Behavioral interview questions

What are behavioral interview questions?

Most often we come across these categories of questions in a job interview. Here  I am providing a  summary of what these questions are all about, how to answer them and some sample questions along with sample answers.

How to identify if the question being asked is a behavioral interview question

If the question starts with something like below, it's highly likely to be a behavioral question

"Give me an example of ....."
"Have you ever..."
"Describe a time when..."
"Have you had to.."
"What do you do if you.."

Methods  for answering behavioral interview questions

The STAR technique

STAR stands for SITUATION  TASK ACTION  and  RESULT

Situation/Task  -  Explain the event or task that you encountered.

Action -  Explain what steps you undertook

Result - Describe the outcome that you delivered

The CAR  technique

This method is similar to the STAR method except that here you provide a CONTEXT, ACTION, and RESULT

Context -  Explain the situation and the background

Action - Describe what measure of steps you took

Result- Describe the outcome  you achieved

Pointers to  answering behavioral interview questions effectively

Due diligence -  Find out what skills and behaviors the employer is looking for, and find answers for possible questions including well-known questions that you will definitely get in an interview. If possible, prepare answers from your own previous experience. If there are questions beyond your experience, make sure you have a story ready. Remember, the expectation here is to demonstrate how you handled those situations.

Practice - answering the questions using STAR or CAR method out loud in advance for those questions you identified. Make sure that while telling your story, you stay on point. Better if you have someone to listen to your answers and provide corrections.