Behavioral Interview Tips

Most companies today want to try to understand the kind of person they are interviewing.  How do they deal with stress, pressure, and decision making?  They want to see if they can gain insight into the person’s value system.  Are they honest?  Are they a team player?  Do they live and work with integrity and ethics.  Are they a nice person to work with? do they have a problem with working two jobs ? any other important question is necessary to be done.

“Be Prepared for some Challenging Questions”

The following is a sampling of questions you might expect to be asked by a company using “behavioral” interviewing techniques. The answers to the questions may or may not be important to the interviewer, but what they will be looking for are behavioral responses. Things like composure, creativity, confidence, and competence.

They will judge your responses not by their content, but by observing your body language, speech patterns, eye contact, ability to concentrate, etc.

The questions are sometimes designed to be difficult to answer. They want to see how you react under stress and at a time of unpreparedness. Of course, these are only a sampling of the kinds of questions you might see, but they will give you an idea of what to expect.

1. Tell me about yourself.

2. Did you bring your resume? (this seems like a simple question, but remember that they are watching what you do, how you move, how organized you are – be sure your resume is easy to retrieve and present, but first, ask them if they want it – they probably already have it and might think it strange if you simply present it to them)

3. What do you know about our organization? To learn about a firm, you might gather information from:

• their website
• SEC filings (10Q/10K reports)
• a friend who works for the firm
• your Balionis Group representative

4. According to your definition of success, how successful have you been so far?

5. What were your most significant accomplishments?

6. Have you thought of leaving your present position before? If yes, what held you there?

7. Describe a few situations in which your work was criticized.

8. What would your previous boss say are your strengths and weaknesses?

9. How would you describe your personality?

10. What are your strong points?

11. What are your weak points?

12. How did you do in school?

13. What aspects of your current position do you like most?

14. What aspects of your current position do you like least?

15. What do you look for in a job?

16. How long would you stay with us?

17. Why do you want to leave your present job?

18. Describe what would be an ideal working environment.

19. How would you evaluate your present firm?

20. How would your co-workers describe you?

21. How would you describe the work environment in which you do your best work?

22. Why would you want to work for a company of this size?

23. Why would you want to work for a company of this type?

24. If you had your choice of companies, where would you go?

25. Why do you want to work for us?

26. What was the last book you read?

27. What was the last movie you saw?

28. What was the last sporting event you saw?

29. What have you done, or are doing, to reach your career objectives?

30. What kind of hours are you used to working?

31. Give an example of how you have been creative.

32. Give examples of times when you were a leader.

33. What are your career goals?

34. What position do you expect to have in 2 years?

35. What are your objectives?

36. Why should we hire you?

37. If you could start again, what would you do differently?

38. How would you structure this job?

39. How much salary do you expect for this job? As always, we want you to stay within the bounds of openness, honesty, and good business ethics.

• Be humble, but not cowering.
• Be sincere, but be careful not to get “mushy”.
• Know your limitations, but look for opportunities to turn your shortcomings into something positive.
• Maintain a good level of enthusiasm and excitement, and most of all, if you want the job – TELL THEM!

Remember that good luck is just a matter of careful research, planning, and execution. Please call us if you have any questions or comments on this information.

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