Ten Popular Behavioral Interview Questions

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Ten Popular Behavioral Interview Questions

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Behavioral interview questions are the norm for most job interviews–because they work so well. Your answers give hiring managers real, verifiable insight into how you handle problems, issues, and challenges…information they need to determine if you’d be a good fit for their company. A critical part of your interview preparation is constructing your answers to potential questions (use the STAR technique or the PAR technique for this), and practicing your delivery. To help you prepare, I found Marc Krajnik’s article on ten behavioral-based interview questions. I’ve listed them here for you:

1. “Describe for me your greatest accomplishment up to this point in your career. When was it? What did you do? What was the outcome?”

2.“Tell me about a time when you didn’t accomplish the original objective. When was it? What was your role? What was the result?”

3. “Describe the most prominent mistake you have made during your career. What did you do? What were the results? What did you learn from it? Have you ever repeated that same mistake?”

4. “Walk me through the last time you worked in a team and didn’t get along with one of its members. When did this take place? What did you do? What could you have done differently? What was the outcome?”

5. “Tell me about the toughest decision you have had to make in the past three months. What made this decision so tough? What information did you consider when deciding? How did you reach your decision? How did it turn out?”

6. “Take me back to the last project that you were involved with that required extra effort on your part. When was it? What adjustments did you have to make to meet these demands? What was the outcome?”

7. “Describe the last important task you delegated. What instructions did you give? How did you check on the progress of the assignment? Was the outcome satisfactory? Why or why not?”

8. “Describe a recent situation that best illustrates your style in leading others to accomplish a task. When did this occur? What was the situation? How did you motivate the team? Who was the hardest team member to get on your side? How did you do it?”

9. “Tell me about the most recent goal that you achieved. When was it? What was the goal? How did you set up an action plan to achieve that goal? What was the result?”

10. “Tell me about a recent customer complaint that you handled. When did this take place? What was the complaint? How did you learn about it? What did you do? How did it turn out?”

I’d also like to point you back to my discussion with Chris Norris on Behavioral Event Interviews. Chris is a commercial leader who has documented performance excellence in various capacities including Vice President of Sales, National Sales Director and General Manager with a diversity of experience, having served with Abbott, Bayer and GE Healthcare. He brings great insight to this topic, and I hope you find it helpful.