tips for behavioural interview

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How To Prepare for a Behavioral Interview (With Tips)

Interviews can be extremely intimidating! It’s your opportunity to show off your talent and calibre, as well as for your employers to judge your potential for the organization. That’s why you surely need some tips for behavioural interview. Current employers do not just validate candidates based on their qualifications but also their soft skills.

 

While you can have technical rounds that allow you to showcase your expertise, behavioural interviews will help hiring managers understand how your future performance is based on your past behaviour.

 

When preparing for a job interview, especially a behavioural one, it’s crucial to highlight your past experiences effectively. Start by reviewing the job description and identifying key skills and qualities required. 

 

Behavioural interviews ensure the most suitable candidates are selected for the job. This approach takes a deep dive into your past experience to understand how you face challenges and collaborations and achieve great results. 

 

Sounds intimidating? Fear not! This blog will help you overcome your problems by providing useful tips for behavioural interview. 

 

Our proven behavioural interview strategies allow you to easily transform your anxiety into confidence. Let’s explore these tips to turn your next pre-screening interview or behavioural interview into a success story.

 

Top tips for behavioural interview

Unlike traditional job interviews, behavioural interviews focus more on what you have done in your previous jobs than how you deal with a hypothetical situation.

 

The idea here is that your past behavior will provide the interviewers with insights into whether you are suitable for the job or not. Not sure how to prepare for a behavioural interview? Here are some behavioural interview tips for success in job interviews, including how to craft a compelling self-introduction for an interview:

 

Be clear and concise

To maintain engagement with your interviewer, you should pay attention to your tone, eye contact, smile, and even posture. When it comes to communication, you should focus on being as clear and concise as possible. One simple way to do this is to use the STAR/CAR format. 

 

Now, back to the STAR/CAR format, you can easily use these as valuable tips for behavioural interviews:

 

STAR Format:

  • Situation: Carefully set the scene and give the necessary details of your example.
  • Task: Describe to the interviewers what your responsibility was in that situation
  • Action: Clearly explain the steps you took to address it.
  • Result: Lastly, share the outcomes of your action.

 

CAR Format:

  • Context: Properly describe the situation to the interviewers and explain a relevant example from your past.
  • Action: Explain the steps you took to solve those problems and deliver results.
  • Results: Finally, share the outcomes your action achieved. Additionally, you can also offer specific facts relating to the results.

 

This is probably one of the best tips for behavioural interview. Utilising this format, you can easily structure your answer for the interviewer.

 

Research thoroughly

While preparing for behavioural interview, thoroughly research the company you are interviewing for. This step is crucial to avoid common job interview mistakes and to develop effective job search strategies. Here is how you can go about using this information to formulate your behaviour interview answers:

 

  • Firstly, you must research the company and carefully read the job description.
  • Secondly, you should make a list of all the top skills required for the role you are applying for. Simultaneously, prepare a few stories that demonstrate your competency in those skills.
  • Lastly, you should weave in the knowledge of the company in your answer.

 

Using these tips for behavioural interviews can help you overcome your fears and turn them into confidence.

 

Curate a list of competencies, attributes, and skills

Instead of being scared or intimidated, you should take a behavioural interview as a chance to showcase your talents, abilities, and results. You think you will instantly increase your chances of getting the offer.

 

Take note of the skills required for your dream job role, and simultaneously focus on the skills the company is looking for in prospective candidates.  Combining both of these will result in a cluster of skills necessary for the role. Based on these, you can build a list of your capabilities.

 

Listing your talents and skills will ensure you do not forget them during the real interview. Using these tips for behavioural interview, you can provide the interviewers with exactly what they want, thus boosting your chances even more.

 

Build a narrative

How you explain your past experience is in your hands. You will have to decide how to justify the relevance of your past experience with the current role you are applying for. Therefore, do not be hasty; take your time and think.

 

There could be some unique and memorable situations from your past experience that you can use to showcase how you are a great fit for this role.  While preparing for behavioural interview, you should focus on emphasising your key strengths to make your stories more compelling.

 

After all, your future success will depend on your past actions. So, the better your story is, the higher the chance of success. Be specific in your storytelling, and avoid using vague language.

 

Practice aloud before the real interview

Practice makes a man perfect, and it is one of the most invaluable tips for behavioural interviews. To be more specific, you should practice answering possible interview questions out loud. Then, carefully observe yourself and look for opportunities to improve your answer. 

 

Speaking your answers out loud gives you a better understanding of your own position. If you want to be even more thorough, try doing this in front of a mirror. This way, you can see how you present yourself while answering questions.

 

Demonstrate Results

Among all the tips for behavioural interviews, this is probably the most useful one. During the interview carefully detail how you have reached successful outcomes and quantify the results whenever necessary.

 

In addition to detailing successful outcomes, you should also explain unsuccessful outcomes. When describing these you should focus on how you handled the situation, and what you could have done differently. 

 

During behavioural-based interviews, the interviewers look for drive and passion in the candidate. With these tips for behavioural interviews, you will be able to show them your best qualities and your willingness to achieve great results. Interviewers prefer quick learners; therefore, you need to show how you maximize the feedback to achieve great results. 

 

Wrap your answer with a nice conclusion

While some stories may go according to the STAR methods, some won’t, and that is fine. In any case, just make sure you wrap up your story with a nice conclusion. This will help the interviewers understand what they are supposed to learn from your story. 

 

Telling your story and then telling what you think about the entire incident allows you to leave a favourable impression. In addition, by giving your own summation, you are ensuring that the interviewers do not end up drawing the wrong conclusion from your stories. Utilizing these tips for behavioural interviews will allow you to turn the situation in your favour.

 

How 6 Pence Helps

Now that you are armed with these useful tips for behavioural interviews, it’s time you put them in action. Practice your responses, research the company and the role, and approach the interview with a positive mindset.

 

Above all, never forget that behavioural interviews are your chance to shine and showcase your skills. So use these behavioural interview strategies well to significantly increase your chances of securing your dream job.

 

Are you looking for well-paying roles in the GCC? Drop your CVs by visiting our careers page. 6 Pence is one of the leading staff outsourcing company in Oman, Dubai, Bahrain, and Iraq. We hire workers for some of the top organisations in these areas. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. How do I prepare for a behavioural interview?

Read the job description carefully to check if you have the required skills and qualifications. Think of a story that highlights each of these skills as well as emphasises why you are the right fit for the role. Lastly, no matter what questions is asked, give it your own positive spin and answer with confidence and clarity. 

 

  1. What are the mistakes in behavioural interviews?

Interviews can be nerve-wracking, so by preparing in advance, you can tremendously improve your performance. Here are some mistakes you should avoid during the interview:

 

  • Excessive talking or not at all, both can be detrimental
  • Criticising your previous employers and colleagues can form a negative impression
  • Not being honest

 

  1. What are behavioural interviewing techniques?

Behaviour-based interview techniques refer to the method of evaluating candidates based on their past experience and behaviours. Businesses use this technique to predict a candidate’s future performance.  Further, it provides them with deep insights into the candidate’s skills, decision-making, and work style.

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