Any tips or secrets for passing behavioural interview questions?

Spender£

I have an interview coming up for a job role nearer to where i live but i had one of these behavioural interviews before and made a complete mess of it.

The Job Spec has the following as essential criteria.

Able to provide safe caring environment
Commitment to creating an inclusive and diverse workplace
Keyboard Skills
Good Organisational Skills
Able to deal with steady workflow and sudden influx of work
Work as part of a team
Work on own initiative
Excellent communication written and oral etc

The desirable criteria is Driving License, Assertive and proficient in use of Oasis software.

I heard you can work out what question might come up based on the Job Spec but when i enter the interview room i just get tongue tied, dry mouth and find it hard to think of examples.

Anybody have any tips for this style of interview.

DullGreyGuy

Whilst a competency/behavioural interview is supposed to use past experience rather than theoretical scenarios at the end of the day the interviewer will have no idea if the "give me an example of when you have dealt with a difficult colleague" is real or fictitious.

Remember the STAR approach to responding... explain the Situation, say what the Task was, how did you Approach it/ what Actions did you take and what the Result was... if you want to be really gold star then you add an extra bit of either what you learnt or what you'd do different. 


You really need to know more of what the job is to be able to second guess what the questions will be based on the criteria. How you deal with a sudden influx of work is different if you are a call centre agent to an accountant to the manager of a call centre. 

gwynlas

You have not said what the job role is or at what level within the structure of the orgamisation. The scope of a receptionist to influence the organisation would be different to that of a team leadder for example

Brie

I always look at a set of questions that might be used and then right out a couple of answers to each.  And I take that in to the interview with me - there's always at least 1 question that I go blank on or which I have the perfect answer but have used that scenario already in the interview.  I've been known to say something that fills in what might be dead air with something like "hold on!  I know I've done something that will answer that!! Let me check my notes!!!" The hope with this is that I don't just splutter and that I do look very prepared.  

Andy_L

Stick the phrase

"Can you give me an example of a time you...”

In front of the competences and then expect follow up questions to tease out details/see if you're spinning them a yarn

zedonk

I've had a couple of these interviews recently (civil service) and I prepared specific examples of ways I meet the criteria, using the STAR format. Then I wrote down some brief bullet points for each one and brought them along to the interview in case my mind went blank. It worked for me and I start my new job on Monday. 🙂 Good luck! 

SadieO

Andy_L said:

Stick the phrase

"Can you give me an example of a time you...”

In front of the competences and then expect follow up questions to tease out details/see if you're spinning them a yarn

Perfect advice! 

Do you have a family member or friend who would be willing to do a mock interview with you, so you can practice saying your scenarios out loud and they can try and anticipate what the interviewers' follow up questions might be?

Congrats @zedonk and good luck for next week!

Spender£

zedonk said:

I've had a couple of these interviews recently (civil service) and I prepared specific examples of ways I meet the criteria, using the STAR format. Then I wrote down some brief bullet points for each one and brought them along to the interview in case my mind went blank. It worked for me and I start my new job on Monday. 🙂 Good luck! 

Thanks and congrats on your new role!

Spender£

Brie said:

I always look at a set of questions that might be used and then right out a couple of answers to each.  And I take that in to the interview with me - there's always at least 1 question that I go blank on or which I have the perfect answer but have used that scenario already in the interview.  I've been known to say something that fills in what might be dead air with something like "hold on!  I know I've done something that will answer that!! Let me check my notes!!!" The hope with this is that I don't just splutter and that I do look very prepared.  

Thanks for the input i had that exact situation of dead air before and i will try this tactic.

Spender£

Andy_L said:

Stick the phrase

"Can you give me an example of a time you...”

In front of the competences and then expect follow up questions to tease out details/see if you're spinning them a yarn

That makes a lot of sense i wondered why they kept asking more and more follow up questions in the past.

DullGreyGuy

Spender£ said:

Andy_L said:

Stick the phrase

"Can you give me an example of a time you...”

In front of the competences and then expect follow up questions to tease out details/see if you're spinning them a yarn

That makes a lot of sense i wondered why they kept asking more and more follow up questions in the past.

Either because you haven't followed the STAR approach, they were hoping to hear something specific that you didnt mention or you missed the point of the question/answer to brief.

Did once ask someone for an example of dealing with a difficult colleague. The candidates answer was almost word for word... "yeah, worked with a guy called Bob, he was a bit of a nob so took him down the pub one lunch and we got on better after that". The idea of creating a social situation to connect on a more personal level really isn't a bad one but really would have preferred to know what the challenges were, what they'd done before the pub etc. 

 What a good answer looks like naturally varies by your grade and inevitably therefore the range of options open to you.