Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions are the best type of questions to ask to get the data you need to hire great employees.

There is a lot of confusion over exactly what they are. It is simple. If the person has to respond by describing what they have done, then it is a behavioral question.

The reason behavioral interview questions are so important is because the goal in the interview is to determine how the person has handled the same or similar situations to those they will face on your job. It is very difficult to go wrong when you are asking the best questions.

Behavioral interviewing is simply an interview where the person is asked about what they have done and how they did it. You chronicle how they have behaved in specific situations.

Creating Your Interview Questions

Creating great questions is not hard. The first step is to know what the person will need to do on your job. Next, find situations in their past where they faced the same or similar situations. Finally, ask them what they did.

It is really that simple.

Here are some samples of effective questions:

"How did you prepare the sales presentation for ABC?"
"How did you respond to the customer complaint?"
"Step me through how you built your business case."
"How did you troubleshoot the machine?"
"How did you decide which person you were going to keep?"

You can see many example of behavioral interview questions on the sample interview questions page.  Aslo, you can find ou all about interview questions here.