Create 5 Behavioral-based Interview Questions f

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over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO NY helps

over 175 business owners grow

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Interviewing is hard. Most job applicants are going to make an e�ort to shine, and

it’s hard to tell if the polish is only surface deep. Some candidates are glib and able

to give polished answers to standard interview questions. Behavior-based interview

questions provide a way for interviewers to delve into how candidates handled past

situations. That information can inform their ability to perform in a position. These

types of questions often begin with the phrase, “Tell me about a time when you…”

The Bene�ts of Behavioral Interviews

Behavioral interviewing is based on the premise that the best predictor of future

performance is past performance and can:

Save Money

Hiring an employee is a signi�cant investment, and a bad decision can cost your

business a lot of money. It can also have a long-term e�ect on a company because

Behavioral Questions to Ask in an

Interview (And What to Look For)

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below-average employees can lead to disappointed clients and drag down team

productivity.

Provide a better understanding of the candidate

The behavior interview format lets an interviewer gain a more in-depth picture of a

candidate in ways that can help determine if they are a good �t for your

organization. It’s a way to measure soft skills, personality, problem solving, and work

ethic.

Help predict the employees’ future behavior

Questions like “give me an example of” or “what will you do if” can help interviewers

understand if the candidate would approach common situations in a given role in

the way the company would want.

Are Behavioral Interview Questions

E�ective?

Behavioral interview questions can be very e�ective, but they need to be framed

correctly. One important component, as explained in a Forbes article

(https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2014/12/03/the-hidden-�aw-in-

behavioral-interview-questions/#76e4123d1b15), is how the questions are phrased.

The idea is that often typical behavioral interview questions give away the right

answers, cueing candidates to share success stories and avoiding failure examples.

For example:

ORIGINAL: Tell me about a time when you adapted to a di�cult situation and how

you did it.

Expressing the question using this language makes it very clear to the candidate

that they are supposed to share a success story about adapting, balancing,

persuading, etc.

CORRECTED: Tell me about a time when you faced a di�cult situation.

Rewording the question allows a candidate to share success stories that provide

details, context, evidence of critical thinking, and much more.

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What to Look For When Asking

Behavioral Questions

The process enables you to more accurately determine what qualities and

behaviors you are looking for in a candidate that aligns with your organization’s

core competencies.

How does the candidate answer the question?

The candidate should provide the answer in the form of a short story, not just list the

tasks and activities they accomplished but also what strategies and tactics they

used to accomplish them. Encourage candidates to provide speci�c details about

their actions.

What was the candidate’s individual response to the challenge?

Teamwork is good, but you’re trying to ascertain what the candidate’s exact role

was in this instance. If there was a team, how did they personally contribute?

What is the candidate’s body language like during the interview?

While an interview can account for a certain level of nervousness, if the candidate is

overly uncomfortable or �dgeting, it may indicate that they are not being fully

transparent. If this is the case, feel free to ask follow up questions to more fully

explore the past experience.

Sample Behavioral Interview

Questions

When using behavior-based interviewing, every candidate must be asked the same

questions to assess them fairly.

Example questions include:

– Tell me about a di�cult work challenge you’ve had.

– Have you ever been in an ethically questionable business situation?

– Have you ever had a project that had to change drastically while it was in

progress?

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– Talk about a time when you’ve had to sell an idea to your colleagues.

– Tell me about a major setback you’ve had.

– Talk about a time where you had to make an important decision quickly.

– Have you ever had a deadline you were not able to meet?

– Talk about a time when you had to adapt to signi�cant changes at work.

– Have you ever had to convince your team to do a job they were reluctant to do?

– How have you dealt with an angry or upset customer?

Are additional probing questions

needed?

If a candidate’s answers are vague, ambiguous, evasive, or don’t fully address the

question, ask follow-up questions triggered by the response. Suggestions include: I’m

not quite sure I understood. Could you please tell me more about that? I’m not sure

what you mean by ___. Could you give me some examples? You mentioned ____.

Could you tell me more about that? What stands out in your mind about that? Can

you give me an example of ___? You just told me about ___; I’d also like to know

about . . .

Behavior-based interviewing isn’t perfect, and it’s not a panacea for complex

recruitment and retention challenges. Still, it is a tried and true methodology that’s

used by some of the world’s most successful companies.

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over 13,000 business owners. Learn how EO NY helps

over 175 business owners grow

(https://eonyc.org/landing-page-template/).

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