How To Answer Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions are questions that require you to draw on your direct experiences in the workplace in order to come up with an answer.

Employers ask questions like these to see whether you possess the necessary skills to handle the job you are interviewing for.

A good example of a behavioral interview question would be “Describe a time when you had to interact with a difficult client. What was the situation, and how did you handle it?”

How you answer these questions usually has an impact on whether you get the job or not so, it is very important that you ensure you are well prepared when it comes to answering these questions in an interview.

Behavioral questions are among the commonly asked when you are interviewing for a position in a big company or an NGO.

Tips for Answering Behavioral Interview Questions

1. Prepare ahead of time
A good way to ensure you are able to tackle behavioral interview questions is by practicing ahead of time.
First, you need to go through the job description and see what skills the employer needs in the person they want to hire. Then you need to come up with scenarios you could use as examples to show you possess these skills.
You should look at your past experiences and achievements as this is what will help you come up with good examples to give.
You can also look at sample questions you might be asked and try to come up with answers to them. This way you will not be caught unawares during the interview.
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2. Take your time
Because your answer is basically a story, you need to deliver it in a calm and collected manner.Behavioral questions are meant to test your personality and behavior when it comes down to handling the tasks at hand in a workplace.

Therefore, before you answer the question in this type of interview, you need to take a few seconds to gather your thoughts so that your answer is clear and concise.

3. Keep your answers positive
Even if you are describing a negative situation, it is important that you end it on a positive note. This means that you should never use an example that does not show you can do the job well.

Every example you give in a behavioral based job interview should show that you are a capable employee and that you were able to handle a difficult situation.

Steps To Answering Behavioral Interview Questions
When it comes to answering behavioral job interview questions, there are certain steps you need to follow;

1. Describe the situation
The employer wants to know how you would handle certain situations so you need to have an example of a scenario in mind that would help you demonstrate your skills.
Keep in mind that the situation has to be relevant to the position and has to be something that happened.

2. Describe the problem
The next thing you need to do is to describe the task or problem you faced that you needed to try and solve

3. Describe the action
What did you do to tackle the said problem?

4. Describe the result
You should end your answer by stating what impact the actions you took had and if you were able to resolve the problem. The trick is to focus on how what you did had a positive impact on the situation as well as show that you have the skills required to excel at the job.

In the end,
Behavioral interview questions just like any other type of interview questions need proper preparation if you want to land the job.
Use the achievements you wrote in your CV that convinced the employer to meet you to prove your capability to handle the job well.If you do not feel very confident about doing well in the interview, you can always seek help through a one on one interview coaching session