Heard of the ‘STAR’ method? It stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Put simply, when you’re asked a question in an interview, it is expected you’ll provide details to cover these four critical areas: (1) Explain the situation (2) What tasks were involved? (3) What actions did you take? (4) What were the results? Behavior-based interviewing is no different—in fact, it’s nearly the same. We know this approach might make the interview feel more formal and challenging, but research shows this way of interviewing effectively reveals past performance and strongly predicts future performance.
Both our phone interview and face-to-face interview use behavior-based questions, aiming to extract information from you about specific projects and experiences you’ve had professionally (and/or in school).
Your Interview Checklist:
- Further research the behavior-based interviewing style online and practice a mock interview with a friend or family member.
- Visit us on Glassdoor to read reviews from other interviewees about what you can expect, including some example questions.
- Think of specific examples from your previous experiences (work, school, etc.) that highlight your skills, and write them down. Hint: you can bring these notes to your interview for reference. Your interview is not a test. For those of you with vast experience to sort through in your head, you might need a little reminder throughout the process—concise notes are a great way to do this.
- Be prepared for the interviewer to probe deeper into the examples you provide us. Practice answering follow-up questions about your different work experiences remembering to explain in detail the situation, behaviors you portrayed, and the outcome.
How to Answer Behavior-Based Questions:
- Think of behavior-based interviewing as simply telling a story. Err on the side of providing more detail rather than less. And don’t forget we are not privy to your current/former companies or projects, so please articulate in a way that someone can follow along easily.
- Focus on recent examples from jobs, internships, school clubs/organizations, athletics, or class projects.
- Be confident in what you've done, stick to the facts, and stay focused on your behaviors within each situation (example).
- Take your time. It's better to take a moment to breathe and think of a good example or briefly review your notes, than to answer too quickly with a poor example.
- Don't be afraid to take credit—define your role within the group/team when explaining a situation, and use “I”, not “we”. We want to know what YOU did.
Most importantly, remember there are no trick questions. These interviews are not a test or a game. Be relaxed. Be comfortable. Remind yourself that we must sell Nestlé Purina to you just as much as you must sell your qualities to us. We’ll be prepared to answer any questions you have for us! We wish you the best of luck and a great interviewing experience. #JoinOurPack
