<p>HOW TO ANSWER BEHAVIOURAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS</p><p>Employers want students to give real life examples that best illustrate the competencies that they require for a position. These competencies or “soft skills” are based on employability traits such as teamwork, leadership, initiative, self-confidence, innovations, customer service, problem solving, flexibility, analytical thinking, planning, and so on. The best way to answer a behavioural question is to remember “SAR” which stands for:</p><p>S - SITUATION (tell them circumstances, what it was about) A - ACTION (what you did, how you did it) R - RESULTS (what the outcome was, impact, reactions)</p><p>If the recruiter does not feel that they are getting the right “trait”, they may possibly probe until they do.</p><p>SOME EXAMPLES OF BEHAVIOURAL QUESTIONS ARE:</p><p>Teamwork: Tell me about a time when you worked as a member of a team and how you were specifically able to contribute to a project’s success? What was your role? Was the team project successful?</p><p>Initiative: Describe a time when you took initiative—that is, something that you were not expected to do or asked to do by your boss/teacher. What did you do? How did you do it? How did your boss/ teacher react?</p><p>Communication: We all have to work with people, bosses, co-workers, or customers—who are difficult. Would you describe for me one of the most difficult people or situations you’ve had to deal with and specifically, how you handled that person or situation.</p><p>Problem solving: Describe a time when you took action to solve a problem. How did you go about it?</p><p>Goal setting: Describe a time when you set a goal or standard for yourself that was clearly going to be a challenge. How did you set that goal and what were the results?</p><p>Planning and implementing: Tell me about a time when it was challenging for you to ensure that information you were assembling was correct. What steps did you take to ensure accuracy?</p><p>Customer service: Tell me about a time when your efforts to help a customer had exceeded their expectations. What did you do and how did you do it? HOW TO PREPARE FOR BEHAVIOURAL INTERVIEWS</p><p>Take a job description like the sample below. Highlight the “employability” or soft skills.</p><p>Example:</p><p>Qualifications: experience, training in local, wide-area data network communication, client, server computing mission-critical application solutions, set-up, configuration, installation, procedures, supporting wide range of desk top systems, peripherals including operating systems, application software, diagnostic, anti-virus, recovery procedures, network, knowledge of systems developmental methods, techniques, programming concepts, techniques/languages, emerging technologies; analytical, problem-solving, evaluative skills, good communication, interpersonal, team-leadership, organizational skills. </p><p>Using these skills draw a chart indicating the skill in one column, and a story or example that best describes that skill in the other column.</p><p>SKILLS STORIES</p><p>Analytical</p><p>Problem solving restructured report for quicker reading</p><p>Evaluative</p><p>Communication coached new staff on software</p><p>Interpersonal</p><p>Team</p><p>Organizational</p><p>This will help you prepare for a Behavioral Description Interview. Try to have a different story for each soft skill. It may inspire the employer if you had sample of your work or evidence of that skill in a portfolio (see portfolio handouts for more ideas).</p>