Describe A Time When You Had To Deal With An Upset Customer How Did You Handle It
Whether youre looking for a retail job, a sales position, a tech support role, or anything in those veins, theres a chance youll have to deal with an upset customer at some point. Hiring managers ask this question to see how youve navigated this type of challenge in the past, allowing them to determine if you have a reasonable strategy.
EXAMPLE ANSWER:
At my current job, a customer contacted us saying they were displeased with their most recent order. Along with complaining about the product, they began yelling threats about what they would do if they werent issued a refund and given a new item immediately.
I didnt take the tone personally, as I was certain it was out of frustration. I pulled up the customers file to learn more about the order, as well as review their history with the company. At that time, I discovered that they had been placing regular orders for some time, and this appeared to be the first time they called about an issue.
I apologized for the inconvenience and began asking clarifying questions to ensure I fully understood the nature of the issue. As I spoke, I focused on keeping my tone calm and professional.
What One Word Do You Think Describes You Best
EXAMPLE ANSWER:
If I had to pick one word, I believe responsible is the best fit. Im a meticulous and organized person who is diligent about meeting my commitments. I understand the importance of accountability, particularly when it comes to meeting the expectations of others who are impacted by my work. As a result, Ive always aimed to be responsible, not just as a student, but as a person.
What Are Behavioral Interview Questions
Before we look at some behavioral interview questions and answers, lets talk about what these types of questions are and why they come up.
In the simplest sense, a behavioral interview question gauges how you think and act in various situations. Many questions of this kind focus on scenarios, requiring you to outline what you did under specific circumstances.
Theres a good reason why hiring managers turn to these questions during an interview. Unlike traditional interview questions which mainly assess whether you have particular technical capabilities these give the hiring managers overviews of capabilities that are harder to ask about directly.
Usually, your answer helps the hiring manager assess your mindset and soft skills. Plus, theyll learn more about the hard skills you use to handle challenges or address problems of a particular nature.
In some cases, hiring managers ask behavioral interview questions because they think past performance is a predictor of future success. However, whether thats true isnt actually clear.
One report indicated that prior work experience essentially, past behavior didnt guarantee a solid performance at a new company, even if the new hire had related experience. But a different study showed that behavioral interviewing was 55 percent predictive of future behavior at work, while traditional interviews were a mere 10 percent predictive.
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Tell Me About A Time When You Had A Conflict With A Coworker How Did You Navigate The Situation
This is one of the most common behavioral interview questions because hiring managers want to know that you can navigate the typical disagreements that can occur at work. Its also a way to gauge your interpersonal skills and self-reliance.
EXAMPLE ANSWER:
While in my current job, I was part of a project team that was tasked with coming up with a new campaign for a client. A coworker and I didnt see eye-to-eye on the direction the campaign should take when it came to the tone, leading to some conflict.
To address the issue, I requested a meeting with my coworker to discuss their perspective. My goal was to understand why they were adamant about that approach, asking clarifying questions and rephrasing what they shared to ensure I saw the complete picture.
Then, I did the same, sharing my perspective in a calm, professional manner. This led us to a very beneficial discussion, one where we both saw the merits in the others strategy. Ultimately, this allowed us to work together to create the best possible campaign, one that boosted the clients sales by 15 percent.
Describe Your Ideal Job/internship
This is your chance to emphasize your interest in learning and working on a product you care about. It’s also a great chance to show off your knowledge about the company’s culture . No need to be dramatic, but a subtle note about the company can be a good thing.
Using Meta as an example again:
I really value being able to make an impact on the end user. I know that a lot of internships have interns piled in a back-office working on tools that will never get to a user . I know that Meta interns are put on high-impact projects and that’s definitely something I care about.Another thing I value is a company culture that fosters community among employees and interns. Networking events, a speaker series, and fun happy hours are things that I really value in a job!
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How To Answer Behavioral Internship Interview Questions
Hiring managers and recruiters love to ask behavioral interview questions. These questions ask you to give an example of your past behavior in a professional or academic setting, which helps the interviewer predict your future behavior if hired.
To answer behavioral interview questions effectively, use the STAR method:
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Situation. Set up the scene by briefly describing the situation.
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Task. Describe your role within the situation. You can often wrap the situation and task into one sentence.
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Action. This is the real meat of your answer. Tell the interviewer what actions you took to address the situation.
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Result. Wrap your story up with a brief description of the result of your actions. Note that the result should always be positive, even if the qusetion is about a negative situation, like conflict or failure.
You can easily recognize behavioral questions during your internship interview, because they often start with phrases like tell me about a time or give me an example of a time when.
Lets look at a common behavioral interview question, as well as a great response using the STAR method:
Tell me about a time you failed.
Share An Example Of A Time When You Failed To Meet An Agreed Deadline How Did You Deal With It
Nobodys perfect and there will be times when deadlines are missed. The interviewer wants to know how you deal with this type of situation. Do you blame others, or do you take responsibility?
Talk about a situation when you missed a deadline, and explain what lesson you took away from it. What are you doing to keep it from happening again?
Answer: It was my first time doing a training presentation for a different team. My manager reviewed the first draft / plan of the presentation and I had to make a lot of corrections, both to the presentation itself and the data. On top of that, I had to complete other daily tasks. As a result, I was more focused on getting the presentation done on time and missed a few daily assignment deadlines, which affected other departments. It was a very unpleasant experience, as all my colleagues were behind on their work because of me. Fortunately, I was able to learn from this situation and a few weeks later, when I again had to deal with a heavy workload, I made a list and prioritized by assignments based on level of importance. Overall, I had to do a bit of overtime to complete the work, but I did it.
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Why Is It Important To Interview Interns
Interviewing interns is essential to the hiring process, as it allows you to evaluate each candidate and their abilities. The right questions can help you determine whether candidates meet the role’s requirements and can handle its responsibilities. These questions also provide more detailed information than candidates’ resumes or cover letters, ensuring that you choose high-quality individuals who can add value to the team.
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Give Me An Example Of A Time You Made A Mistake How Did You Handle It
When asking this type of question, the interviewer wants to find out if you are capable of growth and learning. So make sure to concentrate on the results of what you did to fix the mistake.
Answer: At the beginning of my career, I missed a very important deadline, which cost the company an account. There were a lot of factors that contributed to this, but ultimately I was the one who made the mistake. Since then, I kept thinking about what I could have done differently. I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t as organized as I had thought I was. I had a one-on-one with my boss, asked for suggestions on how to improve my organizational skills, and a few months later I was able to win an even bigger client for the department.
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Tell Me About A Time You Initiated A Project
This question tests your competency and ability to initiate things independently. When answering, include strong action words like managed, organized, developed, and launched.
Answer: Last year, our company started hiring a lot of new people. As one of the team leaders, I was responsible for the onboarding process. However, I felt that we needed to create a better, more effective training program for new hires. I took the initiative to create a special guide for all team leaders that improved the onboarding procedure. Everyone loved it, and weve been using the guide ever since.
Tell Me About A Time You Had To Make An Unpopular Decision
If youre applying for a management role, this is one of the most common behavioral questions youll encounter. Many members of the leadership team have to make difficult choices, and sometimes, they wont resonate with team members. The hiring manager wants to know that you can handle those situations, so they ask questions like this one to gauge your capabilities.
EXAMPLE ANSWER:
When I was a manager at ABC restaurant, employees were originally able to change shifts with one another without notifying management in advance. While it was convenient for team members, management wasnt able to effectively predict an employees hour, at times leading to unplanned overtime. Additionally, if someone didnt arrive for a shift, there could be confusion regarding who was actually responsible for the no-show.
As a result, I had to make the decision to bar shift changes that werent presented to management before the scheduled time arrived. While it wasnt a popular choice, it did streamline timekeeping and scheduling while also ensuring no-shows were properly noted in the correct employees files.
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Can You Describe A Time When You Had To Persuade Someone
The ability to persuade someone to agree with your plan has always been a top leadership and communication skill. When answering, describe what techniques you used to convince someone who initially disagreed with you to follow your recommendation.
Answer: During my last position, I tried to convince the logistics manager to change the organization of the entire warehouse. I proposed an idea, but they didnt want to do it, because they believed the existing model was effective. So I decided to go a step further and prepared a visualization with some calculations and estimates. I used numbers to show them how much we can shorten the expedition time with the new system. Finally, they were convinced, and we got a green light.
Expert Hint: The most important thing to remember is to answer your questions truthfully and with confidence. Studies show that 39% of candidates get rejected due to low confidence level and lack of eye contact.
Now you know everything about behavioral interview questions and how to answer them, so
Smile, keep your head up, and go get them, tiger!
What Do You Know About The Industry
An intern will become a member of your team and will likely interact with other colleagues, vendors, and clients at some point.
So, you want to be sure that anyone you bring on is familiar with basic industry jargon, programs, and proceduresor at the very least, will be excited to learn about them. A candidate who has done informational interviews, regularly reads industry blogs, or has a vested interest in the field will always be better than one whos just trying to get experience anywhere.
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Describe A Time You Were Asked To Learn Something New Quickly
No matter what job it is, there will be times when youll need to think out of the box or to quickly learn something new. The interviewer wants to know how comfortable you are with high-speed learning and unexpected adjustments.
Respond to the question with a specific example that shows you are open to learning opportunities. Describe a time you had to learn a new technology, approach, or skill.
Answer: Our company recently implemented new accounting software. Not only did I have to learn it all myself, but I was asked to train the other team members. I had only 2 weeks to train, so I watched a lot of videos on YouTube and really tried to get a hang of it as fast as I could. Thankfully, I was able to successfully master all the new systems functionalities and train the rest of the team.
Behavioral Interview Questions I Was Asked Over 30+ Interviews
Even though they’re often overlooked, behavioral interviews are a crucial part of recruiting. Keep reading for a list of important behavioral questions and how to answer them!
Photo by charlesdeluvio / Unsplash
Even though they’re often overlooked, behavioral interviews are a crucial part of recruitingthat can make or break your impression with a hiring managerand can be the difference between walking out with an offer or a rejection.
Before starting Simplify, I applied to over 150+ internship positions and manually logged every application I submitted and interview I took in a Google Sheet as you can see below.
After bombing my first few behavioral questions , I realized that the questions were much more subtle than I expected. So, without further ado, here’s the list of behavioral questions and how to answer them!
Tip:
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What Motivated You To Apply To
This question is often used to filter-out candidates that don’t have a strong interest in the company. Generic answers like, “I think does interesting work” and “I think I would learn a lot at ” are red flags that scream “I don’t actually care about your company!”
You’ll want to think internally about this what makes this company special or interesting to you? Take Meta for example. A good answer would be:
I spend a lot time using of Meta’s products probably more than a healthy amount. I use Messenger to keep in touch with my friends, Instagram to share photos, and Facebook to save me time when logging into other services. Honestly, as much as I love these products, I think there’s a lot of room for improvement I have a bunch of ideas about how I could make Instagram more user-friendly, particularly to older audiences like my parents and grandparents. I think this internship would be super fun, and I’d learn a lot!
Share An Example Of A Moment When You Completely Disagreed With A Manager What Did You Do
While this question can feel awkward to answer, its important that you admit that a conflict has existed in the past. Your answer should explain how you approach challenging situations with superiors. Share an example of a time when you disagreed with a supervisor and how you were able to resolve that conflict. Your answer should demonstrate genuineness, loyalty, emotional maturity and responsibility.
Answer: During my time at XYZ, my boss and I disagreed on having to terminate one of our sales associates. I felt like I wanted to give him another chance and proposed I would take some extra time with this employee. I presented my boss a 30-day re-training plan, which she agreed to. As a result, this employees performance improved by over 50%! He ended up working with us for another eight months.
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Office Of Personal & Career Development
The Office of Personal and Career Development is committed to empowering every Wake Forest student to flourish in work and life. Through career coaching, events, workshops, courses, career treks, fairs, self-assessments, and much more, we seek to make sure EVERY Wake Forest student has the tools, resources, information, and most of all a partner to navigate the college-to-career transition.
Interview Questions Top Internship Programs Ask
When it comes to internship interviews, it’s all about behavioral questions. And while you probably know that you need to have solid answers to questions like “Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses” and “Tell me about a time you worked on a team,” you might not know that you’ll need airtight answers to numerous other questions as well.
To that end, below we’ve include some of the most common interview questions that top internship programs now ask. All of these questions come directly from our latest Internship Survey, which was administered late last summer to more than 12,000 interns at 110 internship programs and which we used to create our 2018 Internship Rankings.
1. Why did you choose your major?
2. Why do you want to intern here?
3. Walk me through your resume.
4. What have you done in the past that separates you from your peers?
5. Name one of your weaknesses and what youre doing today to turn that weakness around.
6. How do you deal with team members who are not pulling their weight?
7. “Tell me about a time when you failed at something and how you overcame it.
8. Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with someone, perhaps another employee, and how it was resolved.
9. Tell me about your leadership experience. Tell me of a time when you have demonstrated leadership and how did you lead.
11. Name a time when you faced adversity. How did you handle it?
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