The Quick and Dirty Guide to Preparing for a Behavioural Based Job Interview

1. By Graeme Kiyoto-Ward

2. Why this guide
 Occasionally there are times that I provide help to
those who are needing to undertake a behavioural
based interview.
 Often there is not a lot of time between when I provde
the help and the time of the interview.
 This pack provides a summary of the approach I take
when helping people where there isn’t a lot of time to
prepare.

3. Who is this guide for?
You need this guide if you:
 have an upcoming behavioural based job interview.
 don’t have any pre-prepared materials.
 don’t have a lot of time to prepare.
 haven’t had much experience in behavioural based
interviews.

4. What do you need
You will need:
 the position description or the advertisement of the
job you have applied for.
 pen and paper.
 at least an hour.

5. What will be the result
At the end of this you will have:
 a way to introduce yourself.
 a list of why your hard skills match those of the job.
 a list of examples that prove you have the right soft
skills (the behavioural bit).
 some questions to ask.
 some information about the company.
 the right attitude.

6. About The Introduction
 Generally interviews start with some variant of the
question “tell me about yourself.”
 You want to make a good first impression.
 The introductory question is a good place to sell
yourself.
 How you manage introductory questions may decide
how seriously you are taken.

7. Preparing for the Introduction
To answer the most common introduction questions you
need three things:
 Who you are (I am a…)
 What you do (I currently do…)
 Why they need you (I have applied for this job
because…)
If you have these things you can probably answer 80% of
introductory questions.

8. Practicing the Introduction
 Write it down.
 Practice, the practice again.
 Don’t skip this step.
NOTE: If you have trouble talking about
yourself, practice by describing someone you admire
until you have the formula right, then describe yourself.

9. About Hard Skills
 Employers are looking for someone to do some specific
function or specific tasks.
 This means hard skills.
 Hard skills are more likely learned from education or
training, e.g. write code, balance books, etc.
 You need to prove you have those hard skills.

10. Prep for Hard Skills Questions
 Read the advertisement (or position description).
 Look for key hard skills they require.
 Write down each skill and an example :
 If you have no example, think about a similar experience
as an example
 If you have no similar experience, note down two to
three main points you have learned about the topic
 If you don’t have this then you have a gap

11. Practice Hard Skills Questions
 Practice how you would answer question that you don’t
have good examples for.
 If you have one or two gaps be honest in the interview
if these come up.
 If you have too many gaps then how did you secure an
interview in the first place?

12. About Soft Skills – part one
 Employers are looking for people who act in certain ways as
they perform their duties.
 This means soft skills.
 Soft skills are more likely learned from experience, e.g.
communicating, managing difficult customers, etc.
 Behavioural based interviewing is checking soft skills by
asking how you dealt with similar situations in the past.
 This could be the main part of the interview.

13. About Soft Skills – part two
There is a recommended approach for answering soft
skills question, which is.
 S: Describe the situation.
 T: Describe your assigned task.
 A: Describe the action you took.
 R: Describe the result.
 Provide enough detail to make the example real.

14. Prep for Soft Skills Questions
 Read the advertisement (or position description) to
find the key soft skills they require.
 Write down each skill and an example :
 If you have no example, think about a similar experience
as an example
 If you don’t have this then you have a gap
 Make sure each example has a Situation, Task, Action
and a Result.

15. Prep for Soft Skills Questions
 Watch out for soft skills questions that may not be
obvious from the position description, such as:
 Tell me what is your greatest weaknesses
 Tell me about a time you made a mistake
 Use google to search for ‘difficult interview questions’
and check for anything that would give you trouble.
 Ask people you have worked with for any examples of
what you have done that has impressed them.

16. Practice Soft Skills Questions
 Practice how you would talk about each example.
 Make sure that the Situation, Task, Action and Result
are clear in your answers.
 If you have a friend who can help, get them to ask you
questions.

17. About Questions to Ask
 If you really want a job you may be tempted not to ask
questions because these would seem to be a ‘barrier’
 If you don’t ask questions then the interviewer may
think that you are not interested in the job.
 Make sure you have some questions to ask.

18. Prep for Questions to Ask
 Google something like “questions to ask at a job interview.”
 Select a result that has a reasonable sized list.
 Find a question that you feel sounds good.
 Check you could reply if asked “why did you ask that
question?”
 Write the question down.
 Repeat until you have five questions.

19. Information about the Company
 Go and find some information about the company.
 Most companies have a company website, for the rest
there is google.
 There is no excuse.
 If you are not interested in their company they are
unlikely to be interested in you.

20. Getting the right attitude
 If you are good at selling yourself, that’s great.
 If you struggle to sell yourself it could be a problem.
 Redefine how you look at the situation. Think about
why they need you and how you can help them.

21. Finally
 Make some notes and take them with you.
 Be on time.
 Don’t do any difficult or complex mental tasks in the
hour prior to the interview.
 Definitely don’t do any task that you find unpleasant in
the hour prior to the interview.