Behavioral Interview Questions
There are many skill areas from which Behavioral Interview Questions can be made
from. Ideally, you want to try to get a broad working list focusing on what you believe are the
20 most important for that specific job and create examples for each. One caveat: there will be
some overlap for a number of the skills so it is a good idea to do your homework before in such a way that you have examples for all of
them. This will help decrease the chance in the interview that you will need to use examples in
several areas. Since you do not know exactly what questions and how many behavioral interview
questions will be asked, you will have to make a best guess in this area and may even need to make a judgment call during the interview on
which examples you should give. Recognize that you may not be able to fire off all your best
examples; however, you do want to make sure you are getting out at least the lion’s share of them. We have put together a list of common skill set questions.
These are designed to get you thinking about the kinds of questions that can be asked and to start filling out your examples.
- Initiative
-
- Describe a situation
where you took initiative to solve a problem.
- Customer Service
Based
-
- Give me an example of
where you failed to provide quality customer service.
- Results Based
-
- Tell me about a time
you completed a major project.
- Organizational
skills
-
- Give me an example of
when you used your organization skills in leading a major project to completion.
- Analytical Skills
-
- Tell me about a time
you had to do analysis on a complex project.
- Give me an example of
when your logic was flawed on a project.
- Research Skills
-
- Describe a time you
researched a project with a tight deadline.
- Ethics
-
- Describe a situation
where you did not feel comfortable with an action taken by your manager.
- Interpersonal Skills
-
- Tell me about a time
you had a problem with a co-worker and how you went about addressing it.
- Verbal Communication
Skills
-
- Tell me about a time
you used your communication skills to resolve a difficult issue with your team.
- Written Communication
Skills
-
- Give me an example of
when you had to prepare a lengthy report in a short amount of time.
- Dealing with
Ambiguity
-
- Give me an example of
where the parameters of an assignment and roles of the project were unclear and what you did to address the
situation.
- Process Improvement
-
- Describe a time you led
a project to implement a process change. What were the results of the
project?
- Creativity
-
- Tell me about a time
you came up with an unconventional solution to a problem.
- Dealing with Upper
Management
-
- Describe a time you had
to deliver some bad news to upper management.
- Give me an example of
where you delivered a presentation to upper management.
- Management Skills
-
- Tell me what you have
done to make sure your employees feel valued for their hard work.
- Attention To Detail
-
- Describe a time when
you found an error in work prior to publishing.
- Give an example of when
you failed to give the appropriate amount of attention to a task and what was the impact.
Follow-up questions are fair game to all your examples given in Behavioral Interview
Questions. The intent of these questions is to probe further on how much was actually
done. In other words, they want to know if your examples are fluff or full of
content. By choosing and researching your examples beforehand, you should not have too much
difficulty with these types of questions. Typical questions could include:
· What happened after
that?
· What actions did
you take after that event?
· Was anyone else
involved in the planning of the project?
· What did your
manager think?
· How did you get
management’s approval?
· What exactly did
you do during the presentation?
· What did you take
away from that project?
As you can see these questions tend to be from the Who, What, When, Where, How and
Why. To best answer these questions, use the PAR Method:
- Problem: State the Problem or Situation
- Actions Taken: List the Actions Taken to address the Problem.
- Result: What impact did the
actions have on the problem. What were the results?
This method will give you an opportunity to answer each question systematically and
ensure you are providing them will all the basic information. After you have gone through a few
practice sessions with follow-up questions, you should be ready for your next interview.
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