Latest / Interview Prep with Fexingo: Behavioral Questions, Case Studies, and Hiring Manager Insights / How to Answer the Tell Me About a Time You Adapted to Change Question
Transcript
- Lucas: One of the most common behavioral questions you’ll hear this summer — and I mean across industries, not just tech — is 'Tell me about a time you had to adapt to change.' Luna: It’s everywhere right now. I’ve seen it in finance, healthcare, even manufacturing job descriptions. Lucas: And it makes sense. July 2026 — we’re three years into the generative AI wave, companies are still figuring out hybrid work, and whole business models are shifting. Hiring managers want to know: can you pivot without panicking? Luna: So what’s the trap here? Because I feel like a lot of people answer it too generically. 'I’m flexible, I embrace change, blah blah.' Lucas: Exactly. That’s trap number one. A generic statement about your mindset doesn’t prove anything. You need a story — specific, with a before and after, and a measurable outcome if possible. Luna: Okay, so take me through a good example. What does a strong answer actually sound like? Lucas: Let me give you one I heard recently from a friend who works in hotel revenue management. Her company — a mid-sized regional chain — had always used a fixed pricing model. You book a room, the price is the same whether you book three months out or the day before. Luna: Right, that’s how a lot of smaller hotels still operate. Lucas: Then last year, the corporate office decided to switch to a dynamic pricing system — like what airlines and big hotel brands use. Prices fluctuate based on demand, occupancy, events in the city. It was a massive operational and cultural shift. Her team had to learn new software, change how they communicated rates to guests, and deal with pushback from front desk staff who thought it would alienate loyal customers. Luna: That’s a great scenario because the change is concrete and there’s real tension. Lucas: Right. So when she got the question, she didn’t just say 'I adapted.' She walked through what happened. She described the initial confusion — the software training was glitchy, some colleagues resisted — and then she explained how she took the initiative to create a quick-reference guide for her team, which cut the learning curve in half. Luna: She added a specific action and a result. I like that. Lucas: And she ended with the outcome: within two months, their property saw a 12 percent increase in revenue per available room — RevPAR — compared to the same period the year before. That’s a number a hiring manager will remember. Luna: So she used the STAR method — Situation, Task, Action, Result — but with a twist. She emphasized the adaptation specifically. Lucas: She actually used something I call the LAR method. Listen, Act, Reflect. The 'Listen' part is crucial — too many people skip to action without showing they understood the nature of the change first. She listened to the resistance from staff, listened to the glitches in the software. Then she acted by creating that guide. And she reflected by measuring the revenue impact. Luna: I’ve never heard LAR before. Is that something you teach? Lucas: I’ve been using it in coaching sessions. STAR is great, but it can feel a bit formulaic. LAR forces you to show that you’re perceptive — that you don’t just react, you size up what’s changing first. Hiring managers love that because it signals emotional intelligence. Luna: Let me test a personal story on you. When I was a junior marketing coordinator, my company switched CRM platforms from Salesforce to HubSpot — and they gave us exactly one week to migrate all our data and learn the new system. Lucas: That’s tight. A week is not a lot of time. Luna: I panicked internally, but I didn’t show it. I spent the first day mapping out the biggest differences between the two platforms, then I organized a lunch and learn where a HubSpot rep walked the team through the key features. By day five, we were fully migrated and I had created a cheat sheet for the sales team. Lucas: So you listened first — you assessed the gap. Then you acted by organizing the training. What was the reflection? Luna: Honestly? I realized that I actually prefer HubSpot. And the team’s adoption rate hit 90 percent in the first month, which was higher than the company average for previous software rollouts. Lucas: That’s a solid answer. And you gave a number. I’d ask you to tighten the timeline a bit — 'day one I did X, day two Y' — but the structure is there. Luna: What about the pitfalls? You mentioned vague statements. What else do you see? Lucas: One big one: telling a story where the change was imposed on you and you were a passive recipient. 'My company reorganized, and I just went along with it.' That’s not adaptation, that’s compliance. You need to show you actively engaged with the change. Luna: So don’t say 'my department was restructured' without saying what you did to make the new structure work. Lucas: Exactly. Another common mistake is picking a change that’s too small or too personal — like 'I started using a new to-do list app.' That’s not going to impress anyone. The change should be team-wide or company-wide, with stakes that matter to the business. Luna: What about the time frame? Should the change be recent? Lucas: Ideally within the last two or three years. If you go back to a college job from a decade ago, it feels stale. Hiring managers want to know how you handle change in the current environment — especially with AI and hybrid work being so prominent. Luna: That’s a good point. If you have a story that involves learning a new AI tool, that’s gold right now. Lucas: Absolutely. Even if it’s something simple like adopting ChatGPT for drafting emails, frame it as adapting to a new workflow. The key is to show that you don’t resist new tools — you figure them out quickly and find ways to make them productive. Luna: Let’s say I’m a listener who’s preparing for an interview tomorrow. What’s the one piece of advice you’d give them tonight? Lucas: Pick two stories from your career — one where you adapted to a process change, and one where you adapted to a strategic shift. Write them out using LAR. Then practice them out loud, but don’t memorize. You want to sound conversational, not robotic. Luna: And if you don’t have a perfect story? Should you still try to answer? Lucas: Yes. But be honest about the scope. It’s fine to say 'This was a smaller change, but here’s how I approached it.' The interviewer is listening for your thought process, not a heroic tale. Luna: I think that’s really practical. And it ties into something we talk about a lot on this show — preparation beats improvisation every time. Lucas: Speaking of preparation, if you’re finding these episodes helpful and you’ve used our tips to land a job or even just feel more confident walking into an interview, it means a lot to know that. This show stays ad-free because of listeners who choose to support it, and that support lets us keep digging into the questions that actually matter in your career. Luna: Yeah, we don’t run ads or sponsored segments. It’s just us and the content. If you’d like to help keep it that way, you can find the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: And now back to the topic — because I want to address a nuance that often trips people up. What if the change you adapted to was a failure? Like, you tried to adapt but it didn’t work out? Luna: Oh, that’s a great point. Can you still use a story where the outcome wasn’t positive? Lucas: Absolutely. In fact, those can be more powerful because they show self-awareness and learning. Just make sure the emphasis is on what you learned and how you applied that lesson later. Luna: Give me an example. Lucas: Say you were part of a team that rolled out a new project management tool like Asana, but adoption was low because people found it too complex. You tried to adapt by creating tutorial videos, but they didn’t get watched. The failure taught you that training needs to be hands-on, not passive. So in your next role, when a similar change came up, you insisted on live workshops — and adoption hit 80 percent. Luna: So the failure becomes setup for a later success. That’s actually more convincing than a straight win. Lucas: It humanizes you. Interviewers know that change is messy. If you only tell stories where everything went perfectly, you sound like you’re glossing over reality. Luna: Alright, so let’s recap. For 'Tell me about a time you adapted to change': use LAR — Listen, Act, Reflect. Pick a story with concrete stakes and a measurable outcome. Include a number if you can. And don’t be afraid to show a learning curve. Lucas: And one more thing: tailor the story to the role you’re interviewing for. If it’s a sales job, talk about adapting to a new CRM or pricing model. If it’s a product role, talk about pivoting based on user feedback. Relevance matters. Luna: That’s a solid framework. I’m going to use LAR myself next time I practice. Lucas: Let us know how it goes. And if you have a story you’re not sure how to frame, you can always reach out — we read listener questions on the show. Luna: That’s a wrap for episode 94. Next time, we’ll tackle another classic: 'Tell me about a time you had to influence without authority.' Lucas: That’s a tough one. I’m already thinking about examples. See you then.