Behaviour-type questions should be the only questions a good interviewer asks of the interviewee. But how do you answer these questions?

First of all, Behavioural Questions (BQ) address instances that you actually performed the particular task or situation instead of the hypothetical question and a hypothetical response. For example, a BQ would be “tell me a time when your were not able to deliver on schedule and what did you do and what was the outcome.” The purpose of a BQ is to predict future behaviours by asking what you did in the past.

How to answer a behavioural question (or any question!)

Always answer all questions with “I have an example of that….” and proceed to tell about the situation. Tell about how you did something for the betterment of the company and always end on a positive note.

If you really cannot think of an example of what the interviewer is asking, we suggest that you say “although I have not encountered this specific example, in this case I would do xyz” This is not entirely ideal, but will be a much better response than to say “I have not experienced this” and leave it at that.

What do you think about BQs? have you had a really difficult question that you couldn’t answer?