Interviewers like to ask candidates questions based on their past work experiences when having a behavioral job interview. This helps them determine if the candidate has the right skills for the vacant position they need to fulfill.
These behavioral questions place so much focus on how candidates handled jobs they were assigned to in the past. The way you respond to these questions will speak a lot about you and will tell the interviewer all they need to know about your abilities, skills, and personality.
Learn everything you need to know about behavioral questions and how to answer them!
What Are Behavioral Job Interview Questions?
This interview style has been developed to let interviewers know about your past behavior at jobs and also predict your future behavior. These questions don’t usually come in a yes or no form; they usually require you to give in-depth explanations to examples regarding past work experiences and work ethics. You should learn how to give answers to questions without giving a right or wrong answer. Many types of research have been carried out on this that give the best tutorials on how to do this effortlessly.
The answers you give to behavioral interview questions should be very brief and detailed. They should highlight your skills and strengths as regards the position you’re applying for. To help you do this effectively, make sure you paint a scenario and tell them what you did in that scenario regarding the actions you took and the final results you got because of your actions. It gives them an insight into what you’re capable of doing without you having to tell them. It’s always tricky, so you should be extra careful when giving your answers.
Prior to the day of the interview, make sure you understand some of the frequently asked questions and try to give replies to them yourself. This will help you prepare ahead of time so the questions won’t come to you as a shocker when you hear them from the interview, and you can answer them with utmost confidence.
Learn more about interview questions that require you to discuss your work experience.
Answering Behavioral Job Interview Questions
There’s a technique that’s been tested repeatedly and has been proven to be the best strategy for answering behavioral interview questions. Many candidates have used it, and most of them got their dream job. The technique is called the STAR technique. Let’s talk a little about what it means and how it helps us secure the position we want.
S- Situation. This is the first step, where you describe the situation around which the event occurred.
T- Task. Here, you give a detailed description of the task you were assigned along with the difficulties or challenges you might have faced.
A-Action. Tell them your actions to overcome the challenges and complete the task.
R- Results. Explain how the results helped become a success for the company. Give them a detailed step-by-step breakdown of each process.
Learn more about the STAR interview technique.
How to Answer Behavioral Questions
There are a few tips you should know about when it comes to giving answers to behavioral interview questions. They are:
- Get ready way before time. Perform research on common behavioral questions and practice the answers you have for them repeatedly.
- Be patient. Before you answer any question, make sure you take your time. You could take a pause or even a sip of water to calm your nerves so that your answer can come in a well-constructed form, just like you’ve practiced.
- Be positive. These types of questions usually require you to state problems and challenges, which makes it very easy for negativity to rear its head but be cinchona enough to keep to the positive side of things and be confident.
- Use the STAR Technique. Always make use of this technique when answering your questions. It is a guide to not going off point on the topic, and you provide a thorough answer.
Popular Behavioral Job Interview Questions
Some of the commonest behavioral interview questions have been outlined for you below and so, you should make sure to practice them so as to get better at answering the questions even before you get to the front of your interviewer. Example questions are:
- Have you ever made a mistake? How’d you deal with it?
- Give a description of the time where you had a stressful situation at work and tell us how you handled it
- Have you ever used logic to solve a problem? Give an example.
- How effectively do you work under pressure?
- Have you ever made a very risky decision? What led to it? How’d you cope with it?
- Tell us how you came up with a decision that was majorly opposed and how you handled it to make it successful.
- How do you deal with disagreements with your boss?
- How do you deal with disagreements with your coworker?
- Are you a team player? Give us an example of how you’ve worked with a team and what you accomplished.
- Have you had to increase the enthusiasm of a team to work on a project? How’d you go about it?
- Tell us how you were able to motivate your coworkers at some point in time. How motivated were they?
- If there’s an interruption in your schedule, how does it make you feel, and what do you do about it?
- Have you gone farther than expected on a particular job? How’d you do that?
- Have you ever set a goal that you were unable to achieve? What happened, and how’d you deal with it?
Summary
These are some of the major questions that you’ll be asked, and the type of answer you give will give a sum total of your behavior to your job and how effectively productive you are. Make sure to always make use of the STAR technique, do not lie, be very confident in yourself and be positive. Everybody loves a positive and cheerful spirit around them.
Job Interview Topics – Common Job Interview Questions & Answers
Below you can find a list of common job interview topics. Each link will direct you to an article regarding the specific topics that discuss commonly asked interview questions. Furthermore, each article discusses why the interviewer asks these questions and how you answer them!
- Accomplishments
- Adaptability
- Admission
- Behavioral
- Career Change
- Career Goals
- Communication
- Competency
- Conflict Resolution
- Creative Thinking
- Cultural Fit
- Customer Service
- Direct
- Experience
- Government
- Graduate
- Growth Potential
- Honesty & Integrity
- Illegal
- Inappropriate
- Job Satisfaction
- Leadership
- Management
- Entry-Level & No experience
- Performance-Based
- Personal
- Prioritization & Time Management
- Problem-solving
- Salary
- Situational & Scenario-based
- Stress Management
- Teamwork
- Telephone Interview
- Tough
- Uncomfortable
- Work Ethic
