This Is Why You Should Prepare For The Job Interview

Planned Behavior-Based Job Interviews are popular and common and an objective tool used in many job interview processes. The questions below are just a small sample of the questions asked during this type of interview. Google “Behavior-Based Interviews” and you’ll find plenty of resources and supplemental information. You will find some clever answers to many of them.  https://www.livecareer.com/quintessential/star-interviewing   The whole point of these Behavior-Based Questions is how you clearly and effectively demonstrate how you can process information and communicate during the interview.
These questions may look intimidating and cause you some angst as you read them, so take a breath, and relax as you do not have to memorize any of them or have the answers right away. They are designed to peel away some of your layers so the interviewer can determine how you respond to normal business situations and your interactions with people. In other words, how you respond and interact with people who share a common goal. This process is not always smooth and trouble-free and they would like to know if you will be a good fit for their culture. How you respond to the questions is more important than the answer. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. The interviewer is listening very carefully to two things. Your Attitude and Your Approach.  Attitude is partially covered by how you are perceived by other people during pleasant or tense situations.
What Your Approach means, is how you think on your feet. How long it takes to come up with a Relevant Situation that can be applied to the job and the company culture? Part of your homework during the interview preparation is to read each of these questions reach into your memory and experiences and come up with an interesting story. Think of your situations and experiences that can be applied to the question. How do they apply to a situation that you have experienced in the previous position? If you’re a fresh grad, you have plenty of stories on how you successfully managed situations with Professors, TAs, and Classmates during projects and discussion groups. Try and steer clear of sports analogies, as they don’t fit the business process.
The situation you describe should be no more than 2-3 minutes long. If you are not able to clearly describe the situation in a few sentences, then it may be too complex at this point. Hack away at the inessentials of the situation to make the situation easy for an outsider to understand.
The situation/ story should be structured as follows:  (STAR method)
1. Clearly describe the situation (Situation)
2. Describe the problem at hand (Task)
3. How the solution was applied (Action)
4. The results of how you or the team were impacted (Results)

Taking the time well before the interview process starts will make the interview easier and give you more confidence before and during the interview.  The questions will not come in any particular order. In most cases, you may only get a few of these questions.
One more thing about confidence. The people looking for a new hire are just as anxious to fill the job with the best person as you are to fill it.  Remember, you are interviewing them as well to determine if there is a good fit for you. The interviewers have a toolkit full of Planned Behavioral Questions, so you to should have questions handy to determine for yourself if you want to work there.
Don’t forget to use the 30/60/90 Action Plan during your interview process.   More importantly, if you want the job, ask for it at the end of the interview.

https://www.fromthebachrow.com/30-60-90-plan-job-interview/

A Menu of Planned Behavioral-Based Interview Questions:

* When were you most satisfied/dissatisfied with your work? What was most satisfying/dissatisfying about that?
* Tell me about one of the most difficult and demanding tasks you’ve had to complete. How satisfied/dissatisfied were you with that?
* Tell me about a job you had that required high attention to detail. How satisfied/dissatisfied were you with that, and why?
* What experience do you have utilizing __________________? How proficient are you?
* Describe a project, situation, or assignment that challenged your skills as a ____________. How did you manage the situation?
* We’ve all faced the problem of not being able to handle a new task/responsibility, even though we received the assignment because of our background and training. Tell me about a time when this happened to you.
* Even though we try to be expert in our area of work, it’s impossible to know and understand everything. Tell me about an aspect of your work/technical field you are still trying to master.
* Describe a time when you successfully demonstrated your technical knowledge. Contrast this with a time when you weren’t able to do so. What did you do differently?
* Give me an example of a project you completed that demonstrated your technical expertise in ____________.

* Describe how you’ve gone about learning a new technical task.
* Tell me about the most complex technical assignment or project you’ve worked on. What was your role?
* Tell me about a time when you were working on multiple projects with the same due date.
* Tell me about a time when you needed to seek advice from your manager in regard to a complex problem.
* Tell me about a complex problem you solved. Give me a step-by-step breakdown of how you went about solving the problem.
* * * In your position with ____________, how did you define doing a good job? Did you do a good job? How did you know? Give me an example.
* Tell me about something you’ve done to encourage peers/direct reports to take responsibility for improving their work standards.
* What were the criteria for success in your job at _____________? What did you do to meet the criteria? Give me a recent example.

* Tell me about a time when you were faced with conflicting priorities. How did you determine the top priority?
* What methods do you utilize to stay organized? What process do you use to keep track of items requiring your attention?
* At one time or another, we’ve all forgotten to do something important for an internal/external customer. Tell me about a time when this happened to you recently. What did you forget? Why? What happened?
* We’ve all been in situations in which we couldn’t complete everything we needed to on time. Tell me about a time when this happened to you.
* What performance/production objectives were you expected to achieve this year? What steps did you take to ensure that you were making progress in all areas?
* Every once in a while, we all have idle time on the job because of some unforeseen event (unexpected delays, etc.). Tell me about the last time this happened to you. What did you do?
* Prioritizing projects/activities/responsibilities can be challenging. Tell me about the last time you could’ve done a better job of prioritizing a project/activity/responsibility. What happened?
* Describe how you plan your daily or weekly activities. Walk me through the process for yesterday (or last week).

* Tell me about a time you had to work at a fast pace for a long period. What kind of work did you do? What did you do to maintain that pace?
* Describe a time when you were particularly busy at work. What kind of hours did you put in? How did the situation affect you?
* What job activities have you found to require the most energy? What did you do to maintain your effectiveness?
* What are the longest hours you’ve worked in a day in your job at _______________? How often did this happen? How did you maintain your effectiveness?
* Describe a typical day on the job at _______________. What have you done to maintain efficient productivity levels from the beginning to the end of your shift?
* People often make errors after they work long hours on the job. Tell me about the last time this happened to you.
* Have you made any suggestions for cutting costs to your manager/supervisor/team leader?      Give me an example.
* Have you taken any steps to make your job easier/more efficient/more productive? Give me an example.
* What has been your biggest achievement at ______________? What steps did you take to
achieve it?
* While you were at ______________, what change were you able to bring about? How did you
do that?
* Describe a situation in which you identified a problem and took action to correct it rather than waiting for someone else to do so.
* Tell me about a time when you took action to exceed an internal/external customer’s expectations. Specifically, what did you do?
* Describe a time when you went beyond your job requirements to achieve an objective. What did you do? What happened?
* Have you ever volunteered your personal time to help complete a task on time? Tell me about that situation.
* What have you done to understand a customer’s point of view about a problem? Give me
an example.

* How do you build collaborative relationships with customers? Give me details about one or two of them.
* What have you done to educate customers about your company/product/service capabilities?
* Describe some customer-focused actions you’ve taken or policies you’ve implemented that have produced positive business results. Give me a specific example.
* To better serve customers, we sometimes promise more than we can deliver. Tell me about a time when you over-committed yourself or your company. What happened?
* Describe a time when you took action to provide quick and thorough service in response to an internal/external customer’s request or problem.
* Tell me about your most difficult customer. Describe a specific interaction you had with this customer.

Author: Francis

Started out in science and somehow ended up in sales & marketing. Grew into a results oriented sales professional with extensive experience selling and positioning scientific solutions in the pharma/biotech, life sciences and medical diagnostics markets. In 1998 I created an excel sheet to track spending and cash flow to learn personal finance on my own. They don't teach this in school and by the time one figures it out, most of let all these resources slip through our fingers. It's time to pay it forward to this next gen so that they can shave 15-20 years off for working for "the man" with insights, a library of tools, and motivation from me and plenty of other FI bloggers that I follow.