Behavioral-Based Interview Questions — Part 1

One of the very common interview types is behavior based. Sometimes it accompanies the technical interviews, sometimes the whole interview is conducted in this manner. The interviewers listen for specific examples of how you’ve performed in the past with the competencies they are focusing on.

In this article, I’d like to share some examples of the questions that you might get in those interviews under some core competencies. Some of the questions have a “negative tone” that might throw you off, but essentially the interviewer is trying to assess the same competency. Stay tuned for Part 2 for more!

Assess Decision Making Skills

The interviewer tries to assess if the candidate can objectively gathers information, by differentiating what‘s relevant and what isn’t. Taking into account the ‘80–20 rule’, being able to recognize when the solution will suffice and the ability to make decisions based on incomplete information. The interviewer is looking in the answer if you can decide with a mixture of experience and judgment, using appropriate decision making criteria (such as gathering information, identifying and evaluating alternatives). The negatives to avoid in the answers are to be overly confident, overly methodical that might create a slowdown, yes/no type answers and strong desire to be “perfect…