Behavioral interviews help predict performance by uncovering how a candidate has acted in real situations rather than relying on their hypothetical responses. This is why Amazon and other top companies rely on this method. They evaluate the candidate in terms of:
→ What did they do when presented with a new challenge?
→ How did they handle it when leadership asks them to change directions rapidly?
→ How did they react to their and others’ mistakes?
→ How did they influence their team, peers, and leadership on a critical strategic decision?
Behavioral interviews allow you to collect data on how a person has led, managed, and acted in the past. Understanding how the candidate has acted in the past gives the interviewer the best insight into how they will react to similar situations in the future.
Behavioral interviewing also sheds light on how the candidate thinks and on the depth of their functional skills and knowledge, so it does not sacrifice any of the key elements of hypothetical interviewing. Done right, behavioral interviewing shows both how a candidate acts and how they think.
When conducting behavioral interviews, you want each question to reveal a past action in detail. It is a probe for depth. Good behavioral questions start with phrases like:
→ “Tell me about a time when…”
→ “Give me an example of…”
→ “Describe a situation where…”
For example, if assessing leadership, you would ask something like “Tell me about a time you proposed a new direction to your team or to your manager.”
Some more general examples:
”Tell me about a time when you were faced with a complex problem. How did you go about solving it?”
“Tell me about a time that you strongly disagreed with your manager about something you deemed to be very important. What was the issue, and how did you handle it?”
“Give me an example of a time when you were tasked to deliver an important project, with limited time and resources.”
“Give me an example of when you made a significant improvement to a product or process based on customer data or feedback?”
Each of the questions above is designed to elicit an example of the candidate’s work experiences related to an Amazon Leadership Principle. At Amazon, behavioral interview questions map onto the Leadership Principles as an objective means of measuring the candidate’s fit for Amazon.
For example, if the principle is “Dive Deep,” you might ask a question like:
“Tell me about a time when there was a product or service where there was an operational error. How did you go about resolving the issue?”
The goal is to both uncover the actions they took and understand their thought process. A strong answer will explain how they recruited others to engage from inside and outside their organization, demonstrate their analytical and methodical approach to gathering data, and show how they made decisions.
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