Behavioral Interview Questions
Behavioral interviews are also known as situational interviews since they generally evaluate a candidate's reaction to a particular situation. Behavioral interview questions lead you to narrate a past experience and your contribution to the situation. You may be also given a hypothetical problem and asked to resolve it.
There is a huge list of questions that can be asked during the interview, and each question has a unique answer to it. The behavioral questions that are asked are usually customized according to the job profile. Hence, it is necessary to study the job profile carefully and then have an idea about the questions that may be posed to you.
Situational questions can be widely categorized into three sections - Questions related to past experiences, work integrity and questions to test problem solving skills. Following are the common behavioral interview questions that can be expected.
Common Behavioral Interview Questions :
Behavioral Questions relating to past experience
- Describe an incident in your previous company where you had to work towards an unrealistic target.
- Tell me about a situations where you had to handle unsatisfied customers.
- Describe a situation where you had to convince your ideas to the seniors. What was the outcome?
- Have you experienced a situation when you had to compromise on your principles? How did you exactly deal with it?
- What is the most challenging situation that you have confronted?
- Tell me about the time when you had to make a on the spot decision. What was the result?
- Have you been able to effectively execute your seniors' instructions? If not, what were the reasons?
- Give me an example of your role as an efficient manager.
- Describe a situation where your analytical abilities helped your team to overcome a difficulty.
- Describe an incident that illustrates your leadership qualities.
Behavioral Questions that test problem solving abilities
- How would you pacify an angry customer?
- How would you deal with a non-co-operative colleague?
- Suppose, if you are given an impossible deadline to complete a project, then how would you deal with such a situation?
- How do you approach a problem? Do you follow certain steps to resolve a problem? What are they?
- What steps would you take to improve the productivity of your subordinates?
- What difficulties can one encounter while working in a team? What can you do to solve these difficulties?
- How would you confront unfavorable management decisions?
Behavioral Questions relating to work integrity
- How willing are you to work for a given deadline?
- Describe how you plan your day. Do you make a schedule? How good are you at following your plans?
- How do you develop a team's common goal?
- As a leader, what steps do you take to motivate your team for better performance?
- Describe a situation where you had to put in extra efforts to complete the work at hand.
The best way to answer these questions is to review your past performances thoroughly and to choose the right situation that caters to your new job profile. There cannot be a right or a wrong answer to behavior based questions. With ever answer you have to justify your role and convince the interviewer of your approach to a situation.
