Behavioral Interview Questions

    Top 10 Behavioral Interview Questions With Answers

The key to answering behavioral questions during a job interview is to face them without fear and answer them with confidence and poise. Once you know the pattern of these questions, you can respond appropriately to them while avoiding blunders and pitfalls.

Simply explained; behavioral questions are worded in a manner as to invoke a response from the candidate that gives the interviewer a good idea regarding how he will behave under tricky situations. In fact; these questions are designed to put you, the candidate, under stress. Every individual reacts differently to stress, and some might even annoy or irritate coworkers creating disharmony in the workplace. Employers want to minimize such friction and headaches; hence they ask a series of behavioral questions to assess how an employee will act under stressful situations. No organization wants a clown on their payrolls, neither does a company need employees who are likely to misbehave or give a bad name to the entire company with their bad behavior. This is precisely why behavioral interview questions are asked.

Behavioral questions are always unrelated to what you have put in the resume. They are meant for assessing how you:

1.  Dealt with pressure situations
2.  Took steps to submit a project on time
3.  Proactively solved an issue before it escalated out of control
4.  Worked with a coworker who was difficult
5.  Reorganized work when your responsibilities were shifted
6.  Handled criticism

Here, we shall present the top 10 behavioral questions, situations and their possible answers. Naturally, these answers can only be used as basic guidelines. You will need to improvise and come up with your own answers. However, you can certainly use them to get an idea as to how to respond when faced with similar questions during the interview.

Catch the tips to get success in interview!!

1. The biggest mistake you made and what did you learn from it? The reason behind this question is that the interviewer is trying to judge if you can admit to mistakes and whether you learn from them. Additionally he wants to know if you are humble enough to accept mistakes or whether you have the tendency to blame others for them. You can tell the interviewer things that you have learned from your past mistakes in your previous job. Examples include: when you disagreed with your manager and went over him to higher authority that agreed with you but in turn affected your relationship with your direct supervisor.

2. Have you worked with someone you did not like and was difficult to get along with?

The interviewer wants to know how you diffuse tension and how well can you work with others. You can come up with a situation where in a manager was controlling and difficult but you won him over by taking an interest in his hobbies etc or befriended him etc. Here, you may mention that even though, working with the person whom you did not like was stressing, so you decided to work towards solving the issue. You aimed at understanding the person and knowing what made him behave this way. You did this through engaging in a project that involved working close with this colleague, by the end of it; you had managed to understand the person and worked towards building a positive relationship. You may also mention that you understood that one might be wrong and then, you worked towards building on strengths rather than concentrating on weaknesses.

3. Have you worked with a coworker who was not shouldering fair share of the workload? Here, you may mention coworkers who were habitually late, or made several mistakes leading to rework or about coworkers who took several personal calls while on duty etc. You may also mention colleagues who were overly chatty or took up extra long coffee breaks or lunch hours. Be sure not to relate overly personal details but explain how you got involved and brought about a positive outcome in their behavior.

4. Have you faced dishonesty in the workplace, if yes, how did you deal with it? Here, the company does not expect you to be a policeman, but only expects you to NOT look away while there is blatant dishonesty going on in the workplace. An example could be when a colleague has purposely delayed a customer’s order just to get even with him. Any act of dishonesty that reflects badly on you or your team or the Company must be pointed out to the higher management.

5. What are the qualities you look for in your immediate boss/supervisor? The answer to this question should basically describe all the qualities that a good leader should possess: clear communication, treats employees with respect, is available when needed, allows you to work with minimal supervision, yet assists you in removing roadblocks that, in turn, increase your productivity etc.

6. The title of the book you read last–

This question is generally asked to get an insight into your reading habits: whether you read for education or entertainment, regarding your interests or how you stay current in the latest trends in your field etc. When giving an answer to this kind of question, it is important to think about the kind of the job being interviewed. Giving a title which seems too aloof will reflect wrongly. The book name given should also not be offensive in any way to avoid misinformation and misjudgment. The interviewee also needs to give a title which he or she is comfortable giving a summary.”Last read” in this context does not necessarily mean the book that was read last week, month or year, it basically means the one which interested the interviewee, is related to the job in question and  can easily be described if asked to do so.

7. What steps do you take to improve yourself? The answers to this could include facts like you are learning a foreign language or undergoing professional certifications to improve yourself, or taking courses to learn more about computer/programming or pursuing a degree side by side etc.

8. What are your hobbies/interests outside work?

This helps the interviewer get an idea whether you lead a balanced life or whether you are too focused to have hobbies and outside interests and also regarding the kind of person you are. Remember here: the more outside commitments you have, the less attractive you’d look to potential employers. “Watching Television” or “playing PC games” may distract the employer’ attention. Reading good books (you may name a few books related to your subject) will be a good answer. Though, it would be suspicious if you say that your hobbies are studying financial market or working overtime for free.

9. What motivates you?

This question is known to render many candidates speechless. It is asked to get an idea as to “why you do what you do”. High achievers naturally would answer this question using sentences like: “I like to solve complex problems”, or “I like to teach and mentor youngsters” or “I like to make efforts to help improve the lives of people” etc. Do not use factors like money, rewards, contests etc as these are non-lasting and known to produce only a short burst of efforts. Here, you should mention your goal/vision/passion for life. Be honest yet intelligent, what you say and describe.

10.Why did you choose your major in college? This helps ascertain whether you have always known what you wanted in life, or whether you simply chose the path of minimal resistance. The question also helps the interviewer note if you have a true passion for your field. Here, you might want to point out things like you are true to your craft and continually learning by taking nighttime classes or earning a professional certification etc. This will help them know that you have a true passion for the field.

Tips for preparing your ‘stories’ for answering behavioral questions:

1. If you have any notable achievements, ensure that you provide details regarding these. Focus on obstacles you encountered and how you took steps to solve them.You can even write down some ‘stories’ prior to the interview and revise your answers until you are comfortable telling these stories.
2. Rehearse your answers with a friend/co-worker.
3. Always place yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes and think like him.  Make sure you make an eye contact with the interviewer because it is not only “what you say” but also “how you say it”.
4. Always talk about lessons learned. Did the experience teach you anything and how you plan to cope with similar situations in the future?

Wrap it up in Style

Once you have made it to the interview stage, it is mainly due to the fact that you are qualified and already have the skills that employers are looking for. What they are trying to determine is who the best candidate is, and the best naturally is someone who seems responsible, trustworthy and personable. Behavioral questions help the hiring manager reveal these traits and also help them decide whether to offer the job to you or someone else.

Few more behavioral questions that can be asked at interview

Few more questions that can be asked!!

• Tell us why you are the best candidate for the job? Give us reasons why we should hire you?
• What is your customer service motto/philosophy?
• Tell us about the time when you were faced with an arrogant boss? How did you deal with it?
• Suppose a person has been trying your patience for a long time? How will you manage?
• Tell us about a situation when you had to cope with a colleague’s behavior which bothered you? Shed light on circumstances and how did you tackle them?
• Describe a scenario where you had to use your “power of persuasion” to make your team members see thin
• Often you are required to detect how a person is actually feeling or thinking. Have you been in such situations where you had to size up the person? This will show us your ability of “reading” people
• How do you handle a colleague or a supervisor who is not a good listener?
• Has there been a situation where you over spent time in planning rather than execution?
• What are some techniques of planning for a project? How do you use them?
• Describe a situation where you used your creativity in project to complete it on time?
• Some ideas come from hard work, some come from intuition. Describe a case where you came up with an idea using both hard work and intuition
• Have you faced circumstances where you had to justify your actions for which you stood firmly for, but it did not descend to well with others in the team?
• Give us an example that shows you are adaptable and flexible
• Provide examples that show us that you can deal with a wide array of colleagues, circumstances or environments
• Think about a time when you were given constructive criticism/feedback that was not positive. How did you respond to it?
• Imagine a situation where you are enforced to learn new software or a new application or procedure. How did you deal with it?
• Tell us about a time where there was some bad blood between two employees and you had to act as a mediator or a buffer between them
• Describe a situation where you demonstrated some brilliant customer service
• Describe a scenario when you had to verbally communicate a very sensitive issue to co-workers. What was the outcome and how did you structure the communication?
• How do you think your college experience has prepared you for the chosen career?
• What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
• Give us an example of a situation where you had to deal with two demanding projects. How did you manage time/resources while on these?
• Describe a situation where you took a wrong decision and the outcome was negative and counterproductive. How did you turn this around?
• Describe a scenario when you had to deal with personal rejection or interpersonal conflict at work?
• Tell us about a time when you showed high enthusiasm to create positive motivation in your peers?
• Describe a scenario when you brought two disinclined people together?
• Describe a scenario when you had to cope with high stress situation at work? How did you cope with it?
• Describe a scenario when you had obeyed the rules when you did not agree with them?
• How will you conduct yourself if you would have given unreasonable responsibilities at work?

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