While you can’t predict exactly what questions you will be asked in a job interview, you can prepare yourself to answer almost any question by organizing your thoughts ahead of time. Prior to your next interview, create a list of several real-life scenarios you have experienced where you had to deal with the following:
- A situation where you had to deal with unexpected or last minute problems
- A situation where you took initiative
- A situation where you had to work as part of a team/take the lead in a team environment
- A situation where you realized you made a mistake and had to correct it
- A situation where you had to work with a difficult person and how you handled it
By thinking of these situations ahead of time and preparing answers for each, you will be able to answer a variety of questions an interviewer might ask you. It can be very difficult to come up with answers on the fly, especially in a nerve-wracking situation like a job interview, so do yourself a favor by preparing your answers in advance. Behavioral questions are a very popular interview technique, because they not only allow an interviewer to learn more about an applicant’s behavior, they also test your communication and recall skills.
This kind of interview prep is similar to the studying you did before a big test at school. Rather than studying the required coursework, you are studying your own professional experience. Preparing answers to behavioral interview questions will force you to look closely at your own background and help refresh your memory prior to a job interview. Just like studying for a test, the more interview preparation you do, the higher your chances are of acing your next interview.