Stuggling With Behaviorals - Would Appreciate Tips

Hey guys,

I am a rising junior studying CS but realized that I would much rather work in Finance. I had a phone interview last Friday.... and it went terribly. I haven't had a lot of interviews in the past, but I've always had a problem with behavioral interviews. I seem to never have good examples to answer the questions. For example, I was asked about conflict in a team and flexibility in a team.
My only two commitments on campus are schoolwork and my highly time consuming dance team. I haven't had much groupwork through classes, and I don't really have good examples for the questions from my dance team either (we don't really have conflict because we all have separate pieces that we get to choreograph and flexibility isn't necessary since we have a well set schedule). I don't have a great breadth of experiences and it's really biting me in the ass. Do you guys have any suggestions for what I can do to improve my interviewing and get some superdays? Thank you in advance!

 
Best Response

Whenever I see questions like this or someone comes to me to ask about nailing behavioral interviews, I feel like I want to puke just thinking about those awkward times where some interviewer asked me these questions in an ultra serious tone. I hope this isn't what's happening to you.

I think it's important to get ahead and really control the interview. You should keep it broken down and just slightly informal but don't let it get out of control. That way, when a question like this comes up, it's asked in a not so serious way, but in a more personal way.

You don't want the interviewer to say, "Tell me about some arbitrary time in your 20+ years of living where some collaborative effort didn't go as you'd like, no matter how complex the context of the situation might've been, and do it within one minute so I don't get bored".

It's better if they ask in a more specific way. "How many people did you work with at x firm in y group? Did you enjoy that team?" It's a much more respectful and clearer way of communicating.

The way I would do it is start out strong with a smile and try to find something to connect with. Small talk typically precedes the main interview, so use this time to break down some barriers. If the interviewer relaxes a little bit, try to be relaxed with them. Of course, don't do anything stupid like use swear words (even if the interviewer does).

 

The interviewers definitely sounded serious. They just gave me quick intros and got started with general questions like the ones I mentioned - didn't really seem like they wanted to talk. But either way, my answers were pretty garbage and I feel like it's because I haven't done a whole lot. I'm going to take on more next semester to build my skills and story, but in the meantime what can I do? Just make up stories (I don't really want to lie)?

 

Ideally, you want to pull from internship experience or college group work. Although there are no right answers, there are definitely wrong ones. Using your experience, you want to show your interviewer that you are a confident leader, problem solver, and hard worker without sounding cocky or putting yourself in a situation that an interviewer can tear you apart (more relevant to technical questions). Approach an interview like a chess game, what kind of answers will position you into strengthening your chances of getting to the next round. To cut to the chase, if you don't have experiences where you had to solve a problem or address an underperforming teammate, you don't have the experiences that more prepared peers have. If this is the case, you should actively search for finance-relevant on campus activities to gain these experiences ... other option would be to lie, but you run the risk of getting caught and losing your chances of winning. Good Luck!

 

Edit: sorry. Completely failed to appreciate your dance team story and etc.

If they ask about conflict and flexibility, I'm sure that you've turned down something with friends or jumped off the phone in a rush to get to your dance events/recitals. That's a conflict and shows you're able to be flexible in relationships and with commitments.

And no offense, but they might just be doing what I just did. You need to show some confidence that you can do the job despite your little experience.

 

quackquaker,

Just as a friendly piece of advice, you should censor the banks you interview with. Bankers do read these forums (all analysts at my MM did).

In order to do well on behavioral questions, you need to understand what the question is asking and why it's being asked. No one cares about your team experience or how you handled that pimple-faced kid who refused to do any work on that group project. What people care about is are you going to be a PIA if I ask you to help on an lbo model at midnight? If your associate has to go to a last minute pitch, are you going to be able to complete that operating model without someone holding your hand? If Adam the Analyst decides to check out, are you going to be able to pick up some of the slack without whining about it?

To do well on these questions, you need to have a few stories in the back of your mind that you can use to answer multiple of these questions. For example, let's say that you were on a group project where one foreign exchange student did not do any work. You spoke with him/her and learned that the issue was a cultural misunderstanding and after that you and your group finished the project and got an "A". This story can be used to answer pretty much anything from a time when you took a leadership position to how you handled group conflict, to how you bounced back after initially being down.

Hopefully that helps. Good luck.

 

Thank you for the advice. I'll try using the work backward kind of model you propose. But what if I've never had that experience with a foreign kid or anything similar in college? Is it weird to use scenarios from high school given that I am a rising junior?

 

Ive used the foreign exchange student story dozens of times and got me to the next round every time. but even if you don't have a "foreign student" story Im willing to bet the interviewers wouldn't see it as any different. In fact they might look upon it higher since there wasnt a cultural misunderstanding.

I would stay away from high school stuff but then again if it was a big enough situation then by all means do so. just spruce it up. I've always taken behavioral questions as an opportunity to really dress up anything even semi-noteworthy I did in school. 99% of the time its how you dress the story up and then pull it back around and relate to the question. and if you can drop in a few funny lines/notes it usually lightens the mood for the interviewers too. If you end up on side tangents unrelated to the interview, youre usually doing good.

 

If these answers don't come naturally to you, you just need to think a little harder. I doubt that you've never had "conflict while working in a team" or whatever scenario they'll give you, in the past few years. You might just need to sit down and think through these scenarios and the personal responses you can give.

When I was interviewing for internships, I had a giant list of all behavioral questions and my responses to them, Time you worked in a team, conflict in a team, strengths, weaknesses, time management, etc.

Also, for general behavior and conversation, practice makes perfect and I'm a proponent of working on becoming a better conversationalist. While there is a small group of people that are born talkers, I think its a skill that can definitely be developed with practice. This might sound lame, but if I were you I'd find some books/articles on how to be a good conversationalist and start using those in practice. Good body language, asking a lot of good questions, and making eye contact while giving an articulate(and well rehearsed) response will take you far in the interviews you're preparing for.

 

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