflect on the reasons for which the thing that brings you joy really makes you happy. Using the same example, consider this version:

“Working alongside attending school can be nightmarish, but coming home and hosting my video game server keeps me grounded. Being directly responsible for fostering a positive community of dozens of people who don’t know each other in real life is a special feeling that gives me a sense of purpose.”

This answer succeeds not only in telling an engaging story in just two sentences, but also in expanding on the answer to the prompt by showcasing a particular activity in which the student has a positive, meaningful role. By making the response about a greater sense of purpose or belonging—more than just a singular idea or thing—the student showcases something special about himself that makes him stand out.

Prompt 2, Option C

What is worth fighting for.

This is another relatively profound question that you’re tasked with answering within 50 words, but your answer can be very revealing and insightful—you can discuss your hopes, goals, beliefs, values, and more. This is a great opportunity to showcase your priorities and how the first 18 or so years of your life have shaped your current perspectives.

Profound questions often elicit profound answers, and while this would be the place to share if you have a powerful and moving insight about life, by no means does your answer need to be some extreme revelation. It just has to be you.

Writing something authentic and personal will have a far greater impact than trying to overextend yourself and claim something bold like “humanity is worth fighting for.” That’s not to say that you can’t go that route, but it will take a lot more elaboration than you have space for in this response.

The nature of this prompt and the limited word count you have to work with means you’re going to have to think outside the box. Most of the answers you might think of quickly are likely too clichéd to make for a strong response—this includes things like fighting for love, family, the truth, change, etc. These statements are all arguably true, but they’re somewhat played out and won’t contribute to an impressive response that resonates with your reader.

Instead of using one of those, try to explore more specific niche things you truly value and think about why they’re important to you personally. For instance, perhaps your family comes from a culture with a language that doesn’t have too many native speakers remaining. You might therefore argue that the preservation of linguistic history is worth fighting for. You could write a response like the following:

“My Spanish grandparents speak Basque, which they’ve been trying to teach me. I love how Basque looks, sounds, and feels so different from other languages. Sadly, Basque has fewer than a million speakers. Considering all the languages that have been lost to time, preserving linguistic history is worth fighting for.”

No matter what your actual answer is, it’s essential that you weave a personal voice and connection to the topic into your response. With only a few sentences to work with, you might consider leading with a personal anecdote, then transitioning to the ways in which the topic is meaningful to you, as in the example above.

Prompt 2, Option D

What is something that genuinely interests you, and how does this tie to the academic area you hope to study at notre dame.

This is a pretty straightforward prompt and should be an easier one to decide on an answer for, regardless of whether or not you know exactly what you want to major in. Notre Dame simply wants to get a better sense of an interest of yours, and how it ties to your interest in studying a topic at Notre Dame. Something important to note is that the interest you discuss doesn’t have to be directly related to your potential major, but more on that later.

Whether you feel like you have a unique interest or not, it’s easy to make your answer interesting if you’re able to make it personal. This is an especially good idea if your interest isn’t directly related to your desired major. If the connection between your interest and your area of study can’t be readily seen, you’ll want to explain how the two are connected.

For example, say you’re really interested in foraging and are planning to study math at whichever college you attend. While at first blush these two things may seem totally unrelated, you might explain the link between your interests like this:

“For years I have enjoyed foraging in the forest a few miles from my home. I love seeing beautiful geometric patterns in nature. Admiring the golden ratio in flowers and fractals in fern leaves is something I’ve long appreciated so much that I now want to major in math!”

This example response is vivid, passionate, and personal, and it’s about two seemingly completely unrelated topics. Try to think about ways you might link a niche interest you have to an academic subject you might want to pursue (even if you don’t know what you want to major in yet).

For instance, you might connect your songwriting interest to the Neuroscience and Behavior major because you’re interested in seeing how certain melodies can elicit such specific feelings. Or, maybe you paint as a hobby and you think that your intended biology major might help inform the ways in which you can depict human and animal bodies. Try to be creative when thinking about how a hobby/interest of yours might relate to the academic field you’re into!

Only having to write 50 words for your response will give you the chance to experiment with different styles and formats, so don’t be afraid to write and examine some drafts to find the right balance.

Prompt 2, Option E

How does faith influence the decisions you make.

This question asks you to reflect on your faith and its impact on your behavior and decision-making. It’s important to recognize that Notre Dame is a Catholic university, and was founded on Catholic beliefs and principles. However, it’s by no means just a Catholic school—it is open to students of all spiritual and religious backgrounds. So while about 80% of students at Notre Dame practice some form of Catholicism, there is plenty of space for students of other faiths to feel comfortable at Notre Dame.

Therefore, don’t feel like you can’t answer this prompt if you’re applying to Notre Dame as a member of another faith. “Faith” simply just refers to your religious background—and can even be extended to a more secular trust in something—so if your background has shaped or influenced your decisions, this is still a great prompt to answer.

However, if you’re not religious and you are applying to Notre Dame, consider answering another prompt instead. Not choosing to answer this prompt has no impact on your admission decision, Notre Dame is just giving students who have a special relationship with their faith a space to elaborate on what it means to them.

With all that being said, if you’re a Catholic student choosing to answer this prompt, it’s important to reflect not only on what your faith means to you now, but also on what that faith might mean to you at Notre Dame.

At Notre Dame, faith is directly tied to service learning and helping others in need, with more than 80% of students participating in service or service learning before they graduate . Perhaps you were part of a Catholic youth group over the course of your life—consider writing about the volunteer opportunities that you embarked on and how those experiences shaped your perspectives.

The prompt is specifically asking you to elaborate on how faith has shaped the decisions you make, so be sure to tie those experiences and perspectives to how you approach each day and each new obstacle.

If you are a member of a different faith, this is a great opportunity to shed some light on how your background has shaped you. Are there any cultural traditions or principles that you follow? Were there any obstacles or challenges to your faith you’ve faced along the way? Ask yourself these questions and more, and treat your faith as another aspect of your identity that has shaped who you are. In doing so, you should be able to see how you may fit in at Notre Dame and contribute to the principles of community service, generosity, and kindness.

Where to Get Your Notre Dame Essays Edited

Do you want feedback on your Notre Dame essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it might become difficult to see where your writing can be improved. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

15 Best ‘Describe a Difficult Situation and How You Handled It’ Answer Examples

When it comes to behavioral interview questions like asking you to describe a difficult situation and how you handled it, you need a strategy to prepare a good answer. The best approach is to take a challenging difficult experience and use it to show your emotional intelligence and your work experience.

This is a great opportunity to leave a strong impression on the hiring manager and show them you’re the best fit for the job.

5 Tips for Your Answer

• Choose a real work-related situation.
• Provide enough detail, but be concise.
• Show your thought process and your abilities in problem-solving.
• Show your leadership, communication, and technical skills.
• Make sure that the story has a positive outcome.

5 Mistakes to Avoid

• Avoid problems that you created yourself.
• Don’t focus on the negative aspects.
• Don’t blame or speak ill of other people.
• Avoid drama.
• Don’t downplay your strengths, but avoid sounding cocky.

How to Answer: STAR Format

You can use the STAR technique to organize your ideas and create a great answer to standard interview behavioral questions, like this one. STAR stands for:

S: Situation – give the interviewer some context to better understand your story.

T: Task – explain what the challenge in that situation was and include the main points.

A: Action – tell them how you handled that challenge.

R: Result – show the results you achieved.

Use the following examples of the best answers to this common interview question as guidelines to help you choose a difficult work situation you’ve experienced. Then use the STAR method to outline your talking points where you turn a tough situation into something positive and show you’re a good fit for the job.

Best Example Answers to “Describe a Difficult Situation and How You Handled It” Interview Question

1. Example Answer: In my previous job, I had to take over a troubled project from a colleague who had quit. In my first meeting with the customer, he walked into the room yelling. He was angry about the problems we hadn’t solved yet. I didn’t interrupt him. I made notes of the issues he raised. When he finished, I told him I was going to address all complaints.

As I asked him questions about each issue, he started to calm down while giving me more information. I went over the specific actions I was planning to take and got our top specialists working on the issues. I made sure to frequently update the customer on my progress. He eventually apologized for his behavior. It took us one week to solve all problems, but I was able to gain his trust back in our company.

Key Takeaways: This answer shows the candidate handled an angry customer in an effective way. Instead of arguing back, they listened, asked questions, and communicated frequently. It also shows the candidate’s problem-solving abilities and efficiency.

2. Example Answer: In the first week of my internship, a client asked for a major change on their website just a few days before its launch. The team had to work late, but the manager said that I didn’t need to. I decided to stay and help the team anyway. I wasn’t trained in the tools they used, but I offered to test the website. I tested every page over and over until all errors got fixed. After that, the manager decided to include me in the next project as a trainee.

Key Takeaways: This answer is a great way to answer this question if you don’t have a lot of experience and so don’t have other good examples you can use. Here, despite the lack of experience, this answer shows the candidate’s willingness to go beyond what was expected of him and be a team player.

3. Example Answer: Back when I was the customer support team leader at ABCD Corporation, we had a new client who was often very rude to my team. I decided to meet with him in person to understand him better and hopefully create a more positive dynamic. My department only communicated with customers by phone and email, but I thought more was needed in this case.

During our meeting, I politely framed the issue in a way that communicated that we wanted to understand how to serve him better. I did not focus on his behavior, but rather on what we could do to exceed his expectations. He ended up apologizing and explaining that he was extremely stressed because of personal issues. After that, he was considerably easier to service.

Key Takeaways: This answer shows the candidate’s ownership of their team’s problem and how they took the initiative to solve it. It also shows their communication skills, interpersonal skills and problem-solving skills. It is an especially great way to answer the interviewer’s question if you are seeking a customer service job.

4. Example Answer: When I started working at a small publishing company, my boss asked me to get some high-profile endorsements for a new book. I had never done that before, but I embraced the challenge. I made a list of about 60 names of great prospects. I first reached out to the top 10 names on that list. When I got the first positive answer, I continued contacting the other people, now mentioning the one who had accepted, and so on. I was able to get 18 endorsements that impressed my boss and were crucial to boosting the book’s sales.

Key Takeaways: The candidate didn’t shy away from a challenge, and their boldness was rewarded.

5. Example Answer: Let me tell you about a difficult situation I had with a new project manager. She needed more billable hours in that quarter to reach her financial goal. So, she asked me to enter 80 more hours that month, and then I would subtract those hours from the following month’s timesheet.

I carefully explained to her that doing so was against the company’s policies. I couldn’t register hours that I hadn’t worked. And if that project got audited, she and I would be in trouble. She understood, thanked me for warning her, and gave up that idea.

Key Takeaways: It shows the candidate’s integrity and courage to do what is right even when having to stand up to a superior.

6. Example Answer: When I started my last job as an HR training specialist, I noticed that every internal audit revealed some of the same errors in certain HR processes. I checked the training material they used for the managers. The training material was an extremely dry online course with a lot of text and no illustrations or media. I decided to create a new version of that course, with videos and multiple-choice tests after each lesson. Every manager ending up taking the course, and after that, the internal audits showed we were performing those processes correctly.

Key Takeaways: The candidate noticed a problem, came up with a good idea to solve the problem, and then took the initiative to make it happen.

7. Example Answer: One of the most difficult challenges I’ve had so far was when a colleague was hospitalized one day before a presentation to a potential client. My manager asked me to fill in for him, but I wasn’t familiar with the products he was selling to the client. I used every minute I had to study everything he had already prepared and finish the presentation. I asked a specialist from the support team to help me with the technical aspects. The presentation was a success, and we were able to close the deal.

Key Takeaways: The candidate made the effort to learn and prepare the presentation in the short time they had, wisely seeking help from experts.

8. Example Answer: In my first team meeting at ABCD Corporation, my manager told a couple of prejudiced jokes. Most people laughed. I noticed that a few other people were uncomfortable, but no one said anything. Even though I was new, I later approached him in private and respectfully explained that those jokes could be offensive to some people. He was surprised and said he didn’t realize it. In the next meeting, he apologized to everyone.

Key Takeaways: The candidate was bold to confront his manager’s inappropriate behavior, and he did so in a professional manner.

9. Example Answer: I had a very difficult situation where the company I was working for was having financial problems. Because of that, I had to fire one person from my team. I chose the team member we had hired most recently. She had great potential, but she still needed guidance to do her job. Before I talked to her, I reached out to some acquaintances from other companies, and one of them was hiring. So, when I gave her the bad news, I also told her about that opportunity. I gave her a recommendation letter and she ended up getting hired.

Key Takeaways: The candidate showed well-thought reasoning in choosing who to fire. They also showed compassion by actively seeking alternate employment for the employee.

10. Example Answer: While I was in college, I worked part-time at a coffee shop. The owner asked me to suggest a way to promote his new doughnut flavor. I suggested making mini doughnuts with that new flavor and adding one for free to each combo order during the launch period. It was a success. It became the third top-selling doughnut after only two weeks. Customers also wanted to buy the mini doughnuts, so we started making mini doughnuts in all flavors, and they also became top sellers.

Key Takeaways: This is a good example of a candidate who was able to add incredible value, even though they were still in college at the time, had little/no job experience, and only worked at the coffee shop on a part-time basis.

11. Example Answer: In my previous job, there was this time when a customer wanted a new website built on a very tight schedule and with a limited budget. I knew it was too risky. I turned down the work and respectfully explained my reasoning to the customer. The customer was upset and hired another company for the job.

Sometime later, the customer called me. They had a lot of delays with their project and realized that the schedule and budget combination was unworkable. They should have allowed for a longer schedule or a larger budget for that project. The customer told me that they wanted to work with us in the future because they valued our judgment and appreciated the honest feedback we had given.

Key Takeaways: The candidate made a tough decision to refuse a project that proved to be problematic. Though it initially resulted in a tense situation, the customer eventually realized that the candidate was right and appreciated their integrity.

12. Example Answer: About two years ago, we had a new team leader. He was constantly overworked while my teammates and I had free time, so I decided to talk to him. I told him that there were many tasks that we were used to doing, and that he could delegate them to us instead of doing everything himself. At first, he hesitated. But he eventually realized that we could handle those tasks, and our team’s workload got more balanced. Our results also improved after that.

Key Takeaways: The answer shows that the candidate has the courage to approach a superior and essentially tell him that he could improve his delegation skills…respectfully. The candidate identified an area for improvement and took initiative. In pursuing a fair workload distribution, it also shows that the candidate is hard working.

13. Example Answer: On my last job, I was asked to join a large project that was almost finished. When I studied the specifics of the tasks I was responsible for, I realized someone had made a wrong estimate. It should take at least two weeks longer to finish them. I talked to the project manager, and I helped him redo the plan. I also suggested adding a junior specialist to help me with the simpler tasks. We were able to finish everything in time and within the budget.

Key Takeaways: In this example, the candidate had to join a project at the tail end and get up to speed quickly. Not only did the candidate do this, but they discovered a critical problem, had the courage to diplomatically raise the issue and worked to solve the problem in a way that minimized negative impact on the project goals.

14. Example Answer: I was working late at the office one day when a customer called. My colleague had sold them a vacation package, including reservations in a hotel in Orlando, Florida. However, the hotel receptionist couldn’t find them. I immediately checked our system. I saw that the reservations got canceled due to incorrect information, but my colleague hadn’t noticed. So, I called the hotel manager, explained the situation, and the hotel manager was able to get the customer a room. I apologized to the customer and gave them a bonus for their next vacation.

Key Takeaways: This is a great example if you are applying to customer service jobs because mistakes inevitably will happen. The candidate didn’t hesitate to help the customer. They solved the problem and offered a bonus to try to make the customer satisfied despite what had happened.

15. Example Answer: I once had to lead an application development project on an extremely tight budget and schedule. It was a strategic client, so I couldn’t refuse it. I got our IT team to set up a VPN tunnel to the customer’s internal network, so most of my team worked remotely, reducing the travel expenses. I also had the junior programmers do some of the work, which reduced the labor cost. I was able to finish the project within schedule and budget. The customer was impressed, and I got a promotion.

Key Takeaways: The candidate showed how they handled a tough project for an important client. They came up with solutions to lower costs and finish the project successfully.

Some standard interview questions may seem a bit scary at first. But if you plan your answer and practice it, you can turn this difficult interview question into a great example of your skills. Prepare your STAR interview answer using what you have learned here and show your potential employer that you have what it takes to get that job. Good luck!

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• Describe a Difficult...

Describe a Difficult Situation and How You Overcame It

5 min read · Updated on August 13, 2021

Deftly explaining how you handle difficult work situations will help take you from interviewee to new hire.

One of the more creative ways employers learn about a candidate's abilities and experience is with open-ended questions requiring detailed answers. Often-used queries include, “Describe a difficult situation or project and how you overcame it,” and “Tell me how you handled a difficult situation.”  

Regardless of how the question is asked, here are some tips to help you ace the answer and get the job.

Why employers ask this question

As part of a behavioral-based interview , this is an effective way for a hiring manager to learn a great deal about an applicant without using multiple questions. It also helps in assessing your emotional intelligence, a deciding factor for many companies today.

Asking this question gives an interviewer insight on many key traits including:

How well you listen

How you prioritize

Your initiative

Your communication skills

Whether you own up to your mistakes

Whether you can avoid creating drama

The ways you deal with conflict, deadlines, and other work pressures

The strength of your leadership skills

Your instincts to ask for help when needed

Your ability to think on your feet 

People with these behavioral traits already intact can immediately handle the unforeseen challenges that come with the job, making them desirable candidates — especially for high-level positions. That's why it's critical to answer this question effectively.

Note: The interviewer may decide to ask about a specific situation rather than leaving that up to you. If so, you can state that you haven't handled that particular issue and offer to describe how you would deal with it. You may be asked about that particular scenario for a reason, so do your best to answer it rather than trying to use a different example.

How to respond to “Tell me how you handled a difficult situation”

Because this is likely part of a behavioral interview, use the STAR method to prepare a great answer beforehand so you can confidently respond during the interview.

STAR stands for S ituation, T ask, A ction, and R esult, the four areas you want to touch on when answering this type of question:

Situation: Explain the event/situation in a few concise sentences.

Task: Briefly describe the task/situation you handled, giving relevant details as needed.

Action: Explain the actions you used to complete your task or solve your issue. This is the place to be very detailed and specific so take your time providing this information.

Result: Present the specific results you achieved. If applicable, provide statistics or other quantifiable information used to achieve your results.

Following the STAR technique will help make sure you answer this question effectively so that the interviewer clearly sees that you have everything they desire in a qualified candidate.

Sample responses to get you started

Some general topic areas to focus on when developing your answers for a behaviorial interview include:

Choosing to act with integrity during an ethical dilemma or challenge

Taking initiative to approach and effectively solve difficult situations

Using a particular thought or action process to find a solution to a tough problem

Use the following sample answers to help you:

At my current job, a client called late Friday afternoon with an urgent question about their project status. Usually my boss directly interacts with our clients, but he'd already left for the weekend. I told the client that while I might not know the exact answer, I could possibly help because I was also working on the project. The client was fine with that. We worked through the question together, and I was able to provide enough information that the client felt the rest could wait until Monday. I left a detailed note for my boss asking him to check in with the client on Monday.

In my recent job as a department manager, there was a new hire who consistently provided incomplete reports. They were asked multiple times to include all the required information, but the reports continued to lack all the data and had to be redone for others to do their jobs. I wondered if the new employee was getting clear information, so I created a sample report for the new hire showing all the required data. I also asked other supervisors to review this with their reports and to post a chart of when the reports were due. As a result, the quality of everyone's reports improved, not just those of the new employee. I learned that it's really important to listen and to clearly communicate expectations to get the desired results.

Add all the specific actions and thought-processes that apply to your example, and try to make it sound like you're telling a story versus rattling off facts.

Avoid these mistakes

When answering this type of behavioral-based interview question , try to avoid topics that make you or anyone else look bad. Examples include:

Avoid speaking badly of current/former company, co-workers, supervisors, or direct reports.

Try not to come across as “superior” in your past or current role.

 Conversely, don't play yourself down — unless it's explaining how you've grown.

Don't describe a non-work-related situation, unless you have no relevant work experience to share.

The more you prepare for your job interviews, the more confident you'll be in describing how you handled a difficult work situation — and that greatly increases your chance of getting hired.

When it comes to acing the job interview, it's all about practice. That's where our coaches come in . 

Recommended Reading:

The Art of the Job Interview

How to Use the STAR Interview Method Like a Pro

Answering “What Are Your Strengths?” Interview Question

Related Articles:

How to Prepare for a Software Engineering Job Interview

27 Financial Analyst Interview Questions (with Great Answers)

27 Supervisor Interview Questions (and Great Answers)

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