You are in an interview.
The recruiter looks you straight in the eye and says:
«Tell me about a mistake you’ve made and what you learnt from it.»
Surprised? That’s only to be expected.
Welcome to the behavioural interview.
Unlike traditional questions such as «What are your strengths?» or «How would you describe your management style?», this type of interview aims to explore your professional background. For the recruiter, understanding how you have acted in specific situations in the past helps them to better assess how you might react in the future.
Some typical examples:
«Give me an example of a goal you’ve achieved and explain how you went about it.»
«Tell me about an unpopular decision you’ve had to take.»
«How did you motivate a colleague who was struggling?»
«Tell me about a bad decision you made and its consequences.»
The aim isn’t to trick you. The recruiter wants to know:
How do you analyse a situation?.
What measures are you putting in place?.
How well are you able to learn from your experiences?.
Make a list of your achievements, the challenges you have faced and the unforeseen circumstances you have dealt with throughout your career.
Choose a variety of examples: a successful project, a conflict that has been resolved, or a mistake that has led to learning.
Location: the context of a particular situation.
Task: what needed to be done.
Action: what you have actually achieved.
Result: the outcome of the situation and the lessons you have learnt from it.
Be genuine: an imperfect but authentic example will always be more convincing than a response that’s too polished.
One of the most common mistakes is to give an answer that is too general, without illustrating the point with a specific example.
Simply stating that you know how to manage conflicts or work under pressure is not enough: it is better to describe a situation in which you have put these skills into practice.
You should also avoid talking solely about the work carried out by your team without explaining your own contribution.
Finally, don’t try to present every experience as a complete success. When a situation hasn’t produced the expected result, explain what you learnt from it and how that experience has influenced the way you work.
This will enable the recruiter to gain a better understanding of your reasoning, your sense of responsibility and your ability to take a step back.
A behavioural interview is an opportunity to move beyond theoretical discussion and demonstrate your worth through concrete examples. Your successes, the challenges you’ve faced and the lessons you’ve learnt from your experiences can help you better demonstrate your skills and your ability to develop.
By preparing a few specific examples and structuring your answers using the STAR method, you’ll be able to address the recruiter’s questions more clearly.
And what about you? If you were asked tomorrow to talk about a difficult decision you’ve had to make, which experience would you choose?
To develop your professional skills, find out about the training courses offered by OSAM: https://osamformations.com/
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