Behavioral interviews are designed to get insight on how a candidate has behaved in the past in a certain situation. It’s by no means a perfect way of assessing past performance, but it does seem to do a better job than standard interview questions such as the good old “what is your greatest strength/weakness”.
A few examples of behavioral interview questions include: - Tell me about a time a customer got upset with you. - Describe a major mistake you made and what you did to correct it. - Tell me about a time when you were right and others were wrong. - Describe a time when you had to adapt to big changes at work.
If you don’t know what questions the interviewer will ask, how can you ever feel confident that you are prepared? Well, hopefully this step-by-step preparation process will allow you to feel more confident when you walk through those doors.
Your first step is to brainstorm dozens of potential stories that will eventually be narrowed down to eight to ten. Sit down and just start writing out topics. Go through old performance reviews, emails, or task lists to jog your memory about potential stories.
Once you narrow your list of stories it’s now time to start writing them out in detail. You will want to ensure your stories follow the process outlined below. - Describe the situation - Lay out the problem - Detail the action you took to solve the problem - Finish with the end result and any lessons learned
When you have a list of eight to ten detailed stories you should be able to apply them to most any behavioral interview question. If you go to your favorite search engine and search “behavioral interview questions”, you’ll find thousands of questions that you can practice with.