Why You Fail the Behavioral Interview

Behavioral interviews do not test your technical skills, but that does not mean that they are not important. You can lose your chances at a job by doing poorly in these interviews, yet many people underestimate them and fail to prepare.

To help you not be that person, this blog will cover the dos (tips) and don’ts (red flags) of behavioral interviews so that you can be prepared for this crucial interview.

Behavioral Interview Basics

Having the technical skills to perform a job is essential, but companies also want to know what you are like to work with. This is where the behavioral interview comes in.

There are three types of questions in behavioral interviews:

• Questions about the company
• Questions about you
• Situational questions

Together these questions cover your experience, capability, and values. Let’s look at a tip for dealing with each type of question.

Do Your Research: Questions about the Company

Questions about the company determine if you would fit in with the company culture. An example would be “Why do you want to join this company?”.

To do well on these questions, you need to do your research.

Not all companies are the same. They have different cultures and different values. Some companies will want you to thrive in ambiguity. Others will value creativity. If you don’t know the company culture, you can’t display those values in the interview.

That’s why you need to do research. You can find a company’s mission statement and values online. Knowing these things will allow you to show passion for the company. When you know what a company prioritizes, you can demonstrate an interest in those priorities and show that you would be a good fit.

Emphasize Impact: Questions about You

Questions about you ask about your experience and values. An example would be “Tell us about yourself.” The interviewer wants to learn both about your experience and capabilities and your personal values.

You want to ensure that when answering these questions you show both your experience and values. When you introduce yourself it should not just be about your experience but also about why you are passionate about the job opportunity. That’s why doing your research, as we have already mentioned, is so important.

Another important aspect of answering these questions is emphasizing your impact. This is particularly true for a question that you will almost surely get: “Describe a past project.”

When describing past projects, it’s easy to get caught up in the context and details, but those things are not helping you in an interview. What will help you is to discuss the impact you had. I actually recommend starting with your impact when answering because it is so important.

This recommendation does go against the popular S.T.A.R (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method for describing projects, but I believe it is ultimately better to start with impact (results) rather than end with it because of two reasons: time limits and flexibility.

You never really know how much time you have for an answer, so leaving the most important stuff for last is not a good idea. If you run short on time, you won’t have had a chance to highlight your achievements and show off why you are an excellent candidate.

You also don’t know how much detail the interviewer wants you to include. If you put the impact at the start of the answer, you have already addressed the important information, and you can allow the interviewer to guide you on how much additional detail they would like.

If you want to learn more about what I have to say about describing a past project, check out this blog.

Show Multiple Attributes of Yourself: Situational Questions

These questions tend to take up most of the interview. They ask you to tell a story about your past experiences or to explain what you would do in a hypothetical scenario. An example is “Tell me about a time you had to work under a strict deadline.” Note that there may be some overlap between these questions and questions about you.

To stand out with these questions, consider each question an opportunity. Show multiple good attributes of yourself with each answer. For example, a question about dealing with tight deadlines can go beyond showing effective time management to also show that you are responsible and a good communicator.

Here are examples of potential attributes to highlight:

• Proactiveness
• Passion
• Flexibility
• Leadership
• Empathy

Now that we have discussed three things to do in an interview, let’s turn our attention to three things you want to avoid in behavioral interviews.

Don’t Be Blameful

In behavioral interviews, unpleasant situations are bound to come up. You will be asked to discuss things like conflict, obstacles, and failures.

However, when discussing these things you should never act blameful. Even if it was someone else’s fault, an interview is not a place to complain and doing this will only make you seem difficult to work with.

The interview is about you, so what you should focus on instead is what you did. How did you handle the situation? What were the results? These are the questions the interviewer is interested in - not who was at fault.

Don’t Talk About Perks and Compensation

In every behavioral interview you will be asked why you want to work at the company. When you’re asked this question, do not talk about things like work-life balance, perks, or compensation.

It’s true that these things might be why you want the job, but that is not what the interviewer wants to hear about. You want to show that you’re interested in the work not what you can get out of it. Focus on reasons like being interested in the industry or wanting to work with the talent at the company.

Don’t Ask Offensive Questions

At the end of the interview comes a question that few people put any thought into: “Do you have any questions for me?”. Now is your chance to ask the interviewer questions, but remember that the interview is not over. Do not ask offensive questions during this section.

What are offensive questions though? These are questions that are negative or show bias. Examples include:

• How often do you work more than 8 hours per day?
• What is the most stressful thing about working here?
• How many PhDs are on the team?

Better questions would be:

• What is the vision of the company?
• What gets you most excited about working here?
• Is there any interesting project you could share with me?

You can still get useful information from these questions. Just remember to stay positive!

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, these basic guidelines have made you feel better about behavioral interviews. While it’s important not to underestimate these interviews, you can absolutely ace them with a little preparation.

If you want to read a longer version of this post with more examples, you can find that here.