---
title: "Hiring for Adaptability: A Major IT Challenge"
description: Here are the top 5 Adaptability questions to ask during your next IT candidate interview.
image: https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/hubfs/1528570_PGMS%20Hiring%20IT_1200x628_v1_122222%20%281%29.jpg
---

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# Strategic Human Capital Insights

## [Hiring for Adaptability: A Major IT Challenge](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/blog/hiring-for-adaptability-major-it-challenge)

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Did you know that 69% of hiring managers say Adaptability is the most important soft skill they screen for? To stay competitive today, your company needs to be able to adapt to a changing economy and business needs. This means you also need to hire employees who can adapt as well.

So what does this mean for IT hiring? Adaptability is one of the most difficult challenges in the IT hiring process. Why? Because when you consider how positions in IT are evolving today, the role of IT employees increasingly requires the Adaptability soft skill. Adaptability is now required for multiple facets of the evolving IT position benchmark:

- Adaptability when using new technologies/applications
- Adaptability when moving up the management and leadership ladder
- Adaptability when dealing with peers or matrixed colleagues
- Adaptability when dealing with contractors
- Adaptability when interacting with internal users
- Adaptability when dealing with vendors
- Adaptability when working with outsourced functions

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Given this list, it’s safe to say that Adaptability is required for almost every aspect of an IT professional’s responsibilities. However, often within IT, we just screen for the first bullet, ***Adaptability with evolving and new technologies/applications.*** That screen is ‘relatively’ easy since the topics to explore are more tangible, and the responses are more quantitative. Screening for the other Adaptability bullets in the interview process can be very difficult given the many potential layers of questions that need to be asked to arrive at tangible and credible responses.

Since an interview is typically an hour, you have little time to figure out if the person has the Adaptability qualities you are looking for in your next hire. The good news is that behavioral interview questions are a proven way to determine what someone will be like to work with more easily.

**Here are the top 5 Adaptability questions to ask during your next IT candidate interview:**

1. Tell me about a time when you were asked to do something you had never done before. How did you react?  What did you learn?

1. Describe a situation in which you embraced a new system, process, technology, or idea at work that was a major departure from the old way of doing things. 

1. Recall a time when you were assigned a task outside your job description. How did you handle the situation?  What was the outcome?

1. Tell me about the biggest change you have had to deal with. How did you adapt to that change?
2. Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a colleague’s working style to complete a project to achieve your objectives.

**Are you looking to build the IT department of the future? [Download the IT Competency Checklist](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/it-competency-checklist) to help you determine if your IT Department is ready to perform at sustainable peak levels for all necessary business skills in your organization. We also invite you to [schedule a complimentary assessment](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/contact-human-capital-advisory) with a member of our team.**

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 Topics: [Information Technology](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/blog/topic/information-technology), [Soft Skills](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/blog/topic/soft-skills)

Posted by [Joanne Flynn](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/blog/author/joanne-flynn)

![Joanne Flynn](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Joanne_Flynn.jpg?width=100&height=100&name=Joanne_Flynn.jpg)

Joanne T. Flynn heads up the human capital advisory group, Phoenix Strategic Performance, Inc. Previously, she was a Managing Director with Phoenix Group International and was Vice President / Director of Global Learning and Development at Goldman, Sachs for nine years. Joanne works with organizations as they face global growth and competitive challenges. She works with her clients to be both externally focused and internally responsive. With her unique background, she aligns competitive strategic efforts with related internal organizational leadership challenges. With the benefit of her career-long focus, Joanne contributes the unique insight of aligning strategy to internal organizational structure and process. She focuses on human capital relative to strategic initiatives, accelerated business growth, value creation, and business development. Joanne holds a Master of Arts degree in Business Management from the University of Oklahoma. In addition, she holds a double degree major in History and German from St. Elizabeth University, as well as certificates from a variety of leading universities and professional training and development organizations. Joanne has recently published her latest book, [Accelerating Business Success, The Human Asset Management Strategy](https://www.phoenixstrategicperformance.com/accelerating-business-success).

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