Behavioral Interview Questions And Answers

Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers

There are some categorical tips for Job Interview Questions those support Behavioral Interview Questions

Based Behavioral Interviewing (Behavioral Interview Questions)

The primary reason a company conducts an interview is to learn enough about a candidate to determine whether the person will be successful on the job.
There are three parts to this success: (Behavioral Interview Questions)
1. Having the technical skills and knowledge
2. Having the functional skills and abilities
3. Being able to demonstrate the position’s competencies.
The vast majority of interviews focus on the first two components for success; many fail to consider competency proficiency.

At this point some of you may be thinking, ‘‘Anything that sounds too good to be true is probably too good to be true.’’ And you would be right. It took Gillian about a month to go from elated to concerned, and another month to being completely frustrated.

So, what went wrong? As often happens in organizations, Gillian hired a person who was technically and functionally perfect for the position. Unfortunately, Peter was not interviewed against the competencies for success in the position, which included ‘‘conflict management,’’ ‘‘maintaining a high customer focus,’’ and ‘‘building high performance teams.’’ Had he been, he probably would not have been hired.

In the vast majority of positions, the single factor that will distinguish one employee from another is the ability to exhibit the competencies for the position. When you identify and define competencies, and then interview against them—in addition to considering the technical and functional aspects—you are increasing the likelihood that the candidate to whom you offer the position is the one who truly is most likely to be successful.

Tips of Behavioral Interview Questions 

Interview Questions and Answers

What Is Competency-Based Behavioral Interviewing? 

Before we define competency-based behavioral interviewing (CBBI), it’s important that we define a competency. Simply put, a competency is a behavior (a skill and/or ability) or set of behaviors that describes the expected performance in a particular work context.

The context could be for the organization, a functional job group (e.g., accounting, human resources, operations), a job category (e.g., senior managers, middle managers, professionals), or a specific job. When they are appropriately developed, competencies are the standards of success for the position and the behaviors that are needed to support the strategic plan, vision, mission, and goals of the organization.

Competencies are different from the other requirements one might find for a given position, such as technical skills, functional skills and knowledge, education, and experience. For example, it is one thing to recruit for a position and require five years of management experience. It is another thing to recruit for a position that requires five years of management experience leading a diverse group of people. In the second situation, you would be looking for a candidate with five years of management experience coupled with a demonstrated competency of ‘‘valuing diversity.’’ Competency-based behavioral interviewing is a structured interview process that combines competencies with the premise that, with 

few exceptions:

The best predictor of future performance/behavior is past performance/behavior.

– and –

The more recent the performance/behavior, the more likely it is to be repeated.

The questions asked during CBBI(Competency Behavioral Interview Questions) are based on real situations that relate to the competencies for the position. Candidates, then,are evaluated based on actual behaviors/performance rather than on possible or potential behaviors/performance. As a result, the information gathered from the candidate is significantly more predictive of what their behavior and performance are likely to be in the position for which they are interviewing than what one finds with other interviewing styles.

In CBBI, rather than asking candidates directly if they have a particular competency—to which you will almost always hear a resounding ‘‘yes!’’—the interviewer asks the candidate to provide an example of a time when he demonstrated the competency. The focus is on the candidates giving you an indication of their proficiency in a particular competency by relating a real-world experience.

Typical interviews will sound something like this:

Interviewer: 

‘‘I think I mentioned earlier that this is a high-stress position.

How do you manage stress?’’

Candidate: 

‘‘My last two positions were high stress. I actually do some of

my best work under stress. Through experience, I’ve learned how to make

stress work for me rather than against me. I think two of the most effective

stress management techniques are . . .’’

Based on the answer the candidate provided, what do you really know about this person’s ability to handle stress? Not much— other than the person knows a couple stress management techniques.

Whether the person actually uses them or not is up for debate.

What is stressful to this candidate during :

Interview Questions and Answers

Your guess is as good as mine. It could be that having to work the rest of the day after getting a paper cut is high stress for this candidate.

Using CBBI techniques, the interviewer would, instead, say

something like this: 

Interviewer: 

‘‘Tell me about a time you had to perform a task or project

under a lot of stress.’’

Now you are going to find out how the candidate actually handled stress in a real-life situation and what she considers stressful. When used in conjunction with probing/follow-up questions, this question is going to provide significantly more information for comparing candidates to the competency requirements of the position and the culture of the organization than the answer you would receive to the original question. Assuming, that is, that you ensure that the candidate relates a real-life story rather than respond as if you had asked a situational question.

How to answer an interview question: how do you handle stress at work?

Interviewers frequently ask job candidates how they manage stress in their personal lives or respond to being assigned additional tasks when they are extremely busy or being overworked.

The following are strategies for response:

* Express interest in working under stressful circumstances that will push you to excel

* Discuss how you've prioritized work responsibilities in the past

* Demonstrate how you've solved problems at work

* Explain how you effectively manage multiple projects simultaneously

* Discuss how you will anticipate problems before they become major