Behavioral Interview Questions: Examples and Tips

Behavioral interview questions are the tricky part of an interview, and you need thorough planning and practice answering them.

This article will describe behavioral interview questions and discuss examples of such questions. Moreover, we will also cover tips for answering these questions, which are designed to check your behavior in different situations and analyze your personality.

When you are preparing for an interview, it’s natural to wonder about what kinds of questions you will be asked. There would be a lot of information available on the resume, which can quickly tell the interviewer about, for example:

• What kind of candidate are you?
• Whether you have the necessary qualifications, skills, and
  experience for the job

However, the interviewer will likely also want to know about your personality. Certainly, personality and behavioral patterns affect performance greatly.

Moreover, these questions also make the interviewer assess your cultural fitment into the organization. This is where behavioral questions come in. Behavioral interview questions also help the employer know about some of your soft skills, e.g., communication skills, attitude, social and emotional intelligence quotients, etc.

What are behavioral interview questions?

Behavioral interview questions are strategically structured or situational questions that enable the interviewer to see how you solve real-life problems that can arise during your work.

Your answers could determine whether you or your competition–a similarly qualified candidate – will get the job. So, it is important to recognize these kinds of questions and be prepared to respond to convince the interviewer that you are the best person for the job.

Examples of Behavioral Interview Questions and Answering Tips

Below are some examples of behavioral interview questions, their purpose, and how you can form your answers to them.

Q. Tell me a little about yourself outside of work

This question aims to get to know you, the person behind the resume. Knowing you as a person will make the interview analyze your cultural fitment. A good “cultural fit” is an important factor in determining whether you would be the right candidate for not just the job tasks but also the organization.

Answer tips:

You can talk about your hobbies and interests. However, remember to keep it brief and relevant to the job and its requirements. Remember that this is not a social situation, no matter how deceptively simple the question may sound.

Answer example

Examples of relevant answers may include the following:

• A sport you enjoy
• Community services
• Cooking
• Volunteering for positive causes
• Participating in community events
• Continuing education
• Professional development

These kinds of answers can serve the purpose of demonstrating the following:

• An interest in staying healthy
• Showing character and concern for others
• Creativity
• Willingness for learning and self-improvement

The above qualities, or any other such, can relate to your ability to do a job well. Please note that we have avoided activities like playing video games or watching Netflix, etc.

What Not to Say?

Don’t bring up personal issues, such as difficult health issues concerning yourself or your family.

Moreover, please avoid any controversial interests or political inclinations. Absolutely avoid mentioning things like protesting, political ideologies, or current issues, no matter how strongly you may feel about them. This is not the time or place to bring personal things up.

You also don’t have to describe your interests in too much detail because that could backfire. Spending too much time on your outside interests could potentially question your commitment to your job.

For more tips on structuring answers to interview questions, see How to Prepare for Interview Questions Using the STAR Method.

Q. Name your biggest strength and your biggest weakness.

The purpose of this question is for the interviewer to see how well you know yourself. Moreover, your answer will also tell the interviewer whether what you consider a strength (or maybe even a weakness) would make you a good fit. This innocent question assesses your ability to fulfill your job responsibilities.

Answer tips:

Your positive qualities are easy to talk about because they make you look good. When it comes to talking about a facet of yourself that you perceive to be negative, you need to be practically honest. You may like to pick up weaknesses, which can also be strengths.

Here’s how: each quality you identify as being negative should be matched with a corresponding improvement plan. There are some weaknesses – being too much of a perfectionist, being stressed out about deadlines, or being a bit (not too much) self-critical. Your answer should show that you have some weaknesses, which can also turn into strengths. Moreover, your answer needs to show self-awareness. While mentioning those weaknesses, mention steps you are taking to improve on those or your efforts to turn those into strengths.

Check some examples as follows:

• “I try to delegate tasks more.”
• “I set alarms to remind myself to stick to a schedule.”
• “My focus is always to manage tough deadlines without compromising quality.”
• “I break tasks down into manageable parts.”

There would be many other examples, like what is mentioned above. These would show the hiring manager that you are committed to becoming the best employee you can be.

What Not to Do?

Please be careful about trying to mask a positive trait as a negative one: “I am a workaholic / I tend to work long hours.”. Hiring managers might have heard this one several times, and they know the candidate is only saying that to make themselves look good. Please don’t do it.

Lastly, there are some negative traits about yourself. You are better off not divulging those aspects. If you are applying for a sales or customer service job, for example, it is no use telling your interviewer, “I’m not much of a people person!”

Other no-nos are being lazy, disorganized, or chronically tardy. Above all, consider what the company is potentially hiring you for and tailor your answers accordingly.

Q. Have you ever had your work criticized? How did you handle it?

This question is meant to reveal how sensitive you are to criticism and how you respond to it.

Can you take criticism as constructive feedback to improve, or does it frustrate or demotivate you?
Taking criticism is a necessary quality for someone interested in learning and improving their ability to do a job well. In other words, no one likes a know-it-all.

Answer tips:

Again, honesty is the best policy here. Don’t be nervous about answering this question. And don’t say you’ve never been criticized—it’s like saying you are perfect! You can be upfront about any criticism you have faced.

Your interviewer genuinely wants to see how you handled such a situation. In fact, they may be looking to see if you can treat criticism as a friend. Remember, no one is perfect, and your interviewer knows that.

Example of a possible answer

An example of a good answer would be to describe the kind of criticism or feedback you received and what you did to address and resolve it. Again, you can use the STAR method to construct your answer. Your answer can go something like this:

“I was working on an XYZ project that lasted several weeks. The client wasn’t 100% happy with the initial drafts we had submitted. Some things we had included were just not right. My supervisor explained this to me, and I listened carefully to the feedback I received. In this way, I could make the required changes, and by the end of the project, the client was thrilled with the outcome.”

Q. Can you tell me about a time when you might have made a decision that was unpopular with your colleagues

Your answer to this question will demonstrate your skills related to teamwork, communication, negotiation, leadership, and stress handling. And yes, this is a very loaded one, indeed! Again, this relates to your ability to take criticism and handle situations like these.

Answer tips:

The interviewer would like to see if you have the courage to make decisions that people may not like. Moreover, the interviewer would also like to see your skills in communicating such decisions with the team.

Firstly, remember to structure your answer using the STAR Method to ensure that you stay focused on the question at hand.

Example of an answer

An example of an answer could be as follows:

“I was in charge of a team tasked to complete a rather large project for a client, but the deadline was tight. We needed to impress this client because it would mean our company would get recurring work in the future. I realized that we would have to “burn the candle at both ends” if we finished this project on time.

Considering the above, I had to communicate the same to my team. I had to tell them that we would have to work late and sometimes on weekends too.

As you can imagine, that didn’t go over very well! However, I had a great team that understood why we had to do this, and we managed to complete the project on time. I arranged for my team members to get some time off work to compensate for those extra hours as a reward for a job “well done.”

Q. What personality traits do you dislike most in your co-workers?

This question is not as straightforward as it seems.

It’s not about someone who is always coming in late, talking too much in meetings, or monopolizing conversations near the water cooler.

This question is meant to uncover how you interact with different people in your workplace. It is also to gauge how you handle social diversity and your abilities to accept different ways of thinking and cultural differences. It can also point to whether you fit in with others and whether you try to play nice.

Answer tips:

Remain positive while answering this question. Even though the question asks you to identify something you would “dislike,” i.e., something you would find a negative.

Start with demonstrating your understanding of the need for diversity. Different ways of thinking, personality traits, and cultural viewpoints are unavoidable and required in any workplace. You can also mention that these differences can be a good thing to complement each other with their respective strengths.

Don’t recite a long list of what you dislike about others. Who knows that the person in front of you is not in one of those categories you list? Don’t gripe about specific teammates in your current or past workplace. And don’t complain about trivial things, like eating lunch at their desk or someone’s body odor. That makes you sound petty.

Everyone has pet peeves and things that annoy them, but some manage them better than others. The most important thing is to remain calm when you answer this question. Watch your body language, and above all, don’t sound frustrated.

The best way to handle a question like this is to conclude your answer with something light-hearted. An example could be: “Sometimes I get annoyed when someone nicks my favorite pens off my desk! That kind of thing. Otherwise, I’m quite relaxed and don’t pay attention to negative stuff around me.”.

Q. What is your biggest regret?

No, this is not the time to mention the time when you were too shy to ask your high school “crushes” out. Or if they went out with your best friend (or worst enemy) instead. 

Let’s keep it career-related, no matter how true it might be and how it’s still your biggest regret. The interviewer wants to see if you follow a good and logical thought process in learning and moving on from any bad decisions. They would also like to see if you blame others for any regrets you may have. Remember that having regrets is not a bad characteristic.

Answer tips:

Don’t start with anything which can be construed negatively. For example, by saying something like, “I had this big fight with my boss because of a difference of opinion, and I got fired for that.”. That kind of thing casts into question your ability to get along with others or work in a team.

You could start by saying that though you regret things, but you do not live with those regrets. Instead, see all your past experiences as life lessons.

Then, you could mention a time when you might have turned down a role change, which could have fast-tracked your career or added value to your learning curve to develop your professional skills better. You might have done so because you did not want to leave your comfort zone.

But don’t just finish on that. Conclude your answer with what you did to deal with this regret and how you learned from it. You can add that you realize that the decision was a mistake on your part. Now, you have decided to enroll in professional skills advancement courses or be proactive by applying for the interviewing position presently!

Q. What do you know about this company? And who you think this company’s biggest competitor is and why.

At face value, these kinds of questions do not look like behavioral interview questions; however, it is a perfect ones.

These questions are meant to see if you have researched the company for which you want to work. Do you know its business and how you can contribute to its success? On a deeper level, it can also reveal whether you have a short-term, transactional mindset or possess more valuable long-term thinking and vision.

Answer tips:

Researching the company you are interested in joining is a must before appearing for the interview. It would be best if you spent a good amount of time researching the company in preparation for your interview.

Look into the company you are interviewing at and its chief competitors. It’s also important to not just report what you have learned and present your understanding and interpretation of the information.

Be prepared to discuss your industry, related market trends, and what sets this particular company apart. Consider the company’s size and that of its competitors, as well as qualitative criteria such as using new technology. For example, Kodak might have been a huge company then, but it was left behind with the advent of digital cameras.

Lastly, keep it neutral. Do not criticize the company in any way, even if you have better ideas for them to change or improve.

Remember that you need to be accepted first and that your knowledge may be limited to a view from the outside. Avoid any suggestion that you think that this company’s competitors are the same or better. And most importantly, don’t make things up! If you get even one fact wrong, the interviewer will know that you are slipshod in your research and lose credibility.

Q. What was the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make?

With this one, interviewers want to see how you manage difficult situations. They also want to see how you handle a difficult or stressful situation. And do you have what it takes to make difficult decisions?

Again, questions like these are deceptive. They are deceptive because they have a subtext. Your answer reveals what kinds of decisions or situations you consider difficult. You also reveal your critical thinking skills.

Answer tips:

You can describe a situation that showed how you successfully solved a problem for the company. Again, remember to keep it work-related and keep your tone professional because personal stories are not relevant in this instance. This question is a good opportunity for you to shine professionally and score points with the interviewer.

The easiest way to answer a question that involves describing a scenario is to use the STAR Method to structure your answer. For more information on this, see the STAR Method to prepare for interview questions.

Example of an answer

An example of an answer could be as follows:

“Probably the most difficult decision I’ve had to make was when I was allowed to move to a different team.

This move ensured a more senior title, better benefits, and exposure to new learning. Moreover, the move also offered better opportunities to advance my career. However, that would have meant that my old team members had to take on my workload.

I mean, especially till a suitable replacement was in place. And it would have jeopardized the progress of some projects we were working on. I was very grateful for the opportunity. I expressed my thanks to my supervisors, but I decided to stay on until we finished up our current projects.

It turned out to be the best because my supervisors agreed to this. Moreover, they kept the door open for me to accept the promotion at a later date.”.

Other difficult decision-making scenarios can include:

• Decisions regarding layoffs during a downturn in business
• Picking who to promote among several outstanding team members
• Deciding where to minimize expenses to stick to a project budget
• Deciding if you should fire someone who is not performing on the job and when to do it

Whichever one you decide on, remember to always end on a positive note. By doing so, you will demonstrate a sense of responsibility, the ability to work in a team, compassion, and positive leadership traits.

Conclusion

Behavioral interview questions are not just important for the company looking to hire you. These questions also serve the purpose for you to understand yourself better.

Whether you want to change jobs or not, periodically asking such questions to yourself and answering them will help. They can help improve your thought process, bringing behavioral changes and more success at your job, which will lead to better career growth.

And yes, when you continuously think and live with all such behavioral questions, when you face them during any job interview, you will be more than ready to impress that interviewer in front of you.

If you are applying to a company in Japan, you may want to read a guide about preparing for an interview in Japan.