Nailing behavioural questions at interview

Modern interview techniques zero in on much more than your education, technical expertise and past work experience. A key component, in both public and private sectors, is ‘behavioural interviewing’.

This gives prospective employers insights into your character and how you would behave in their work environment. It’s not about how you would behave in a hypothetical situation. It’s about how you have truly behaved in your current or past roles. This indicates how you would likely behave should you win the job.

So how do you prepare for behavioural interviewing? What is the difference between traditional interview and behavioural questions? What types of behavioural questions could be asked? What are example answers?

Preparing for behavioural interviewing

To prepare for behavioural interviewing you need to:

• Research the company you’re applying for to get your head around their goals and needs. Search their website and online presence for hints on the behaviours they want. Learn other ways to prepare for interview.
• Familiarise yourself with the all-important STARR interview technique to focus your responses. STARR stands for situation, tasks, action, results and reflection.
• Practice answering potential behavioural questions in advance to build your confidence.

Difference between traditional and behavioural questions

Traditional interview questions focus on topics like your strengths, weaknesses, education, technical abilities, job-specific requirements and other ‘hard’ skills.

Examples

What are your strengths?

What is your greatest weakness?

Why should we hire you?

What are your goals?

What makes you unique?

What interests you about this role?

How does this job fit in with your career aspirations?

What motivates you?

Behavioural questions focus more on how you perform, including with ‘soft’ skills. Examples are below.

Types of behavioural questions

Behavioural questions are designed to test how you have handled real-life work situations. They’re your opportunity to demonstrate how you would behave in future when presented with a certain situation. There are no right or wrong answers, so don’t fret.

Examples

Have you handled a challenging situation with a team member? If so, describe how?

Tell us how you work effectively under pressure.

Have you ever gone above and beyond what was expected?

Describe an example of how you work productively in a team environment.

Give us an example of a milestone you reached and how you got there.

Tell us about a difficult and unpopular decision you had to make and how you handled it.

Describe a time when your tight schedule had to be altered and what you did to keep the project on track.

Ideal scenario answers

Remembering the STARR technique, focus on providing anecdotes (small stories) that illustrate your past behaviour. Anecdotes should be no longer than 2 minutes. Make sure you:

• outline the situation you were in
• explain the task or tasks you completed
• describe the action you took
• describe the result of your efforts
• finish off with reflection on the situation—what did you accomplish; what did you learn; where your skills improved?

Example questions and answers

Have you handled a challenging situation with a team member? If so, describe how?

With this type of question, the interviewer knows that workplaces aren’t perfect places. Challenging situations and problems inevitably arise. They’re not saying, in other words, that it’s bad that you’ve faced a challenge. They want to know how you handled it.

A colleague asked for help to meet a deadline on a project. They were behind schedule but hadn’t told management. They wanted my support but didn’t want me to say I was helping.

I explained to the colleague that I was already under the gun with my own project and that taking time away could compromise my performance.

I told them I would be prepared to help if we secured management agreement. In other words, I insisted we be above board. My colleague wasn’t happy but agreed.

I organised the meeting and, after in-depth discussion with management, we agreed that my project could be put on hold for 2 weeks while I supported my colleague to get their project over the line.

In reflecting on this situation, I was pleased with what I accomplished and built my confidence.

How do you work effectively under pressure?

With this type of question, the interviewer understands that workplaces face pressure at different times and on different levels. They’re looking for a real example that showcases how you would deal with such a situation.

I was working on a project with an approved timeline. Out of the blue, my direct manager approached me to say that senior management had tightened the timeline, bringing the deadline forward by 10 working days.

I immediately assessed the project timeline, with a critical eye, to determine if any steps could be truncated or if other resources were needed.

I presented options to my manager, outlining the risks and implications of each recommendation.

My manager accepted 4 out of 5 of my recommendations and I immediately began to implement them. Our team met the tightened deadline.

In reflecting on this scenario, I was pleased that I was able to leverage my skills to score a big goal.

Can you provide an example of how you work productively in a team environment?

With this type of question, the interviewer wants to know about your performance in a team environment, as opposed to working independently. They’re looking for evidence that you can collaborate, cooperate and contribute to team productivity.

In my current role, I am a member of a dynamic team of 6 specialists handling complex, multi-faceted projects. When the team was first established, each member was assigned individual tasks and deadlines. The team, however, wasn’t working cohesively.

While I performed well at meeting my obligations, I decided to be proactive and recommend that the team meet every Monday morning to update each other and see how we could support one another. I offered to lead these weekly meetings.

At our first meeting, we uncovered overlap and duplication across team members. We also discovered that one team member wasn’t coping. We reshaped the workload and collaborated and cooperated around new ideas to fix these problems. The team quickly began to work more efficiently to meet project goals and deadlines.

In reflecting on this example, I learned that there are always solutions to problems when you motivate teams.