What Is Behavioral Interview Question? A Quick Guide

?Interviews are pivotal moments in a recruitment process. However, they are not only a test of a candidate’s skills but also of their temperament and behavior. This is where the behavioral interview question comes into play. While a CV may showcase that the candidate is talented, it doesn’t mean that they are equally good in pressure situations.

Behavioral interview questions are used in interviews. Here, the recruiters asked candidates to give examples of specific situations where they used their soft skills to overcome them. For example, Tell me about a time when you handled a project where someone made a critical mistake. 

So, why are behavioral interview questions asked, and what are their importance?

Importance of behavioral interview question

Why are the behavioral questions asked in an interview? This is the first question that comes to everyone’s mind. The reason is simple: at the end of the day, any CV will always contain the positive aspects of a candidate. However, how they behave in a specific situation tells a lot more about employees than a CV.

Behavioral questions analyze how an employee adapts to different situations. It is because not every day is the same, and a lot can go wrong in a workplace. And it is here that a candidate’s soft skills that might be totally unrelated to their work comes into play.

Since behavioral questions ask candidates to share real-life instances, they give recruiters a clear idea of their soft skills in addition to their usual work.

Also Read: What is Socioeconomic Bias? Steps to prevent it

Types of Behavioral Interview question

Hiring managers use behavioral interview questions to assess a candidate’s soft skills. Thus, various types of questions are used to identify a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses.

Teamwork questions 

One of the most common behavioral interview questions asked is how a candidate responds while working with the team. This type of question asks employees to share situations where they had to step up or go out of their way to solve a problem. Some examples of this type of question are:

• Describe a situation where you had to step up as a leader to fix a situation.
• What did you do when your juniors made a mistake in a critical project that, in the end, was not delivered before the deadline?
• Have you ever had to work with a colleague you didn’t like? What was your experience?
• Tell me about a time you made a mistake on a project. How did you handle it, and what did you learn from it?
• How did you work with an employee who was not as committed to the work as the entire team?

Also Read: Bias in Artificial Intelligence Examples and How to Address It

Communication questions 

Another main facet of a workplace is crisp and clear communication. More often than not, the main cause of delays in projects are mainly related to lack of clear communications. Having an employee who is supremely talented but not great at communication can cause serious bottlenecks at job.

Some examples of communication-related behavioral interview questions are as follows:

• Tell me about a time when you had to persuade your junior who wanted to leave the company.
• Was there a time when you had to convince an entire team to change their view and ascribe to yours on a project?
• Tell me about a time when you had to work with a client that was difficult to work with? How did you handle the situation?

Adaptability questions 

A great use case for asking behavioral interview questions is to test a candidate’s adaptability. As an employee, one must be ready to be highly flexible in order to ensure they are ready to counter various types of problems. Such questions help the company identify which employees can be great at handling change in the company should there be any in the future.

Examples of adaptability questions are:

• Tell me about a team when the company fired several of the workforce. How did you handle working at the company after these layoffs?
• Were you ever fired from a company? How did you improve yourself for future jobs after the incident?
• Did you ever have to work under a lot of stress for a long time at the company due to some specific project? How did you handle such a task along with work-life balance?

Also Read: What does BarRaiser do to curb bias via AI?

How to answer behavioral interview questions

Now that we have talked extensively about what behavioral interview questions are we must now focus on how to answer such questions. Since the focus of these questions is to identify soft skills, candidates should on;ly focus on providing the specific details that the interviewees has asked.

Explain examples in detail 

Whenever the recruiter asks a question, the candidate should describe the entire incident in detail. Providing details helps the interviewer to perfectly gauge on how they would act in real time if such a situation arose again.

Use the STAR Interview method 

The Star method is touted as one of the most effective ways to answer behavioral interview questions. This method uses a chronological order to answer a question. The order is as follows:

• Situation: The candidate has to describe what situation they found themselves in.
• Task: Then, the candidate should describe what task they had to achieve within certain deadlines.
• Action: Next, the candidate should describe what measures and remedies they took to solve this crisis.
• Result: Finally, the candidate should share the results of the task and the contributions he made.

This method also uses real incidents, making it one of the best ways to handle behavioral questions.

Also Read: What is Star Method Interview Technique? Quick Guide

Do not hesitate to describe negative experience

As mentioned earlier, behavioral interview questions can also ask about negative experiences. It is here that the candidate should not hide details of the incident. In fact, the strategy here should be to describe how they failed in a task but took lessons from it to improve themselves. Recruiters also understand that mistakes can happen in the workplace. However, it is more important how that employee reacts to failure, which shows their temperament.

BarRaiser is the best AI interview platform that features structured interviews, AI-generated interview notes, interviewer training, and tools to ensure quality hiring while eliminating biases from the recruitment process. With BarRaiser’s support, you’ll be well-equipped to build a strong team of sales associates who will drive sales and deliver exceptional customer service.