Operational Behavioral Based Interview Questions & Answers:

1. What is Behavioral Interview?

A job interviewing technique whereby the applicant is asked to describe past behavior in order to determine whether she is suitable for a position. For example, an interviewer may ask "Tell me about a time when you dealt with a disruptive customer". Responses are expected to give an indication of an applicant's professional conduct.

2. Behavior based interview tips part 5:

☛ Match your answers to the question completely in order to score numerical full points.
☛ Rambling is a no-no and canned responses are out! Stay focused and exceed the interviewer's expectations.
☛ Remember, ABC interviews are carried out in a consistent and systematic fashion for all the candidates.
☛ Prove that you are capable of meeting and possibly exceeding their expectations.
☛ Expect the interviewer's questions to be short and non-leading. Be accomplishment oriented in your responses.
☛ Remember, Gov. has been shown to distinguish an outstanding from average performer.
☛ Ask yourself if the core competencies they are seeking are the ones that you want to use in your next job.
☛ Ask open-end questions that prompt more than a yes/no answer when it's appropriate.
☛ Set up a video-taped Mock Interview with a trained Career Counselor to enhance your Gov. skills.
☛ Remember, it is hard to fake the "right" answers so Practice, Practice, Practice!

3. Behavior based interview tips part 4:

☛ Remember, follow-up questions can include: "So what did you do?" and "What happened next?"
☛ Act as if you were digging a well at key interactions or decision points to provide evidence of competencies.
☛ Be prepared to discuss failures and what you learned from them.
☛ Be sure the result reflects positively on you even if the result itself was not positive.
☛ Be honest. Your stories have to be true and authentic. Skilled interviewers can see through a weak foundation.
☛ Master the art of storytelling and make your impression to the recruiter is a positive, clear and a memorable one.
☛ Absorb yourself in telling the story, don't just relate the facts. Put some enthusiasm in it.
☛ Go beyond merely describing the situation/task and talk about the outcomes.
☛ Demonstrate that you are thorough and you understand how your role fits into the goals of the larger organization.
☛ Expect that the interviewer will be listening intently and taking notes during the process.

4. Behavioral-based interview tips part 3:

☛ Remember, the four probes: "What did you think?" "What did you feel?" "What did you say?" and "What did you do?"
☛ Answer how you did behave instead of how you would or should behave (traditional interview approach) in a situation.
☛ Avoid saying, "What we did" and instead tell them, "What I did" The interviewer wants you to say "I" a lot.
☛ Steer clear of saying, "What I would do..", but recall "What I did"
☛ Expect to talk about 80 percent of the time during the interview and persuade them why they should hire you.
☛ Remember that ABC reduces the risk that the interviewer will talk too much and dominate the conversation.
☛ Remember, these are situational questions that are open-ended, non-directional and concrete.
☛ Share a clear memory of the situation so interviewer feels as if they were present at the time the event actually happened.
☛ Use of examples will make you confident in your responses because you will feel like you are reliving it from direct experience.
☛ Anticipate the interviewer probing further after the initial question to gain more in-depth information.

5. Behavioral-based interview tips part 2:

☛ Focus on the key competencies that are important to the interviewer, not what you feel is important.
☛ Pause for a nanosecond and think carefully and choose wisely the story you will use to make your point.
☛ Answer using the S.T.A.R. Technique (Situation/Task, Action, Result).
☛ Give them a brief overview of the specific situation/task, what action you took specifically and the end result.
☛ Describe in detail the actions you took to deal with the situation or to complete the task.
☛ Be sure the story has a beginning middle and a clear end. Tell your story chronologically.
☛ Provide practical examples, events and challenges from your recent past.
☛ Say stories that are important to you.
☛ Avoid being too general.
☛ State stories that have a degree of drama where you had to overcome an obstacle or temporary setback.

6. Behavioral-based interview tips part 1:

☛ Ask in advance what the format and length of the interview will be as well as with whom you will be interviewing.
☛ Research the key competencies that the job and employer requires prior to the actual interview.
☛ Review your resume and develop a list of specific examples that demonstrate you have the core competencies they seek.
☛ Prepare short descriptions of each situation/task.
☛ Assume the interview will be a highly structured and formal process. This is a Competency-Based Model.
☛ Listen carefully to the interviewer explain and then let him/her guide you through the process.
☛ Remember the interview is decided in the first two minutes; the rest of the time they gather support for their conclusions.
☛ Expect to spend several minutes devoted to a particular situation and to proceed from general to more specific questions.
☛ Remember, CBI is designed to minimize the subjective component in favor of and concrete examples of competencies.
☛ Listen to the question carefully and ask for clarification if necessary. Be sure you answer the question completely.

7. Behavioral Structure and organization interview questions part 13:

☛ How do you prepare your week?
☛ Tell us about how your organization has helped your career?
☛ Give an example of when you had to re-arrange your schedule completely?
☛ What is given top priority in your job and why?

8. Behavioral Teamwork interview questions part 12:

☛ How have you helped your manager to inspire positive vibes in your team?
☛ Tell us about when you had to deal with conflict within your team and how you helped to resolve it?
☛ Tell us how you went about promoting both morale and work ethic in the teams you have been in?
☛ Give an example of when you have helped a team member that is was under-performing?

9. Behavior based motivational interview questions part 11:

☛ Tell us about when you went above and beyond the call of duty and what the results were?
☛ Give an example of when you lifted the spirits of others and get them to accomplish more than expected?
☛ How do you keep going for a goal when others give up, give a specific example?

10. Behavior based flexibility interview questions part 10:

☛ Tell us about when you had to change your methods to reach a goal?
☛ Give an example of when you had to do something completely new and what approach you employed?
☛ How have you coped with changes in management?
☛ Tell us about a project that failed due to changed circumstances and what it has taught you?