Behavioral Interview
Questions and Answers

What Are "Behavioral Interview Questions?"

Read and study this entire article carefully.

Behavioral interviewing questions ask you for specific examples of what you have actually done (i.e. how you have behaved in the past).

The fundamental theory of Behavioral Interview Questions: Your past behavior is an excellent predictor of future behavior. If the job requires excellent time management skills, the interviewer will therefore ask you for examples of where you had to use this skill in the past.

Examples of Behavioral Interview Questions

"Tell me about a time when you…."

"Give me an example of when you had to…"

Here are a few sample behavioral interview questions for you to practice on:

"Tell me about a time when your time management skills came to your rescue."

"Tell me about a tough customer you had to win over."

"Sometimes co-workers are just annoying. Tell me about the worst co-worker you’ve had to try to work with?" Follow-up question: "What did you do about the annoyances?"

"Tell me about the most complicated project you’ve had to manage."

I have listed a few behavioral interview questions and answers here on the Sample Interview Questions page.

There Is No "Right" Answer

Example Behavioral Interview Question
and answer:

Skill Definition: Spoken Communications Able to clearly present information through the spoken word; influence or persuade others through oral presentation in positive or negative circumstances.

Behavioral Interview Question
"Tell me about a time when you had to use your communication skills to persuade someone. Maybe you could think of a really tough case and tell me about it."

Sample Answer
"When I was a teenager, I wanted to buy a car. My father wasn’t too receptive. I talked and talked, cried and begged. Now I can’t believe how obnoxious it was, but you know how a nineteen-year-old can be. Finally he gave in and let me buy an old Ford. I really learned a lot about the value of verbal persistence… I never quit asking."

Rating the Answer
How do you rate the answer above, based on the Skill Definition?

Based on this answer, I would say that there is very strong evidence the skill is NOT present in this candidate. Persistence and whining is not the same as persuasiveness. If the candidate tried this immature tactic in a most corporate environments, it just wouldn’t work.

Preparing to ACE Behavioral Interviews

Be familiar with your accomplishments. Behavioral interviewing is all about showcasing your skills and bragging about what you have accomplished. It’s urgent that you re-familiarize yourself with your accomplishments. Try these basic steps:

1. Pull out your old performance reviews and read them. Remember your major accomplishments and defeats.
2. Read your old resumes
3. Review old projects and memos you wrote and sweated over. Get the major successes and roadblocks in mind.
4. Recall the major customers you served. Who were your bosses? Who were the most challenging customers or clients? Remember the best and worst of the people you worked with.

Practice, practice, practice!
I can’t emphasize this one enough. If you go into an interview and decide to just "wing it," you and and I will both come away disappointed. I recommend that you enlist a friend to help you practice or hire a professional interview coach.

If you don’t have any friends who are experienced interviewers and can’t afford a personal trainer for interviews, you can download a list of sample questions quickly and cheaply from the Interview Questions and Answers Database . This is an affordable resource that includes sample interview questions, sample interview answers, mock interviews, assessments, and tests. At less than $20, this tool is a no-brainer.

Don’t try to lie It’s too easy to paint yourself into a corner with this kind of interview if you lie or embellish. The interviewer will probe you for details. What, where, when, why, how many. Sometimes, interviewers will repeat the story to your former boss during a reference check.

Conclusion

If you invest in practice and get thoroughly familiar with your accomplishments and failures, you will be prepared for interview success. If you invest time in practice, you will deliver higher quality examples that will impress your interviewer, proving you have the core skills for the success on the job.

Recommended Resources:

If money is an issue (and for job seekers, it usually is), I can highly recommend the Interview Questions and Answers Database.

More interview practice resources here!

Please e-mail me if you have specific questions! I’m happy to try to answer brief questions personally. Since this is a free service, please wait patiently for my reply.