Behavioral Interviewing

What is behavioral interviewing?

It is the style of interview that forces you to answer questions that demonstrate your competencies by giving specific examples from your past experiences. The focus is less about what you can do, and more about what you have done in specific situations in the past. Behavioral interviewing is based on the assumption that your past performance is a predictor of your future performance.

Questions you should expect.

You can expect questions that will focus on how you handled situations in the past, such as:

• How did you deal with a situation in your past role where you had a conflict with…
• Tell me about a situation where you…
• Give me an example of how you have…

How should you prepare for a behavioral interview?

• Look closely at the position you are applying for. Get hold of a job description. What specific skills are the employers looking for?
• Analyze your past work experience and background. Match the skills that you have with those the employers are looking for. Don’t forget competencies that you have developed outside of the work environment
• Identify specific examples/situations that demonstrate those skills. You need to be able to explain an entire situation – tell a story to show how you actually used a particular competency. It pays to illustrate the level of involvement you had in resolving a situation, and to quantify the results. If there are situations where you applied a competency but things didn’t work out, use them as examples and explain what went wrong. What did you do to resolve it?