Interviews can be likened to a journey of the Amazing Race. You are feeling excited yet nervous, you are travelling well and just when you think you are on the home stretch you are faced with a new surprise – a new challenge.
This challenge could be some behavioural based interview questions and like any good contestant the best way to attack and overcome challenges is to be prepared for whatever scenario is thrown in your direction. The way you respond to these challenges can give you the winning edge.
During the interview you can not predict the style or questions that are going to be asked however drawing upon previous experiences prior to the interview and keeping them fresh in your mind will help to calm your nerves and enable you to be more confident in answering questions. Having some previous scenarios prepared will enable you to apply these to many different questions.
To help prepare yourself, while researching the company think of some workplace situations relevant to that company and then try and relate these situations back to your own experiences. This will demonstrate you have an understanding of their industry and that through your own experiences you can relate to their company.
An easy way to remember how to answer behavioural based questions is to use theSTAR methodology (Situation, Task, Action and Result) eg describe the Situation, remember the specific Task that was required to be conducted, remember the Actionsthat you took and what were the end Results as a result of your actions.
For example, you may reflect upon a time whereby an incident occurred and you had to work under pressure, prioritise, multi-task, lead a team and performance manage someone all at once. You could then apply this one scenario to answer any of the below questions:
- “tell me a time whereby an incident occurred in your workplace and you have been responsible for solving this problem”;
- “tell me a time whereby an incident occurred at your workplace – what were the steps you took in this situation and what were the outcomes”; and
- “tell me about a time whereby you were faced with a problem at work – how would you better prepare for this to not occur again”.
Even though these might seem like simple and easy tasks, thinking through your scenarios and having these fresh in your mind prior to the interview will give you more confidence to hopefully eliminate any nerves or awkward pauses or feeling like you have been put on the spot to think quickly.
The best interviews are the ones that you are most prepared for and being ready will certainly give you the winning edge over your competitors during your own ‘Amazing Race’.
Join in the discussion 