Many people dread behavioural interviews, and struggle to provide strong answers.

This article provides interview skills help by explaining what interviewers are looking for during behavioural interviews, how to provide stand-out STAR based interview examples, and how to answer behavioural questions which ask what you would do in a hypothetical situation.

What are behavioural interviews

Behavioural interviews look at how you think, act and approach your work by examining your behaviour in situations connected to the role. Companies may assess behaviours based on the company’s core-values, or the main skills or core-competencies required for the role. Interview questions often ask for examples from the past because it has been scientifically proven that your past behaviour accurately predicts your future behaviour.

What do behavioural interview questions look like?

Behavioural interview questions may ask for specific examples from the past, or they may ask you what you would do in a situation related to the role.

Examples of behavioural interview questions asking for past examples, which should be answered using the STAR technique.

• Describe a situation in which you successfully built a collaborative relationship with internal stakeholders. How did you go about this? What was the benefit for you both?
• Tell me how you have developed a strong working relationship with a client (or colleague) you have worked with? What did you do? What was the outcome?
• Please give me a specific example of how you have inspired teams to increase performance, what did you do and what was the outcome

These questions are very similar to competency-based questions, and assess how a candidate might perform in future situations based on their previous behaviour. Many people use the terms behavioural interview and competency-based interview interchangeably. These questions are extremely useful for experienced professionals and managers, but are impossible for candidates to answer if they have never completed a particular task before.

Alternatively, behavioural interview questions may ask what you would do in a situation related to the role. These types of questions are known as situational or hypothetical interview questions. The company creates a hypothetical situation and asks you what you would do if this situation occurred. The situation is always directly related to the role.

• What would you do, if a crucial member of your project team went off work sick a few days before you were due to deliver a high-profile client project? (for a project manager)
• What would you say to an extremely rude customer who had called you to complain about one of our products? (for customer service)
• Outline your approach for communicating and implementing a new strategy company-wide? (for a director)
• What would you do if one of your team was doing the absolute bare minimum? (for a supervisor/manager)

These questions require you to outline what you would do if this situation occurred. You cannot use the STAR technique to answer these questions because they only require the action, there is no situation or result because your answer is not based on a specific event

Asking a candidate what they would do in a future situation is very useful when candidates may not have had experience in every area of the role. Asking a potential supervisor or manager how they would handle an underperforming team member, or communicate and implement a new strategy, provides an insight into their approach, whereas they would be unable to provide a specific example.

How to answer questions which ask for a specific example

Always choose your best examples, so you come across as an extremely high achiever. These may include your biggest achievements, performing above the level expected in your role, making a large impact to metrics such as revenue, sales or customer satisfaction, managing high profile projects, introducing new processes which have been rolled out across the company or receiving recognition such as winning an award.

Ensure your answer refers to a specific event which occurred in the past. Many people have a tendency to say what they usually do, wish they had done, or would do in the future, however this doesn’t provide the evidence the interviewer is looking for, which will severely limit your interview score.

What is the STAR interview technique?

The STAR technique is a way of structuring your interview answers to ensure you provide a full answer. The STAR technique is a storytelling technique which helps you to structure and communicate your example clearly and concisely, providing the information required with little or no prompting.

STAR is an acronym which stands for Situation and/or Task, Action and Result which are the essential parts of every story.

Situation or Task

The situation or task briefly outlines the issue, providing the context required for the interviewer to understand why you acted in the way you did. You may not always have both a situation and a task, either is fine. It typically includes details like who, what, where, why, when. It is typically two or three sentences long and needs to be tailored to your interviewer. An internal interviewer may understand the aims and objectives of a particular project, however the name of the project will mean nothing to an interviewer at another company, instead they need you to explain this was a process improvement project, rather than simply naming the project.

A good opening is “Whilst working at…” “In my current role at…” “Last week…”

Action

The action outlines how you resolved the issue you explained in the situation or task. Depending on the question, it may include details like what you did and what you said. This section will form the majority of your answer.

Result

The result is the most important part of your answer because it shows what you achieved. The best answers will demonstrate that your actions made a substantial impact and provide metrics to back this up. It concludes everything you mentioned in the action, and outlines the wider impact for your customers, the business, your colleagues and yourself. This is typically a few sentences long.

Your answer should be clear and concise, typically lasting two or three minutes, let the recruiter prompt you if they would like additional information. Anything which doesn’t fit into one of these areas is irrelevant.

Some companies ask you to provide a reflection, which is a brief summary of what you learned and how you will use this knowledge going forwards.

You may also find it helpful to read some of the other articles in this section for further interview skills help, including advice on improving your interview skills.

Do you need professional assistance in improving your interview skills? I provide interview skills help via interview skills coaching sessions where I can teach you how to stand-out in competency based interviews, by choosing your best examples and teaching you how to deliver your answers as effectively as possible. Please don’t hesitate to contact me.