Getting an interview for the job you’ve always wanted may be a thrilling and nerve-wracking experience at the same time.
Naturally, you want to make the greatest possible impression on the interviewers and are curious about the types of questions you might be asked. When it comes to getting a new job, strong responses to interviewers’ questions are just as vital as preparing your resume.
Sure, there are standard questions about the job, but interviewers frequently ask behavioral questions to gain insight into the candidate’s personality, too.
Your resume will seem very similar to everyone else’s by the time the interview occurs, so what will really stand out to the hiring managers is your personality and how well they see you blending in with the current team.
During job interviews, managers ask behavioral interview questions to gauge a candidate’s potential for handling future challenges based on how they have handled similar situations in the past.
To encourage candidates to share personal experiences from their history and how they interacted with their coworkers, a manager asks leading questions such as, “Can you describe a time when you had to resolve a conflict with a coworker?” or “Tell me about a time you lead a project and what was the outcome?”
What are the common behavioral interview questions you should prepare for, the different approaches to responding to them, and – perhaps most importantly – how can you utilize them to your advantage?
Understanding Behavioral Interview Questions
Although you can add some personality to your resume and cover letter, it’s hard to convey who you really are on paper.
To assess a candidate’s demeanor and character, interviewers want to know how an applicant behaved and solved problems in the past. People often draw on their prior experiences to understand or resolve present issues. So, the theory behind behavioral interview questions is that your previous conduct will predict your future performance.
Did you come up with a creative way to help a customer, or did you pass it off to your manager? Did you take the initiative when your team struggled, or did you wait for someone else to step up?
Supervisors also cannot ask about a candidate’s personal life, religious beliefs, or any other discriminatory factors during the hiring process. For example, asking a woman if she wants to have children soon or what she thinks about prioritizing her job above her home and family life is not only unethical but sometimes illegal.
Behavioral interview questions, on the other hand, can go beyond this murky territory by posing queries that elicit a candidate’s potential response to a hypothetical circumstance.
When asked, “Tell me about a time when you had to meet a tight deadline under pressure,” for instance, a candidate can share a personal tale of time management. Managers may then inquire about how they handled their stress level and how it made them feel.
To find out if a candidate is a team player or if they could be challenging to deal with directly, another example would be to ask them to “Describe a situation where you had to work with a team member.” These are the types of questions that hiring managers ask to get a candidate to reveal more subjective aspects of their personality.
Using Behavioral Interview Questions to Your Advantage
To take advantage of these kinds of inquiries, we need to understand why employers ask them in the first place: to gauge a candidate’s aptitude and suitability for the position they will be taking on inside the company.
Don’t forget you are not just trying to prove that you can do the job well; you are trying to prove that you can do it better than the other applicants. But these other applicants will have qualifications and skills strikingly similar to yours.
In light of this, you should view the behavioral questions as a chance to stand out and make a lasting impression on the interviewers. You want your answers to stand out from the similar answers of other candidates.
Consider the following tips:
- Answer the questions honestly and passionately.
- Share anecdotal evidence to further cement your uniqueness in the employers’ eyes.
- Pick an example that highlights your skills and not your shortcomings.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the company you are interviewing with.
- Be confident; don’t whisper or sound unsure.
- When appropriate, use humor, though remain professional.
Managers will remember candidates who can confidently articulate their strengths and how they align with their company’s goals.
Techniques for Responding
The good news is that there are no right and wrong answers to behavioral interview questions. However, because you can answer them however you want, you may give a bad answer.
Usually, your answer will involve telling a story about a time you successfully handled the situation or challenge the interviewer is asking about. This shows you can apply your skills and knowledge in the real world.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when responding to behavioral questions, especially challenging ones, along with some examples of answers.
1. The STAR Technique
When responding to a behavioral question, you want to include all the relevant information without going on and on. To organize your response efficiently, use the acronym STAR, which stands for scenario, task, action, and result.
Example Answer:
- Scenario: “In my previous role as a customer service representative, we experienced a sudden increase in customer complaints due to a technical issue with our product.”
- Task: “As the lead representative, it was my responsibility to manage the influx of complaints and make sure customers were satisfied while the technical team worked to resolve the issue.”
- Action: “I quickly put together a team to handle the increased volume of calls and emails. I also created a standardized response script so that all customers received consistent and accurate information about the issue and the steps being taken to fix it. Then I personally followed up with key clients to reassure them that their concerns were a top priority.”
- Result: “As a result of these efforts, we reduced the average call handling time by about 14%, and customer satisfaction scores remained stable despite the technical difficulties and we didn’t lose any clients.”
2. Use narrative
Humans have the unique ability to relate to one another personally through storytelling. One of the best ways to make hiring managers remember you as exceptional and one of a kind is with an engaging story that illustrates your ability to solve challenges and your accomplishments.
Example Answer:
“At my last job, our team was working on a project with a tight deadline when we ran into a roadblock. One of the key tools we’d been using suddenly couldn’t process the new data we received, throwing our entire timeline into jeopardy. It was a stressful moment, knowing how much was riding on this project. I remember sitting there, thinking about how we could turn this around.
Instead of panicking, I decided to dive into research mode and found a promising new tool. I took it upon myself to learn the new tool inside and out, then gathered the team to share what I’d learned so that we stayed on track. Thanks to the quick switch, we completed the project on time and our processes improved.
That experience showed me the importance of adaptability and teamwork, and I’m confident I can bring that same resourcefulness to your team.”
3. Make it about them
Everything in your job search ultimately depends on whether your skills and expertise align with the employer’s expectations. So make your answers about them!
A story about how you navigated complex delivery routes as a truck driver isn’t going to help you get an office admin job because it isn’t relevant. Instead, share an example demonstrating how your skills directly meet their needs.
Example Answer:
“As a truck driver, I had to be organized to make sure deliveries were on time and properly recorded. There were often unexpected delays due to traffic and last-minute changes in the delivery schedule, but when the East Bridge flooded, I needed to quickly adjust my plan and prioritize tasks to avoid falling behind and making customers angry. This also meant communicating with customers and dispatch to update them about delivery times.
By effectively managing the situation and communicating clearly, I completed all my deliveries with minimal impact on the overall schedule.
This experience strengthened my adaptability, time management, and communication skills—skills that are essential for an administrative role, where managing schedules and handling unexpected issues are crucial.”
What to avoid
Knowing what not to say when responding to a behavioral question is just as important:
- Don’t give a cookie-cutter generic answer; make your answer unique to you.
- Don’t be negative. Success stories are what managers want to hear, not your failures.
- Don’t say things like “I can’t” or “I am terrible at…” – focus on your strengths.
- Don’t minimize or blame others when something went wrong.
- Don’t complain about your former boss or coworkers.
- Don’t exaggerate or lie.
- Don’t rush! Before you start talking, take a moment to think of the best example to use.
And, of course, there are also things you shouldn’t say for any interview questions. Don’t acknowledge that you were dissatisfied or bored with your previous position, that you left to pursue a better income, or that you were unable to handle a toxic work environment. Even if all of these may be true, frame the issue more positively by saying something like, “I don’t feel as if I was being adequately challenged to grow in my former position,” if you must bring them up.
Examples of Behavioral Interview Questions
Without getting a list of potential interview questions from the hiring manager in advance, you cannot anticipate every question you may be asked.
That said, it is smart to prepare for some of the most typical behavioral interview questions that interviewers like to ask.
- “Can you recall a time when you had to adapt to a significant change at work?”
- “Describe a project where you had to take the lead and motivate others.”
- “Tell me about a situation where you had to deal with a dissatisfied customer.”
- “Give an example of when you had to prioritize multiple tasks with competing deadlines.”
- “Can you discuss a time when you had to resolve a disagreement within your team?”
- “Describe a challenge you faced in a previous job and how you overcame it.”
- “Tell me about a time when you had to persuade others to accept your viewpoint.”
- “Give an example of when you had to demonstrate leadership skills without holding a formal leadership position.”
- “Describe a situation where you had to think creatively to solve a problem.”
- “Can you recall a time when you had to work with limited resources to achieve a goal?”
- “Tell me about a mistake you made and how you handled it.”
- “Describe a time when you had to handle a difficult decision at work.”
Even though the language may differ from business to business, a general theme becomes apparent as we go through this list. The hiring supervisors are primarily interested in learning how you would respond in a difficult situation.
They want to know how successfully you’ve handled conflict in the past, how you handle challenging individuals (clients or coworkers), and how well you could fit into the company’s corporate culture.
Knowing what to expect from you when interacting with customers and coworkers is especially important in customer service, as it plays a big role in why managers choose to recruit someone.
You Will Be Asked Behavioral Interview Questions
The hiring process takes a long time and can be expensive for all parties. Once hired, the new employee must adjust to the workplace and complete a set amount of training, which may cost the business a lot of money. It will be a huge waste of time for everyone if the employee ends up not working out because of conflicts with clients or coworkers.
To put it briefly, managers want to avoid “buyers’ regret” when recruiting someone new, so they ask behavioral questions during the interview process.
If you want to be the successful candidate who is offered the job, it’s important — no, necessary— to learn how to answer behavioral interview questions.
