How to Prepare for a Behavior-Based Interview

Companies that are hiring have started to make a massive change over the last ten to twenty years from traditional job interviews to behavior based job interviews. Many companies believe that asking you to provide examples of how you reacted to certain situations gives a glimpse into your personality and how you would react again. With this information the interviewers can gain an understanding of you and what kind of employee and person you really are.

The most important thing about the behavior based interview is that you must be thoroughly prepared to answer all possible questions. It is perfectly fine to take a few moments to collect your thoughts before you respond to behavior based questions, but don't say things like "I don't know if I've ever been in that situation" or "Gee, I just don't know". You don't have to ask for a few moments just collect yourself and respond in the best way that you know how.

Questions asked in a behavior based interview will be very direct, but at the same time will be a little bit vague. For instance, "Tell me about a time that you were in involved in a confrontation with an upset customer." This question doesn't directly say if you were the one that upset the customer or not, but wants to know how you responded to the person. If you can think of a situation where you were met with a customer that was upset with someone else and you helped to calm them you will have a much better example than if you upset the person.

The best way to prepare for these questions and respond to them is to use the STAR technique of answering the question. This technique deserves a much longer explanation, but in short, this is the STAR process of responding to behavior based questions: 1. Situation- describe the situation that you were in. 2. Task- the task could replace the situation or be the task you knew you needed to perform. 3. Action- what actions did you take to make the situation better. 4. Results- what were the corresponding results to the situation.

If you are able to come up with answers to the majority of behavior based questions you will be prepared for a behavior based interview. The most common questions can be found online and answers usually accompany them. Don't simply copy other people's responses, make sure that you are included in your answer. You want to give an accurate depiction of yourself and nobody else in your job interview.