6 Behavioral Interview Questions to Help Hiring Managers Better Assess Candidates
A variety of interview types exist out there and you’ve probably experienced at least a few of them, either as a hiring manager or as a candidate. Behavioral interview questions are a well-known interview technique that can help you drill into how a candidate has dealt with a range of professional situations in the past. Their answers can give you a sense of how they approach different challenges and opportunities as you assess their potential for success in a new role.
Many hiring managers are familiar with some of the more popular behavioral interview questions like “What is a particularly difficult work challenge you have faced and how did you deal with it?” or “What is your greatest weakness and how do you work around it?”. These are certainly helpful behavioral questions you can ask – and there are many others you can use to really understand a candidate’s hard and soft skills.
Here are six behavioral interview questions to consider along with the qualities and skills they can help you assess:
1) Adaptability
Tell me about a time when your department or organization was undergoing change. How did it impact your work and what did you do to adjust to it?
2) Communication
Share an example in which you had to “sell” a new concept or initiative to a company leader or manager. How did you approach it and what was the result?
3) Culture add
Describe a time when you were dissatisfied in your role. What did you or could you have done to make it better?
4) Leadership
Tell me about the toughest decision you had to make in the last six months and why it was difficult.
5) Personality and self-awareness
How would your manager describe you? Your coworkers? Your best friend?
6) Problem-solving
Have you ever been assigned a task you had never done before? Did you figure out a solution yourself or did you ask for guidance? What was the outcome?
These are just a few of the many interesting and insightful behavioral interview questions you can ask to get a better sense of the candidate in front of you. Do you have a favorite or out-of-the-box behavioral interview question to share? Email us and we’ll add it to the list!
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