How to Ace a Behavioral Interview

A behavioral interview is different from a traditional interview in that you'll be asked questions about previous job experience and how you handled specific and unique situations. Your potential employer wants to know about your experience. To ace a behavioral interview, you will need to be able to recall situations you've experienced in the past and you'll have to relate them with as much clarity and detail as possible. The interviewer knows what he or she is looking for; you simply have to fill that mold.

One of the main problems that job seekers face is that you won't know you're entering a behavioral interview until the interviewer starts asking questions. At that point, you can't prepare, so it's best to assume you need to plan for all contingencies. If you've never been given a behavioral interview before, this article will help you understand what it involves and how to shape your responses accordingly.

Types of Questions Asked

In a behavioral interview, you will be asked markedly different questions than in a traditional interview, though there might be other questions interspersed. While your interviewer can think up whatever questions he feels are appropriate to the job in question, there are a few behavioral questions that are asked more often than others. Examples include:

---Explain an instance in which you were forced to implement a program that your colleagues or subordinates didn't support.
---Tell me about the most difficult decision you've ever had to make on the job.
---Have you ever had to respond to an emergency situation? What were the steps you took?
---Give an example of a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.
---Can you recall a time when you were given a deadline but were unable to achieve it? How did you handle that situation?

These questions are completely open-ended, so you'll have to describe the circumstances surrounding your answer as well as the results of those decisions. If you made a mistake, you can still mention the experience, but you should also go into detail about how you learned from it. Employers aren't looking for perfect answers during a behavioral interview; they're looking for initiative, leadership and logical thinking skills.

Points to Cover

When you are answering questions during a behavioral interview, you'll want to cover certain points in order to give an acceptable answer. First, you'll want to give your example of a specific situation. Include the company you worked for, the employees involved and the precise situation with which you were faced. Saying, "My boss asked me to complete a project..." isn't enough. What type of project, and what was the intended result?

You should also include the steps you took to resolve the problem or implement the program or complete the project, whatever the case may be. The interviewer is looking for coherent answers that bring clarity to the situation. A behavioral interview is meant to judge what you've done in the past, not what you will do in the future. In addition, make sure you explain the results of your decisions and how you learned from the experience. Would you do it the same way if presented with a similar situation in the future, or would you change it based on experience.

When You Don't Know

There will be times during a behavioral interview that you won't have an answer to the question. Perhaps you can't remember or maybe the question doesn't apply to you at all. For example, take one of the questions from above: Can you recall a time when you were given a deadline but were unable to achieve it? Maybe there was never any such instance, which makes the question impossible to answer.

You should never "make up" a response during a behavioral interview. Your interviewer will notice that your reiteration lacks the details of your other, true answers, and you probably won't be called back for a second interview. Instead, you can either explain a situation that is similar to the one you would give if you had an answer or you can simply say that you don't have any experience from which to draw. This won't be marked against you.