Asked to describe a conflict with a coworker and realised I don't actually have one
Every behavioural guide says have a conflict story ready. I've been working three years and the honest answer is my disagreements have been things like picking a different library and moving on within the hour.
So I stretched something tiny into what it wasn't and I could hear myself inflating it while I talked. Interviewer moved on quickly.
Is the right move to just say the disagreements have been small and walk through how one got resolved? Or does that read as someone who dodges hard conversations?
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AnonymousAnon Conflict doesn't have to mean a row with a person. Disagreeing about a deadline, pushing back on a spec, telling a PM something wasn't going to fit in the sprint — that all counts. You probably do have a story, it's just not the shape the guides told you to look for.
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AnonymousAnon Say the small one, honestly. I've been on the interviewing side and an inflated conflict story is obvious. There's a tonal shift when someone starts performing. A minor disagreement described precisely lands far better than a manufactured crisis.