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Demonstrating attributes and competencies is hard?

Whenever I have to do a job application that's like "describe a time when you [demonstrated attribute]", it always feels incredibly difficult. Often, I can't think of a suitable instance. Do people relate? I wonder which of the following are true:

Maybe I just don't have these attributes/competencies, the apps are hard because I'm actually a bad fit?
-- But: sometimes I feel like I do have the attributes but I just can't think of a specific work-related time they came up.

Maybe most other people are better at remembering stuff that has happened during their lives?

Maybe these questions are calibrated for "you've had a 9-to-5 office job" and less so for my mixture of work/academic experiences?


A big part of this is that it feels a bit bullshitty somehow. like it's a very fake form of self-description.

in reply to Amber Dawn

Ben Weinstein-Raun
Ben Weinstein-Raun
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I don't remember ever filling out a job application that asked questions like this, though I've been asked them in interviews. I obviously don't know much about your circumstances, but tbh I'd take this as a slightly bad sign about the place you're applying? Like, this question seems to me like the kind of thing that selects good liars (who can come up with / "adjust" an anecdote trivially) over people who have the property they're looking for (who have to actually sift through their history for something that matches). And so if the org is relying on this question at all, that's a slightly bad indicator about the kind of people who are likely to work there?
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

Amber Dawn
Amber Dawn
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Hmm that's interesting! The most recent one was for a social work program (I'm exploring the idea rather than 'definitely want to do it'), and I've heard that the UK civil service also uses questions like this (I do not know if this is evidence for or against your point XD)

I guess for jobs that involve working with people, they have to resort to questions like this because it's harder to test your people skills/soft skills in thte application process? Although, maybe there are ways to ask for written answers that capture some bits (e.g. 'here's a difficult scenario, imagine you're a social worker/civil servant and write an imaginary email to the people involved'. They actually already had a multiple choice quiz a bit like this!)

in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

David Mears
David Mears
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Isn't it such a common type of question that if you filter out all such interviewers, you have no jobs left to apply to?
in reply to David Mears

Ben Weinstein-Raun
Ben Weinstein-Raun
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Well, not in my experience? But also I didn't say you should filter them out, just that I think it's a slightly bad sign.
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

Ben Weinstein-Raun
Ben Weinstein-Raun
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tbc an individual interviewer asking a question like this feels different to me than if it's enshrined on the standard application form. Interviewers often have a lot of leeway in what they ask; it seems worse if the person in charge of hiring is like, "yes, this question is how we will determine who to hire".
in reply to Ben Weinstein-Raun

David Mears
David Mears
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I see.

In British culture at least, I’m taught to expect and prepare for this genre of difficult (because memory-taxing) so called ‘time when’ question, and rehearse little anecdotes that answer “tell me about a time you did [a team work]”. And one is ‘supposed’ to answer this standard formula with another standard formula: the so called STAR format: Situation, Task, Action, Result. That’s the game people have aligned on. (Not that hiring managers should _want_ to have predictable questions…)

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