Behavioral Prompts: Working Backwards

When you are preparing your behavioral stories, work backwards from the outcome. This will get you your crucial introclusion and make it easier for your interviewer to follow you. NEVER start talking to fill space. If you don’t know why you picked the story you want to tell for the question you were asked, you are bound to stumble.

You should always be able to answer: What are the three key takeaways the interviewer should have from you story BEFORE you start speaking.

Typical Answer

Too often, when asked a behavioral question, candidates that the following path:

1. Which story do I want

2. Start with the background

3. Tell everything I did, without editing the list

4. End with some outcomes

What you should be doing:

1. Determine what story you want to tell

2. Articulate WHY this story is a great example to address the question asked

3. Maybe even list the 3 most important reasons you picked this story

4. Give just enough background to follow

5. Only share the relevant points

6. Conclude with with why this is a great example to answer the prompt asked