What is Behavioral Event Interviewing?

• Behavioral Event interviewing is a technique in which the questions asked assist the employer in making predictions about a potential employee's future success based on actual past behaviors, instead of based on responses to hypothetical questions.
• In behavior event interviews, you are asked to give specific examples of when you demonstrated particular behaviors or skills.
• General answers about behavior are not what the employer is looking for. You must describe in detail a particular event, project, or experience and you dealt with the situation, and what the outcome was.

Examples of behavioral interview questions:

1. Tell me about a situation in the past year in which you had to deal with a very upset customer or co-worker.

2. Give an example of a situation when you had to show good leadership.

3. Imagine a time when you had to be quick in coming to a decision. How did you react?

4. Give an example of an important goal you had to set and tell me about your progress in reaching that goal.

5. Describe the most creative work-related project you have completed.

6. Describe a time (at work, college or home) when you were faced with a problem that tested your coping skills. What did you do?

Responding well to these types of questions:

• The "S.T.A.R." technique is a good approach: Describe the Situation you were in or the Task you needed to accomplish; describe the Action you took, and the Results.
• Be specific, not general or vague.
• Don't describe how you would behave. Describe how you did actually behave. If you later decided you should have behaved differently, explain this. The interviewer will see that you learned something from experience.
• Make sure you definitely come up with a situation – the worst thing you could say in a behavioral event interview is, “Oh, but I have never faced a situation like that”. Such a response not only undermines your chances of describing your skills, but also proves that you are not intelligent enough to learn from common place incidents.