Behavioral Interview Questions

Get our easy-to-download behavioral interview questions template to enhance the quality of the interview process.

Interviews have always been an important part of the hiring process. Here you get to verify the information a candidate states in their resume as well as get to know them beyond what that piece of paper said. The hiring managers should conduct a behavioral interview to make sure that the candidate possesses other skills to thrive in their role other than technical knowledge and experience.

Behavioral interview questions and answers give clarity about the experiences the candidate has. This helps you to understand their capability based on how they reacted in the situations. For many people, it is easy to come up with impressive soft skills and qualities to increase the weightage of their resume. But it is difficult to come up with a story if they are being asked about a time when they actually faced a similar situation and what their response was. Here it also becomes easy for the hiring manager to identify the fraudsters.

Common behavioral interview questions are aimed at identifying the values or character traits that the person possesses. Finding a candidate with the right qualifications and the right skill set is important, but we know that is not enough. The hiring manager needs to know that the candidate can work efficiently in the company culture so there won’t be conflicts and hurdles because their values are not aligned with the values of the organization. Behavioral questions make it easy to talk about and understand the qualities the interviewers want to know about, such as self-reliance, self-awareness, and growth mindset.

The STAR Method

When it comes to how to answer common behavioral interview questions or what can be considered near-ideal answers to interview questions, the STAR method is the right solution. It has four components, as described below.

Situation

Describe a situation where the concerned event happened

Task

The task needed to be completed to resolve the issue

Action

Actions to complete the aforementioned task

Result

Details about the effect the action has on the situation.

There are different skills and qualities necessary to do a job. Here are behavioral interview questions for some specific roles that employees need to play.

In the Role of a Manager

When it comes to hiring a manager, it is crucial to make sure that they possess the qualities of a good leader. They say that the team is as good as their managers, and we all know that an organization is made up of these teams. So to get productivity and achieve organizational goals, make sure that the behavioral questions you ask to give you the necessary insight into the personality.

1. Tell me about the time when you were working on a project, and you saw a total lack of coordination in the team. How did you handle that?
2. Talk about a time when you had to face challenges to gain the confidence of your employees as a leader. Were you successful? If so, what do you think were the reasons for the change in perspective?
3. Tell me about a time you needed to put in extra effort to make your team more efficient?
4. Give me an example of when you had to go through the phase where your sales were constantly dropping and if you were able to motivate your team to improve the situation?
5. Describe a time when you had to pair totally different personalities in a team, and how did you manage to make them work as a team in a real sense?

A customer-facing Job

When it comes to a job role where employees need to interact with customers on a daily basis, you need to be extra careful with the selection. When employees are dealing with customers, they are representing your brand image. Ask behavioral questions to identify the soft skills they need in their role. Frame a behavioral interview question targeting skills like listening or dealing with conflict to get to know precisely if they are the right candidate for your company.

1. Give me an example of a time when you had to deal with a customer who was very upset and how you were able to retain them?
2. Give me an example of how you handled bad reviews on the internet. What did you do to make this customer change their mind?
3. How do you handle people who always find a reason to complain when you have already delivered the promised goods & services and manage to stay calm while catering to their demands.
4. Describe a time when you put extra effort into helping a customer?
5. Give me an example of a time when you failed to deliver promised service and how did you handle that situation.

Communication Skills

Communication is a need of the time we are living in. Communication is an important skill for a lot of situations to be handled in a better way. For a job that involves interacting with a lot of customers or that requires constant coordination with the team members, you can count on communication skills. The interviewer must ask some behavioral questions to the candidate that are targeted at communication. The interviewer can also observe the body language of the candidate and get an idea of their non-verbal giving of the narrative as their words.

1. Tell me about a time you were required to make written communication the only means of interaction for a project?
2. Tell me about a situation where you convinced someone to put extra effort into a task that was your responsibility.
3. Describe a time when you, as a technical expert, had to explain the software to a client who had no idea about the type of technology you work on?
4. Tell me about a time when you were giving a presentation and impressed everyone in the room with it?