But there are many other questions the interviewer could ask, trying to assess the same behavior.

Follow up questions are likely to dig into the experience you choose. Sometimes they can be quite leading, such as “Tell me how you set about influencing your boss in that situation” and this gives you a great clue that they are looking at your influencing techniques, so hopefully you’ll already be well prepared for this. Other follow-up questions in a behavioral interview can be deliberately non-leading. Be prepared for questions such as “What did you do?” or “What did you say?” It is much harder, but just as important, for you to pinpoint what behavior, or set of behaviors, the interviewer is looking for, and give them all you’ve got!

In other words, don’t get hung up on preparing answers to each potential question. It is far more important to think what type of behavior the interviewer is trying to assess with each question, and to have evidence to back up your skill in that area.

So how can I best prepare for a behavioral interview?

It may seem that the interviewer could be coming from anywhere in a behavioral interview – in which case, how can you possibly prepare?

Well actually, it is reasonably straightforward to prepare for a behavioral interview, so long as you have sufficient experience of exhibiting the behaviors they are looking for.

The first thing to do is to produce a list of behaviors you think will be needed for the job. As mentioned before, scour the websites of as many companies in the same sector as you can, and also reach out to your network to refine your behavior list.

Once you have your refined behavior list, now is the time to scour your recent past for when you exhibited those particular behaviors. Many employers really don’t mind whether these experiences come from your time at school, your job, team sports or from community work, but some employers stipulate that they should come from work (or school if you have not held a job before). All interviewers, however, would prefer to discuss experiences which are relatively recent. I would always prefer to discuss experiences from the last two years of a candidate’s life, although I know of other employers who mandate that the experience must have come from the last year.

It is ideal if you are able to describe two or three different experiences in which you exhibited each behavior – that will allow you to choose the most appropriate depending on how the interview seems to be going, and will prepare you for the interviewer saying “tell me about another experience” out of the blue!

The final task is to match up each of your experiences with each of the behaviors on you behavior list. You are likely to find out that some of your experiences are actually very good examples of when you exhibited a broad range of behaviors. For instance, the time when you successfully led a difficult negotiation might also have involved rapid assimilation of data, or facilitating meetings, or prioritization of a range of tasks etc. Focus on these experiences, for they will cover the broadest range of behaviors your interviewer will be looking for.

So far, so good. But do you feel prepared for your behavioral interview yet?

It’s now time to practice how you will lead the interviewer through the experience. There is a handy little acronym to help you out here – it’s called the SPAR approach.

What does SPAR stand for, I hear you ask. It stands for Situation or Problem, Action, Resolution!

So think about providing a concise and punchy summary of the Situation or Problem you faced. Make sure that you focus on the challenge behind the situation or problem – if, for instance, the situation you were faced with was that you were a supply teacher in a classroom full of pupils who had been allowed to misbehave by their normal teacher, don’t down play it! Don’t say, “I was a supply teacher and had to deal with some unruly children." DO say, “I was brought into what was known among the other teachers as the worst-behaved class in the school. They were aged between 11 and 12, which as you know is a difficult age for children. Furthermore, the 40-strong class had effectively divided into two groups, so any approach I took needed to address the concerns of both groups, as well as to break down the barriers between the two groups and bring them closer together. And all this in only two weeks while their regular teacher was away!” As an interviewer, I will have a much fuller idea of the challenge and constraints you need to operate under.

Next – Action! What did you actually do and say at each stage? Make sure that you focus on what YOU did and said. The more you can use “I” than “We”, the better idea I get of what impact you had on the situation. Also, tell me what you were thinking at the time, and why you chose a particular course of action. “We called in the lead trouble-maker into an empty classroom one recess” does not help me find out what WHY you did or said what you did, nor does it give me an idea of whether it was YOU who did it, or actually someone else! It is much better to say “Given my role as a supply teacher, I felt unable to lead any disciplinary action against the lead trouble-maker. So I discussed the situation with my head of department and encouraged him to call the trouble-maker into an empty classroom. I let my head lead the meeting, but made sure that I was able to support him by mentioning specific instances of when the trouble-maker had been disruptive and disturbed the education of the other children."

Finally – Resolution! As an interviewer, I will want to know what happened due to your actions. BUT I also want to know how you felt about the end result, what you learned, and what you might do differently next time. Perhaps something like “The trouble-maker seemed to calm down once he realized the impact he was having on other children. I was amazed to find out that education was very important to him, and that one of the reasons behind his actions was that he was frustrated by the pace in class – he would have liked to have gone much quicker. The head of department took it on himself to review whether the pace of the class should be increased. I found an extra-curricular course for gifted pupils which is offered by a local college. I then discussed the course with the pupil and his parents and he is now half way through a ten week course. Now that he is getting the stimulation and challenge he has been craving, he is much more constructive in the classroom. The whole experience taught me how important it is to maintain an open mind about why frustration can occur in the classroom – something I’ll definitely remember the next time I am faced with an unruly pupil.”

How should I answer behavioral interview questions?

When you are first asked a behavioral interview question, take some time to think of the experience which best answers the question. If you need some time, then ask for it. Your interviewer is keen for you to use the fullest and most compelling experience. As an experienced behavioral interviewer myself, I know that if the candidate picks the right experience then it will be very straightforward for me to do my job. If, however, the candidate picks the wrong experience, then it can sometimes be too late to stop the interview and restart with a more appropriate experience. It is for this reason that I will always tell candidates that if two experiences come to mind, then we should briefly discuss both and jointly decide which might be the most appropriate. Try a similar tactic with your interviewer – if you can think of two experiences which answer the question set by your interviewer, ask them to help you choose which one is most suitable.

Once you have decided on an experience to discuss with your interviewer, stick to the SPAR framework you learned above which will provide a useful structure to the answer. Also, remember to use ‘I’ rather than ‘We’ – the interviewer wants to know what YOU did, not other people! Pause often to allow the interviewer to ask questions of clarification – giving them the detail they want might swing you from a ‘fail’ to a ‘hire’. And at the end of your response, ask them whether there is any more detail you can provide on the experience.

Where can I get hold of some behavioral interview practice questions?

Go to Careerfriend's behavioral interview questions page - you'll find them all there!

Read Part 1

- Jonathan Lewis