Conflict

Disagreeing with a supervisor or professor does not make you unemployable. The interviewer wants to know how you expressed your disagreement and whether the conflict caused an impasse or a disruption in the work environment.

Job seeker should appear to know how to resolve issues and uses it as an opportunity to reinforce interpersonal relationships; concentrates on the issues and never personalizes things.

Job seeker should explain that they put the team first; should not appear easily intimidated; seeks to resolve differences; does not personalize conflicts.

Candidate should appear to know how to convince others that their point is right. Sees conflict as natural. Never personalizes it, but explains the issues involved forcefully; stands up for what he believes is best for the business in a logical and reasonable manner.

Most jobs require you to get along with different types of people. Some of your coworkers, managers, and/or clients will turn out to be idiots, slackers, and/or weirdos. Disagreements are bound to arise.

To succeed at work, you must be able to deal with conflict professionally. This is particularly true in certain jobs (project management, customer service, law) and in certain company cultures.

Your interviewer wants to get a sense of how you will respond to conflict.

You basically want to hear that they do not like to point fingers at others; that they try to stop the mistake from happening again by making his/her colleague aware of their error in a non blame educational manner.