How to prepare for a behavioral interview.
The term “behavioral interview” is used frequently in the world of career building, but what exactly does it mean? When you are looking for a job, there are many different types of interviews and interview styles that the companies you want to work with will use.
The behavioral interview is one of the most common types of interviews, and the questions tend to focus on the experience, behavior, skills, knowledge base and job related abilities of the candidate. Most of the questions the interviewer uses will ask about specific examples from the the past, with the belief that past behaviors and performance can give an accurate idea of future behaviors and performance.
If you've ever had to take a test or been asked questions about choices you've made at previous jobs, then you have had a behavioral interview.
So, what are employers looking for with this type of interview?
Here are the 3 main things they are trying to assess:
- Relevant skills – These will be questions that give the employer an idea of the relevant job skills. Questions that ask you to demonstrate a particular skill or ask about your specific job skills like computer literacy or math skills would be examples of these types of questions.
- Transferable skills – These skills are things that aren't related to the specific industry, but can be applied to many different types of jobs. A few examples of these types of skills are managing others, working as a team and developing your skills.
- Self-management or character skills – These are the questions that deal with your personal behavior and they generally cover things like being dependable, trustworthy, punctual and how you deal with conflict.
In a behavioral interview, employers can use several different types of questions in order to find out more about a candidate and assess their skills in all three categories. Often, they will ask the same types of questions in different ways in order to see if the answers are consistent.
Here are the 3 main types of questions an interviewer will ask:
Hypothetical situations – These questions put the candidate in a hypothetical situation and ask how you would handle it. An example of this type of question is “If you were working with another employee on a project and they were not contributing their fair share, what would you do?”
Leading questions – Often, an interviewer will ask you questions and hint at what the “right” answer is. For example, “You don't mind working in a small cubicle, do you?”.
Behavior questions – These are the kinds of questions that directly ask about past work experience. They can be one of several types of questions:
- Open-ended – Questions like “Tell me about a time..” or “Describe a situation when..”. These questions don't have an easy yes or no answer.
- Close-ended questions – These aren't used very often, mostly only to confirm information. For example, “You spent several years with Company ABC, right?”.
- Direct “Why” questions – Any question that asks you to explain your reasoning behind you career path or other decisions would fall into this category. An example would be, “Why did you decide to change careers?”.
Behavioral interviews are very common and sometimes they can be a challenge to prepare for. If you have ever been in this type of interview, then you know how easy it is to feel as though you are being interrogated. This can cause people to stammer or clam up entirely, which isn't the best way to make a good impression.
For help preparing for a behavioral interview, tune in next week as I break it down into easy steps.
How do you handle behavioral interviews or behavioral tests? Please feel free to share your thoughts, tips and questions in the comments.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for FinancialJobBank. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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