From PaulGuWiki
Seneca College
What is Behavioral Interviewing?
Behavioral interviewing is a technique employed by interviewers to evaluate your past behavior in order to predict your future behavior in a particular position. Answering behavioral questions can be challenging, however thorough preparation will assist you in answering them successfully. Utilizing the S.T.A.R. Model will help you construct an organized, specific, thoughtful, and concise answer.
How to Prepare for a Behavioral Interview:
- Analyze the position you are being interviewed for; determine the skills required.
- Evaluate and reflect upon your background to identify your skills and experiences related to the position.
- Develop brief scenarios or "STAR stories" prior to your interview that demonstrate your leadership, teamwork, communication, initiative, etc. Each “story” should explain the situation, task, action and result (STAR).
- Be specific in your stories. Giving generalizations will not help the employer understand and evaluate your behavior and skills. Employers want to know what you DID do rather than what you WOULD do in a given situation.
- Be prepared to provide examples of occasions when results were different than expected. Your skill in handling failure as well as success will be probed.
- Be prepared for questions asking for more detail than you've already given.
- Identify three to five top selling points - attributes that set you apart from other candidates - and be sure to make the opportunity to point them out during the interview.
- Your task is to identify qualities relevant to the position and identify/prepare relevant and effective behavioral stories.
S.T.A.R. Model
Situation and Task
- Describe the situation that you were in and the task that you needed to accomplish. You must describe a specific project or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand. This situation can be from your current position, a previous job, from a volunteer experience, or any relevant event.
Action you took
- Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did -- not the efforts of the team. Don't tell what you might do, tell what you did.
Results you achieved
- What happened? How did the project end? What did you accomplish? What did you learn?