Behavioral Interview

What is a behavioral interview? Behavioral based interviewing is interviewing based on observing how the interviewee operated in specific employment-related situations. The logic is that how you behaved in the past will prophesy how you will behave in the future i.e. past performance predicts future performance.

Traditional Interview vs. Behavioral Interview

In a conventional interview, you will be asked a sequence of questions which peculiarly have straight forward answers like "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" or "What major challenges and problems did you face? How did you handle them?" or "Describe a typical work week."

In a behavioral interview, an employer has evaluated what skills are needed in the person they hire and will ask questions to find out if the candidate has those skills. Instead of asking how you would behave, they will ask how you did behave. The interviewer will wish to know how you handled a situation, instead of what you might do in the future.

Questions in a Behavioral Interview

Behavioral interview questions will be more pointed, more probing and more specific than traditional interview questions:

Give an example of an occasion when you used logic to solve a problem.
Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.
Describe a decision you made that was unpopular and how you handled implementing it.
Have you gone above and beyond the call of duty? If so, how?
What do you do when your schedule is interrupted? Give an example of how you handle it.
Have you had to convince a team to work on a project they weren't thrilled about? How did you do it?
Have you handled a difficult situation with a co-worker? How?
Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.

Follow-up questions will also be detailed. You may be asked what you did, what you said, how you reacted or how you felt.

During the Behavioral Interview

During the interview, if you are not sure how to answer the question, ask for clarification. Then be sure to include these points in your answer:

A specific situation
The tasks that needed to be done
The action you took
The results i.e. what happened

It's relevant to keep in mind that there are no correct or wrong answers. The interviewer is purely trying to understand how you behaved in a given situation. How you respond will induce if there is a fit between your skills and the position the company is seeking to fill. So, listen carefully, be clear and detailed when you respond and, most importantly, be honest. If your answers aren't what the interviewer is looking for, this position may not be the best job for you anyway.

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