HERE ARE 8 OF THE MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED BEHAVIOURAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Behavioral interview questions have become commonplace during an interview today, hence, it is important to have an idea about this type of interview question and prepare for such interview questions by carrying out an assessment of the most common behavioral interview questions asked.

Behavioral Interview Questions, What Are They?

These are questioning that interviewers ask in a bid to reveal the interviewee’s response to workplace experiences. Regular job interviews deal with your qualifications, your job experience, etc. However, behavioral interview questions would like you to relate your skills and experiences with your job position.

Behavioral interview questions are tailored in such a way that workplace situations are described and your ideal response is sought. It basically revolves around your capacity to solve problems in the workplace.

Common Examples of Behavioral Interview Questions

How Did You Handle Workplace Pressure?

If they are considering you for a high-pressure job, it’s important to examine your capacity to work under tension. The best way to deal with this question is to present an example of how you have previously responded to pressure in a former capacity.

Take this for an example, “whilst working at the fashion design place, the orders we got from a certain shopper were upped, even though we had not handled such large orders, my manager saw it as a chance to up our game, and she gave us the challenge to finish the job two days before the due delivery date, further increasing our challenge. What I did as the team lead was rearranging the schedule in our team, and also hire one additional hand on contract. That way, we were able to come up with a more efficient work schedule that allowed us to take more jobs and make money”.

How Do You Respond to Challenges?

Workplace challenges are commonplace. As is the common saying, life is full of ups and downs, the same with business. You are a winner on some days, on some days, you lose. Hiring managers ask this behavioral interview question to know and understand your reaction to challenging circumstances at work. The ideal manner to answer this question is to give an example of how you’ve previously responded to such challenges before and if possible, outline the steps you took in dealing with the challenge.

For example, “one time I was stuck in a traffic jam getting to work and I had a presentation to make in the office, I emailed my presentation to the receptionist and asked him to give a copy to the people who were going to be present in the meeting and I asked my assistant to make the presentation, it went well and there were some good recommendations for my assistant”.

How Did You React When You Made a Mistake?

The interviewer is more interested in your reaction to your mistake than how the mistake happened. It is common knowledge, we all make mistakes. They want to know how well you react, whether you take lessons from your mistakes or just avoid them altogether. This particular behavioral interview question helps the interviewer to know whether you are humble enough to admit you made mistakes.

Tell Us How You Set Goals

The interviewer wants to know you normally set goals and how you plan to accomplish your goals. He/she would like a step by step outline of how you plan to accomplish your set goals. Simply respond by giving an example of how you had successfully set goals.

For example, “when I resumed as a marketing intern under my previous employer, I set a goal of converting at least one new customer every week. By following some principles I learned online from a marketing expert, by the end of the year, I was making an average of two conversions per week”.

How Did You Implement Those Unpopular Decisions?

Being in leadership will require to make those decisions that may not augur well with everybody. The interviewer sometimes wants to learn how you are able to make those decisions that are not very popular especially when you’re being considered for managerial positions.

Here is an example of an answer, “once as head of my department, I observed the nonchalance among members of my team with respect to writing reports, I took action by producing a template which I mandated all of them to follow in writing reports to be submitted to me. At the start, there were lots of grunting and murmuring. Once after a departmental meeting, I gave my staff their reports written with the new template and their previously written reports, I asked them to grade both themselves. Most of them conceded that their report writing abilities had become better and they flowed along with the new template I created.”

How Well Can You Work with a Team?

Most job offers require you to work with a team, and many hiring managers will like to find out how well you work on a team and how strongly you can cooperate on a team. As with other behavioral interview questions, it is best to reply with a practical example such as this:

“Some years ago, I was placed in a team whose responsibility was to brand a new product our company just launched, working on this project included us working on some weekends and spending extended time at the office. I extended a hand of comfort to other team members by inviting them to my house for the weekend, that way I discovered we could work and still hang out for a while. After the project, our team became really bonded and we were able to pull some other bigger projects more efficiently than other teams”.

What Would You Do If You Had A Disagreement with Someone at Work?

Workplace disagreements are part of the workplace culture, however, the reaction of the characters involved are very important. With these behavioral interview question, the interviewer would seek insight into how you sort out workplace issues with fellow workers. Answer by describing how you have handled one of such situations before.

For example, once as supervisor of a group of employees, I noticed that a particular employee was always late by a few minutes to work, I challenged her daily and on a particular day, she presented her case to me, she stayed far away and had domestic duties to attend to every day. I came to a compromise and gave her an allowance of a few minutes.

Tell Us How You Have Ever Motivated Fellow Workers

Share an example of how you have ever motivated fellow workers because an employee who can motivate fellow workers is an asset for the company. To answer this particular behavioral interview question, simply tell a story of how you’ve motivated others in the past.

For example; “When I worked at X Technologies, there was to be a salary review which never happened, the occurrence left most of my colleagues demotivated, I took the responsibility of motivating my fellow staff by making them see the reason for the action and assuring them it was going to get better, and they were motivated to get better at their jobs”.

Read about how to answer “where do you see yourself in five years”

How to Prepare for them

Carry out due research about the company and the job

The more you know, the farther you can go. Your knowledge about the company and the role you are being interviewed for will determine how easy you’ll find the behavioral interview questions you’ll be asked. So before walking in for an interview, carry out due diligence about the company and ensure you are familiar with the in and out of the role. If the role is not your thing, whether through interest or qualifications, then you might have a little problem easing through these behavioral interview questions.

Prepare a List

There are common behavioral interview questions asked by interviewers in every industry and field. The goal of the interviewer is to get to know how fit you are for the role. The best way to scale through is to answer all in clear terms. And the only way you can get to answer in fluid and clear terms are to have your examples ready before taking the hot seat.