Behavioral-Based Questions: How to Tell Good Stories during Interviews

Every great movie contains a good story. Employers like effective storytelling, too. In fact, behavioral-based questions are now the best practice in job interviews.

These questions require you to describe your past performance under the assumption that it will predict your future behavior. Employers may ask you to describe a time you exceeded the call of duty, were a leader, or received negative feedback from your supervisor.

The good news is that these questions are fairly easy to predict. Simply review the job description or consider the needs of the organization to identify the skills they are seeking. You can then convert these attributes into questions.

In anticipation of the conversation, use the table below to prepare at least five good stories about an event or project that illustrates your ability to succeed in the position. When you provide your answers, use the STAR technique. Provide the details of the situation, the task or goal that you set out to accomplish, the action you took, and the end result. Example responses that relate to co-curricular activities are provided below.

Tell me about your best group work or project experience

Situation: During my junior year, I served as the fundraising chair for our campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

Task: One of our projects was a t-shirt fundraising campaign. The purpose was to raise awareness about sub-standard housing and homelessness, as well as raise money for our housing projects.

Action: In order to get the campus community on board, each member of the committee assumed responsibility for contacting and attending student and academic organization meetings. When we attended the meetings we presented a brief overview of Habitat and stated that we would include their name on the sponsor list in our public relations materials for our upcoming housing projects if they purchased a t-shirt. All of the committee members were extremely excited and enthusiastic when presenting to the organizations, which in turn motivated the organizations to help us.

Result: The hard work, commitment, and enthusiasm of our close-knit committee paid off. We raised over $3,000 from our t-shirt sales. I attributed the success to our honest efforts in including everyone, being optimistic, and projecting our campaign with energy.

Describe a time when another person’s success was dependent upon your work, help, or communication skills

Situation: Each spring the Student Success Center hosts a campus Career Fair. I played an important role in helping one of the Success Center staff members prepare for the event.

Task: I was asked to brainstorm ways our office could publicize and market the event.

Action: I created social media posts on Instagram and Twitter as well as promoting the event on AugieTV across campus. I used Canva to create a poster and placed them throughout campus. I also identified a number of ways to get information about the career fair to the campus community including advertising in the student newspaper and sending emails to specific majors, staff members, and faculty.

Result: Using a variety of creative marketing strategies proved to be successful. A record number of students attended the event. Students were given an evaluation as they left. They consistently responded positively to the marketing used to publicize the fair.

Tell me about a time when you felt you communicated with others in a positive and effective manner

Situation: During the academic year, I worked as an Admissions Ambassador.

Task: My role was to lead prospective students and their families on campus tours and answer questions they had about the university.

Action: Serving as a representative of the Admissions Office required me to act and communicate in an extremely professional manner. I spent a great deal of time familiarizing myself with areas of campus. I gathered information about different majors on campus, the variety of campus activities, and made sure I knew the activities in each building on campus. When interacting with prospective students and their families, I was always careful to provide accurate information. If I didn’t know the answer to a question, I was sure to refer the family to another resource or take the extra step to find out.

Result: By taking the time to learn everything I could about Augustana’s campus, I was able to present myself as an informed and professional campus representative. My professionalism and ability to verbally communicate was evident in the feedback I received from the families in their evaluations of the day’s activities. Approximately 93% of the prospective students I met with have chosen to attend Augie this fall.