The Behavioral Interview

The behavioral interview tends to be a more difficult interview that a "standard" interview that you might be used to.

Where a typical interview might involve answering softball-type (ie. easy) questions like:

"Tell me what you did at each job" or

"Tell me about yourself"

and things of that nature, the behavioral interview tends to be more difficult.

A good interviewer can successfully use this type of interview to really test your abilities.

Behavioral Interview Questions

"Give me an example of…" or

"Tell me about a time when…" or

"Describe a situation when…"

Specifically, you might be asked questions like:

"Give me an example of when you led the successful completion of a project" or

"Tell me about a time when you had to discipline one of your staff members" or

"Describe a situation when you failed at work and tell me what you learned from it."

In other words, the questions tend to refer to specific events in your career that illustrate your skills based on your experience and past accomplishments.

You might also find yourself asked theoretical questions that enquire about what you'd do in certain situations:

"What would you do if…"

How would you go about…"

You'll notice that the questions that I refer to above are all open-ended questions that do not allow you the opportunity to simply answer the question "yes" or "no."

In other words you'll need to be prepared to answer the questions specifically and in detail.

The behavioral interview is one that tends to require good preparation on your part in advance of the interview.

If you've already read over the Resume writing page, you'll recall that we discussed writing your resume bullet points in the following format:

Problem

Action

Result

Answering behavioral interview questions should be approached the same way. Specifically, the interviewer tends to be looking for you to state a problem/situation that you faced, the action that you took in response and the result of your action.

In other words, you want your answers to be concise, specific and to the point.

Behavioral Interview Preparation
Wondering how you can get ready for this type of job interview? Here are some tips for preparing for a behavioral job interview.