What are Behavior Based Interview Questions?
Answer
An Interviewer will ask questions about how you have handled situations at work. If you have had a similar job, school experience or volunteer experience before, you will need to answer based on what you did in that situation. You need to describe your behavior using a format with a beginning, middle and dynamic ending.
To prepare for the interview you should
- Think of your skills
- Think about your experiences
- Anticipate target questions
- Relate you skills and experiences to what is needed for the job you want
- Learn something about the company and the job
Use an outline format to help keep you on track.
What is the Star? It stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result. Your answers should convey a story about you. You could also use CAR – Challenge, Action, Results. Another one is PAR – Problem, Action, Resolution. And finally SMART – Situation and More, Action, Results, Tie- in and Theme.
Situation or Task
- Describe what led up to that.
- Could you give me a specific situation in which you used that approach?
- What was the most memorable time when that happened?
- What caused you to ….?
- Why did you …..?
- What were the circumstances surrounding …..?
- Who was that customer / co-worker / team member?
- What were you reacting to?
Action
- Exactly what did you do?
- How were your actions different here from ….?
- How did you react?
- Describe specifically how you did that.
- What was your part of the project and how did you handle it?
- Walk me through the steps you took…..
- What did you say to him?
- What did you do first…..second….?
Result
- How did it work out?
- How did that affect……?
- How were these outcomes directly related to what you did?
- What problems / successes resulted from ….?
- How did you know that what you did was effective?
