Fifty Behavior-Based Interview Questions

Are you looking for behavior-based interviewing questions? While the questions and behavior characteristics listed below are by no means comprehensive, it might be just the jump-start you’re looking for. Try these…

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Leadership:

1. Tell me about a time when you accomplished something significant that wouldn’t have happened if you had not been there to make it happen.
2. Tell me about a time when you were able to step into a situation, take charge, muster support, and achieve good results.
3. Describe for me a time when you may have been disappointed in your behavior.
4. Tell me about a time when you had to discipline or fire a friend.
5. Tell me about a time when you’ve had to develop leaders under you.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Initiative and Follow-through:

1. Give me an example of a situation where you had to overcome major obstacles to achieve your objectives.
2. Tell me about a goal that you set that took a long time to achieve or that you are still working towards.
3. Tell me about a time when you won (or lost) an important contract.
4. Tell me about a time when you used your political savvy to push a program through that you really believed in.
5. Tell me about a situation that you had a significant impact on because of your follow-through.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Thinking and Problem Solving:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to analyze facts quickly, define key issues, and respond immediately or develop a plan that produced good results.
2. If you had to do that activity over again, how would you do it differently?
3. Describe for me a situation where you may have missed an obvious solution to a problem.
4. Tell me about a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventative measures.
5. Tell me about a time when you surmounted a major obstacle.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Communication:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to present a proposal to a person in authority and were able to do this successfully.
2. Tell me about a situation where you had to be persuasive and sell your idea to someone else.
3. Describe for me a situation where you persuaded team members to do things your way. What was the effect?
4. Tell me about a time when you were tolerant of an opinion that was different from yours.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Working Effectively with Others:

1. Give me an example that would show that you’ve been able to develop and maintain productive relations with others, though there were differing points of view.
2. Tell me about a time when you were able to motivate others to get the desired results.
3. Tell me about a difficult situation with a co-worker, and how you handled it.
4. Tell me about a time when you played an integral role in getting a team (or workgroup) back on track.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Work Quality:

1. Tell me about a time when you wrote a report that was well-received. What do you attribute that to?
2. Tell me about a time when you wrote a report that was not well received. What do you attribute that to?
3. Tell me about a specific project or program that you were involved with that resulted in improvement in a major work area.
4. Tell me about a time when you set your sights too high (or too low).

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Creativity and Innovation:

1. Tell me about a situation in which you were able to find a new and better way of doing something significant.
2. Tell me about a time when you were creative in solving a problem.
3. Describe a time when you were able to come up with new ideas that were key to the success of some activity or project.
4. Tell me about a time when you had to bring out the creativity in others.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Priority Setting:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to balance competing priorities and did so successfully.
2. Tell me about a time when you had to pick out the most important things in some activity and make sure those got done.
3. Tell me about a time that you prioritized the elements of a complicated project.
4. Tell me about a time when you got bogged down in the details of a project.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Decision Making:

1. Describe for me a time when you had to make an important decision with limited facts.
2. Tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision.
3. Describe for me a time when you had to adapt to a difficult situation. What did you do?
4. Tell me about a time when you made a bad decision
5. Tell me about a time when you hired (or fired) the wrong person.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Ability to Work in Varying Work Conditions (stress, changing deadlines, etc.):

1. Tell me about a time when you worked effectively under pressure.
2. Tell me about a time when you were unable to complete a project on time.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to change work mid-stream because of changing organizational priorities.
4. Describe for me what you do to handle stressful situations.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Delegation:

1. Tell me about a time when you delegated a project effectively.
2. Tell me about a time when you did a poor job of delegating.
3. Describe for me a time when you had to delegate to a person with a full workload, and how you went about doing it.

If You’re Looking For Behaviors that Revolve Around Customer Service:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to deal with an irate customer.
2. Tell me about one or two customer-service related programs that you’ve done that you’re particularly proud of.
3. Tell me about a time when you made a lasting, positive impression on a customer.

Michael Shapiro, E Group Partners, Inc.