Behavioral Interview Questions – Put Your Friends To Work Before You Do
About Attitude
I’ve found the best way to get over the fear of interviewing is to flip the interview around. While a company might be interviewing me, I’m also interviewing them. After all, they asked for the interview in the first place. Don’t forget that an interview is as much about getting to know the company, as it is the company getting to know you.
Research is the key
Like most things in life it’s very important to research and practice. The best strategy for succeeding in interviews is to prepare. Use the internet to research a company and make a list of good questions to ask the person interviewing you.
Getting practice
The best way to answer behavioral interview type questions is to recall a situation from your past experience that best fits the question being asked. Here are a few questions you might get.
One of the classic questions is “Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult co worker”
While it’s temping to say, “well we hated each other and we didn’t get on”, that’s not going to win you any friends in the job interview. Try to turn the negative into a positive.
Practice giving a reply like: “We both knew we had to work together so I checked my ego at the door and asked her if she liked travel. Lucky for me she did. So every time we had to work together I would ask her about travel. She lowered he guard a bit and we were able to work together.”
Another popular question is “Describe a time where you had to deal with a difficult customer and what did you do”.
Again it’s tempting to say you told the customer to never come back again, however that’s not going to go over well.
Something you might want to practice is: “I asked the customer directly what they though we could improve. This gave the customer a chance to get the problems they were having out in the open. I was able to address most of the concerns and help the customer.”
The more you practice the better. Here’s another. “Tell about a time you had a great idea but were rejected by management, what did you do?”
In this case most employers are looking for a “never give up” attitude or at least some feeling you are passionate about your ideas.
I would answer this question like this: “At CompanyA I had an idea to streamline the sales process. Unfortunately the management did not agree. I asked to give a 10 min presentation outlining the potential savings. I said it could be most profitable 10 mins you’ll ever hear. I was granted the presentation and subsequently allowed to test my idea.”
Recruit friends
The best way to learn to answer behaviour interview questions is to practice with your friends. Initially this will seem wired. However the easier you rip these stories out the better. Get your friends to come up with challenging questions. Make it a game, try to get them to come up with questions that will stump you. You’ll be amazed at what your friends can come up with. The more you practice the harder questions the easier the whole interview will seem.
If you study the job requirements, practice with your friends you’ll be amazed at how easy you’ll be able to answer behaviour interview questions.
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