Below we are going to break down the parts of a behavioral interview so you can understand the process a bit more and be able to ace your next interview.
The most important thing to remember about answering any interview questions is “what do they want to hear?” and structure your interview answer around that. The reason that this is effective is because it will help you keep the focus on the company and their goals and how you can help meet them which will make you stand out as a candidate.
The introduction portion of an interview consists of the interviewer getting to know you, your interests, your goals, and how that all matches with the company’s overall mission and culture.
Tell me about yourself.
Why do you want to work for this company?
What could you bring to the company?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
What values do you most admire about this company?
Research the company, its values, it’s mission and any news updates they have posted. Doing this will help you better understand how you can make them meet their goals. If the company’s goals don’t align with you at all, you may want to ask yourself if you really want to interview with this company after all or use it as practice for a company that you do really like
Start with how much you admire the company and why what they do inspires and motivates you
Talk about how your values align with theirs
This is your moment to brag so talk about how many projects, internships, and other cool things you have done and how those showcase your values
Make sure that you end by tying everything together and letting them know how excited you are to be interviewing there!
Tell me about yourself example here
Why do you want to work for this company?
“ I am so excited to be interviewing for XXX company, I love how you are revolutionizing XXXX industry and would love to be part of that mission. What I admire most about XXX company is their value of XXXX because of XXXX. In addition to being alined with your mission and values, I also love to learn and have had XXX internships/ projects that taught me about XXXX languages. Thanks again for the opportunity and I am looking forward to learning more during our interview.”
This part of the interview focuses on getting to know more about your experience and how that lines up with the goals of the company. This part looks at collaboration skills, technical skills, coding strategy, and project work. The questions in this part are usually called Situational Questions.
Tell me about a time you failed
Tell me about a time you succeeded
How would you handle a situation when you don’t know what to do?
Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a coworker/group mate
How do you usually start a new project?
Tell me about a time you led a project
To prepare for these interviews, you want to create a list of all your interview examples so that you can easily memorize them for your interview. You can use the Interview Examples worksheet to get started. Once you’ve filled out the form, it’s important you practice using the STAR method. You can get more familiar with the STAR method below or check out more information here
Start with a general answer of the question outlining how you did what is being asked
Continue with the STAR method (more information here)
Make sure you redirect back to the company so they know how your example is tied to helping the company and shows them how you can be a value-add to the team
Tell me about a time you succeeded
“A time that I succeeded was when I was a part of a team at XXX company (or XXX group project) where I ended up creating a project using XXX technologies that impacted XXX people/ run time/ efficiency.
The project came together in a team of XXX to solve XXX problem(Situation)
We were tasked with redesigning a process in order to XXXX (Task)
In order to make sure we met the goal, I used( XXX language) to build XXX because it was more efficient (Action)
Due to what we built, we were able to increase efficiency/ change the process/ find a creative solution (Result)
Since I was able to build that solution and got experience with XXX technology, I think I would be a great value add to the team (Redirect)
This part of the interview focuses on wrapping up the interview and reiterating any final points to the interviewer that you want to showcase about your experience. This also is where you can ask the interviewer about themselves or their experience at the company. Most interviewers expect you to ask at least one question to find out more about the role, company, or them.
Do you have any questions for me?
Is there anything else that I could answer for you about the company?
Are you curious about anything?
To prepare for this part of the interview, you want to have researched your interviewer on LinkedIn, researched the company, and made a list of questions that you want to ask.
To end the interview, you want to thank the interviewer for their time and ask if you can stay in touch through LinkedIn or for their email (this is great info for later on in the process.) Once you’ve said goodbye, try to send a thank you note to them via LinkedIn or Email.