How to Answer: What are your pet peeves? Interview Questions

Your response to the question “What are your pet peeves?” will help the interviewer determine if you would be a good fit with the company culture.

A team ethos is of vital importance in every company. How individuals interact with other will decide morale which in turn, will have a direct input on the productivity of that team. Therefore, it is important for every employer to ask interview questions that will help determine how well a potential new employee is likely to fit in with the existing team members. This is one of those questions so it is worthy of some of your time in order to prepare for it.

The safest way to answer this question is to deny you have any particular pet peeves. You shouldn’t try to pretend that nothing ever gets to you, however, it is possible to put a positive spin within your answer.

Example Answer

I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself to have any specific pet peeves. If I come across a problem, or find myself becoming anxious or stressed, my reaction would be to take a breath, face up to the problem and then in a calm manner address the situation and work towards a solution. If an ongoing situation was arising I would seek to take affirmative action to put things right.

This would show the interviewer that you are a tolerant person and understand that you cannot default to blowing up in peoples faces when something is annoying you. It would also show that you have a back bone and would be willing to stand up for what you feel is right. Putting this together, the interviewer will hopefully be left with the impression that you are an outgoing person but not overly aggressive or overpowering. This should help when being put against the model of the team ethos as to your likeliness of being able to fit in with the existing team members. Hopefully your body language throughout the interview will reflect this and add to your claim for the job.

Best Answer

I do not have a pet peeve. If something is bothering me, I step back, analyze “why” and find a good solution. If you asked my teenage daughter she would tell you my pet peeve is the volume on her radio!