This conversation analytic study compares the role of formulations in the construction of narratives in the institutional settings of police interrogations and job interviews. It is demonstrated how the interactional and sequential insertion of one formulation type, the challenging formulations (ChallFs), differs according to the setting, and that its function is straightly linked to the the police officer's and recruiter's institutional tasks (of discovering the truth and evaluating the candidate). In these two settings formulations are part of the interactants' process of remodelling the layperson's story to suit institutional demands.