Peer Career Consultant Blogs

You applied for a job and got an interview. What next? 

Interviewing for a position seems like a daunting task to many college students, but it does not have to be so hard. The simplest way to succeed in your behavioral interview is to have 5 stories prepared and draw every question back to one of those stories. These stories not only make your responses more substantial and memorable, but also save you from those awkward moments of silence as you scramble to think of answers on the spot. By having a story for each type of question, you allow yourself to have an arsenal of information to draw from without sounding overly rehearsed.

The basic stories I recommend preparing are:

1. Work Story:

When I was interviewing, I was a kids soccer coach. Through that experience I was able to have stories about when I solved conflicts, how I navigated communications with 10 year old kids, their parents, my assistant coach, and my manager.
This line of storytelling was able to fulfill these questions: 

1. When I was a leader 
2. When I solved a problem
3. How I communicated with people who had opposing views
4. How I balance my course load with my other activities
5. A challenging situation that I experienced

2. School Story:

At the time of my interviews, I was in a particularly difficult coding class and therefore had struggled on many homework assignments. I was also in an accounting class with many group homework assignments.
This line of storytelling allowed me to answer these types of questions:

1. When I creatively solved a problem
2. When I had a difficult project
3. How I communicated with people who had opposing views
4. How I work in teams

3. Club, Team, or Friends Story:

If you are on a sports team or a leader in a club, there are many topics you could talk about. For example, I am part of the accounting association which means I plan accounting events for students to connect with firms. Someone who is a leader in their fraternity could also use their role to answer the following questions.

These stories can cover:

1. When I was a leader
2. How I am a team player
3. How I manage my time well 
4. A time when I was helpful

4. Strength Story:

Every behavioral interview is likely to include questions about your strengths and weaknesses. For your strength, choose something that you have demonstrated on multiple occasions, and provide context about why it would be useful in the workplace. For example, if you believe your strength is communication, you need to have clear examples of times when you were a key communicator. You can not just say, “I am good at communicating” and end with that.

5. Weakness Story

Your weakness on the other hand, should be something you are currently working towards trying to overcome. Interviewers always pay attention to the last thing you said, so instead of outright saying,“I procrastinate all the time,” try saying, “I tend to procrastinate and push all of my assignments to the last minute so recently I have been marking off time to do my assignments in my calendar to push myself to stay on top of my work.” By showing you are working towards fixing your weakness, it shows your interviewer that you have a growth mindset.

Conclusion: 

By preparing only 5 main stories, you will be able to answer almost every question that the interviewer may throw at you. As you may have noticed, many of these stories can answer overlapping questions. This makes it easier for you to not overuse the same story because if you have already answered a question with a work story, you can answer the next question with a school story even if the work story also meets the criteria. Having 5 stories will allow you to keep your answers diverse while not over complicating and lengthening your prep time. 

I hope this post was able to convince you that interviewing does not need to be so daunting. Good luck in your future interviews and don’t forget your stories!