Imagine that you’ve just walked into an interview room, and the interviewer starts asking you multiple questions related to the job role. You can answer all questions successfully initially, like ‘’Tell me about yourself’’ and ‘’What are your skills?” Then, suddenly, the interviewer asks you, ‘’Tell me about a time…’’ This is an unexpected situation, and you realise you’re fumbling for the right words.
Some questions that you may be asked in a job interview may be behavioural interview questions. These interview questions ask candidates to share specific instances describing how they used certain skills to solve business problems or deal with particular scenarios.
To answer behavioural interview questions appropriately, you must be familiar with the STAR method of interviewing. This method of interviewing can help you prepare specific answers to behavioural questions.
We’ve discussed the STAR method of interviewing in detail in this blog post. Read on to learn more about it.
What is the STAR method of interviewing?
Whenever you appear for a job interview, the questions that the interviewer asks may not be limited to the skills and qualifications you possess. Instead, the interviewer may ask these questions to check how you approach or respond to certain situations at the workplace and analyze if you follow the right approach to solving business problems. These questions are open-ended and help provide insights into a candidate’s personality and behavior.
- S-Situation
Situation refers to the specific situation or challenge that the candidate came across during his professional experience. For example, a digital marketing executive may say, ‘’During my last job, I came across a challenging situation where the sales from traditional sales channels were plummeting.’’
- T-Task
Task refers to the specific tasks or responsibilities the candidate had to complete while working at the organisation, in order to respond to that situation. For example, the digital marketing executive may say, “Due to the plummeting sales, I was given the task to increase business/sales through digital marketing activities.’’
- A-Action
Action refers to the specific actions taken or execution done to complete such tasks assigned to you within the organisation. For example, the above digital marketing candidate may state, “I took the action of running strategic Facebook and Google advertising campaigns to increase the number of relevant business leads for the company.”
- R-Result
Results refer to the specific results or metrics that the candidate generated as result of the action taken to fulfill the tasks assigned to them within the organisation. For instance, the digital marketing candidate may say, ‘’I was able to increase the leads by 125% over one business quarter through the actions performed.”
Examples of behavioural questions interviewers may ask
Here are some examples of behavioural interview questions. Candidates can use the STAR method while answering these interview questions.
- What is the most difficult challenge you’ve ever faced? And how did you overcome it?
- What are your weaknesses? And how are you working to improve them?
- Talk about a time when you failed, and what did you learn from that experience?
- If you were in a situation where you had to make a difficult decision, how would you make that decision?
- Discuss a time when you had to collaborate with people in other company departments to perform a goal. What goal did you achieve? How was your experience?
Conclusion
We hope you now have a better understanding of behavioral interview questions and examples of the STAR method of interviewing. By practicing how to answer behavioural interview questions before the actual interview, you’ll be able to face and answer such questions in a better way. Preparation can go a long way in helping you succeed in your job interview and helping you obtain the job role you seek.
TALOP is a recruitment agency in New Delhi helping firms attract and hire the right candidates for open job vacancies. If you wish to know more about the services offered by TALOP, head over to this page.
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