How to answer behavioral based interview questions

When you are interviewing for a position, the company wants to find out as much about you as they can, to ensure that you can do the job and that you are the right fit for their organisation. In many interviews you will be asked behavioural based questions - to find out how you approach your work and how you react in difference circumstances.

What are behavioural questions?

Here are some examples of the types of behavioural questions you may be asked:

• Give me a specific example of a time when a co-worker criticised your work in front of others. How did you respond?
• Give me a specific example of a time when you sold your supervisor on an idea or concept. How did you proceed? What was the result?
• Describe a situation when you had many projects due at the same time. What steps did you take to get them all done?
• How do you determine priorities in scheduling your time? Give me an example.
• Tell me about a time when you influenced the outcome of a project by taking a leadership role.

How do you prepare for behavioural interview questions?

We recommend using the STAR Approach.

Situation or Task

Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. Describe a specific event or situation and give some detail. This situation can be from a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any relevant event.

Action

Describe the action you took and keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did -- not the efforts of the team.

Results

What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What did you learn?

You can think about these questions and prepare for them in advance so that you are not caught out during the interview.  Keyways you can prepare include:

• Identify six to eight examples from your experience where you demonstrated the behaviours and skills that employers typically seek.
• Some of your examples should be positive, such as accomplishments or meeting goals. Others should be negative situations that either ended positively or where you made the best of the outcome.
• Vary your examples; don't take them all from just one area of your life and use recent examples. From the past 12 months where possible.

Practice your behavioural stories using real-life examples. It is very difficult to make up behavioural stories, which is why behavioural interviewing is a popular interviewing technique. By practicing, you will be able to recall with confidence your past accomplishments. In all interview situations, be prepared, remain composed, and remember it’s just another (slightly more formal) conversation, so don’t get tongue tied or nervous!

Once you are in the interview, listen carefully to each question and use an example from those you practiced at home to provide an appropriate description of how you demonstrated the desired behaviour. With practice, you can learn to tailor a relatively small set of examples to respond to several different behavioural questions.