On January 27th, ABSA hosted Jeff Nguyen, the founder of BobaTalks, an organization that helps students navigate career and personal development through coffee-chat-style mentorship. Jeff is a recruiter at Amazon who has previously worked at Google, Riot Games, and in consulting. With extensive experience both as a recruiter and in recruitment, he shared valuable insights on how to succeed in the job market. Here are some of his main takeaways!
Navigating behavioral interviews
Behavioral interviews play a crucial role in the hiring process, especially in tech, where companies look for well-rounded candidates who not only have technical skills but also demonstrate leadership, adaptability, and strong interpersonal traits. A behavioral interview is a structured interview that assesses how candidates have handled past situations to predict future performance. These interviews go beyond technical assessments, often becoming the deciding factor in a candidate’s success as companies prioritize holistic hiring. By evaluating responses to real-life scenarios, employers can gauge soft skills like communication, teamwork, and problem-solving—qualities that are just as essential as technical expertise in many roles.
How can employers tell strong qualities from behavioral interviews?
Behavioral questions are designed to be open-ended yet intentional, giving employers insight into specific traits like problem-solving, adaptability, and teamwork. The key to navigating these interviews is recognizing the purpose behind each question—understanding what employers are really looking for can help you craft stronger, more relevant responses.
Ask yourself: Why are they asking this question?
Employers don’t just ask behavioral questions at random—they’re looking for specific qualities. For example, a question about handling feedback helps assess a candidate’s ability to learn and grow from mistakes, which is crucial for roles like internships. A strong response should be transparent about past mistakes, acknowledge feedback received, and highlight improvements made. The first step in tackling these questions is understanding why they’re being asked and what the employer is looking for. Using the "green flag" exercise—identifying key traits or behaviors that make a candidate stand out—can help tailor responses to highlight the qualities employers value most.
STAR vs CARL: When and How to Use Them
Both the STAR and CARL methods are helpful for structuring responses to behavioral questions, but each is suited to different types of inquiries. The STAR method is best for questions focused on performance and results, such as when you’re asked to describe a specific achievement or challenge. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.
Here’s how to use it:
Situation: Briefly describe the context of the situation you were in.
Task: Explain what your responsibility or challenge was in that context.
Action: Detail the steps you took to address the situation or problem.
Result: Share the outcomes, ideally with measurable results, showing the impact of your actions.
For example, if asked to describe a time when you led a project or improved a process, you would use STAR to highlight the situation, what you were tasked with, the actions you took, and the measurable outcomes.
On the other hand, the CARL method is ideal for questions about challenges, feedback, or situations where personal growth is the focus. CARL stands for Context, Action, Result, and Learning. Here’s how to apply it:
Context: Set the stage by explaining the situation in more detail, focusing on the challenge or problem.
Action: Describe the steps you took to resolve or address the issue.
Result: Share the outcome of your actions, with an emphasis on how you handled the challenge or feedback.
Learning: Reflect on what you learned from the experience and how it contributed to your growth.
CARL is perfect for answering questions about how you've responded to feedback or difficult situations, such as "Tell me about a time you faced a setback and how you handled it." The focus is on how you grew from the experience.
Choosing between STAR and CARL depends on the nature of the question: use STAR when the focus is on outcomes and performance, and use CARL when the emphasis is on growth, learning, and adaptability. By understanding the difference and tailoring your answers accordingly, you can better showcase the qualities that employers are looking for.
To help you prepare for behavioral interviews, here are some practice questions Jeff shared:
Describe a time when you had a conflict with a coworker. How did you handle it, and what was the outcome?
Think about a difficult project that you were on, where you had to deliver against a timeline. What was it?
Describe a time where you made a mistake at work. What was it?
Tell me about a time you ran into an unseen challenge on a project. What was it?
We hope you enjoyed learning about Jeff Nguyen’s insights on behavioral interviews and how to effectively navigate them. Be sure to apply these tips to your upcoming interviews! See you all next week for our WSA Workshop on February 3rd!