The Empowered Job Seeker Series, v.18 - How Christopher Developed His Awareness of (and Preparedness!) for Behavioural Style Interview Questions

In a recent blog, we talked about how we help CMS outplacement program candidates prepare to effectively answer technical interview questions.  This week our focus is on how our Program Coaches help their job search candidates in the preparation for Behavioural Style interview questions.

Most job seekers expect to be asked technical questions related to a potential job opportunity and will prepare to explain the details of their qualifications.  However, for those who haven’t interviewed for a long time or for more inexperienced interviewers like our candidate Christopher found, if a job seeker is not aware of them, being asked Behavioural Style interview questions can be very off-putting at a time when one is doing their best to shine.

Christopher was a junior level communications professional looking for new work within the media industry.  He was an enthusiastic and positive candidate who looked forward to each interview he was invited to.  He loved his work, and it showed – especially when he introduced his quality portfolio of published articles to his potential employers.  Christopher was good at what he did, and he had no trouble with answering technical type questions.

However, for the first few interview experiences he had, Christopher reported to his CMS Program Coach that he found himself stumbling for responses and feeling squeamish when asked non-technical questions.  He made a list of the questions that he struggled to answer and they revolved these themes:

how does he handle conflict?

what is his leadership style?

how did he solve problems?

what did he think of diversity and equity initiatives?

what would he consider his biggest failures? 

Interviewers use 'Behavioural Style' interview questions like these to determine how one thinks on their feet, and to assess a candidate’s potential actions and reactions in a given professional setting or situation.  They often helps employers to determine skills like problem solving, critical thinking and communication.  Not being prepared for questions like these can be discouraging for well-qualified candidates who would otherwise do quite well within an interview.

It’s impossible to know what, and prepare for, specific Behavioural Style questions that a candidate may be asked - but we can prepare for a variety of possibilities, and that is the key.  To help prepare for his next interview, Christopher worked with his Program Coach through a variety of sample Behavioural Style questions found in the CMS program materials so that his mind was agile and ready for any question an interviewer may throw at him. They also worked to recall specific examples that Chris could describe from his past work experience, detailing situations or issues and how he worked to resolve them. In-depth preparation work like this means that an interviewee is as calm and effective as they can be within an important interview.