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Behavioral Interview Questions Made Easy

By Andrew Reed

The technique of using Behavioral Interview Questions, was first developed in the mid 70's by industrial psychologists.

The belief is that your past performance in a previous job or situation is a clear indicator of your future contribution in a similar role or situation.

In a Behavioral Interview, questions will be phrased so that you have to give detailed examples of situations, events, actions or projects you were involved in. Your answers will be assessed to see how well you demonstrated particular behaviors or skills.

What is a Behavioral Interview?

Behavioral Interviewing can be referred to as Situational Interviewing or Competency Based Interviewing and is becoming increasingly common.

It is said that over 35% of corporations including Microsoft, Citicorp and Accenture use Behavioral Interviewing in some form or other and studies have shown this technique to be about 5 times more accurate than traditional interview questions in choosing the best candidate.

When using behavioral interviewing techniques the interviewer will ask open-ended interview questions designed to discover your reactions and performance in past situations and they will compare these to the pre-set requirements of the role being recruited for.

Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavior based interview questions require you to provide specific examples of what you have done in the past and usually take the form of:

• Tell me about a time when.....
• Give an example of a situation....
• Describe a situation...

These questions are designed to gather detailed evidence and you will find that once you have given your answer the interviewer will probe deeper and may pick certain aspects of your answer to investigate further. Be prepared for additional questions such as:

• How exactly did you do that?
• Tell me exactly what steps you took to resolve that.
• What was the basis for that decision?

By delving deeper into the detail of your answer the interviewer knows that it becomes very difficult for you to sustain a fabricated story.

Sample List of Behavioral Interview Questions

• Describe a project or situation which best demonstrates your leadership skills. What was your role?
• Tell us about a time when you built rapport quickly with someone under difficult conditions.
• Give me an example of an important goal you achieved and how you delivered it.
• Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with a large group of people.
• Give me an example of a difficult situation you faced with an employee, and tell me how you resolved it.
• Tell us about a recent success you had when making a presentation. How did you prepare and what was the outcome?
• Tell me about a time in which you used your written communication skills to get an important point across
• Talk through an important decision you made recently. What factors influenced your decision?
  
• Give me an example of when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.
• Describe a recent unpopular decision you made and what was the result.

The questions asked in Behavioral Interviews will vary depending on the type of job and the level your are being interviewed at. InterviewGOLD™, our dynamic online interview course provides you with mock interviews specific to your job and level. Find out more...

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About the Author

Andrew Reed is an experienced interviewer and has developed successful recruitment strategies for large organizations within the Customer Services, HR and Finance sectors.

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