Study The Role Youre Applying For
Given Amazon’s notoriously high standards for their hiring process, you should also do as much research as you can about the role you’re applying for along with the work that the role’s department/team actually does. Your interviewer is bound to ask questions aimed at evaluating if you’re a culture fit, and your prior research will only help to make the best impression possible.
Not only that but your research regarding the role you’re applying for can give you a good impression on the behavioral skills necessary for the job. And by extension, it can give you a good idea of the behavioral questions they may ask regarding those skills.
What Are Your Salary Expectations
Before you walk in for your first interview, you should already know what the salary is for the position youre applying to. Check out websites such as Glassdoor, Fishbowl, or Vault.com for salary information. You could also ask people in the field by reaching out to your community on LinkedIn.
Employers will always ask this question because every position is budgeted, and they want to ensure your expectations are consistent with that budget before moving forward.
Remember that its often better to discuss a salary range rather than a specific number during the interview and leaving room for negotiation. Its also better to err on the side of caution and quote a slightly higher number as its easier to negotiate downward than upward. As a general rule of thumb, I advise not bringing up the questions about salary until your interviewer does or bringing it up too early in the process.
Example: Based on my skills and experience and on the current industry rates, Im looking at a salary around $____ .
How Do You Navigate Challenging Situations Please Provide An Example
In the workplace, no matter how good you are at your job, challenges arise. An unexpected situation may come up, or you may realize that something is more difficult than you expected. In asking this question, an interviewer is seeking to learn about how you react to situations which may be difficult to handle.
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The average bootcamp grad spent less than six months in career transition, from starting a bootcamp to finding their first job.
Once, in my last job, the systems that we used to manage our companys calendar went down, right in the middle of our busiest month of the year.
When this happened, I had to quickly adapt by printing off paper copies of my boss schedule, and I had to work with other members of the sales department to ensure they all knew about my boss availability. I also called a meeting with the other administrative assistants to discuss how we could become more resilient to this situation in the future.
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What Is One Professional Accomplishment That You Are Most Proud Of And Why
How to answer:
Tell a story about one of your most noteworthy accomplishments at work. What was the accomplishment? What steps did you take to achieve it? Who else was involved in this accomplishment? What happened as a result of the accomplishment?
Earning my advanced pediatric certification is something I worked very hard for and something that validates the years I have spent at the bedside.
Tell Me About A Time When You Had To Go Above And Beyond Your Regular Job Responsibilities In Order To Get A Job Done
The answer to this behavioral interview question will show your motivation, drive and initiative.
Answer: Outside of my regular responsibilities, I took the initiative to coordinate monthly lunch and learn meetings to increase our marketing teams knowledge of important digital marketing trends.
I invited each team member to submit a list of topics they were interested in and topics they would be interested in presenting. The monthly meetings are well-attended and have helped our team initiate new ideas, increasing our digital content output by 40%.
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Study The Company And Job Description
Knowing what the company is looking for in an applicant can increase your confidence when you’re interviewing. Be sure to check the organization’s website, social media platforms, reviews, interactions with customers and press releases to give you a better idea of the company’s trajectory. Also, it’ll provide you with a better vision of your core values and if they align with the organization where you’re applying.
During The Behavioral Interview
If you do your homework, youll be ready when faced with a behavioral question during the interview. If you get a question that stumps you, its okay to pause and collect your thoughts. Ask for clarification if youre not sure what the interviewer is looking for or if you need another moment to think.
There is no one right answer to a behavioral interview question. The interviewer wants to learn more about you, your experience, and how you approach work. This will allow her to see if youre a good match for the job opportunity.
A winning behavioral interview is one in which you are able to show a history of performance and results in the key responsibility areas for the job that you want. Just dont forget to show a little of your personality, too. Employers want to hire the best person for the job, but they also want to hire someone that will be pleasant to work with. Your behavioral interview answers can help you give the interviewer a sense of what it would be like to work with you.
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How Would You Handle An Irate Customer When Theyre Wrong
Is the customer always right? Of course not, but interviewers prefer you remain polite and dont rub it in their face.
Evan Harris, Co-Founder and Head of HR at SD Equity Partners, says:
We still ask this question, even when were hiring for a non-customer facing role. Its important for us that everyone is on the same page when it comes to customer interaction.
Harris prefers the applicant explains how they will bear the customers comments, however wrong it is, without being rude. Its a test of patience and wit, so the interviewer also wants to know how you plan to address the customers problem.
An applicant for a Front Desk Specialist at a 4-Star hotel received this question:
An irate woman is complaining why her pet toy poodle isnt allowed in her room, when hotel policy clearly states no pets are allowed. What would you tell the customer?
Ms. , as much as I want to let your dog stay with you, the No Pets policy of the hotel is important. It preserves the safety of other staying guests who may not be comfortable with a dog, or have serious allergies.
I can look for other locations where your pet can stay, like a pet daycare or hotel. Would that be alright?
Superb customer service is a standard in many hotels, but there are limits to the rules they can bend. So the correct answer isnt just to give a discount, or let the customer have their way.
Talk About A Time You Worked In A Fast
How to answer:
Give an example of a time you had to prioritize your tasks quickly. Explain your thought process in detail and why you chose to complete the duties in such an order.
Working in an ICU setting is extremely fast-paced and it is essential to prioritize your tasks for the day. At the beginning of the shift, I make a to-do list with everything that needs to be accomplished. I put the must-do things at the top of the list and the things I would like to do at the bottom. Administering medications are placed at the top of the list and washing a patients hair is further down. While I would love to accomplish everything, it just isnt possible.
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Tell Me About A Time You Stepped Into A Leadership Role
How to answer:
This doesnt need to be anything official. Think about a time when you stepped up to the plate and took charge of a situation. What was the circumstance? What made you take the lead? Who was involved? Did any opportunities arise from this situation?
I have acted as charge nurse numerous times in my career. I have had to lead code teams, respond to rapid responses and make difficult staffing decisions. As a charge nurse I have determined patient assignments to ensure that assignments are fair and equal. Furthermore, I have to ensure that the nurses skill set is sufficient for the assignment.
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What Are Behavioral Interview Questions And How Can You Answer Them
Behavioral interview questions are designed to assess how you have behaved or acted in the past, based on a specific competency. How you have behaved previously is a positive indication of how you might behave in the future, and therefore perform within the role you are being interviewed for. Therefore, it is important to provide the interview panel with evidence of how you have matched the behaviour being assessed during the interview questions being posed.
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Could You Tell Me About Yourself And Describe Your Background In Brief
Interviewers like to hear stories about candidates. Make sure your story has a great beginning, a riveting middle, and an end that makes the interviewer root for you to win the job.
Talk about a relevant incident that made you keen on the profession you are pursuing and follow up by discussing your education. In the story, weave together how your academic training and your passion for the subject or industry the company specializes in, combined with your work experience, make you a great fit for the job. If youve managed a complex project or worked on an exciting, offbeat design, mention it.
Example: I come from a small town, where opportunities were limited. Since good schools were a rarity, I started using online learning to stay up to date with the best. Thats where I learned to code and then I went on to get my certification as a computer programmer. After I got my first job as a front-end coder, I continued to invest time in mastering both front- and back-end languages, tools, and frameworks.
Tell Me About A Time When You Made An Unpopular Decision That Had To Be Executed By Your Team
Did you need to work hard to get buy-in or to motivate the team? Did people threaten to quit? What did you learn from the experience?
For example:
I was working on a project last year that fell behind schedule. My boss asked me to mandate to the team that they work overtime until the project was completed.
I knew this would be a very touchy request as the team had been working hard already and not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Plus, the schedule slippage was not their fault, but actually our vendors.
Before I shared the request with the team, I built a project plan on how we could share the load of the overtime hours. I also created a strategy on how to partner closer with our vendor along the way to ensure no more schedule slippages.
When I presented the request to the team, I included how we were going to get out of this stage as quickly as possible. Just as importantly, I shared how the company views our team as dedicated to the cause and willing to do whatever it takes.
I also made sure they knew we were not being blamed for the project delay, but instead, the company valued our contributions. I made a point to mention how the plan would affect the companys bottom line, too.
Through this experience, I learned the importance of developing a detailed recovery plan, identifying and managing the key variables. Positively communicating that plan kept team morale high and made the project completion possible.
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The Advantages Of Behavioral Questions
Behavioral questions give you a good idea of what candidates have excelled and struggled with in the past. Situational questions allow them to craft their perfect response to your made up scenario but behavioral questions force them to share real experiences.
Many people who favor behavioral interview questions believe the way a candidate worked in the past signifies how theyll work in the future. That makes sense but these questions also help you learn what personal problems a candidate is working on improving. For example, a common behavioral interview question is, Tell me about a mistake you made in the past and what you learned from the experience.Here are some more you can ask:
- What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
- Describe a time you werent happy with your work and why.
- Tell me about the best boss youve worked for?
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with a manager and how you handled it?
Talk About A Time When You Had Not Communicated Well How Did You Correct The Situation
How to answer:
No one is perfect, we all have flaws. Discuss a time when you experienced miscommunication at work. What were the circumstances? How did you know you did not communicate well? What did you learn? What were the results?
This often happens when there is a language barrier. I learned that it is always better to ask for an in-person interpreter or utilizing a computer translation software. This ensures there is no miscommunication of information. Unfortunately, hand gestures and speaking louder doesnt always work.
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Describe The Most Difficult Scenario You’ve Had To Face In The Last Year
The question allows you to tell the interviewer where you worked through adversity and how the position you’re interviewing for can make you a better employee. Discuss what led you to be in that situation and the plan you used to succeed despite the obstacles.
Example: *”One year ago, I got a call from a client about a complaint regarding the software we provide. He said that he wanted to cancel as a result of the software shutting down when he was working on an important project for his business. I asked him to walk me through the story step-by-step to get a better grasp on how he felt in the moment and what solution we can provide for him.”
“After hearing his story, I decided to speak with my manager once the call concluded and suggested that we refund him the money he requested. We both agreed to refund him the money he requested and fix issues to his software at no extra cost, considering that we knew about glitches in the software that can cause service disruptions. This action resulted in steady payments from a top client that lead to an increase in profits during the fiscal year. “*
Getting Prepared For A Behavioral Interview
Before any job interview, you should take the time to practice responses to behavioral interview questions tied to the top themes in the job description. If a job description stresses qualities such as organized and detail oriented, you can bet that you will be asked about past experiences managing time, projects, and details. Likewise, if the job description is all about people skills, youre sure to be quizzed about your approaches to managing people, handling conflicts, and working on a team.
To prepare for a behavioral interview, read the job description carefully and make a list of the top 5-8 qualifications and/or skills required. For each of these, brainstorm to come up with stories and examples that illustrate your strengths and accomplishments.
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Match Your Experiences To The Job
Once you are confident that you know everything you need to know about the company and the position, take out your CV or resume. Read through it and consider which of your past experiences and skills might be relevant to the job at hand. Try to be as specific and detailed as you can, and think of concrete situations that could also happen in what will hopefully be your new job. Then, write these down.
Examples Of Behavioral Interview Questions And How To Answer Them
When heading into an interview, candidates must prepare for any question thrown at them. Many candidates prepare to speak about their past experience and how it fits into the role, but many forget about the questions that ask them to describe how they are in the workplace, better known as behavioral interview questions.
I have a reputation of being a tough interviewer, but I dont actually think thats it, said Tara Cassady, the executive vice president of Americas Client Services at Cielo, a global recruitment process outsourcing partner. I have structured behavioral questions that ask for specifics. Im not having a conversation with the person, Im interviewing the person. Overall the interview process has gotten a little lax as the market got so tight and people were generally wondering, Whats their likability factor? Versus actually interviewing for the skills and specifics to achieve within the job.
Targeted behavioral interview questions allow a hiring manager to test if a candidate has a specific soft skill or hard skill necessary for that job by asking them to look back on their career and draw up examples. As a result, the candidate must come prepared with stories to best answer behavioral interview questions.
In this article, you will learn:
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Behavioral Job Interview Questions About Leadership
Question #1 – Tell me about a time when you successfully delegated tasks to your team.
Situation: Well, at my first job as a team lead, I had to really get to know most of my team in order to delegate tasks appropriately.
Task: Most team members were new to the company, so I didnt have much to go with.
Action: So, I sat down with each team member individually, and really got to know them and their strengths and weaknesses, and distributed tasks based on their personality.
Results: Team members were pretty happy with the tasks they got, and started off their relationship with our company on a positive note.
Question #2 – Can you tell me about a time when you had to perform a task or work on a project you had no previous experience before? How did you approach this situation and what did you learn?
Situation: In my previous position at Company X, my manager had to leave unexpectedly for about a month due to a medical condition. Fortunately, she was able to give us a week’s notice.
Task: Because of that, our director asked me to fill in as the interim manager. I was familiar with the basics of management on a theoretical level, and I had worked with my manager closely before, but I certainly wasnt trained to be a manager yet. Though, I wasnt going to say no, and I, more or less, felt confident about my ability to take on the new challenge.
