How to Answer BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Using the STAR Method (TOP 10 Behavioral Questions)

hey everybody Don Georgevich here and today i'm going to show you how to answer behavioral questions not just any behavioral questions but the top ten because employers are going to ask you questions like this or ones that are very similar because they use behavioral questions to help them determine whether you can do the job or not it's a measure of your competencies and it helps them dig a little bit deeper into your experience to find out what kind of things you've done and to help them predict whether you're going to be able to work out in this position whether you're going to be able to do the job whether you're going to be a good long-term solution to their problems that's why employers ask behavioral questions so in this video i'm going to show you the best way to answer these questions using the star method now star stands for situation or task action and result for each question i'm first going to describe the situation which is part one then i'm going to talk about the action that i took which is part two and then i'm going to wrap up my answer which is the result of what happened and that is part three and that's all there is to it you need to describe the situation talk about the action that you took and then you wrap it up with the result of what happened pretty easy right now it's up to you to gather up your stories and experiences and format them using the star method now as we go through this you'll notice all of my answers are short and sweet i don't use long paragraphs to explain how i did things instead i prefer short statements to get right to the point so if your interviewer wants to know more about your experiences then you can elaborate but there's no need to overwhelm them initially with all kinds of details that they aren't looking for i mean that makes sense right now i also have a pdf version of these questions and you can download that at job interview tools dot com slash star i'm also going to put that link um below this video all you have to do is just put in your email address and tell me where to send that pdf to and i'll get it right out to you all right so let's dig into the first behavioral question number one tell us about a time that you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done so the first thing we want to do is talk about the situation i was working as a social worker at touch of life which is a support center for disabled children now most of the children were either blind or deaf and communication was a huge barrier in my work performance and meeting their needs was difficult the second thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about the action this is what we did so i requested the organization to employ a sign language interpreter to help me with the children but they could not afford the extra manpower so i enrolled for sign language classes with my own resources to enable me to communicate better with the children and then the last thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about the result this is what happened this is what we did to solve the problem so after three months into the course i was able to communicate with 90 of the children and better serve their needs with better communication we were able to give donors specific requests and donor funds increased by 20 later when the organization got funds they refunded me the entire tuition cost i had spent to educate myself on sign language okay so let's look at another example of how to do a behavior question what is the most competitive work situation you have experienced how did you handle it and what was the result so the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to talk about the situation so while working as a sales representative for a car dealership there was a rule that whoever sold the most cars that year would have 50 percent of their mortgage paid off and have the latest car model given to them most of my colleagues became so obsessed with winning the competition that they started sabotaging each other's efforts to make the sales the next thing we're going to do is we're going to talk about the action that we took i remained friendly to my colleagues not letting the huge reward get to my character i encouraged my workmates that it was better if we worked together than against each other we called for a meeting with the head of sales and we told him what the competition was doing to us and then we're going to wrap up our answer with the result this is what happened the huge reward was removed and in place groups were formed and a new reward was set up working in groups created a more hospitable work environment and enhanced teamwork and made the gold more attainable all right i think that was a great follow-up to that question let's go on to the next one number three when you have a lot of work to do how do you get it all done give me an example first thing you want to do is talk about the situation when i was working as the head manager for a bank of chicago i used to have a hard time finishing my work on time i hardly had extra time to bond and supervise my juniors or even take proper lunch breaks i realized that most of the work and decision making was left to me while my assistant didn't have much on his plate the second thing you want to do you want to go in and talk about the action this is what we did so i decided to divide my work into different categories urgent moderate and least urgent i also divided the task into those which needed my individual attention and general tasks i delegated all of the least demanding and least sensitive tasks to my subordinate staff and then you want to wrap up your answer tell them what happened this is the result i learned that delegation helped me reduce my workload by 70 this gave me enough time to finish all of my other pending tasks so i could get all my work done on time it also made me appreciate the efforts of my staff and even more than i did before all right let's do another one number four give me a specific time when you had to address an angry customer what was the problem and what was the outcome if you're in any kind of customer service position employers are going to ask you questions about how you handled an angry customer so what you want to do is look back to a time when you dealt with an angry customer and tell them what happened so first i'll talk about the situation now when i worked at a clothing store we had a policy that if a customer wanted to return something that they had purchased online they had to present the printed invoice as well so one type of customer had forgotten her invoice and was frustrated by our policy now she lived far away and she rarely came into the store the computer cannot perform an online return without the invoice but i just felt bad for the customer second thing you want to do is you want to talk about what you did this is the action part two of the behavioral question from experience i knew that she would feel better being helped by a manager so i asked my manager to help the customer they discussed her situation and my manager decided to return the items by overriding the system and gave the customer store credit which is something i couldn't do myself and the last thing we want to do is talk about the result this is what happened she was able to pick out items to replace her return and left a satisfied customer now when i realized i didn't have the ability to change the situation and diffuse the customer's frustration i knew my manager would be able to and she successfully helped make that customer's experience with us a positive one all right so let's go on to the next question number five now this one is about building relationships so you can almost expect to get a similar question on your interview because building relationships whether it's with other departments whether it's with customers whether it's with vendors third party it doesn't matter this type of question can be used in almost any kind of interview so here's the question number five it's very important to build good relationships at work but sometimes it doesn't always work can you tell me about a time when you were not able to build a successful relationship with a difficult person this is a great question i love it so first we're going to talk about the situation i was assigned to work on a project with someone outside of my department who i had never met initially we were able to work alongside each other just fine but as we spent more time together he consistently missed work he wouldn't complete his portion of the project and he just got frustrated with me for not picking up the slack at first i was furious i was new to my position and i wanted to make a good impression but he made it difficult to be a positive force in the workplace all right second let's talk about the action this is this is what we did i worked with my boss to facilitate inter-department communication which resulted in less face time with my co-worker to complete a project okay and last let's talk about the result this is what happened the time we worked together was reduced to meeting once a week to follow up with each other on how our portion of the project was progressing anything that was not completed was up to that workers department to finish we ended up finishing a few weeks later than we expected i'm sure we would have finished the project sooner if we had kept working together but i'm also sure i would have done most of the work but the extra three weeks it took to complete the project was not an issue for the company so even in this case the project took longer than expected and there were issues of working with people but you know what in the end the project got completed and that's the most important thing and when you can when you can use an answer like this you can show that you're able to work through situations now it would it would have been bad if you weren't able to complete the project at all but in this case you found a way to work through the project even though it meant not working together but you're able to split apart and separately work on different angles of the project to meet at the end and complete it which is a success even though it took longer it's still a success and when you can present a solution like that to an employer it shows that you are resourceful it shows that you persevere and you just don't quit okay so let's do another one number six have you ever worked in a situation where the rules and the guidelines were not clear tell me about it this happens all the time so first let's talk about the situation i work best with clear instruction and expectations so when i stepped into a new role which had neither it was very stressful the company had just created the position to augment the workload for a similar position but had not taken the time to sit down and get into all the details of what my tasks would be i felt anxious and frustrated because i wanted to perform well as a newcomer but i was unaware of what my measurable goals were now let's talk about the action i asked my boss for some direction which she gave me but i soon realized she was too busy with her own work to spontaneously talk about my performance i scheduled a meeting with her and until that point i set about creating my own goals i had previously gotten the job and i knew the basic requirements so i knew i was qualified to produce the work that they were looking for i set long-term goals to be accomplished in six months and i worked backwards from there and last let's talk about the result this is what happened through this process i was able to come up with daily measurable goals to guide my work and i felt reassured that i would be successful in my new role when i had the meeting with my boss i reviewed my goals with her and she was very impressed with my ability to work independently now if you're interviewing for any kind of position where you would have to present things like in a meeting room or present ideas powerpoints whatever you can probably expect to get a question like this which is number seven describe the most significant presentation you had to give first as always we're going to talk about the situation in my last semester of college i had to present my final project which counted for 50 percent of my grade if i did poorly on the presentation i would have had to retake the class thereby putting off my graduation another semester i felt the pressure of the situation and i prepared for weeks to make sure i performed well second let's talk about the action that i took students were required to have a visual aid to accompany their presentation so i took that opportunity to go above and beyond i worked with a designer friend to come up with an amazing poster and i had it professionally printed i brought in candy and i tossed it to the audience as people participated in the presentation and i had personalized business cards made up to show how seriously i understood the importance of networking the last thing we want to do as always we want to talk about the result this is what happened my hard work paid off the presentation went very well and i passed the class graduating on time my teacher was very impressed with my effort and even asked me to keep the poster as an example for future classes all right for this next question you can almost expect to see this on any interview because it's a question that you can use for almost any kind of profession and it has to do with how you present complex ideas in a simple form so here it is number eight how do you go about explaining complex technical problems to a person who does not understand technical jargon so for this example i'm going to use a medical example and first we're going to talk about the situation the hospital i used to work for used a pixis machine to dispense medications for patients as a doctor it was my job to pass meds on the floor when the new staff came on i had to train them to use the system now by medical standards the pixis is a bit antiquated and it could be difficult to use if you're not familiar with it and if you're not used to the terms you know to keep it functioning properly second talk about the action after dozens of attempts to train the new staff to use it i made a decision to create a roadmap to help the staff understand how it operated and how it connected to the house hospital pharmacy and what steps to take to ensure that all of the functions worked properly we eliminated all of the technical jargon and we used a numbered system so that all the staff would have to do is count from one to eight to ensure that they had completed everything with their medication passes the last thing we want to do talk about the result what happened the elimination of the technical jargon made things easier for everyone it gave the staff a check and balance system that helped to ensure the right medications were being dispensed to the right patient and that all the steps were completely error-free now as with all the answers in these questions they're all somewhat specific to an industry like you know for the last couple we talked about college in a college presentation we talked about medical example but the point is not for you to use this answer the point for you is to see how these answers are delivered and then to understand that framework and then take that framework and apply it to your own experience so that way you can go in and you can answer any type of behavioral question based on your experiences make sense okay so we got two more to go number nine and ten so here's number nine describe a recent unpopular decision you made and what the result was first let's talk about the situation there was this guy his name was tim he worked for me and he was stationed in a big office with his co-workers and he was speaking to a client on the phone now while he was on the phone his co-workers were very loud they made it difficult for him to hear the client even after flashing a hand gesture to his co-workers they still wouldn't lower the voice second i'm going to talk about the action that we took now tim came to me to complain about the incident later i held the meeting and i addressed the issue and i instituted a new policy that everyone needed to be quiet all the time in the sales area even if no one was on the phone now last thing we do we sum it up this is the result this is what we did even though everyone knew it was tim who had reported the matter i took the heat because of the new policy but everyone eventually realized they had to respect their working hours and their co-workers they also realized that they were there to take care of clients and not goof around so are you getting a hang for answering behavioral questions it's not too hard right you just talk about your experiences you talk about a problem that you had how you dealt with it and what the result was that's all there is to it there's no right or wrong answer to behavioral questions you're just using a framework the star method framework to take in your information your experiences and format them in a way that tells a story that's all you have to do you're just telling a story about your experiences and that's it anyone can do this you can do this too so let's do the last one number 10. sometimes we need to remain calm on the outside when we are really upset on the inside give an example of a time that this happened to you first let's talk about the situation i worked as a server in a busy restaurant one day i was very busy with a large amount of tables i had a customer whose order came out wrong and she got very upset and proceeded to berate me in the middle of the dining room and walk out on a bill second let's talk about the action i was extremely upset but i knew that i had many other customers who needed my attention i took a minute in the kitchen just to get away from the site and the lines of customers and to collect myself and then i resumed working i reminded myself that one unpleasant experience shouldn't affect and ruin the remainder of my shift as it would detract you know from the other customer experience for everyone else and the last thing the result this is what happened this is what we did so for the rest of my shift passed without incident the manager adjusted my sales to compensate for the patron who walked out as it was a kitchen error my other tables were very grateful for my service and many of them commended me on my professional handling of the situation so in a case like that all you're really doing is showing how you dealt with a customer you're showing your result you're showing that you are able to push through in difficult situations and that the actions of other people are not affecting you from doing your job you are staying the course and you can use that style of answer for like i said in any type of question it's always good to show how you pull through and how other people don't derail you from the job so that's it that's all i have for you today i hope you enjoyed the top 10 behavioral questions here and if you want to download a copy of the pdf document you can go to job interview tools.com star also put a link below this video where you can go there just put in your email address you can download the pdf now if you want to go farther in this if you want to get more examples to more behavioral questions and just to dig deeper than i can in this video i would strongly suggest picking up a copy of the complete interview answer guide i have over 40 different behavioral questions using the star method in this guide and then i also have an additional uh i don't even know how many uh maybe or 20 or 30 more behavior questions that don't really use the star method but they use more of a conversational style so it's not like you're breaking breaking up the answer into these individual components that you don't like with the star method you don't have to do the situation first you can start with the result and you can work backwards so it really just depends on how you want to tell the story you could start off with the action and then the result and then and then maybe the situation but that probably wouldn't work as good um i like to start off with the situation just explain what happens because it just makes sense but sometimes you might want us you might want to start with the result and then go back and start with the situation and then the action either way whatever you're more comfortable with but in the complete interview answer guide i'm going to give you about 40 different ways using the structured star method and then i'm going to give you several other ways to answer behavioral questions in a more conversational style a little bit more natural where you don't follow the star method exactly but that you're hitting on all the key elements of the star method and it kind of makes your answers come out just more natural and more genuine like like you're sitting down and having a cup of coffee and telling somebody a real story rather than you know using that framework but you i think it's good i think it's good to use a little bit of both use a little bit of the star method and and then for other questions you know maybe you know put your own spin on it tell it your own way and it'll be easier for you that way because you're not trying to create a structure around it you're trying to tell a story in maybe the way it unfolded and not necessarily and maybe that doesn't really fit with the star method so whatever you want to do either follow the structure of the star method or put your own spin on it the complete interview answer guide is going to help you go farther it's going to show you more about the questions that you can expect to get on any interview i mean i tell you i even get i get employers purchasing this guy because they don't know how to interview candidates so and they don't know what the right answers are they don't know what answers to look for so a lot of employers even purchase this guide and they use it as a template to to create their interview plan to to ask you questions so if you have this guide you have a blueprint of everything that they're going to ask you and i've had some people tell me that don i i went on interview and because i had your guide you know they asked me 90 of the questions that were in your guide some people have told me you know 50 of the questions that they asked me were in your guide so this book hits interviews from all different angles it goes into detail more detail than i can on behavioral interviews here i dig deeper into how to craft your answers and then i cover all the other questions like you know why do you want to work here tell me about yourself why should we hire you i mean all those questions and answers are in here just just great answers genuine answers and not that you want to use my answers verbatim you don't my answers are just examples you want to come up with your own answers and that's what this guide is designed to do it's designed to help you come up with your own answers your own natural genuine answers about the way you feel about the way you feel about the job and yourself and your experiences and it's gonna help you articulate your experiences in a way to an employer that's going to help them understand who you are what you're capable of and and hopefully hopefully land that job all right that's all i have for you today good luck on your next interview and i will see you in the next video bye now if you're ready to ace your next interview then don't leave anything to chance you can't just show up for a job interview and expect to nail it you know that you have to give yourself an advantage so if you'd like to learn more from me than this video then i encourage you to grab a copy of the complete interview answer guide and prepare yourself to answer interview questions the right way inside you're getting my 20 years of interviewing and hiring experience and i'll teach you what you need to say to employers so they want to hire you so if it's been a while since your last job interview or you have an interview today don't spend countless hours figuring out this stuff instead let me take you by the hand and show you how right now when you order your copy from jobinterviewtools.com you're supporting my channel my message and job seekers all over the world and you're getting a book that has already helped over a million people get hired for their number one job you'll also get direct email access where you can ask me questions and get my personal take on your situation so you'll never be alone during your job search and finally if you found this video helpful then give it a thumbs up and make sure you subscribe to my channel so you get notifications every time i release a new video and by subscribing you support me my message and this 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Channel: Don Georgevich

Views: 308,928

Rating: 4.8955917 out of 5

Keywords: job interview, behavioral interview questions, job search, Job interview Questions, #behavioralinterview

Id: WSbN-0swDgM

Length: 26min 31sec (1591 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 12 2019