What Are Behavioral Interview Questions

Tell Me About A Time You Had To Build Rapport With A Coworker Or Client Whose Personality Was Different Than Yours

This behavioral interview question evaluates your interpersonal skills. The interviewer wants to understand what steps you take to bridge differing opinions or work styles.

Answer: While working on a website redesign project, I had to collaborate with team members from across the country and even in different countries. When we launched the project, the first few minutes of each meeting, I did a mini team building exercise where wed work on solving a light hearted problem together. Once that was completed, each member would deliver their 2 minute update.

What I found was that the exercises helped establish trust among the team and a shared sense of accountability. This made it easier to deliver tough messages or to ask people to work more quickly.

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%.

Tell Me About A Time You Made A Mistake That Affected A Customer How Did You Resolve The Problem

This question is for positions that involve client- or customer-facing roles. You can use this question to demonstrate your customer service, communication and critical thinking skills under pressure. You can also use it to showcase your integrity and ability to admit and correct your mistakes.

Example: I was on the wait staff of Coppas Restaurant when a customer at one of my tables ordered our special salad. She said she did not want peanuts because she is allergic to them, but I neglected to inform the kitchen staff.

When I brought the dish out, thankfully, she saw the problem before she started eating. Naturally, she was very upset. As the waiter, it was my responsibility to satisfy the customer. I apologized to her and, to make up for my mistake, I did not charge for the salad but instead offered her a coupon toward her next meal, which she gladly accepted.

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Tell Me Of A Time When You Had To Deal With A Difficult Situation

Employers ask you questions about how you overcame a difficult situation to assess your degree of tenacity. They want to know how you deal with trouble and whether you can break down bigger challenges into smaller ones. To answer this question, give a brief recount of a particular case.

Example:I was dealing with a particularly difficult vendor at some point in my previous job. I was to ensure all orders were received in time, but this vendor kept delivering late. I had to write a letter to his boss to alert him of the situation, and from then onwards, we stopped getting our orders late.

Tips For Answering Behavioural Interview Questions

Here are some tips you can use to answer behavioural interview questions well:

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Here are some common behavioural interview questions and examples of good answers:

• Tell me about a time when you handled a challenging situation.

• Tell me about a time when you made a mistake. What did you do to correct it?

• Tell me about a time when you were in conflict with a peer and how the situation was resolved.

• Tell me about how you work under pressure.

• Give me an example of how you set goals.

• Give me an example of a time you made an unpopular decision, and explain how you handled implementing it.

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Describe A Time When It Was Especially Important To Make A Good Impression On A Client How Did You Go About Doing So

A perfect answer to this question has an outstanding outcome and illustrates the process of getting to that result. But even if you only have a decent outcome to point to instead of a stellar one, spelling out the steps you took will get you a strong answer.

For instance:

One of the most important times to make a good impression on a client is before theyre officially a client. When the sales team pulls me into meetings with potential clients, I know were close to sealing the deal and I do my best to help that along. Thats probably why I was chosen to represent the research team when we did a final presentation for what would become our biggest client win of the year. I spoke with everyone on the sales team who had met with them previously to learn as much as possible about what they might care about. The thing I do that sets me apart is that I dont try to treat all the clients the same. I try to address their specific questions and concerns so that they know I did my homework and that I care enough to not just give the cookie-cutter answers. In this case, having the data pulled and ready for every question they had made all the difference in building their confidence in our company.

Motivation And Values Questions

A lot of seemingly random interview questions are actually attempts to learn more about what motivates you. Your response would ideally address values and motivations directly even if the question didnt explicit ask about them.

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What Was Your Most Difficult Decision In The Past Year

This question is actually several questions what do you perceive as difficult, what made it difficult and how did you handle it. Its evaluating how you handle the decision making process. Answer in a way that doesnt make you look like the victim in the situation and by no means should you criticize or disparage others.

Answer: The decision to lay employees is always difficult personally and professionally. We had just lost three major clients and I had no choice but to let go of two employees who managed those accounts.

It was truly a financial decision based on budget reductions, but I still felt horrible for my employees. I delivered the news to these employees as empathetically as I could and made sure they all fully understood the details of their severance packages. In the end, they all walked away knowing that the decision was purely business-related.

Tell Me About When You Faced A Conflict While Working On A Team How Did You Handle It

Disagreements in the workplace are common. That doesn’t make it any easier to answer, and it’s hard to look good in a conflict even when you did nothing wrong.

The most important thing is to focus less on the conflict and more on the process you took to find a solution.

Example answer: “In my last role, I was part of a committee that needed to improve our technical interviewing process, and there was a lot of pushback on the idea of allowing candidates to use the Internet while interviewing. There was one engineering manager who was particularly against it. It took some careful listening to understand his position. Ultimately, his team had to interview unaided. It didn’t feel fair to them to make the interview ‘easier.’ Rather than pointing out that his team had already been hired and wouldn’t need to interview again, I focused the conversation on the fact that we were trying to hire more engineers. When engineers work, they have access to the Internet. He eventually agreed to trial it for a quarter. We found that we were not only able to get more people through our interview process but that we were able to hire candidates that may have failed our previous interview process who were exceptional engineers.”

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Behavioral Job Interview Questions About Working With Clients

Question #1 – Clients can be difficult to work with sometimes. Can you describe a situation when a client was wrong and you had to correct them?

Situation: Absolutely. One of our past clients at Agency X came to us because his Facebook advertising strategy wasnt working. He was driving traffic but wasnt getting any conversions, so they thought that it was because they werent reaching the right audience. We realized, though, that it was actually because their product homepage wasnt really that convincing. The client, however, was adamant about not fixing what wasnt broken.

Task: I had to somehow communicate with the client that the service he wanted wasnt what he wanted – there was no way for us to fix his Facebook ads if his homepage wasnt selling the product.

Action: We had to give the client an ultimatum – they either go with our approach, or we wouldnt be able to get the results .

Results: After some back and forth, the client grudgingly agreed to do an A/B test between the existing landing page, and one that wed propose. So, we tested the two landing pages with the same ads hed been running, and ended up getting 2.5x better results. From then on, the client was a lot more willing to allow us to experiment with whatever we proposed.

Question #2 – How do you handle irate customers? Give me an example.

What Are Behavioral Interview Questions And Why Are They Important

Making the right hiring decision is difficult. The only way to assess a candidates future potential is to gaze into the past and pick out the experiences that could shine a light on what the applicant is capable of.

Saying I am great at handling pressure will not fill any hiring manager with confidence. That is why they will ask a specific behavioral interview question that will ask for evidence of the behavior and its impact. They want to know the context so they can translate the achievement into their terms.

This might sound complicated, but there is a very simple way of answering a behavioral question that enables a candidate to cover everything that a hiring manager might want to know. It is called the STAR method. Here is a brief description of how it works:

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Describe A Time When You Had To Motivate Coworkers

This question is likely to come up in an interview for a leadership position, such as a supervisor, manager, shift leader or project manager. Use this question to demonstrate leadership skills related to motivation and your strategies to promote productivity and success on a team.

Example: We went through a merger at Yan, Inc. last year that lowered morale for some teams. Our group had new management that gave us responsibilities with which we had little experience. I noticed a dip in our overall productivity and felt I had to do something to improve our perspective on the situation.

So I called a meeting and encouraged the team to embrace the learning opportunities and see this as career development. We went around the room and listed one positive thing that came from this experience individually. The mood lifted after that, and the positive energy translated into better productivity and engagement.

Tell Me About A Time You Interacted With A Challenging Customer What Challenges Did The Customer Pose And How Did You Handle Them

Leadership abilities affect not only how managers interact with their employees but also how they interact with customers. Understanding how to negotiate, diffuse tension and be patient are all leadership skills that can help managers navigate challenging situations with customers. When thinking about how to answer this type of behavioral question, try to focus your answer on your strategies to solve the issues.

Example:”At my previous job, one of my clients kept changing their mind about how they wanted us to conduct their project but also expected us to deliver it by the original deadline. I set up an in-person meeting with the client and first asked them to tell me about their constraints related to this deadline. Then I explained in detail how the various changes they’d requested for the project delayed our original timeline. I stressed to the client that their satisfaction with the ultimate results was our top priority, but that this would mean making adjustments to the initial schedule.”

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How To Prepare For A Behavioral Interview

One way to prepare for a behavioral interview is by writing out some career-defining stories ahead of time. Determine what stories you have that would be appropriate for the position based on its job description.

If the job requires dependability, write your story about a time when your dependability was recognized or made a difference with a customer.

You can use the stories you prepare even when the interviewer does not ask behavioral interview questions. If you are asked a traditional question, use your prepared story and preface it with, “I can give you an example of a time when I used that skill on a previous job.” This way, you’ve taken advantage of the strategy behind behavioral-based interview questions.

Just don’t leave it to chance. By preparing for the interview ahead of time and recalling your past successes, you will be able to have examples in mind and will not be caught off guard.

What Is Your Approach To Solving Complicated Problems Whats An Example Of A Time When You Used Your Skills To Resolve A Complex Issue

Most employees need critical thinking and problem-solving skills to succeed in the workplace. This question allows candidates to explain the process they use to solve problems. You can use that information to determine whether their process suits the types of challenges you often face in your business.

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Tell Me About A Time When You Handled A Challenging Situation

With this question, the interviewer wants to see how you handle challenges. Give an example where you successfully problem-solved to overcome the challenge or an example of a time you made mistakes and what you learned from the experience.

Example:”My manager left town unexpectedly when we were in the middle of pitching large sponsors for an upcoming conference. I put together the slides for the presentations to secure these sponsors, but I only had a few notes left behind by my manager. I called a meeting with the members of our team, and we worked together to generate a list of the biggest selling points for these potential sponsors. I gave the presentation successfully, and we got the sponsorship. I’m extremely proud of everything we achieved when we worked together.”

Sample Questions And Answers

To help you formulate your own responses, here are some sample behavioral interview questions and answers. You will notice that these sample answers follow a similar format. One of the best ways to structure your answers to behavioral interview questions is using the STAR format.

Use STAR to organize the information you include in your answer. This ensures you include just the important information the interviewer needs to hear. It also requires you to remember and discuss a specific situation, task, action, and result in your answer.

Heres more detail on what to include in each element:

• Situation: Describe the situation. Use who, what, where, when, why and how to help you structure the information. Describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past. This situation can be from a previous job, a volunteer experience, or any relevant event.
• Task: What goal were you working toward? What were you being asked to do?
• Action: Describe the actions you took to address the situation with an appropriate amount of detail and keep the focus on YOU. What specific steps did you take and what was your particular contribution? Use the word I, not we when describing actions.
• Result: Describe the outcome of your actions and dont be shy about taking credit for the outcome. Be sure to mention measurable or quantifiable results. Was there an increase in performance, efficiency, profitability or impact?

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How To Come Up With Great Success Stories

A great success story should mention details like who, what, when, where, and why. At the same time, its important to keep your story as concise and simple as possible during the interview.

The STAR Method can help you keep track of the information to include in your story. This trick helps ensure youre sharing all the details the hiring manager wants to hear.

STAR is an acronym:

• S- Situation- Set the scene. Who, what, when, where, and why?
• T- Task- What were you tasked to do? What was the goal?
• A- Actions- Share specific actions you took. Try to match your actions to their job needs.
• R- Results- What happened? What was the outcome? Be specific and share numbers when possible .

Begin by explaining the ituation. Provide all necessary context. What was going on? Set the stage for your interviewer.

Then share the ask, which should always be followed by the ctions you took to complete the task. End your story with the esults. What happened and why?

Always think about what additional information you can include to make your success story more powerful. As long as it is relevant to the story and demonstrates your job-related ability, include it. Then cut anything that feels like fluff or filler. Include all the necessary details, but keep it simple.

Resist the urge to embellish your story or make something up. The best stories are authentic. Plus, its difficult to remember a false story that could later come back to bite you.