Stop Memorizing – Create Your Unique Answers For Behavioural Questions For Interviews!

“Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Hence, do not let employers misunderstand your image by just a few behavioural questions for interviews!

Do not let yourself down for not passing this type of question. Let’s prepare by consulting this list of common behavioural questions below to facilitate your way to land your dream job! And why have to try to memorize the answer templates available online when you can create your own unique answers? Keep reading to explore the secrets behind behavioural questions for interviews on Jobandedu.

What Are Behavioural Questions For Interviews? Why Do You Need To Care About Behavioural Questions?

Behavioral interview questions revolve around your work experience in the past to figure out your behavioral traits, personality characteristics, abilities, and skills. More specifically, recruiters will ask about a situation or problem you’ve encountered, how you handled it, and then discover who you are, how you think, and how you deal with real-world problems.

Similar to behavioural questions, we have situational questions for interviews. Situational questions, also known as hypothetical questions, require you to imagine yourself in a hypothetical situation and describe what step you will take in that situation. 

The minor difference between these 2 types of questions is that behavioral questions specifically ask you to describe a past situation that happened to you. In contrast, situational ones focus on the future with hypothetical questions. 

But do not waste time trying to distinguish behavioural and situational questions. Their common feature reveals the candidate’s thinking, behaviors, and skills; hence, their use is common in interviews.

What Are Behavioural Questions For Interviews? Why Do You Need To Care About Behavioural Questions?
Do not waste time trying to tell behavioral and situational questions apart – Source: pikabu.ru

How To Prepare For A Behavior Interview?

Study And Analyze The Job Description

List the related skills and qualifications that this job requires. Prepare yourself for the available answers to the best behavioral interview questions to promptly respond by listing the challenging situations from previous jobs, the way you dealt with them successfully, and the experience you gained from this situation. 

Use The Star Method To Outline Your Answers To Behavioral Questions

STAR (Situation – Task – Action – Result) is a model allowing you to answer questions directly by following a particular sequence in each response. STAR method also facilitates your sharing to show who you are, how you work, what you have, etc.

You can apply the STAR interviewing technique to questions requiring answers to real situations that you have ever done, handled, and brought you a lot of experience. 

S – Situation

In this part, we suggest generalizing the situation you have encountered or the nature of the work you faced. Showing the context will help employers get the best judgment of their decisions.

Our recommended structure in this section is:

  • WHO – who’s in the situation or incident
  • WHEN – when did it happen
  • WHERE – where did it happen

T – Task

Summarize what your primary task is in this situation. Keep in mind describing your role, responsibilities, and jobs in that situation or incident, as this is the basis for your answer to be convincing or not.

Our recommended structure in this section is:

  • WHAT – what to do
  • WHY – for what reasons

A – Action

The “Action” part is where you state your treatment and explain the reason for that action. It is worth noting that the content of your answer needs to show the qualities you want to show to the employer clearly. Describe each step in detail, how you do it, and how to handle it. Remember not to exaggerate to flaunt yourself, as the reference-checking step of the recruiting process could reveal the truth.

Our recommended structure in this section is:

  • HOW – how to deal with it

R – Result

This section is more than just retelling the results of your experience. Adding lessons you have learned from this experience is more helpful.

Use The Star Method To Outline Your Answers To Behavioral Questions
STAR technique delivers a comprehensive answer in interview – Source: blog.peoplespheres.com

Best Behavioral Interview Questions: 5 Major Types Of Behavioral and Situational Questions – Key Points Answers Tips

Try reading our list of question types and brainstorming answers according to our instructions, you can easily plan your personalized answers.

Teamwork-related Behavioural Questions For Interviews

According to Pamela Skillings, founder of Big Interview, teamwork-related questions are the most common ones. This type of question will help recruiters identify a good team player in an organization.

Examples Of Questions Related To Teamworking Skills

  • What would you do if you had to work with someone you cannot get on with or someone having a different personality from yours?
  • Have you ever faced a team conflict, and how did you deal with it?
  • Do you prefer teamwork or working independently? Tell me about a time you worked well as part of a team.
  • If you are a leader, how will you motivate your team members?

How To Deal With Them?

Pick a few examples of your teamwork and collaboration skills.

To show your teamwork spirit, you can display your ability to help your team succeed instead of emphasizing your personal achievement. Don’t forget to show respect and praise to your former co-workers instead of giving criticism. 

At the end of the answer, we highly suggest describing some of the skills or qualities needed in teamwork, such as the ability to listen and mutual respect.

Best Behavioral Interview Questions: 5 Major Types Of Behavioral and Situational Questions - Key Points Answers Tips
Show your teamwork spirit instead of emphasizing your personal achievement – Source: habr.com

Problem Solving-related Behavioural Questions For Interviews

Another common type of behavioural questions for interviews is problem-solving one to capture applicants’ level of flexibility, perseverance, and competency. Through these questions, the recruiter can gauge how you deal with complex or unexpected problems and how you can break down the trouble into smaller tasks to tackle step by step.

Examples Of Questions Related To Problem-solving Skills

  • Tell me about your experience with a demanding client. How did you overcome those difficulties?
  • Tell me about a moment you made a mistake. What did you do to address it?
  • Assume you made a mistake but no one else noticed, what would you do? Will you fix it or deliberately let go?
  • Tell me an experience when you were too busy with multiple tasks? How did you solve that problem?

Ways To Deal With Them?

To deal with this kind of question, tell an actual personal story about a specific situation and try to avoid being too general. Discuss professional issues rather than daily chores. Prioritize examples that show logical and strategic problem-solving. 

Do not emphasize your accomplishments, be humble and speak out the results when the problem is solved.

Similar to teamwork-related behavioral questions, let’s end your answer by stating what you have learned from the experience.

Motivation-related Behavioural Questions For Interviews

Any employer wants to know their employees’ motivations. Giving questions about values and motivations allows employers to gain insight into what the candidates are passionate about, what makes them stay focused and get enthusiastic when working. Your answers will help employers determine if you are a suitable fit for the company’s mission, vision, core values, and working environment or not

Examples Of Questions Related To Motivation

  • If we hired you, how long do you think you will be here?
  • How do you maintain your passion, motivation, or creativity at work?
  • Tell me about a time when you tried to start a good habit.

Ways To Deal With Them?

Those questions often come up on the fly! 

For many interviewees, these are the “best behavioral interview questions” as motivational questions do not require a correct answer but one that can show enthusiasm and coherence. A smile can help you regain your confidence, calm down and finish those sudden questions.

Remember that subjective motivations such as not to get fired, to increase salary, will not convince an employer to choose you. Instead, link your work motivation to your job or the company to highlight how you will contribute to the company in the future.

Failure-related Behavioural Questions For Interviews

Failure-related Behavioural Questions For Interviews
Failure is a lesson learned, success is a lesson applied – Source: vecteezy.com

Here are some of the most challenging questions in an interview because they require specific skills for the interviewee to answer. The employer’s purpose is to want to learn about how you did with your previous failures and your ability to learn from failures.

Examples Of Questions Related To Failure

  • Tell me about the most challenging time you experienced/ Tell me about your biggest professional failure.
  • Have you ever failed? How did you cope?

How To Deal With Them?

What you need to do is to be honest when talking about your failures. Even though it is a failure, bear in mind to express positive thoughts and avoid over-pessimistic answers. Accept your mistakes instead of blaming them, and don’t forget to point out how you see success and failure.

Communication-related Behavioural Questions For Interviews

This group of behavioural questions for interviews is a helpful tool for assessing how candidates use verbal means of language or body language to express their thoughts, opinions, and feelings clearly and convincingly and promote two-way communication. 

Examples Of Questions Related To Communication Skills

  • Describe a time when you had to say “no.”
  • How would you respond to a poorly-rated review about our company?
  • Tell me about a time when you successfully persuaded someone to accept your point of view at work.
  • During a meeting, you notice that when you are presenting your ideas, the audience seems very indifferent, what do you do to get their attention?
  • Have you ever worked with someone with whom you find it difficult to communicate? If so, what was the problem and how did you handle it?
  • How would you respond to a potential customer if they said that our competitors offer better prices?

Dealing With These Questions

Even this group of questions can be challenging for the best communicator! 

But do not let these questions break your confidence and interview! The key here is to maintain a balance between speaking and listening. Give an example in which you are not only the speaker, but also the listener to the others’ thoughts in this situation.

Also, preparing in advance by reviewing communication questions and samples of the best answers is a feasible approach to formulate your unique responses.

Using behavioural questions for interviews is one of the most accurate techniques for employers to evaluate candidates. Therefore, prepare well to have a confident interview and do your best! Wish you land your dream job soon!

Our Job Application section also gives you an additional Tips – How To Be Confident In Interviews:

Emma Anderson

Emma Anderson is a career consultant and freelance writer for JobandEdu by night. Layla assists students, and new hires in determining a suitable career path and walk them through the application process. She decides to pursue writing since she thinks everyone should have access to information about potential careers, such as the application process and the company's culture. She's into writing, driving her with stuff that interests her in all her good reads.