Behavioral Interview Answers

Related Pages job interview tip answer to secretarial interviews behavioral interviewing guide behavioral interview answers job interview question and answer employment second interview questions second job interview culture fit interview questions corporate culture job interview effective interview thank you letters thank you letter after interview sample interview thank you letter

Behavioral interview answers are answers to questions asked on a behavior-based interviewing. In a behavioral interview, an interviewer will ask you about a situation or a problem in the past and what your reactions were.

Since human behavior is so repetitive, interviewers will be able to predict how you'll perform in the future from how you handled the situation -- instead of what you might do. With behavioral interview questions, you'll tend to deliver honest answers.

But in a conventional job interview question and answer you'll polish your answers since you have expected this popular question. "Why should I hire you?"

The pressure for a candidate to deliver from day one has forced recruiters to base their hiring decisions on contribution immediacy. Hiring managers are increasingly attracted to behavior-based interviews because of its accuracy in predicting whether you'll deliver from day one or not.

Now, what about possible behavioral interview questions and their behavioral interview answers sample for the questions? Here's the guide.

Back To Top Page

Sample of Behavioral Interview Answers

As with your challenge stories construction you may answers behavioral interview with SAR technique. S is Situation or Problem, A is Action and R is Results. So, you describe the situation or problem you faced and the action you took to solve the problem. And finally you tell the results of your action.

The following simple conversation is an example of behavioral interviewing questions and answers for career changers from teaching to sales. The focus of the behavior-based interview sample is to highlight relevant transferable skills for a sales profession.

Q: Describe a time when you were challenged?
A: Yes. It was about three months ago when I had to handled a new, difficult student.

Q: What were the situations?
A: I blew up at a student for refusing to read a short conversation. It was very simple stuff, and I knew he was more than able to do it. Everyone else in the class had at least given it a try, but he stubbornly refused.

At first I was frustrated but once calmed down I just ignored him. I knew the fact that the students were here because mommy and daddy were sending them. So if one of them didn't want to do it, I just moved on to the next student.

Q: What challenge did you feel?
A: First, I'd been only 5 months in the country. And although I'd been more than 4 years in teaching profession I had to admit that I wasn't good with kids.

Q: How did you cope with the pressure?
A: I turned the pressure into personal challenge. Despite the weakness, I determined to learn everything from other teachers, books and seminars. My goal was to satisfy parents and students as my ultimate clients.

Q: Good point. How did you solve the problem?
A: I taught a lesson, tried to get them to repeat it, and then proceeded to the lesson's workbook. The only thing they would do is a page in the workbook for a sticker. Then we played an agreed game.

Q: What was the outcome?
A: To my amazement, they started using English while we were playing the game. Something they had always refused to do before.

The problem faced by the English teacher may be too simple for a real behavioral interview answers. But you get the idea on how she showed the interviewer that she managed to handle the difficult student -- a skill that can be transferable to handle a difficult customer.



Back To Top Page