Behavioral Interviews
Behavioral interviewing is a technique used by employers in which the questions asked assist the employer in making predictions about a potential employee’s future success based on past behaviors. In behavior-based interviews, candidates are asked to give specific examples of when they demonstrated particular behaviors or skills. Use STAR method to format your examples:
Situation: Give the basics to start your story; What were you doing? Who was involved? Where were you and when?
Task: Describe what was at hand; What was your responsibility? Were you assigned to do something? What were the expectations of you?
Action: What was your process? What steps did you take to address the task? What obstacles did you overcome? What knowledge and skills did you use?
Result: What was the outcome? Did you learn anything? Was there any measurable result? How will this inform your future work?
Example Question: Tell me about a time you’ve demonstrated strong leadership skills.
Situation
During my third year of college, I was elected Vice President for Professional Development for the Young Entrepreneurs student organization. The duties of the position included securing speakers for our meetings, advertising the programs to the campus community, introducing speakers, and evaluating our programs.
Task
Previous attendance at meetings had decreased substantially after a decrease in student organization funding. The goal was to implement targeted programs to address the professional development of our association and increase attendance by 25% compared to the prior year’s figures.
Action
I developed a survey to determine the members’ professional interests and ideas for possible speakers and topics. We randomly selected survey respondents for a focus group interview. I learned about this research technique in my marketing class and thought it would help us identify why attendance had dropped.
Result
We then selected speakers that were related to students’ interests and produced a brochure describing each program. Under my leadership, attendance increased 150% over the previous year. From this experience, I learned how important it is to gain insight into your customer base before acting on an idea.
Download a printable worksheet to practice your answers and prepare for your interview: