What Are Behavioral Interviews?

Overview

A behavioral interview asks you to describe real things you did at work. The questions usually start with 'Tell me about a time when…'. The interviewer is not testing what you know. They are collecting evidence of how you act: how you decide, how you work with people, and what you do when things go wrong.

The idea behind it is simple. How you handled a situation before is a good guide to how you will handle a similar one again. Amazon says this directly on its interview page: its interviews focus on real examples from your past, which help it understand how you approach challenges, make decisions and work with others.

Many companies run these as structured interviews. Every candidate gets the same questions for the role, and the interviewer scores each answer against a written rubric. Google's re:Work guide describes two kinds of question. Behavioral questions ask about a past situation. Hypothetical questions ask what you would do in a new one. Google also writes down what a poor, borderline, solid and outstanding answer covers, and it reports that structured interviews predict job performance better than unstructured ones.

So each question has a target skill and a scoring scale behind it. Your job is to give the interviewer clear, specific evidence they can write down.

• Specific — One real event, with names of roles, dates and numbers — 'I usually…' or 'We always…'
• Ownership — Says what I did and decided — Only 'we', so your part is unclear
• Reasoning — Explains why this action and not another — Lists steps with no reason
• Result — A measured outcome, or an honest miss — No ending, or 'it went well'
• Learning — What you would do differently now — Nothing learned

What you will be able to do

• Explain what a behavioral interviewer is scoring and why they ask for past examples.
• Tell a behavioral question apart from a hypothetical one, and answer each the right way.
• Build a small bank of true stories that covers the common question themes.
• Handle follow-up questions without losing the thread of your story.

Interview questions

• What is a behavioral interview actually testing?
• How is a behavioral question different from a hypothetical one?
• What are the common myths about behavioral interviews?
• How should I prepare?
• How do I handle follow-up questions?

More Behavioral topics

• Strengths and Weaknesses
• Technical Leadership & Strategy
• Tell Me About Yourself
• The STAR Method
• Think Big and Bold Vision
• Time Management
• Why Are You Leaving?
• Why This Company?
• Work-Life Balance
• Working Outside Your Comfort Zone