In order to be successful in behavioral interviewing:

1. Wait until the interviewer is finished asking the question, pause and think about the question and your story before answsering the question.

2. Make sure you answer the question completely. If they ask a question with “and why” make sure you explain why.

3. Use examples of situations from your experiences on your resume where you demonstrated desired behaviors.

4. State your answer as a story that you can tell.

5. Be specific and detailed. Make sure the story relates to the question and isn’t too general. Briefly tell them about the situation, what you did specifically, and the positive result or outcome. Your answer should contain these four steps Situation, Task, Action, Result or “STAR”) for optimum success.

6. Quantify your results. Give specific numbers whenever possible. For example: “I was a supervisor.” could be “As Supervisor, I trained and evaluated 6 employees.”