Bookmark This Page

Delicious Google Bookmarks Stumbleupon Digg BlinkList Ma.gnolia Reddit Yahoo My Web

Behavioral Questions in the Job Interview

Many more employers are asking “behavioral questions” in the job interview. This means that rather than focusing on your resume and your accomplishments the interview will focus more on questions that are open ended. This means that there won’t be one single right answer to a question but a wide spectrum of answers instead. You’ll be given real life circumstances and your response to these situations is what your interviewer will be looking at.

For instance, you might be asked to describe a certain event, experience, or project. You may have to talk about how you handled a particular situation and what the end result was. The goal behind this type of interviewing is to rate your performance in everyday situations that may arise while you’re on the job.

It will more difficult for you to prepare for behavioral questions than it will for traditional questions that have a right or wrong answer. There are, however, some things that you can do to prepare for questions that focus on your behavior. Take some time to review your past performance as well your own personal work ethics and how they might apply to the company that you want to work for. Always answer behavioral questions with a great deal of honesty and candidness. Employers want to see you exactly as you are so that there are no surprises if they decide to hire you.

Your interviewer will be asking you questions that require detail, understanding, and depth in your response. For example you might be asked “what were you thinking when that happened” or “tell me more about how you handled that incident and why.” There is no way that you can truly prepare for these types of questions but you can be ready to answer all questions with enthusiasm and integrity. Ask someone to give you a practice interview by coming up with questions that are open ended such as (1) talk about the riskiest decision that you’ve made, (2) describe a time where you were in danger of missing a deadline, or (3) give an example of a bad decision that you’ve made and what the end result was. These questions require that you take a moment to think about your answer before you open your mouth.

Behavioral questions in the job interview give employers a good idea of how you think and how you’ll fit into their company view. The key to a good interview is to take your time before answering and to be as candid as you can.