Behavioral Interviewing
Behavioral Questions
Examples of Behavioral Questions related to Job Competencies:
ADAPTABILITY
Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a classmate's or colleague's working style in order to complete a project or achieve your objectives.
ANALYTICAL SKILLS / PROBLEM SOLVING
Tell me about a situation where you had to solve a difficult problem. What did you do? What was your thought process? What was the outcome? What do you wish you had done differently?
COMMUNICATION
Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa). How did you handle the situation? What obstacles or difficulties did you face? How did you deal with them?
CREATIVITY
Tell me about a problem that you've solved in a unique or unusual way. What was the outcome? Were you happy or satisfied with it?
DECISION MAKING
Tell me about a time when you had to make a decision without all the information you needed. How did you handle it? Why? Were you happy with the outcome?
FLEXIBILITY
Describe a time when you put your needs aside to help a co-worker understand a task. How did you assist them? What was the result?
GOAL SETTING
Tell me about a goal that you set that you did not reach. What steps did you take? What obstacles did you encounter? How did it make you feel?
INITIATIVE
What was the best idea you came up with during your professional or college career? How did you apply it?
INTEGRITY/HONESTY
Give an example of a policy you conformed to with which you did not agree. Why?
LEADERSHIP
Tell me about a team project when you had to take the lead or take charge of the project? What did you do? How did you do it? What was the result?
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
Give an example of when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with. How/why was this person difficult? How did you handle it? How did the relationship progress?
PLANNING AND ORGANIZATION / TIME MANAGEMENT
How do you prioritize projects and tasks when scheduling your time? Give me some examples.
TEAMWORK
Describe a situation where others you were working with on a project disagreed with your ideas. What did you do?
STAR Method
When answering behavioral questions use the STAR Method and convey specific situations, actions, and outcomes/results.
| Situation | Use specific details about a situation or task. |
| Task | Tell what led to the situation or task? |
| Action Taken | Discuss what you did and who was involved? |
| Result or outcome | Communicate the outcome? |
Probing Questions
Employers will follow up their main question with probing questions which are designed to elicit specific details that help them assess you in light of the job's success factors. Probing questions may involve asking you to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and attitudes and may also seek to uncover the kinds of dialogue you engaged in and the specific outcome of a given situation. Some examples of probing questions include:
What were you thinking when that happened?
What kind of mental processing do you utilize to evaluate a given situation?
What was your reaction?
How are you prone to respond in a given set of circumstances?
What did you actually do?
Can you organize and implement a strategy?
What did you actually say?
Do you communicate effectively in a variety of settings?
What did other people/the other person say in response?
How well do you handle praise and criticism?
How did it finally turn out?
Do you see things through to completion?
What was the final result?
Are you success-oriented?
What did you learn about yourself as a result of this situation?
Are you motivated toward self-evaluation and self-improvement?
What did you learn about others as a result of this situation?
Did this experience give you some perspective about how you deal with people?
What, if anything, would you do differently given the same situation?
Did this experience give you some perspective about how you deal with people?
Is there anything else I should know about this situation?
What makes you unique from the last person who answered the same question?
Job Competencies
Employers are increasingly using behavioral interviewing in the hiring process. This type of interview is based on the idea that the best way to predict your future performance is to examine your past and present performance. Behavioral interviewing also gives interviewers a chance to see how good you are at thinking and communicating "on your feet". Prepare for Behavioral Interviews by researching what job competencies an employer might seek. Some examples of Job Competencies are below:
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