5 Tips for Behavioral Interview Questions

These are my top 5 tips for using Behavioral Interview Questions. In my opinion, the question itself isn't the powerful part of this type of interview, it's how you use it to spark a natural conversation with the candidate. You’ll end up having more fun as well as gathering much more important information to be able to make your hiring decision.

1- Limit to 2-3 - When I first started interviewing, I remember coming into the room with 10+ questions. It’s hard to get deep with that many questions.

2- Ask Follow Up Questions - Most of your part of the interview should be follow up questions based on the candidate's responses, so you fully understand the example.

3- Be Receptive - If their answer is going in a different direction than you expected, see where it goes rather than immediately redirecting. Don't judge what the candidate is saying in the interview (not even in your head). Stay open and curious, smile, nod, and continue asking your follow up questions. You will make the candidate feel more comfortable, and get more out of the conversation.

4- Details, Details, Details - Get as much detail as you can. For example: know all of the stakeholders involved, exactly what tasks the candidate completed, what software they used, hard data around the results and business impact, etc. Set expectations around the granularity you're looking for if the candidate is staying too high level. Even if their initial answers are great, if they aren't able to give the level of detail you're looking for, that's a red flag.

5- Follow Your Intuition - If something seems off and you want more clarity, or if something the candidate said was more interesting than what you had already planned to ask, follow the path. Keep the conversation natural and flowing, and be flexible as needed.

Whether you're a hiring manager or candidate, the best way to learn and improve your interviewing skills is to practice. I offer mock interviews and team workshops for refining these skills!