Interviewing Between The Lines - Behavioral Questions Decoded

So, you've done the work, you've applied at your dream company, spoke to the recruiter and now you're going to either have a phone, video or onsite interview. You're both excited and nervous, because there's so much on the line. Then BOOM, it happens! The very first behavioral question appears.. You draw a blank and go silent for a few seconds. You never realized how loud silence could be until this critical moment that could change the course of your personal and professional life.

In this article, I want to help you understand and properly navigate the complexities of behavioral questions. What is a behavioral question? What is actually being asked of you? How is your answer being measured? What constitutes a great answer versus a poor one? And most importantly, some tips and tricks on how to construct a value and data-driven short story to answer the most difficult interview questions.

Let's dive right in - What is a behavioral question?

A behavioral question is an open-ended question that is designed for the interviewer to understand how you have handled various work situations in the past. Your answers will reveal your skills, abilities and personality. The logic behind this is for your new employer to predict how you will handle similar situations and work tasks in the future. More importantly, companies use behavioral questions to find out whether or not your personality and emotional intelligence will fit well with the overall company culture. What troubles most interviewees is the fact that behavioral questions are answered in a short-story format and they have little to no idea as to whether the answer is good or bad. The question I get the most while I am preparing my candidates for an onsite interview is ... "Sean, how do I answer.. (insert various behavioral questions here)?"

Let's use a very popular behavioral question for example:

"Tell me about a time you went above and beyond your call of duty to serve a customer."

Let's take a moment a break down this question into a few parts and help you answer behavioral questions like a champ. When a behavioral question is being asked - the interviewer is usually looking to measure several competencies based on your answer. It is absolutely critical for you to know what competencies are being measured here, so let me teach you how to deconstruct this question!

There are several competencies the interviewer(s) are looking for here:

• Are you a customer-centric person?
• When you work, do you look outside the scope of individual responsibility and have the ability to think bigger picture?
• What do you consider the scope of your work and how do you go above and beyond to service your customer/client?
• Are you making your customers' lives better by adding more value or convenience based on their feedback and user experience?
• Do you know who your customers are and how you can better serve them?

Now that you understand the meaning behind this important question, let's talk about the best way to answer it. Here are some key areas you must cover when you address these kinds of questions and how to maximize the value demonstrated in your answer.

When you are answering a behavioral question - you want to properly and fully address the question in a short-story format that covers a few key elements. One thing I've always recommended for my candidates when I am preparing them for an interview is for them to look up the "STAR Method".

• S - Situation - Briefly describe the situation to provide some context on the story you're about to tell.
• T - Task - Provide details of your responsibilities and what's the challenge at hand you're looking to resolve.
• A - Action - Describe the specific actions you've taken and how you have personally taken change in this particular scenario.
• R - Results - Explain the impact you've made and the results that you have accomplished as a direct result of the course of your action.
• Bonus - Lessons - Talk about any lessons you have learned through this whole experience to round out the behavioral question.

Example 1.

(S) My team is responsible for the payment management system of our mobile application and (T) we found a way to improve the customer experience by reducing the number of steps it takes to make payments. So, (A) we changed up the layout of the application home page and (R) it made our customers happy because we listened to their input and made their experience better.

Example 2.

(S) My team and I are responsible for the payment management system of our mobile banking application, and while I was chatting with a friend of mine who happens to be one of our customers, I discovered he only uses his mobile app to make credit card payments. It currently takes him 3 clicks to get to the payment page and (T) I thought this could be done more efficiently. (A) I took the initiative to research this topic to better understand how to better improve the customer experience. I proposed this idea during one of our sprint planning meetings and worked closely with my UI/UX team to collaborate on this effort. My suggestion and initiative led to a much better customer experience. After 4 weeks of work, we added a payment button on the main page of the mobile app and the customer can now pay in one click immediately after they log in. (R) This not only created a much better customer experience by saving them time and providing more convenience for them, it also improved the overall loading speed of the application by 18% by reducing the number of requests generated by customers using our mobile apps to make credit card payments. (Lesson) This experience taught me the importance of keeping our eyes and ears open to feedback, as well as the power of personal initiative. Little did I know I would learn so much about my work from having a conversation with my friend about his user experience. And how great it would feel to research, present and implement this idea that resulted in our app being easier to use and creating a better quality of life experience for our customers!

Let's take a detailed look at these answers and break down Example 1 and Example 2, then compare them and then let's talk about which answer is better and why.

In Example 1 - The interviewee mentions what her team does and they discovered there is a better way to streamline the payment process, so they changed up the layout and as a result, the customers were happy. This is a POOR example for several reasons - the interviewee talked about her story in a "collective" way and never mentioned the part she played in this improvement. Interviewers often pay attention to "I" language vs. "We" language - when you address the contribution as a collective unit, it does not address your particular role in the entire situation. Were you the one that discovered the payment process could be improved? Or did one of your team members do that? Were you a participant or were you in charge of this initiative? The way the interviewee answers the first part of this question does not provide the interviewer enough data points to make a decision on the values demonstrated by her.

The second part of Example 1 - the interviewee mentions her team made the customer happy by listening to their input. This begs the question.. How did you make your customer happy? What were the specific actions taken by the interviewee? What were some of the measurable data used to measure the customers' satisfaction or happiness level? Again - this is a very VAGUE and POOR example because this answer does not provide measurable data to back up this claim nor is it specific enough in any measurable way for the interviewer to make an informed decision based on this particular story. Lastly, the STAR method is used very sparingly with little to no context to address or provide any valuable information about the interviewee.

In Example 2 - the interviewee does a fantastic better job opening up and addressing her answer and perspective. Immediately the situation/context is provided by the first two sentences, which sets the tone for the rest of the answer. The interviewee then goes on to mention how she properly took in the customer feedback about their application and how the friend interacts with the product. This input sparked curiosity and interest on the interviewee's part and immediate actions were taken by her to understand how this process could be streamlined, which fully addresses the task at hand. The interviewee then went on to mention the specific actions taken to address the customer's input which covers the action portion of the STAR method. Next, the interviewee provided proper data on how her action impacted both the customers as well as how the business benefited as a whole. The interviewee provided measurable data - improved the application loading speed by 18%, so the interviewer can better understand and properly make a decision about the interviewee with clear data points. Lastly, she shares her lessons learned during this entire experience to further magnify her personal initiative and willingness to accept feedback.

Examples 2 is an EXCELLENT example of how to answer behavioral questions using the STAR method and how to properly craft a value and data-driven story to allow the interviewer or the hiring manager to make a better and more informed decision about the interviewee. It covers the scope of the interviewee's work, as well as the specific actions, initiative, thought process, and even the spark of inspiration about how the interviewee thinks and evaluates a situation. It shows the interviewee clearly is a customer-centric individual that shows genuine care and concern about their end-users and how her work impacts the people that she serves.

To conclude - behavioral questions are often asked in a very open-ended and vague way because it allows the interviewer to gather a lot of information about a person. Much of the battle is won or lost by your ability to read between the lines and understand the competencies being scrutinized when a behavioral question is asked. Being able to understand the meaning and underlying questions behind behavioral questions will set you apart from other interviewees by giving you a more competitive edge and allow you to fully demonstrate the value you bring to the hiring organization. Much of today's interview culture looks for individuals who are strong cultural fits, so take the time to carefully construct strong value-and-data-driven stories to effectively demonstrate your value!