Behavioral Interviews

Behavioural Interviews are very common these days for senior positions in IT. These interviews are designed with an objective to find out how one reacts or might have reacted in specific situation, how one uses his/her experience and expertise to handle critical issues at work place, how good one is in decision making,leadership/management ability,initiative,innovation and creativity,teamwork skills,resilience,customer focus etc..

Believe or not, these questions are very difficult to answer if one is not adequately prepared. These questions must be answered giving specific examples based on past experiences or atleast the answers should be well thought ( cooked ) of.

However well prepared one is, behavioral questions may still catch one unaware and unprepared. The best way to tackle is to be very HONEST with the answers, if you are not sure how to answer on of the behavioural question say that you did not come across such a situation.

Behavioural Questions:

1. How have you demonstrated initiative?
2. How have you motivated yourself to complete an assignment or task that you did not want to do?
3. Think about a difficult boss, professor or other person. What made him or her difficult? How did you successfully interact with this person?
4. Think about a complex project or assignment that you have been assigned. What approach did you take to complete it?
5. Tell me about the riskiest decision that you have made.
6. Can you tell me about an occasion where you needed to work with a group to get a job done?
7. Describe when you or a group that you were a part of were in danger of missing a deadline. What did you do?
8. Tell me about a time when you worked with a person who did things very differently from you. How did you get the job done?
9. Describe your three greatest accomplishments to date.
10. Tell me about a situation when you had to learn something new in a short time. How did you proceed?
11. Can you tell me about a complex problem that you solved? Describe the process you utilized.
12. Tell me about a challenge that you successfully met.
13. Walk me through a situation where you had to do research and analyze the results for one of your classes.
14. What leadership positions have you held? Describe your leadership style.
15. Have you generated any new ideas or suggestions while at school or at work?
16. Summarize a situation where you successfully persuaded others to do something or to see your point of view.
17. Give an example of when your persistence had the biggest payoff.
18. Describe a situation where class assignments and work or personal activities conflicted. How did you prioritize? How did you manage your time? What was the outcome?
19. How have you most constructively dealt with disappointment and turned it into a learning experience?
20. Describe a situation in which you effectively developed a solution to a problem by combining different perspectives or approaches.