Your ultimate guide to ace the most common interview questions

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Behavioral interview questions are designed to determine how you will handle specific situations in a work environment. They often ask you to use your experience as an example and focus more on soft skills rather than technical aspects of the job. This allows a potential employer to understand how your past work experience has prepared you for future tasks and challenges

Why are these important now?

• The number of job openings in the United States is at a record high of 11.5 million

• With so many jobs available, workers can be more particular about where they work and employers are taking notes and adjusting their interview process to reflect the desires of workers

How to prepare

• Think about what stories you can draw from to answer these questions

• All questions are about your experiences

• If you don’t plan ahead, you could easily be asked a question you’re not prepared for and if you try to wing it, things can get ugly

How to answer “What is your biggest weakness?”

• The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

• Situation: Describe the situation where everything happened

• Task: Task you had to complete to solve the problem/issue at hand

• Action: Explain what actions you took to complete the aforementioned task

• Results: Talk about the results of your actions and try to be as detailed as possible

How to answer teamwork questions

• Showcase your ability to work with others under difficult circumstances

• Recognize all teams can have problems

• Work well with different personalities

• Communicate effectively with others

• Be a good listener

• Act with care and consideration for your team

How to answer questions about serving customers

• Employers will want to understand how you positively represented the company and how you overcame challenges to deliver exceptional customer service

• Describe a time when you had to interact with a difficult client or customer

• Explain the context of your interaction, the type of customer or client you were dealing with and the lesson you took from this experience

How to answer time management questions

• Most employers want to hear how you balanced multiple things at once, prioritized, remained organized, and got the job done by the deadline

• Tell me about a time your responsibilities got a little overwhelming

• Highlight any industry-specific tools you used to stay on track

• Emphasize how you communicated throughout the process IF it was necessary

How to answer questions about how well you communicate

• Tell a story that highlights thoughtful preparation and logical thought process

• Be able to describe how you manage to communicate across numerous different mediums

• Different methods of communication you excel at

• If you struggle with communication, emphasize your strengths and show improvement in areas of weakness

How to answer questions about your ability to adapt to different situations

• Tough times don't last, but tough people do

• Use adaptability questions to talk about

• How you set and stick to goals

• Specific methods of dealing with stress that are healthy and promote long-term success

How to answer questions about motivation and values

• Motivation and values questions are an excellent opportunity to:

• Highlight any special skills or passions you have that you haven't talked about yet

• Talk about what keeps you excited about your job

• Share where you see yourself in the future

• Practice, practice, practice

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