When you're looking for a job, the interview is an opportunity to showcase your skills and personality. While it's common to be asked some technical questions about what you know, it's also very common to be asked behavioral interview questions.
Behavioral interview questions are non-technical questions that focus on how you acted in a past situation. Interviewers use them to gauge your skill level, ability to manage stress, and professionalism. The reasoning behind this approach is simple: relevant past behavior can provide useful evidence about how someone may approach similar work, though it is not a complete prediction of future performance.
The first thing to look for when determining whether a question is a behavioral one is its opening phrasing. Behavioral questions usually start with “Tell me about a time when…” or “Give me an example of a time when…”
What interviewers are looking for
While these kinds of questions can cover a wide range of topics, there are certain key areas that interviewers tend to probe most closely. These include:
Problem-solving skills – Employers want to hire people who can anticipate risks and make decisions about the best ways to proceed.
Effective communication – Face-to-face, email, chat, video conferencing, and phone communication are all important tools for getting the information you need to perform well at work.
Skill level – Employers want to know that you’re actually capable of doing the work they’re hiring you for.
Stress management – Employers want to know that you’ll be able to handle pressure without breaking down.
Professionalism – Employers want to know that you’ll show up on time, dress appropriately, and treat other employees and clients with respect.
In addition to these core competency areas, many employers will ask behavioral interview questions designed to test your ability to get along with others. This includes questions about conflicts with team members, mistakes made at work, and problems or stress experienced at work or in a class that tested coping skills.
How to answer behavioral interview questions
Although these kinds of questions may seem intimidating, they’re actually pretty easy to answer if you think about them properly. You probably already have the answers you need; you just need to find the right stories and polish them a bit. Here’s how to do that:
First, prepare a few stories based on the job description. This will help you feel more prepared and less nervous when answering the questions.
Second, draw on academic, internship, or early work situations. These are all valid sources of story material.
Third, shape each story into a narrative by explaining what happened, what you did, and why you did it. For example, if you were asked to describe a time when you had a conflict with a team member, you might say something like: “Back when I was just starting out as an assistant to a more senior recruiter, I found myself in a conflict with my boss. He wanted me to take over some of his responsibilities, but I didn’t feel ready for the added workload. We talked about it, and eventually came to an agreement where he would train me until I felt confident enough to handle the extra work.”
For questions that include an “and why” component, give evidence that you did a good job. For instance, if you were asked to talk about a time when you stepped away from traditional methods to solve a difficult problem, you might explain that you were frustrated with the way things were being handled, and decided to try a different approach.
By following these tips, you’ll be able to answer behavioral interview questions confidently and effectively.