Behavioral Interview Questions

The term behavioral interviewing grows out of the belief that learning about a person involves more than the ‘who-what-when-where-why-how’ types of questions. These question are very important for providing information about a person’s experience, but behavioral interview questions attempt to provide insight into how a person responds in different circumstances. It is based on the premise that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. If you can get an applicant to tell you a story about how they reacted to a situation in the past, you can reasonably predict how they might respond in a situation with your organization.

Once you ask one of the questions below, take the time to ask follow up questions to get at the motivation and feelings behind the answer. Using the types of sample questions below, you may want to frame similar questions targeting a specific experience in the person’s background.

Start with the question addressing the situation or action; then let the person describe the specific action that they took; follow up by asking what the results of that action were and whether or not a change occurred, and would they have handled it differently again. Example: “What did you do? How did it work out? What were the results? What did you learn? What would you do differently?” This allows you to gauge how the person might react in a similar situation working with your organization.

Inquiries about problem-solving  Tell me about a goal you set for yourself in the past and how you went about achieving it. And how successful you were in accomplishing it.  Give me an example of how you dealt with a person with whom you had a challenging relationship.  Tell me about a major obstacle that you have addressed and overcome.  Describe a circumstance where you made a bad decision.

Inquiries about situational circumstances  Describe how you dealt with a project that was boring or uninteresting to you.  Describe a time when you were faced with a task that you felt unequipped to handle.  Tell me about how you like to be supervised. Describe a supervisor with whom you had a particularly successful relationship. What made it work well?

Inquiries about experience  What is your first memory of volunteering? What did you learn from that experience? How did that affect your view of volunteering afterwards?  Tell me about your experience working with people with far less experience than yourself.  Give me an example of a project where you were responsible for breaking it down into smaller tasks.

Inquiries about skills  Tell me about a time when your skills were put to very good use.  Explain what skills you would like to share in a pro bono project.

Created by ABS Consulting