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Answering behavioral interview questions is shockingly uncomplicated — Transcript

by Matt Huang · 6,272 words · 894 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00today I'm going to explain to you how to
0:02answer literally any behavioral
0:04interview question now it doesn't matter
0:07what job you're working in if you're
0:09someone who's highly technical like a
0:11software engineer or if you're someone
0:13who works on the business side knowing
0:15how to answer behavioral interview
0:17questions is still equally as important
0:19because although in the interview
0:20process for someone who's more technical
0:22there's more weight probably being
0:24placed on the technical portion of the
0:25interview you are still often going to
0:28run into behavioral interview questions
0:30which are more qualitative in nature and
0:32are going to ask you about different
0:34experiences and times in your life or
0:37career when you've demonstrated certain
0:39qualities that the interviewer is
0:40looking for hi if you're new to the
0:42channel my name is Matt I'm currently
0:44working in strategy Ops at Google before
0:46that I was a Management Consultant at
0:48BCG and I make these videos because I
0:51enjoy it but let's get back to it so the
0:53first thing that I think we need to talk
0:56about is what is a behavioral interview
0:58question and I know most most people at
1:00this point are probably looking at me
1:01and thinking dude of course I know what
1:03a behavioral interview question is do
1:05you think I'm stupid that's just a
1:06question when someone asks me oh yeah
1:08tell me about a time when you
1:10demonstrated leadership or tell me about
1:11a time that you failed right and then I
1:13just give them an answer draw off my
1:15experience and demonstrate that I am a
1:18winner and that I am someone that they
1:21should hire right now while at a surface
1:24level that is what a behavioral
1:26interview question is it's actually a
1:28little bit deeper than that and we're
1:29going to get into that today so a
1:31behavioral interview question is simply
1:34a question where the interviewer is
1:37trying to get you to demonstrate a
1:38certain quality now this question can be
1:42framed in a million different ways but
1:45at the end of the day there are going to
1:46be a certain set of qualities that
1:49employers are always looking for now
1:52what I have behind me are what I would
1:54argue 99% of employers would like to see
1:57in some way shape or form from potential
1:59candidates and this is based on my own
2:01personal experience having interviewed
2:03at roles in finance Consulting and Tech
2:07so take it with a grain of salt if
2:08you're interviewing for a different
2:09industry things could be slightly
2:11different but generally speaking if you
2:13are interviewing for roles where you are
2:17going to have to work with other people
2:19then these qualities are going to be
2:21tested the First Quality is leadership
2:25now why is leadership so important well
2:27leadership is a really common quality
2:29that most companies want from their
2:30employees because at the end of the day
2:33you eventually want that person that you
2:35hired when they were 22 to hopefully get
2:37promoted and move up through the ranks
2:39and how does that happen well part of it
2:41is they have to demonstrate leadership
2:43now the word leadership is maybe a
2:45little bit overrated I think that at the
2:47end of the day this is similar to what
2:50I'll just call taking the
2:55initiative AKA are you someone who is a
2:58self-starter do you take the initiative
3:00are you proactive when you're given a
3:02task or are you someone that's just
3:03passive and has to wait for your manager
3:08to tell you what to do and so this is a
3:09quality that doesn't matter what job or
3:11what company you're at an employer will
3:13almost always want to hire someone with
3:14more initiative versus someone with not
3:17all else being
3:18equal and so this is a very very
3:20commonly tested quality that you need to
3:22be able to demonstrate in behavioral
3:24interviews or at least need to be
3:26prepared if called upon to deliver a
3:29story that demonstrates that you have
3:31shown initiative in the past or that you
3:33are a leader an example of this question
3:36that commonly could come up is yes tell
3:38me about a time when you demonstrated
3:40leadership now that's the most
3:41straightforward version of this question
3:44but as I said earlier there can be many
3:47different ways of asking this question
3:49for example I just brought up the word
3:51initiative so this question could have
3:53also been phrased as tell me about a
3:55time when you demonstrated initiative or
3:59even better than that tell me about a
4:01time when you took the lead even though
4:04you were not in a formal position of
4:07leadership now all three of these
4:10questions are actually just asking the
4:12same exact thing they're all just trying
4:13to ask you to demonstrate this quality
4:16right here but they're asked in slightly
4:18different ways and sometimes the more
4:20nuanced ways of asking it such as the
4:22last one that I just mentioned of tell
4:24me about a time when you demonstrated
4:26taking the initiative even though you
4:27weren't formally in a position of
4:29authority now that trips some people up
4:31because they're not expecting it and
4:32then suddenly they're thinking oh shoot
4:35uh I don't know if I ever had a
4:36situation like that in my life where I
4:38wasn't in a formal position of authority
4:40AKA I didn't have the title of being
4:41someone in leadership but I still took
4:43the initiative right and so that's
4:46something to keep in mind as well as we
4:47go through these
4:49qualities now the next quality is
4:51resilience and resilience is an
4:53interesting one because you would think
4:54that right off the bat oh they want me
4:56to show a positive quality right and
4:58your mind goes to thinking about things
4:59you've achieved but actually this
5:01question is simply trying to understand
5:03how you react to challenges and how you
5:07react to
5:11failure and so there's a bunch of
5:13different ways that this question can be
5:15asked or rather a bunch of different
5:18questions that can be posed to try and
5:20get you to demonstrate resilience the
5:23most common of which is tell me about a
5:25time that you failed but also something
5:28that not everyone notices is that so
5:31this question while it can be posed as
5:33tell me about a time that you failed or
5:34tell me about a time that you overcame a
5:36challenge you could also be asked tell
5:39me about your proudest
5:41accomplishment now that is a little bit
5:42different because it's not as obvious
5:44now that they're actually trying to
5:45understand your resilience because when
5:48somebody asks you tell me about your
5:50proudest accomplishment or your biggest
5:52achievement up to date most people they
5:54immediately just want to start bragging
5:55about something that they're proud of
5:58and it's totally fine to be proud of
6:00your accomplishments but they're
6:02actually more interested in what it took
6:05for you to go from point A to point B
6:07and to actually get to that
6:08accomplishment which often times is
6:10going to involve overcoming some sort of
6:13monumental challenge or hurdle AKA
6:15demonstrating resilience they're not as
6:17interested in the actual accomplishment
6:19itself and I think that's something
6:21really really important to consider so
6:23this question can actually be also asked
6:25as tell me about your proudest
6:27accomplishment and what it took to get
6:29there but moving on so the third quality
6:31is teamwork and like I said if you're
6:33interviewing for a role that involves
6:35you having to work with other people
6:36which is 99% of jobs today then you're
6:39going to probably run into this question
6:41at one point or another which is tell me
6:43about a time when you had to work in a
6:45team now that's like the easy one though
6:48right as you're sort of probably picking
6:50up there's like first level questions
6:52which are Super obvious and then there's
6:54sort of like second level and then
6:55there's like third order questions that
6:57are much more nuanced and so again the
7:00first order question here for teamwork
7:02would be something like tell me about a
7:04time that you worked in a team tell me
7:05about a time that you collaborated with
7:07others like it's so obvious what they're
7:10asking right
7:11but if they get a little bit deeper and
7:14they ask a more nuanced version of that
7:15like a second or third order question
7:17that could be something like tell me
7:19about a time when you had to bring
7:22together a group of people that you
7:24didn't know or tell me about a time when
7:26you had to bring together a group of
7:29people with disperate backgrounds to
7:31achieve a common goal now that is a more
7:34nuanced question and I know some of you
7:37might be thinking right now wait Matt
7:39isn't that also like isn't that a
7:41leadership question because if you're
7:42bringing together a group of people
7:44isn't that demonstrating
7:45leadership and yes if you caught on to
7:49that you're one step ahead because what
7:51you'll realize soon is that a lot of
7:54stories actually can cover multiple
7:56qualities but we'll get to that in a bit
7:57and so anyways just be aware that
8:00teamwork is another quality that is
8:02commonly tested now the fourth one which
8:04is similar to teamwork is how do you
8:06deal with other people how do you
8:08influence or persuade people to your
8:10side to your opinion how do you voice
8:13your thoughts and so a common way that
8:15this is asked is tell me about a time
8:17when you had to influence someone or
8:20persuade someone or a group of people of
8:24a certain objective or goal what did you
8:27do what did it take now that's the basic
8:29level question but a more nuanced
8:31version of this which is a little bit
8:32more difficult and might trip some
8:33people up can be if they add a little
8:35bit more detail and they say tell me
8:37about a time when you had to convince
8:40someone who was more senior than you of
8:43your
8:44opinion or tell me about a time when you
8:47had to convince someone more senior than
8:49you of an opinion that they disagreed
8:51with you on now that makes it even more
8:54difficult because now you start thinking
8:55of okay how do I demonstrate that I'm
8:58able to influence not just my peers but
9:00also people who are more senior than me
9:02with more Authority and finally rounding
9:04it out the fifth bucket that you'll
9:07commonly run into when interviewing at
9:09companies is an ethical or moral
9:11conflict and so these are going to be
9:14questions where they're asking you about
9:16a situation when you saw something or
9:18you heard something that didn't really
9:21make you feel right maybe it was
9:22ethically or morally ambiguous and you
9:26had the choice of either like bringing
9:27it to the light and raising it to
9:29management or you could have just shoved
9:31it under the rug and forgotten about it
9:33and this is really trying to test your
9:34integrity and so a common way that this
9:36question is posed is tell me about a
9:38time when you ran into a moral or
9:41ethical Conflict at work and what did
9:42you do or tell me about a time when you
9:45saw a coworker doing something that was
9:47unethical what did you do about it now
9:50these ones are tricky because a lot of
9:52the times you don't want to come across
9:54as someone who is necessarily A
9:56tattletail but you also don't want to
9:59come across as being someone that just
10:01turns the other way and turns a blind
10:02eye to unethical Behavior right and so
10:05it's a nuanced approach to how you have
10:07to answer these questions but now that
10:09we've talked through these five major
10:11qualities one thing I want to note is
10:13that some of you are probably saying
10:14wait but Matt isn't there a chance that
10:17someone asks me a question that's
10:18actually not related to any of these
10:22five buckets and yes it is possible
10:25although the probability is quite low
10:27because again as I've mentioned a lot of
10:29questions framed in different ways are
10:31actually just asking about the same
10:33qualities so for example being asked
10:35about success is actually also asking
10:37about challenges and failure and
10:39resilience asking about teamw work can
10:43also be asking about how you influence
10:45and persuade others and whether or not
10:46you're a leader SL you take the
10:48initiative and so now that we understand
10:50this the first step you need to
10:52do and the first thing I always
10:54recommend to students or anyone who's
10:57interviewing is in order to prepare you
11:00need to first start with a brain
11:03dump and what is that that's just when
11:05you take out a Google doc or you take
11:07out a piece of paper and you start
11:10writing down everything that comes to
11:12mind when it comes to your experiences
11:15both in your personal and your
11:16professional life just write down every
11:19single possible experience you've had
11:21and keep in mind these qualities as you
11:23think through what sort of experiences
11:25you've had in your life that potentially
11:27demonstrate each of these now I know
11:29some of you are probably like dude I
11:31don't actually feel like I have
11:33qualities that these people are testing
11:35for like I don't feel like I'm a leader
11:36like I don't know if I've ever led a
11:38club on campus or I don't know if I've
11:40ever been like the speech and debate
11:42Champion or I don't know if I've ever
11:44had to do anything at work where I was a
11:46quote unquote leader but here's the
11:49thing it doesn't have to be an official
11:53position or title of authority it
11:55doesn't have to be something where you
11:57were like the president of a club CL
11:59think smaller and think more detailed
12:01there are tons of situations throughout
12:03our daily lives and throughout our
12:06professional and personal lives that
12:09demonstrate leadership that demonstrate
12:11resilience that demonstrate teamwork
12:13persuasion blah blah blah it can be
12:14literally as it can literally be as
12:17small as oh I was helping out with this
12:19event and then I saw this thing happen
12:21and then you know somebody tripped and
12:23Spilled their drinks everywhere and I
12:25went over there and I immediately called
12:27for help and got rallied the troops and
12:29got everyone else to come over and help
12:31this person out and we cleaned it up in
12:3210 minutes it can be something literally
12:35as small as that and so don't limit
12:37yourself again this is a brain dumb we
12:38can cut out irrelevant stories later but
12:41the goal of this step is to Simply get
12:44as many experiences as possible that
12:46later we can then draw on and actually
12:49craft our stories which leads me to the
12:51Second Step which is time to craft Your
12:54Arsenal now I've said Arsenal because
12:57every time you go into an interview it's
12:58kind of like you're going to battle and
13:00the person who's the most prepared who
13:01has the biggest Arsenal sure that might
13:05not necessarily ensure that you'll win
13:07but it certainly doesn't hurt to have as
13:10many weapons as possible in Your Arsenal
13:12when going into a battlefield and so I'm
13:14going to gloss over this second section
13:16because I think this is very commonly
13:18known framework the star framework for
13:20forming your behavioral interview
13:23responses but let's walk through it
13:24quickly one by one so just to run
13:26through the star framework really
13:27quickly you start with the situ
13:29situation which is laying the groundwork
13:30and spending like 10 seconds talking
13:32about the context and then you move into
13:34the task which is what basically you
13:36were asked to do by
13:38someone finally the action which is what
13:41you actually did in response to
13:43receiving that task and then the result
13:45which is closing it off and explaining
13:48what the actual outcome of your actions
13:50was and by the end of this once you get
13:54to the result it should be clear to the
13:55person listening that you clearly have
13:58the quity
13:59of whether it's leadership resilience
14:01teamwork influencing whatever Integrity
14:04it should be very clear to them what
14:06you've demonstrated there should be no
14:08question in their mind and even though
14:10it's split out into four steps the goal
14:13here is to create a cohesive narrative
14:16so it shouldn't sound super like blocky
14:18or it shouldn't be like super awkward
14:20moving from situation to task or task to
14:22action or action to result it should
14:23sound just like a story and it should
14:25flow seamlessly and so to give an
14:28example let's say that I got asked a
14:30question about uh tell me about a time
14:32when you had to influence someone more
14:34senior than you at work of a certain
14:37decision so the situation would be
14:40something like okay so back when I was
14:42an investment banking analyst there was
14:44a product that the team used called
14:47pitchbook which is a subscription-based
14:50website where you can access all sorts
14:52of data related to early stage startup
14:55companies including how much funding
14:56they've raised how old they are who the
14:59founders are any news related to the
15:01company and any other internal metrics
15:03that are publicly available and this
15:06product was super important to the
15:08investment banking analysts in my class
15:10but one day I was in a meeting with our
15:12head of m&a and he was mentioning to me
15:14that you know this pitchbook
15:15subscription it's so expensive I'm
15:17really thinking about canceling our
15:19subscription because honestly it seems
15:20like you can get all this information on
15:22Google stop so that's the situation and
15:25then to continue it though now we have
15:26to go into the task or basically the Imp
15:29to the actions that I later did so in
15:32this case it could be something like and
15:33so I was in this meeting listening to
15:34the managing director and I told him you
15:36know honestly I actually find this
15:38pitchbook product to be pretty useful
15:40because it saves us a lot of time and he
15:42said to me you know if you can show me
15:43some data to back that up then I'll
15:45honestly renew our subscription and so I
15:49decided that I was going to go back and
15:50Survey my analyst class and so that is
15:53the task that I was given by the
15:54managing director to basically find some
15:56data or come back to him with a more
15:59compelling argument as to why we should
16:00keep the pitchbook subscription and the
16:02action that I'm going to take is I'm
16:03going to go and Survey my analyst class
16:05and so continuing the story and so I
16:07went out and I surveyed the entire
16:10analyst class at the bank and basically
16:12asked them a few simple questions about
16:15do you find pitchbook to be valuable
16:17would your workflows be significantly
16:19inhibited or SL would your productivity
16:21be significantly reduced if you didn't
16:23have it and why and after I ran that
16:25simple survey and aggregated all the
16:27results I went back back to the managing
16:29director and I showed him the results
16:31and I said hey look the data shows that
16:33all the analysts or the majority of the
16:35analysts at the bank actually find
16:37pitchbook to be highly highly valuable
16:39because it's helping us to save a ton of
16:41time when we're building pitch decks and
16:43when we're building meeting materials
16:45for investors it's helping us because
16:47it's aggregating all of the data into
16:50one place and once he saw that data he
16:52was convinced and decided to renew the
16:54subscription and so what I learned from
16:56that experience is that even if you're
16:58working with someone more than you
16:59sometimes it helps to come prepared with
17:01some data or to go out and to do a
17:02little bit of digging on your own so
17:04that you can prepare a more compelling
17:07argument backed by information that says
17:09this is the right decision so that's an
17:12example of how you might want to talk
17:15through a specific story using the star
17:18framework of situation task action and
17:20result now notice also that at the end I
17:23said this one phrase which is and what I
17:25learned from that experience is X
17:29this is something that's kind of small
17:31but is also pretty important and if you
17:33can Implement into your behavioral
17:35interview responses you will just be
17:37that much sharper in the interview
17:40because what you're doing when you say
17:41and what I learned from that experience
17:43ultimately was X Y and Z is you're
17:45actually tying all of these things
17:47together you're synthesizing basically
17:49everything that you've just talked about
17:51this whole story with all these details
17:52that you've told them you're basically
17:54tying it all up together into a little
17:55bow at the end and hammering home the
17:57point that this is
18:00how I demonstrated this quality or this
18:02is where I learned that challenges
18:04setbacks are normal but I can overcome
18:06any new failure or this is where I
18:08learned that in order to successfully
18:10work in a team you have to understand
18:11everybody's
18:14Viewpoint the lights are turning off
18:16because I've been talking for so long
18:18where was I so yes always try to tie
18:23everything up at the end and say
18:24something about this is what you learned
18:26from the experience and ultimately this
18:28is what happened this is what you took
18:29away from it because if there's no
18:31takeaway then it's less clear to the
18:33interviewer after you finish talking
18:35what you actually learned from The
18:37Experience now the next thing I wanted
18:39to talk about here is you want to always
18:40focus on showing not telling now what do
18:43I mean by that showing versus telling
18:45you may have heard your teacher talk
18:46about this in English class it's when
18:48you basically don't just tell someone
18:51that you have leadership or that you're
18:53a team player but you actually show them
18:56through the story and through the
18:57details and so to give a concrete
18:59example let's say we're talking about a
19:01story where you demonstrated that uh
19:04overcoming failure or in this case
19:05getting bad feedback from your boss
19:07maybe you're you messed up on something
19:09and your boss told you that you messed
19:11up so if you were going to just tell
19:13someone what happened or how you felt
19:15you would just say my boss told me that
19:16I messed up and I felt
19:19upset right nothing you're saying is
19:21factually incorrect but it simply
19:23doesn't hit the point as well as if you
19:25say something like my boss told me that
19:27I messed up and the first thought that
19:29came to my mind was boy am I
19:32screwed right two different ways of
19:34saying the same exact thing but the
19:36second way really demonstrates like wow
19:39you were feeling under pressure and you
19:42at that moment felt like you were
19:43actually screwed what are you going to
19:45do now right and then that's where you
19:47start going into and this is what I did
19:49to bounce back blah blah blah this is
19:50how I overcome that failure and so again
19:53the Nuance here is that the second
19:55option when you're showing not telling
19:56you're storytelling again your
19:59storytelling and this comes back to
20:01tangent here but majority of
20:02interviewing and conveying your
20:04experiences to other people is knowing
20:08how to craft the right story and knowing
20:10how to tell your experiences in a way
20:12that's captivating to the audience and
20:14doesn't cause them to tune out you have
20:16to give them a reason to want to pay
20:18attention because again put yourself in
20:20your interviewer's shoes they're
20:21literally interviewing probably 10 20
20:24people a week why on Earth should they
20:27listen to the 10th person talk about a
20:31time that they failed why on Earth
20:32should they listen to you talk about
20:35that oncampus Business Club that you're
20:38a part of when five other people also
20:39talked about the oncampus business club
20:41that they were all also a part of the
20:44day before you make it interesting by
20:46telling stories stories are what
20:48Captivate people and how do you tell
20:51good stories well you show you don't
20:53just tell but now let's move to the
20:56final step so once you've crafted your r
20:58person and now let's say you have at
21:00least two stories aim for at least two
21:02stories that demonstrate each of these
21:04qualities now the reason why you want to
21:06have at least two and not just one is
21:09because say for example you have one
21:11story that demonstrates leadership and
21:14also uh influencing and persuasion and
21:16then you get asked tell me about a time
21:18that you demonstrated
21:19leadership and then you give that story
21:21but then right after they also ask you
21:23tell me about another time that you
21:25demonstrated influencing SLP persuasion
21:27and now you've used used up your story
21:30that covers this quality and you're like
21:32oh shoot now I have to make up something
21:33on the Fly and you never never never
21:35want to run into that situation and so
21:37best case scenario have more than one
21:40story that backs up each of these
21:42qualities because you never know what
21:44might happen and you don't want to be
21:45caught short-handed but moving to step
21:48three practicing the delivery now this
21:51is a step where I think most people
21:53think that all they have to do is just
21:56practice a few times maybe with a and
21:58then they'll be fine but the reality is
22:01I think most people underweight the
22:03importance of this third step and then
22:04they overweight the importance of this
22:06first and second step which is the
22:07brainstorming stage because I've talked
22:09to a lot of students and I've done some
22:11coaching as well and almost everyone
22:13always has like a giant word dock with
22:16all their behavioral questions and then
22:18it's like 10 15 pages long and they've
22:21written out like huge paragraphs of
22:24different times when they've
22:25demonstrated leadership or teamwork or
22:27resilience but then I go in and I
22:29actually ask them like okay let's do
22:31like a mark question and let me ask you
22:33okay tell me about a time when you
22:35demonstrated this quality and then I
22:36pretend to be their interview and we do
22:37some role playing and then the delivery
22:40is just not good and the reason is
22:44because they didn't practice properly
22:46and they've done all this thinking and
22:47they put it all on paper but all of this
22:51work is nothing if you can't deliver it
22:52because an interview is in person it's
22:54live it's when you speak to someone it's
22:57not like you submitting an essay to your
22:59professor
23:00so how do we get good with the delivery
23:03well the number one question that I get
23:05and the number one problem that I see a
23:07lot of people run into is how do I avoid
23:10sounding scripted how do I avoid
23:13sounding like I'm just reading off of a
23:15paper the solution is really simple nine
23:19times out of 10 the reason why you're
23:20sounding scripted is because you
23:24prepared by writing word for word what
23:27you thought you should say
23:29and you have maybe a whole paragraph and
23:30you're trying to memorize it or you're
23:32trying to remember what you wrote word
23:34for word and so what that's doing is
23:37it's making you focus more on
23:39memorization than on fluidity and
23:42forming cohesive coherent sentences and
23:45so when you practice you should never
23:48never practice using completely scripted
23:51out written paragraphs it's okay if
23:54during your brain dump phase you want to
23:56do that but when you're practicing
23:59verbally always use bullets short
24:02bullets and then force yourself to
24:04practice by only looking at those like
24:05four or five bullets per story and what
24:07this is going to do is yes it's going to
24:09be tough it might be awkward because
24:10you're going to forget what you wanted
24:11to say but it's going to force you and
24:14it's going to force your brain to
24:15actually work you're not just memorizing
24:18it's going to force you to form cohesive
24:19sentences coherent sentences that flow
24:22because your brain's going to be like oh
24:23shoot okay I know bullet one is like uh
24:26I got a bad grade at school and bullet
24:28two is like I talked to the professor at
24:31office hours to see if there was
24:32anything that could be done but then how
24:34do I connect the dots between bullet one
24:35and bullet two and then it's going to
24:36force you to think about what to say and
24:38then you're going to say something
24:39that's more natural because you're not
24:40going to be just memorizing and so
24:42bullet points is number one second thing
24:44is you have to have to record yourself I
24:46say this in a lot of videos but I'm
24:48going to say it again the number one
24:50thing that you can do to get the most
24:52immediate feedback on your communication
24:54skills and your delivery is to record
24:56yourself because the harshest critic of
24:59ourselves is us and so if you can look
25:02at yourself on a screen and you're
25:05forced to not only see what you look
25:07like when you're talking but also hear
25:09how you sound nine times out of 10
25:11you're going to cringe if you're not
25:13someone who does this on a daily basis
25:15like I do say you don't you're not a
25:16YouTuber or you're not someone who has
25:19to be on camera all the time you're
25:21going to be like what the heck I sound
25:24like that I sound like that
25:26uh but it's good good because what it's
25:29going to do is you're actually going to
25:30notice really acutely all the times that
25:32you say um or like or all the times that
25:36you like broke eye contact or you looked
25:38down from the camera and you're going to
25:39be like wow I actually I look so not
25:42confident when I look down at the camera
25:44maybe next time instead if I want to
25:45break eye contact with the interviewer I
25:46should just look to the side right or
25:49maybe next time when I don't know what
25:51to say instead of saying like or sort of
25:53or you know I should just pause
25:56and take a second to think because it
25:58makes me come across as actually more
26:01thoughtful right okay so the third thing
26:03I already mentioned here but this kind
26:04of ties into the recording yourself
26:06thing just remember to watch yourself
26:08and remove any filler words remember
26:11that pauses always feel longer to you
26:13than to the person on the other side of
26:14the table and an easy way to honestly
26:16just come across as someone who's a
26:18little bit more thoughtful is to take
26:20pauses instead of using filler words
26:24take your time and let yourself think
26:26and be comfortable with the
26:29silence now if you can do all of these
26:32things and deliver your stories in a way
26:36such that you demonstrate the situation
26:39task action and result in a cohesive way
26:41and you have stories multiple stories
26:43that demonstrate each of these major
26:45commonly tested qualities then I
26:47guarantee you the next time you go into
26:50an interview and you get asked a
26:51behavioral interview question you're
26:53going to deliver it with confidence
26:54you're going to deliver it with
26:56conviction and ultimately you're going
26:58to leave the interview thinking to
26:59themselves dang I want to hire that guy
27:02or that girl I want them on my team now
27:04the last thing I'll do is I now just
27:06want to go through some
27:08examples for each of these five
27:10qualities and I'll give you an example
27:11that I've used personally in the past
27:13for Behavioral interviews now that we've
27:15talked through the entire process of how
27:17to prepare and so with the leadership
27:20and initiative question and the
27:21influencing of persuasion question I
27:22sort of already walked through an
27:24example where I convinced the head of
27:26m&a at the Investment Bank that I work
27:28at that we should renew our pitchbook
27:30subscription but now let's talk about a
27:33story relating to resilience so I used
27:36to play the violin in high school and
27:40when I was a senior in college I really
27:43really really wanted to join this one
27:45orchestra that was the highest level at
27:48the music school and uh went on
27:51International tour every year and it was
27:54my last chance to get into this
27:56Orchestra because so I was a rising
27:58senior and so I practiced super hard on
28:00the violin went into my auditions the
28:03day of the auditions gave it my all and
28:05unfortunately wasn't
28:07selected and so I was really upset for
28:10about a week and I thought that was that
28:11but a week later I got a call from the
28:14director of The Orchestra program
28:15telling me that hey Matt although the
28:19violin auditions were extremely
28:21competitive this year we actually have a
28:23need for more
28:24violists which is a different instrument
28:27and so if you're willing to to actually
28:28study the viola over the summer for the
28:30next couple months will give you another
28:32chance to re audition in the fall for a
28:35chance to join the viola section so what
28:38did I do well I absolutely jumped on the
28:40opportunity and I for the next few
28:42months hired a viola teacher spent all
28:45my days basically practicing trying to
28:47learn how to read the music because it's
28:48like reading a different language it's
28:50in a different clef if you're
28:52Musical and I just remember practicing
28:54so much my family was driving to
28:57vacation
28:59in Maine and uh my parents thought it
29:01was crazy I was literally practicing in
29:02the Airbnb but by the end of the summer
29:04I re auditioned and was fortunate to get
29:07accepted in the orchestra and ended up
29:09going on tour in Norway through five
29:11different cities and it was one of the
29:13most incredible experiences of my life
29:15and ultimately what I learned from that
29:16experience is sometimes opportunities
29:18come up serendipitously and so it helps
29:20to have an open mind when it comes to
29:22failure and just being prepared for new
29:26opportunities that you may not have
29:27expected did
29:29initially and so that's an example of
29:31resilience overcoming Challenge and
29:33failure and I think the last quality
29:35that I'll cover is a demonstrating
29:37ethical/moral conflict and how you
29:39responded to that so basically
29:40demonstrating integrity and so an
29:42example here could be yeah so the summer
29:45of my freshman year I actually worked at
29:47a UPS package facility where we
29:50basically processed packages and loaded
29:52them into the backs of tractor trailer
29:54trucks it was a super grueling job
29:57manual lay labor every day would show up
29:59to work my back would be hurting and
30:02basically for 8 hours straight with a
30:03few breaks we would be throwing bags
30:06into the back of trucks now this was an
30:09hourly wage job and so we had to punch
30:11in and punch out and about halfway
30:13through the summer I noticed that one of
30:15my colleagues one of my co-workers was
30:18actually punching in and punching out a
30:20little bit early during the day and then
30:23delaying his punch out time so that he
30:24basically would get an extra hour of pay
30:27an hour or two hours of pay every single
30:29day now it didn't seem like a big deal
30:31to me at the time because you know
30:33what's an extra hour really it's just a
30:35minimum wage job and so it didn't feel
30:37like something that required escalating
30:39to a manager or making a big deal about
30:41it plus I didn't want to get on his bad
30:42side but as I thought about it a little
30:44bit more and as I brought it up with my
30:46older brother and had a conversation
30:47with him he mentioned something to me
30:49that really struck me which was that
30:50it's really the little things that
30:52define who we are it's how we react when
30:54people aren't watching and it's the
30:56little things that see insignificant
30:58that actually reflect the most about our
31:00character and when I thought about that
31:01I realized that this wasn't really
31:03something that I felt comfortable
31:04letting slip by and so I brought it up
31:05with the manager and I I told him that
31:07look I don't want this person to get in
31:08any trouble but I just want to raise
31:10this to you that I've been noticing that
31:12this has been happening and what ended
31:13up happening was the manager obviously
31:15had to speak with that person and they
31:17didn't end up losing their job
31:18thankfully but the company later then
31:20realized they needed to implement a
31:21better timekeeping system that was less
31:23manual and again what I took away from
31:25that experience is that the little
31:27things are the most important when it
31:28comes to your character because it's the
31:30small things not the big things that
31:32make a huge Splash or noise it's the
31:34little things that people don't see that
31:36actually Define who you are as a person
31:38I hope you guys find this video helpful
31:39that's all I got for you I'll see you in
31:41the next one

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