What Is a Behavioural Interview?

For many years, getting a job was quite a simple affair. You’d see a job advert, apply for the job and then go for an interview. These days things are a little bit more complex. With recruitment costs spiralling, the cost of hiring the wrong person can run into thousands.

For this reason, companies take their hiring processes much more seriously and now the hiring process is much longer, often with several rounds of interviews. One of these interview rounds is almost always the behavioural interview. Also known as a competency based interview.

Behavioural interviews are a targeted selection technique that is commonly used by companies to identify the most suitable candidates for the roles that they are recruiting for. The main idea behind a behavioural interview is quite simple. Past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour .

Before a Behavioural Interview

Before a behavioural interview, the interviewer will identify what skills and competencies that the role being interviewed for requires. For example, for a customer services role in a call centre, it may be deemed that the most important skills and qualities required are ‘Providing an excellent customer service’ and ‘Dealing With difficult customers’.

During a Behavioural Interview

During a behavioural interview, the interviewer will then ask questions to test the competencies that they believe are important for the job. You can always tell a behavioural or competency based interview because they start with phrases like this:

• Tell me a time when
• Can you think of an example of how/when
• Describe a way in which you

Using the example of the call centre above, questions might be something like these:

• Tell me a time when you have provided someone with excellent customer service
• Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer

How To Answer A Behavioural Interview Question

Some people find answering competency and behavioural based interview questions easy but most people benefit from using a system such as the STAR model.

This is a very simple way of framing your answer:

• Situation – What was the situation? Describe the background and context.
• Task – What problem were you facing? How had this occurred?
• Action – What action did you take? Why did you take it?
• Result – What was the result of your actions?

Frame you answer in this way and you will find yourself answering behavioural and competency based interview questions with ease.