Behavioral ‘questions’ are a massive part of most current job interviews. Most hiring managers and employers ask their candidate’s specific behavioural issues to determine the applicant’s level of expertise. This level of knowledge reveals if the applicant has the necessary competencies and skills to excel at the job.
The idea behind the behavioural questions is that if your interviewer gets a glimpse of how you have behaved in your previous job position, it could help them picture how you would behave with your future assignments.
For the candidate, preparation for these behavioural questions is one of the first steps to becoming successful at the interview. Since it is difficult to know what particular behavioural questions they would be asking you, it is essential to expect what you would get asked.
As a result of this, you should become prepared with answers (or interview stories), which give a detailed explanation of your reaction to specific events. This interview story of yours should focus on the skillsets and competencies that the employer wants.
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When answering such behavioural questions, it is essential to keep it short and concise. You want the bottom line of your interview story to be the fact that you have the needed competency or skill.
However, the problem here is that many candidates could have a general idea of answering these questions. But the mistake that they tend to make is to give an unfocused and lengthy answer to these behavioural questions.
This problem is the reason why you need to put in lots of effort into creating these stories and try adapting to the necessary competencies.
The following list outlines some of the most common types of behavioural interview questions. It will also teach you a profound lesson the way to creating the most relevant answer to these questions.
For you to become successful in your search for a job, you may be considering getting in touch with an interview coach. Or better, you could enhance your interview skills by making use of an interview training program. Anyone of these two alternatives will provide the needed rapid and engaging training to become successful in an interview.
The following types of behavioural interview questions are some of the frequently encountered issues those candidates get asked. While the list is not exhaustive, it serves to give you an idea of some of the most typical behavioural questions.
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The following lessons will bring you up to speed in answering interview questions that reveal your behaviour and abilities.
Table of Contents
1). Interview questions based on teamwork
If the position that you are applying for involves working in a team, then be ready to show some team skills. The interviewer will be looking for specific cases where your input led to a breakthrough for the team.
Then again, with this type of behavioural question, you may want to show your team working skills such as collaboration, communication, positive attitude, and excellent interpersonal skills.
2). Interview questions about your leadership skills
If you are applying for an executive position or a position where you shall be leading a team of junior staff, then be ready to provide answers to questions about your leadership capability.
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If the job involves being a Project Manager or just having people report to you, then be prepared to demonstrate several vital skills. In this scenario, you should be able to demonstrate such skills like motivational skills, skills to delegate tasks, negotiation skills, employee performance-enhancing skills, and your ability to lead by example.
3). Interview questions which seek to know your conflict resolution skills
Some job positions involve lots of communication with prospective customers or clients. Other jobs may require several challenging situations that pitch your colleagues against you.
Your potential employer may be asking you this question to know your level of professionalism, and if you do have some conflict resolution skills. With this question, you only need to explain to them specific situations where your conflict resolution skills were able to bring you and the other party to a mutually acceptable situation with no escalation.
4). Interview questions which probe your problem-solving skills
If you are applying for a job position where the role involves some critical thinking and creativity? Then your prospective employer may be looking for specific situations where you have been able to resolve challenging situations/issues through thinking outside the box or by being innovative.
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5). Interview questions that ask you about how you handled your biggest failure
An increasing number of hiring managers and recruiters are asking their potential employees, failure questions to see their abilities to be resilient. Whether or not you like this specific question, you should get prepared for it.
This situational question gets used to probe your ability to learn from a corrupt and adverse situation. Therefore, this is where you let them know about such skills like resilience, positive thinking, self-motivation, and a strong character.
6). Interview questions that probe your work ethic
Hiring skills that you may want to highlight includes- time-consciousness, efficiency, effectiveness, innovativeness, result-oriented, persistence, abilities as a self-starter, the ability to work alone as well as the ability to work in a team.
7). Interview questions asking about some of your most significant accomplishments
Every hiring manager would like to hear about some of the greatest things that you have achieved in your previous roles or positions, as well as how you were able to make these accomplishments.
Now, this is the time to list out all your successes, milestones, and achievements. However, while you may get tempted to toot your own horn, remember that modesty and sincerity are two things you need to watch out for with this question. Furthermore, be ready to provide some form of proof/evidence regarding your stated achievements.
8). Interview questions that serve to probe your intercultural fluency
Due to the global nature of our current working climate, you may be speaking to a client from Singapore in one minute, and the next, you are fielding queries from a customer from Canada. The world is one big connected village.
If you are applying to a company whose operations involve that you interact with people from different countries, and then expect your hiring managers to throw this question your way. This question gets used to test your cultural and global awareness.
Conclusion
These are some of the most frequent situation-based questions that get used to revealing your character, personality, behaviour, intelligence, skills, and competence to your potential manager. The questions are so crucial that sufficient preparation is necessary to excel at this stage.
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