Behavioral Questions: Nail Your Next Interview with these Answers

Shricareer Thu, 11/10/2022 - 17:23

Job interviews can feel like an uphill battle. You might feel like you have prepared everything but still, you will be missing out on something. Usually, during a job interview, the interviewer might ask you a few behavioral interview questions that will reveal more about how you tackled a lot of situations in your previous workplaces. This will indicate how you might handle a similar situation in the future. So, to answer this question perfectly you might need to review common types of behavioral interview questions to ensure you prepare effective answers.

Well, we will help you with some sample behavioral interview questions, provide example responses and give you the strongest answering method to help you make a good impression on your prospective employer.

So, what are these Behavioral Interview Questions?

The behavioral interview questions let the recruiters know about how well you handle some of the critical situations. Candidates will need to share examples of some specific situations that they have dealt with where they have used some of their skills, especially soft skills, to demonstrate how they navigated certain types of scenarios. Interviewers often ask these questions so they can help them get a more realistic and nuanced sense of how you work.

Additionally, it gives them a chance to assess your potential based on your actual past work performance. Consider this: which would persuade you more about a person’s capacity to operate in a team- their declaration that they absolutely love it or their account of the months they spent working in a team of five to accomplish a website overhaul for a significant client? 

How to Answer Behavioral Interview Questions with the STAR Method

One of the easiest ways to answer the behavioral interview questions is to follow the STAR method.

S- Situation

T- Task

A- Action

R- Results.

STAR format is a method that helps job seekers to give more details about their work experiences.

Using star format to create your resume experience section helps you give more details about your skills and knowledge, giving you a potential advantage over other candidates. if you use the STAR format, it will make it easier for the recruiter to recognize your potential.

The Most common behavioral interview questions and answers

Teamwork questions

Questions related to teamwork are one of the most common questions asked in a job interview. In most of the job profiles, you will need to work in a team. So, it’s better if you talk about your experience in team working. Demonstrate a story that showcases your teamwork ability under challenging circumstances. Think about an instance where you resolved team conflicts, dealt with project constraints, or motivated others.

1. Tell me about a time when you faced a conflict with a coworker and how did you handle it?

Example: “While I was working as a Full Stack developer, I was assigned to work on a project along with another colleague of mine. While working on the project I noticed that he was constantly procrastinating his tasks. As a result, I also faced problems completing the tasks at the last moment. I felt really annoyed. Yet I kept calm, confronted him about the problem, and, asked him if he was having any issues working on this project. then he told me that he was simultaneously assigned to a project which he was finding difficult to work on as it used some other technology that was not mentioned in the job description. I told my senior about it, and he decided to help resolve my co-worker's problem, which they acknowledged and fixed soon, and we both worked on it smoothly and delivered the work.”

Customer service questions

If your job requires you to work closely with the clients, customers, or other external stakeholders, then the recruiters might ask you a question related to it. Think about at least one story about a time you successfully represented your company or team and delivered exceptional customer service.

1. Tell me about a time you made a mistake that affected a customer. How did you resolve the problem?

Example: “In the initial days of my career as a waiter, I was a lot nervous and usually panicked thinking if I’m doing it properly or not. Once during the festive season, there was a rush in the restaurant. All most all the tables were filled up. There was a whole family at a table who ordered a bunch of things and had asked not to put peanuts in the dish, which I completely forgot to mention to the chef. And the chef cooked the dish with peanuts.

I served them their food late that night and also they saw there were peanuts which was a blunder on my side. They were clearly upset but thankfully, they did not yell much and kept all the peanuts aside, and enjoyed their dinner. I felt guilty as it was my responsibility to satisfy the customer. I apologized to them and didn’t charge for the dish with peanuts. From that day onwards I took care of every small demand of my customers and never let them get disappointed again.”

Adaptability questions

Adaptability is one such skill that a lot of employers seek in their candidates. If a candidate is adaptable, then it means he/she is you’re flexible and adaptable to adjust to new situations. Being flexible in the workplace means being prepared to modify your plans in response to changing strategic company objectives. Priority-setting, new roles and duties, innovative systems and technologies, process enhancement, and policy changes are some of the aspects that show your adaptability skills. 

2. What Type of Work Environment Do You Prefer?

Example: “The work environment of the company that I am currently working at is very friendly and rewarding. My managers and colleagues are quite helpful with getting my work done in case I face some problems at my workplace. Everyone has their cubicle, so it's often pretty to get our work done, but we all get lunch together and our team has a lot of check-in meetings and communicates frequently via Slack so that we can have opportunities to present our ideas. So, I like working as an individual yet I enjoy more in collaborative work more.”

Time management questions

The interviewer can also ask you questions related to time management. Be ready to talk about a specific instance when you got a few things prioritized, scheduled, organized, and completed everything—preferably before the deadline.

3. Tell me about a time when you faced a challenge in your work but still managed to complete it within time.

Example: “Once I was working on a database project. While working on it, we had a complete system downtime for the entire company. So, we were a lot affected by it. Only in the rarest of cases, the cloud service provider was hit with a denial-of-service attack that forced the entire network site to shut down. We were completely offline for three hours. I worked with our IT team and the cloud service provider to minimize the impact on our users. Got all my facilities back and got the work completed within time.”

Communication questions

Communication skill is one such skill that a candidate uses in their daily life. So, plenty of stories must be there to elaborate. Just remember to talk about your thought process or preparation.

4. Tell me about a time when you had to rely on written communication to get your ideas across.

Example: “Once our company was organizing an event at a 5-star hotel in the town. In that event, I was responsible to check we had room accommodations and other emergency facilities for the 10 guests that we had invited. Everything was done hassle-free till I received an email from the hotel mentioning they had some issues for which they won’t be able to provide rooms on the mentioned dates. So, as soon as I got the mail, I did make a call to another hotel in town within close proximity, made the bookings confirmed for that day, and then informed all my colleagues about all these via email.”

Motivation and values questions

Many inquiries in interviews that seem unrelated actually attempt to find out more about your motivations. Even if the question didn’t specifically mention values or reasons, you should aim directly to mention it in your answer.

5. What Motivates You?

Example: " I have a great desire and enthusiasm to learn new things, and take on new responsibilities, no matter big/small. I am looking forward to growing as an employee and contributing more to my organization. While working as a team, I take interest in scheduling meetings, organizing workflows, etc.  So, working for my team and getting praised by my boss is what motivates me."

Problem Solving Questions

It is challenging to answer it, if interviewers inquire about your problem-solving abilities, especially if improv is not your strong suit. You should definitely be ready or you risk stumbling through a mediocre response. Even worse, you might have to remain silent.

6. Tell Me About a Challenge or Conflict You've Faced at Work. How did you deal with it?

Example: “While I was working as a software engineer, I was asked to lead a team of 10, because my senior was on leave. I noticed that one of my team members seemed too lazy to complete his task before the deadline. There was some conflict going on between him and other team members. It took some careful listening to understand the root cause of the problem and how it is creating conflict among the team members. So, I called a meeting and discussed with the team and explained how the conflict caused the company to cost its revenue. Eventually, the whole team understood and that particular member did finally learn his mistakes and started working on it.”

Leadership Questions

These questions may be more frequently asked of candidates for management or team leader jobs, while hiring managers may assess candidates for all positions based on their leadership qualities. You can impress hiring supervisors by having responses ready for a few straightforward behavioral questions about leadership.

7. Tell Me About a Time You showcased your Leadership Skills.

Example: “ In my opinion, a good leader showcases his ability to make judgments while also attending to others. he/she also should be ready to admit when you are wrong or correct. In my last role, my team and I gave a big presentation to a forthcoming client. I quickly divided the task among the people on my team, but the project was stalled for a few days. I quickly called the meeting to discuss the problem and it turned out that they were having issues with the roles assigned to them. So I switched the parts of a few people.

Meanwhile, the employee who was assigned to give the presentation had some problems with the PowerPoint file. So I created the files myself and sent him. They held a practice session to rehearse in a more comfortable environment. When the actual meeting happened, he nailed the entire thing and we secured ourselves a big client. I am thrilled, I took the time to understand everyone's concern so that I could re-evaluate my path and help my team be the most useful it could be.”