Behavioural Interview Questions

Tell me about yourself.

• Talk about your job titles and responsibilities in reverse chronological order. Focus the majority of your answer on the last 7-10 years.
• Mention a variety of achievements relevant to the job in question.
• Think about the job description and highlight 1-2 of your key accomplishments that relate to the job requirements.
• Close by asking the interviewer, if your background and skills are similar to what they are looking for in the ideal candidate.

Why do you feel you are a good fit for this opportunity?

• Show a direct correlation between your background, previous accomplishments, and how they directly relate to the position you are interviewing for.
• Illustrate your knowledge of their business (e.g. a new product launch, and show them how your previous experience in “X” will assist them with that process).

Why did you leave the last company you were at?

• If you left because you did not enjoy your last position be honest about the situation and then explain what you are looking for now.
• In many situations employees have been impacted due to an organizational restructuring. In some situations you can say, “As you may have read in the paper, my previous company has gone through a number of changes, and unfortunately, my position was impacted by these changes".
• Always end the answer with something positive such as what you are doing now or how you are excited about this opportunity, etc.

What are your three greatest strengths?

• Identify 2-3 key competencies that you know are directly related to the position (e.g., leadership skills, negotiating skills, organizational skills, etc.)
• Illustrate and prove these strengths by providing tangible STAR stories that show your success in these areas.

What do you consider to be your weaknesses or shortcomings?

• Highlight a weakness that is not a core competency for the position you’ve applied to (e.g., a receptionist could talk about a weakness in math). After you’ve mentioned your weakness, tell your interviewer what you are doing to improve yourself in this area.

Describe the contributions you have made to your current company.

• Try to focus on relevant accomplishments from the last 5-7 years.
• From this list provide 1-2 examples that you know are directly relevant to the current position you are interviewing for.
• Provide a STAR answer that shows how your past experience can immediately contribute to the company you’re interviewing with.

Tell me about an objective in your last position that you failed to meet, and why.

• Identify an objective that was not a core competency of your last position.
• Provide the STAR answer to describe the scenario.
• Always finish the answer by telling the interviewer, what you did afterward to ensure this never occurred again, what you learned from it, or what you did to quickly solve the problem when a similar situation occurred.

What important trends do you see in our industry?

• This shows the interviewer that you are knowledgeable about the industry and that you keep up to date on what is going on.
• Provide specific examples of conferences, websites, and magazines that you read to stay current.

Why should we hire you?

• Now is your chance to pull together all the key points of the interview and remind them of all the things you bring to the table.
• If appropriate, a strong summary statement would follow a format like, “As I understand the position, you are looking for someone who can … and as we’ve discussed I have an extensive background in … and x years experience in…”.
• Sometimes it’s helpful to connect the dots for the interviewer and illustrate why you are a strong candidate for this position.
• Once you have shown why they should hire you, ask them if they have any immediate concerns about your background, or if there is an area they feel is not compatible.