What Are Behavioral Interview Questions?

Behavioral interview questions involve employers asking for examples of a specific situations you have been through, and how you conducted yourself in them. More often than not, such questions require candidates to highlight how they overcame an obstacle and improved professionally or personally. You can often easily identify a behavioral question because interviewers open them with phrase "Tell me about a time you...".

Remember to NOT answer these in terms of what you would hypothetically do. Interviewers are asking for real, concrete, examples of things you have done or experienced.

These questions evaluate how effective you are at problem-solving and how you would conduct yourself in a future situation, so it is imperative to provide examples that reflect this clearly. Furthermore, interviewers will also use your answers to look beyond what you did and piece together a holistic picture of your personality, abilities, and motivations.

If you are able to properly identify what traits the employer is giving you the opportunity to demonstrate through a question, you will nail the behavioral interview by presenting answers that combine great stories (using the Recipe we learned earlier) and the positive undertones you need to strategically highlight. Ultimately, you will come off more confident and prepared due to your efficacy and precision.

Here is how we will do that...