how to answer behavioral interview questions when you don't have good examples (2024)

how to answer behavioral interview questions when you don’t have good examples

A reader writes:

I recently interviewed at a not-for-profit for a client-facing role. To prepare, I read up on the organization, their programs, and the clients they serve. I also rehearsed answers to possible behavioral questions that would address my experience in this area (e.g., “tell me about a time you handled an angry client”).

I was blindsided when all of the behavioral questions were about coping with organizational change and inter-staff conflict. I answered as best as I could, but I genuinely couldn’t come up with answers to what sounded like unusually specific questions. (For example, “Tell us about a time you handled a sudden organizational shift. What were the results?”)

Perhaps the questions are a sign that I’m dodging a bullet (which is just as well, because I’ve definitely blown the interview). But now I’m worried about having to answer questions like this in future interviews. Am I supposed to have endured more bureaucratic drama at this stage of my career?

Nah. I mean, it’s not uncommon to be asked one or two questions about organizational politics, but having all the behavioral questions be about that is both weird and alarming. It’s not something I’d expect you to encounter again to the same degree.

Behavioralquestions — those “tell me about a time when…” questions, for people who don’t know the term — should generally be a way to explore times in the past when you’ve needed to use the skills that are important to the job. The idea is to get away from hypotheticals (“how would you handle it if X happened?”), which are easy to BS your way through, and delve into how you really have operated. But they should focus mainly on the actual work you’d be doing.

I mean, sure, depending on the types of job you’re applying for, you also might need to be prepared to talk about things like:
* a time you had a conflict with a coworker and how you resolved it (this doesn’t have to be something really dramatic — it can just be something like differing perspectives on how to approach a project)
* a time you had to work with a difficult personality
* a time you had to motivate a coworker(s) to do something without having formal authority
* a time when you had to embrace a new system or idea even though it was a major change from your previous way of doing things

… but in general, good interviewers will use behavioral questions to get a better sense of your work.

Good interviewers will also be thoughtful about how they construct behavioralquestions and won’t get overly specific with them, unless the job truly requires some sort of very specific past experience with no flexibility on that.

But if you genuinely don’t have an example from your past that fits the question you’re asked, it’s okay to say that and try to come up with something reasonably close. You can say:
* “I haven’t had anything exactly like that, but something close was X.”
* “I haven’t encountered that at work, but I had a similar situation at school/in a volunteer role.”
* “Honestly, it hasn’t come up yet for me, but my thoughts on how I’d approach it are…”

It’s helpful to think about what they’re trying to get at with the question — they’re looking to see how you’ve dealt with a particular type of challenge, and if you can find a way to get close to that, you should be fine.

Also, thesequestions can be pretty useful for you, because they contain valuable information about what you can expect the challenges of the job to be. In the case of the interview you’re asking about, they’re apparently having some serious issues with organizational change and staff conflict. In fact,when it was your turn for questions, it would have been fine for you to have asked, “I noticed you asked a lot about organizational change and staff conflict. Can you tell me what challenges you expect for this role in that regard?”

But I think you’re right to take it as a pretty concerning sign.