During their face to face interviews or even before in the screening interviews the Millennials can expect a volley of behavioral questions. Asked mainly to assess how you act in a particular situation, it is best to be prepared for the many that can be asked and often are the ones that are difficult to answer on the fly.
These questions are an attempt to estimate your problem solving abilities, how well you work in a team, and most importantly how well you can contribute towards the company’s culture. Most of these questions would be directly related to what the company values are and these assessments help the interviewers to judge if you would be the right fit for the position. Apart from the technical skills you have prepare well for the soft skills that are the focus and can make or break your chances for the job.
Some examples of behavioral questions are listed on the QuintCareers website.
When answering the behavioral questions try to be honest, or as believable as possible.
Sylvia Landy in her new book Ditch the Flip-Flops – Ace your job interview Fresh Out of College says; Formulate your answers as follows:
- Describe briefly a specific situation or event
- Explain the action you took
- Define the results in terms of outcomes and what you learned
She says that you must share experiences that involve both positive and negative circumstances. However be sure that the negative instances demonstrate satisfactory resolution o proactive lessons learned. But one of the best strategies is to review your employer and market research to ascertain which characteristics are most valuable to this type of organization, culture, industry and so on.