Behavioral Interviewing: How to prepare for a behavioral interview to get your dream job.

I love sports, so my sports analogy is: If you never practice free throws in basketball or any shot for that matter, how good do you think you will be in a game when you get to the line for your free throw? Mmmm, possibly maybe not that great.

Learn how you can enhance your interviewing skills and build your interviewing confidence.

Interviewing is a skill and needs to be practiced:

That's why we look at interviewing as a skill that, with practice, you can build on, which in turn will build your confidence. With practice, when interviewing, you will be able to articulate your best skills and behaviors during the interview process.

Interviewing can make you nervous or anxious. It can be frustrating, exhausting, and a ton of other emotions that come into play. That is why practicing is essential to build your confidence and help alleviate some of these stressors from interviewing.

Behavioral Interviewing and what It means:

Many companies will have a Behavioral Interviewing structure using one of these three behavioral interview methods, SAR/STAR/SARI.

SAR/STAR/SARI:

• Situation, Action, Result: SAR

• Situation, Task, Action, Result: STAR

• Situation, Action, Result, Interesting Fact: SARI

Situation: Describe what the situation was with enough detail for their understanding

Task: Describe what you were responsible for or what you were tasked to do

Action: What were the action steps that you took. Using "I" vs. "we" is very important here. If you were on a team saying "we" is okay, but you definitely have to have enough "I's" in your action explanation

Result: Based on your actions, what was the result

Interesting Fact: If you have any funny, interesting, or adds flavor to your story tidbit, put it in your explanation.

Companies are looking at your past behaviors to see if you're a match by predicting, based on your answers, your future performance in the role. But even if the company asks more broad-based questions knowing the behavioral interviewing methods, you will be able to answer the questions with the situation, action, and result, which will showcase your behaviors, skills, and competency strengths.

Behavioral Interview question examples:

• Tell me about when you faced a challenging situation at work and how you overcame it?

• Describe a time when you built a strategy for a project and how you executed the strategy?

Broad-based Interview question examples:

• Have you ever faced a challenging situation at work?

• Did you ever build a strategy for a project that you had to execute?

While both examples essentially ask the same questions, they can elicit two different responses, especially if the interviewee hasn't practiced behavioral interviewing.

With a broad-based question, it is easy to respond with a broad-based answer.

Broad-based question and answer example:

• Have you ever faced a challenging situation at work?

  • "Yes, I have faced many challenging situations at work. However, I do my best to navigate the challenges to a successful outcome thru communication and strategic planning."

You answered the question that they asked but left out all the necessary details of the situation, the action you took, and the result based on your action. By practicing your behavioral interviewing skills, you will be more confident and give a thorough response to broad-based questions and behavioral interview questions.

A blog that Brandon Wee wrote for workstream, Top Ten Behavioral Interview Questions to Ask Candidates in 2021 gives Hiring Managers a way to rate the top ten behavioral interview questions that workstream crafted to ask a candidate. So, you will be able to see the question, competency the company is looking for, and not acceptable, acceptable, and exceptional rating scale.

Of course, a company can augment these metrics to fit their needs, but this gives you a baseline and understanding of what a hiring manager could be looking for when candidates answer behavioral interview questions. They are also great practice questions.

The link STAR method in the blog sends you to another blog that Brandon Wee wrote and goes over the Behavioral interview STAR method with some excellent tips, STAR interview questions, and example answers.

How to practice your behavioral interviewing skill:

Besides the interview questions given in the blog by Brandon, you can find a ton of different behavioral interview questions with a quick Google search. Start with five interview questions, then build from there. Once you have your interview questions ready, the process for excellent retention is as follows:

Write it down:

Set up your document under each question with the minimum of the SAR method as your template.

• Situation

• Action

• Result

Ask yourself each question, then write your answer down or type it whichever you prefer.

Read it out loud to yourself:

Read it out loud slowly, at least 2x. Make sure you have provided adequate detail for each section. Reading it out loud can jog your memory with any information you may have left out. Add it in. Once you are sure you haven't left anything out and captured the situation, your action steps, and the result from your action steps, you can move on to recording yourself.

Record your answer, then listen to it:

Now that you have your answers fine-tuned, record yourself giving your answer and then listen to it. While it may seem the same as reading it aloud to yourself, it is different. When you hear it recorded, you may catch other key information you left out or listen to yourself saying "um" or "and" several times.

Capturing these nuances in your recording will help you as you continue to practice and become more polished and more confident for your interview. Do this process until your answer becomes so natural to you it's like you're telling a story to your friends about an event you went to or participated in online.

Mock Interview:

Now that your answers are like storytelling time for you, enlist your friends or family's help.

• Set 30-45 mins of dedicated time with a friend or family member

• Have them ask you each question

• Record yourself

• There isn't a need for the friend or family member to give you advice on your answers unless you would like them to.

  • If you would like them to give you feedback, ask them to listen for the SAR and if they can identify them in each of your answers

• Listen to your recording before your next mock interview and fine tune

You can do a video call or in-person for your mock interviews. This step is to help you get used to answering to another person and flush out some of the jitters. Do this step 2-3x or until you feel most confident about the outcome of your answers and interaction with the interviewer.

Additional Interview Prep

Tell Me About Yourself Question:

There are a few more key points that you want to be prepared for when interviewing. First, the dreaded "Tell me about yourself" question. This question can stump the best of us because it is ambiguous, and we don't know what they are actually looking for in an answer.

Your best bet is to prepare a 1–3-minute pitch about your career highlights, or if you're just beginning your career, some life highlights like sports or college achievements.

• You played sports – How that prepared you to set goals and be disciplined

• Graduating from college – What projects did you work on, and what were your accomplishments

• Graduated from High School - You were in a club, association, and or volunteered

It doesn't matter where you are in your career; speak to what you consider your big wins or what you are proud of highlight-reel for this question.

For more tips and information on the tell me about yourself question there is a great blog post with a video tutorial from the Indeed Editorial Team and Jenn, a Certified Career Coach with Indeed: How to Answer "Tell Me About Yourself" (Tips and Example Answers)

Research the company you are interviewing with:

You want to prepare and make sure that you know about the company, so if any questions come up about said company, you aren't surprised.

Review the companies:

• About section

• Careers page that has their values and benefits on it

• The companies CSR, Corporate Social Responsibility Report, if they have one

• Anything that interests you about the company

You may also be able to find interesting information on the company's LinkedIn or Glassdoor pages. Not all companies have profiles on LinkedIn and Glassdoor, but it is worth checking.

By doing your research, you will be able to formulate a few questions for the interviewer. Usually, at the end of each interview, you will be asked, "Do you have any questions?"

"Why yes, I do."

A few examples are:

• What do you see the individual in this role accomplishing in the first three to six months?

• What is one of the 1-year objectives for the organization?

• How would you best describe the culture at your company?

If you need more ideas for the end of interview questions to ask, you can do a quick Google search, and there are plenty to look through.

Also, some companies like Oracle actually give you tips on how to ace their interview process. For example, in this blog written by the Oracle Careers Editorial Team How to prepare for behavioral interview questions they go over the STAR method, interview process, and link-outs to more advice on interviewing with them in the post.

In closing interviewing is tough but you can continue to improve your skills and build your confidence through practice and being prepared.

I wish you all the best in your interviews!!

Do you have any questions for me? Please leave them in the comments below.