What Are Some Behavioral Interview Questions

Best Questions To Ask In An Amazon Behavioral Interview

The interview isnt just about the interviewer asking you questions. You will get the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the interview. You can use the questions you ask to reinforce your interest in the job and to gauge whether this is the right job for you. Here are the 10 best questions to ask.

• What does a typical day in this position look like?
• What do you think are the most challenging aspects of this role?
• Why do you enjoy working at Amazon?
• How do you think Amazon demonstrates its values?
• For someone in this role, what is the definition of success?
• How would you describe the culture here?
• What qualities do you think successful Amazon employees have?
• What do you think is the biggest challenge facing Amazon today?
• What would be expected of me in my first 90 days at Amazon?
• What makes people want to continue working here?

When preparing for an Amazon behavioral interview, take time to think about situations you have encountered, and how you can use them to demonstrate you are the right person for that job at Amazon. Being prepared for these types of questions will make you more confident and allow you to pay attention to the rapport you develop with your interviewer.

Tell Me About A Time When You Made A Mistake And How You Handled It

Did you leverage problem-solving skills? Did you need to act humbly? Did you need to rebuild trust? How do you avoid making that mistake again?

For example:

Last year, I made a terrible mistake while adding financial information to our companys bookkeeping system. It lead to a shortfall in available funds at a critical time. I was actually the one who discovered my mistake first. When I did, I was able to figure out how it happened and what needed to be done about it.

With a plan in hand, I talked to my supervisor and asked that I be responsible for fixing the mistake and calling all effected parties required to remedy it, including our bank. Fortunately, this was caught soon enough that very limited impact occurred, and I was able to prove I was capable of fixing the problem myself.

As a result of that mistake, I developed a method to quickly do a final review and verification of the data before publishing it, added that step to our publishing protocol, and I havent made that mistake again.This answer showcases skills/traits of honesty, taking ownership, good communication, sound accounting practices, loyalty, problem-solving, analytical thinking, quick thinking, and ability to deliver bad news, among others.

Tell Me About A Time When You Had To Manage Multiple Responsibilities How Did You Handle That

If youre a great multitasker, you may be tempted to brag. Resist the urge. Instead of trying to make yourself sound like a superhero, try showing your capacity to learn.

My partner left for a new job right in the middle of a major project and her responsibilities fell to me. It was a huge challenge! I spent a day prioritizing the project steps and created a timeline for keeping everything on track. I ended up putting in some extra hours, but the project was completed by deadline.

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Whats The Point Of Behavioural Interview Questions

Is it a new form of torture? Are these questions asked to trip you up?

The purpose of behavioural interview questions is to understand who you are, how you think, and how you approach real world dilemmas. Your answers to these behavioural questions can help the interviewer gauge how you may complement the current team.

While the goal of the interviewer is to learn more about you, your goal is to position yourself in the best possible light. Each of your answers should highlight one of the following themes:

• Self-awareness
• Self-reliance
• A willingness to help another individual

That said, you should also keep your answers as realistic as possible. Itâs a delicate balance between pride and humility. Itâs a lot easier to keep that balance when you stay focused on one of the above themes.

You Have Two Teleportation Devices Where Do You Place Them And Why

This gem of an interview question comes from David Lortscher, founder and CEO of Curology. Heres why he loves this question:

Questions that are open ended test for critical thinking, instead of pure knowledge. One candidate told us theyd place one device in their home and one on the moon because they want to explore space and make new discoveries. That may translate into someone who displays expansive thinking, is curious, and is hungry to learn.David Lortscher

This question might feel irrelevant or sillyand it is a little out of the box. But thats a good thing! How does your candidate do when put on the spot? How creative can they be? What does their answer tell you about their priorities? This is also a great opportunity to lighten the mood in an interview: give your own answer and have a laugh.

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How To Answer Behavioral Interview Questions With No Experience

You need not worry if you are a fresher , the Success Story strategy will still work for you.

Yes, its true that you wont have any practical work experience to draw upon in order to craft your success stories.

But that is ok for two reasons:

In other words, you need to get clever and reach into your past to highlight some of the situations that were not related to work.

This could include any of your academic experiences , any charity work or contributions you have made, any athletics you have participated in , or any other extra curricular activities youve been a part of .

According to former manager-turned-blogger Alison Green over at AskAManager.org,

If you genuinely dont have an example from your past that fits the question youre asked, its okay to say that and try to come up with something reasonably close.

In other words, use the opportunity to pivot toward the experiences in your life that you can use in your example answers.

She goes on to provide a great example of how this pivot would work:

I havent encountered that at work, but I had a similar situation at school/in a volunteer role.

The important thing to demonstrate is that you understand the question, and more importantly, what the hiring manager is looking for.

Teamwork Behavioral Interview Questions

1. Describe a time when you had to work with a difficult coworker. How were you able to handle interactions with that person?

2. Give an example of when you needed information from a coworker who wasnt responsive? What did you do?

3. Describe a time when you worked as part of a team on a project. Explain your role within the team and the actions you took to contribute to the team.

4. Talk about a situation when your team members disagreed with you. How did you handle it?

5. Can you tell me about a time when a coworker was not doing their work on a difficult project? What did you do?

6. Describe a time when you and your team members were forced to compromise. Explain the results.

7. Have you ever been in a situation where you had to motivate others to take action to support a major reorganization? How did you handle that?

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Behavioral Interview Questions To Prep For

You have to be prepared to answer these behavioral interview questions if you want to get the job. Practice makes perfect, so invest the time to do so!

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During a job interview, the interviewer will likely ask behavioral interview questions.

This article outlines what behavioral interview questions are, why employers ask them, provides tips to prepare and answer them smoothly, a list of the common behavioral interview questions employers ask, and sample answers.

Behavioral Interview Questions & Answers: Top Tips & Samples

• Post author

Interviewers often use behavioral interview questions in job interviews today to learn about how job candidates behave.

The reason employers ask behavioral questions is to understand how the job candidate handles different often difficult situations, demonstrating their soft skills.

Behavioral questions typically start with, Tell me about a time when youorDescribe how you have handled or Give me an example of or even Walk me through

While these questions may feel like a trap when you are asked, thats really not the employers intent .

They are looking for insight into the job candidates behavior beyond the questions traditionally asked .

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Talk About A Time When You Made A Mistake That Affected A Colleague How Did You Handle It And What Was The Outcome

The employer wants to see that you own your mistakes rather than mounting a defense or deflecting blame. Admit something you did, and explain how you corrected the mistake.

I contacted a lead that my colleague was already working with and ended up taking his sale. When I caught the error, I realized that Id forgotten to check the client database before reaching out to the lead. I apologized to my colleague and split the commission with him. Then I put some measures in place so that Id always remember to check the database before getting too enthusiastic about client outreach.

Sample Situational Interview Questions And Answers

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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%.

Example Answer: Tell Me About A Challenge Or Conflict You Faced At A Past Job

Now that you know some approaches for answering behavioral questions, let’s look at a full example. Well use one of Googles most frequently asked questions.

Try answering the question below following your preferred method. Play both the role of the interviewer and the candidate. Write down your answer, then practice saying it out loud before going through our example response. Once youve finished, compare your response to our example to fill in any gaps in your story.

Try this question:

Tell me about a challenge or conflict you faced at a past job

Answer:

Well use the IGotAnOffer method described above and answer as if interviewing for a product manager job at Google. You will find our proposed answer to the question below.

Notice that the question asks for a past challenge OR conflict, which lets you choose what youd like to highlight in your answer. If you choose a past challenge, this would be a good way to show off your leadership and problem-solving skills. However in this case, weve chosen to focus on a past conflict, which well use to display conflict-resolution and collaboration skills.

For a sample answer to the past challenge question instead, take a look here.

1. Situation

As this question isnt necessarily about a specific role, it allows you to describe a variety of situations. Well use a generic example, but you should of course use an example from your own work experience.

2. Problem

3. Solution

4. Impact

5. Lessons

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Tell Me About A Time You Had To Work Closely With Someone Whose Personality Or Work Style Clashed With Yours

Its okay to be honest here, but dont bash your former colleague. Its important to show that you can be flexible and overcome challenges.

I had a supervisor who was ultra-creative, and so he had a creative persons impulse-driven approach to projects. I need more structure, so we worked together to develop an Asana project where he could add creative input when inspiration struck, and I had a central place for project notes to keep me on task.

Heres a tip:

How To Prepare For Behavioral Interview Questions

You cant prepare your personality or style of working. But you can prepare stories that illustrate how you approach problems and opportunities.

When I interview people, what I try to do is have them give me a concrete story, Hedges said. So instead of talking in the abstract, like, Oh, I would do this, tell me about an actual thing that happened.

Its a good idea to go into your interview with three to five minute-long stories ready to tell. Think back on your past roles, and look for examples of:

• Transferable situations. Have you dealt with any scenarios or used any skills that will likely come up in this new job?
• Your biggest successes. Why was this success notable? How did you contribute?
• A workplace failure. When did things not turn out as expected? What did you learn?
• Conflict with a colleague. Why did you butt heads? Did someone compromise, or did you agree to disagree? What skills did you use to resolve the conflict?
• Competing priorities. How did you decide where to focus your energy? How did you communicate about that with your team? What strategies did you use to manage your time?
• Your personal strengths and weaknesses. Everybody has them. What are you best at, and whats hard for you?

Rehearse your stories out loud until youre comfortable telling them, and trim any unnecessary details.

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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.

How Would You Approach This Problem

Lots of technical interviews involve talking out loud through coding problems. Take your time, and explain your thought process step by step. Even if you dont land on the correct solution immediately, the interviewer will get a glimpse into how you think.

Be aware: Some interviewers purposefully present candidates with extremely difficult or impossible technical questions. Sentiment on this is split: Technical employees are guaranteed to encounter problems they cant solve, some people reason. So its important to know how candidates react. Other people think its mean.

Wherever you fall, the right move is to admit when you dont know the answer to something. Its better than fibbing, and a good hiring manager wont make you feel embarrassed.

The wrong move is to get mad.

Ive had people I was interviewing get angry with me, Hedges said. I had a person kind of complain, like in math class, Im never going to use this, right? Why would I ever use this? Because they didnt know the answer. They hadnt seen that pattern before or something. So they got a little mad in the interview, which is not the kind of person I would want on my team.

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